Describe an incident in your life where you clearly felt Krishna’s direct involvement.
I’m a twenty-twoyear-old student,
and although I don’t really consider myself a devotee yet, I feel strongly about Krishna. I love to read about Him, listen to bhajanas, and play songs about Him on my guitar.
Last Janmastami I finally decided to go to a Krishna temple for the first time. On that special day, my friend and I visited the jam-packed ISKCON Mumbai temple. For crowd control, there were only two ways to enter. I couldn’t afford the first, which was for special donors only, and the second required a pass, which I didn’t have.
I didn’t try to slip in, opting instead to take the Lord’s blessings from outside. I focused my mind on Krishna.
Suddenly a couple approached my friend and me and told us we could use their passes. Thanking them profusely, we entered and soon found ourselves in front of the Lord and surrounded by devotees. I was shocked, as I had thought it would be impossible for a stranger like me to get in. I knew then that Krishna had touched my life and helped me gain His audience.
Vikram Shekhawat,Mumbai
Every year during
ISKCON’s Jagannatha Rathayatra in Hyderabad, my husband was able to donate only 516 rupees. This year I asked him to give 5,116 rupees. I remembered him telling me he’d helped a friend a year ago, and I suggested he ask this friend to repay the debt. I told my husband to ask for 10,000 rupees, so that his friend would give us at least 5,000. My husband refused. But the next day, the friend arrived at our house uninvited and gave us 10,000 rupees.
My husband hadn’t mentioned his friend’s name before, so it came as a bit of a shock.
“Pleased to meet you,” he said, introducing himself to me. “My name is Jagannatha Reddy.”
Meenakshi Veerapaneni, Hyderabad
On a recent visit to Guyana,
I was traveling in a van full of devotees. Everyone was in an ecstatic mood, as one devotee was speaking of her first visit to Vrindavana Dhama. None of us had ever been there. We were running late, and our driver was speeding. Suddenly, he lost control of the vehicle. The van skidded and fell into a roll. It flipped over three times before crashing into a river. Everyone’s first reaction was to start screaming, but my mother shouted, “No, chant!”
We began to chant Krishna’s name loudly. Our driver managed to force open the door, because luckily it was the dry season and the river was not full. Local villagers came running, expecting to count the dead bodies, but one by one, all the devotees emerged unharmed. It was a terrible accident, but because we had been hearing about Krishna’s holy abode and chanting His name, we were all saved without even a scratch. Still trembling, we understood that Lord Krishna had protected us all.
Radha Govinda Dasi,Colon, Panama
Some years ago, I was walking past a sweet shop
when I spotted a display of huge rasgulas, those white juicy sweets full of syrup. My taste buds became rampant with excitement. I could almost feel the taste of a rasgula in my mouth, so I bought one. But it was Sunday and I was on my way to the Sri Sri Gaura Radha-Krishna Temple, so I decided I must first offer the rasgula to the Lord.
I took the rasgula to the temple, and to my utter surprise, the moment it was being offered by the temple priest to the Lord, I felt a deep satisfaction. And I never again craved rasgulas so much. I now understand that if we satisfy the Lord, we also become satisfied.
Prem Prakash Pathak Lucknow
It was Christmas time 1978, and I was with a group of devotees
distributing Prabhupada’s books in Cardiff, Wales. Two men who had taken a book wanted their money back. They found the devotee who had sold it to them near his books in an alley.
They were about to attack him when Satyavaka Dasa burst into the alley and chanted loudly, “Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki jaya!”
Then something mystical happened: The two men stopped talking, became almost docile, and decided to keep the book and give a donation.
Navadvipa Dasa Harper Woods, Michigan, USA
I have been trying to become Krishna conscious
in the last few months. My wife, speaking from her ignorance and prejudice about ISKCON, said she would divorce me and take my children if I would not give it up. I prayed to Krishna, asking Him to show me how I could serve Him under such circumstances.
After a few tense days, my wife began feeling guilty that she had given me an ultimatum. She realized that after seventeen years of marriage, she couldn’t treat me like this. Now I can keep my family together and still search for my own spirituality. I know Krishna did this for me, because my wife has never before given in so easily to something she is so against. Krishna made the arrangement, and I am totally grateful and devoted to serving Him. Hare Krishna
Jed Peretz Castle Rock, Colorado, USA
One day in 1974, barely out of my teens,
I was hitchhiking home for the weekend. I stood on the side of the road for hours, not helped by a particularly bad case of stomach cramps. Finally, a young man about my age picked me up. As I got into his car, George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” began playing on the car radio. Soon we were discussing spiritual life, and for the next hour we shared spiritual realizations.
When he dropped me off, I suddenly felt the terrible cramps again. I realized that discussing topics of Krishna had lifted me clean out of my bodily conception. I had been interested in Krishna consciousness for some time, but now I was even more convinced that this was real transcendental life. Four weeks later, I joined the ISKCON temple in Ottowa.
Krishnadasa Kaviraja Dasa Toronto, Canada