With advancing technology, more and more people are using the SMS service to send messages to mobile phones. I have experienced a couple of beautiful incidents, courtesy of these SMS's, which I would like to share.
I have been raised by Krsna conscious parents, both of whom are initiated, and I visit the ISKCON temple at Chowpatty, Mumbai. One day, a friend introduced me to Trivikram Dasa and said, "This devotee sends beautiful quotes from the Bhagavad-gita, other books by Srila Prabhupada, and also from his lectures. So why don't you ask him to send SMS's to you?"
I immediately agreed. Since then he has been sending me messages everyday. Here are some gems:
Once, we were all visiting Vaisno Devi in Jammu. In order to reach her, one has to trek a steep distance of 21kms. Her temple (cave) is situated right on top of a mountain. After a very tiring journey we reached the base at 5pm and were going to start the climb at 8pm.We were all ready but had a lot of inhibitions in our hearts as to how would we climb such a steep mountain. It seemed like an insurmountable task. As we were about to step out of the hotel I received this SMS: "Faith in Krsna will not make the mountain smaller, but will make climbing easier. Do not ask Him for a lighter load, but a stronger back."
Reading this SMS, it was as if Krsna had answered our thoughts and made the journey comfortable for us. We felt that He is up there.
Next day in Jammu, we were visiting a temple of Ambe Ma. The temple had deities of all the different forms of the goddess. One of the forms showed the goddess on a lion with her tongue out, looking very ferocious . 1 just looked at my mother, "Mom, she looks so ferocious, just like Nrsimhadeva." At that very minute I received another SMS: "Although very ferocious, the lioness is very kind to her cubs. Similarly, although very ferocious to non -devotees like Hiranyakasipu, Lord Nrsimhadev is very gentle and kind to His devotees like Prahlada Maharaja."
That day happened to be Nrsimha Caturdasi. Once again I was totally astonished that Krsna is actually present, listening and responding instantly. This built my faith in Him even more.
Two days later I was having prasadam at a devotee's home and was telling him about these SMS's. After a few minutes my phone beeped. Another SMS: "As you take foodstuff from an infected area you become infected with some disease. So this is Krsna prasadam, you take it and o ne day you will be diseased with Krsna con sciousness."
All this just goes to show that Krsna is present with His devotees at every point. We just have to have faith and He will respond. This time Krsna had used technology as a medium to respond!
Vidhi Arora, 24, teaches mentally and physically challenged children in Mumbai.