Lord Nitai’s grace
After the celebration of Lord Nityananda’s appearance program in our temple Sri Sri Radha Golokabihari in Suva, Fiji it was announced that we will be celebrating Lord Nityananda’s appearance in our new centre in Nauva on Sunday 16/02/14.
I had decided to go to Navua on Saturday and camp there with the devotees but due to heavy rains I dropped the idea as I also had to get my vehicle serviced. So on Sunday, morning at 8:30am I took my vehicle for servicing and skipped our weekly Sunday Harinaam as well.
When I came back home I did not feel like going to temple so was playing with my son, when I heard someone knocking on our gate. When I went to check I found two Westerners, a aged man of 50 yrs or more and a early 20’s girl who were going door to door preaching about Lord Jesus Christ.
So I invited them in and gave them a seat to settle down in while Nartaki my wife brought them some juice. So the man started talking to me. I listened out of respect to Lord Jesus Christ as I always do when one of them comes.
The man started talking about the world's crises, lack of spirituality among people, how the world is coming to an end, increase in crime, rise in sinful activities etc. While he was talking, I interrupted and said that according to the Vedic literatures this is the age of quarrel and hypocrisy. And this age is going to last for 432,000 years of which 5,000 years have passed. What we see happening is just a beginning and it is going to get worse.
So by this time I took the lead in our conversation and started to preach to them instead. I asked him which church they were from and he said Jehovah’s Witness. I told them that during my search to know who God was, I studied the Bible, the Koran and some other Hindu literatures, but when I read Srila Prabhupada’s books I became convinced that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I also told them that I used to go to church when I was young.
They looked surprised so I asked them do you agree that GOD IS ONE and they said yes.
The man and the girl were so surprised as I talked in detail about our teachings and they had to agree to what I was saying since it was true. So to cut off, knowing they can’t do much with me, the man gave me two of their magazines and said probably I could read them in my free time as one of the books was about “spending your time wisely” he said, and I countered saying yes I do because I am always chanting the Lord Holy Names as said in Psalms “Glorify your Lord from Sunrise to Sunset”.
They said goodbye and went out of the house, I picked up a Science of Self Realization showed them a photo of Srila Prabhupada and told them that this book changed my life. Our founder had gone to America in 1965 at the age of 69 and in a span of only 11 years opened 108 centers all around the world, made close to 10,000 disciples and wrote more than 60 volumes of books, which really surprised them. I also told them about Srila Prabhupada conversation with Father Emmanuel in West Germany and showed them the contents of Prabhupada’s conversation.
When they left I felt so great and decided to go to the temple and bring some spare books back to keep at home for just guests. So we went to the temple and found hardly any devotees there since majority had gone to Navua so I got the opportunity to lead the mid-day arti and my son who is 2 years old played his little mrdanga.
I bought 6 books from the temple and came home, on arrival I remembered that one of my tenants who is a Fijian asked my wife for some books a couple of months back so I went straight to her flat to show her the books and I found her reading from “Easy Journey to Other Planets” and 3 other books by Srila Prabupada were on her bed. I told her about the books I brought and so she bought four books from me and said she loves reading Srila Prabhupada’s books.
I realized that though we at times become lethargic in our service, Krishna never forgets to bring us back and engage us again. Though I did not go to Navua to attend Lord Nityananda’s appearance I was still engaged in the direct service of book distribution by Lord Nitynanada.
Sankirtan yagna ki jay!
Yours in the service of Guru and Gauranaga,
Nityananda Das
