A pleasant surprise
Badarayana Das: “Once, a nice woman and her friend walked up to me at Rockefeller Center in New York with deliberate intention. I had been doing sankirtana there for many years, after legalizing it with much ordeal. She said to me, ‘If you could be anything or anyone in your next lifetime who or what would you be?’ I was struck by the depth of the question and I answered in kind. I then inquired, ‘Why do you ask?’ She replied, ‘Because one year ago at this exact same spot you asked me the exact same question!’ I immediately recalled how I was using that line to introduce Beyond Birth & Death to people. ‘So then what happened?’ I asked. ‘You gave me one of those books’. ‘You mean this one?’, as I pulled out Beyond Birth & Death. ‘Yep, that’s the one,’ she said. ‘And how did that go?’ I inquired. ‘It totally changed my life! I began the process and have complete faith in Srila Prabhupada’s teachings which I now practice. And I wanted to come find and thank you for selling me this book of knowledge, it was what I was always looking for.’ Needless to say I was deeply moved and felt the great mercy of Srila Prabhupada on this soul and my great fortune for being allowed to be a humble instrument.”
