Drops of Nectar
by Nityananda dasa
A few days ago, while visiting Vrindavana with some friends, I met a group of devotees from Tamil Nadu in front of Srila Prabhupada's samadhi mandir. A pukka devotee from the group, dressed in dhoti and with clear tilaka, approached us and, pointing at me, said to his friends, "He came to my home for the first time a few years ago and sold us The Science of Self-Realization. That was my first contact with Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON. Now my family and I are all devotees." We exchanged kind words, and then he introduced us to his wife and two children– who were all wearing tilaka and holding japa-mala in their hands.
This was for sure a drop of nectar from Krishna. I understood that all the austerities I had undergone; preaching almost alone for many months, was successful–an entire family had taken up Krishna-bhakti! And how many more are in the que to get this matchless gift in the near future?
The book they bought was the beginning of the end of their material existence. By Srila Prabhupada's mercy I was made an instrument in this lila of Caitanya Mahaprabhu–the lila of His delivering four more conditioned souls. I felt very happy. It was Krishna's small revelation to me how no endeavor undertaken in preaching goes in vain. We may not perceive how Krishna transcendentally enters the hearts of people when they buy the book, say "Krishna," or taste a prasadam-cookie we made and have offered on a simple altar at home. But Krishna does enter their hearts, and we have to be fully convinced of that. So what if we don't see? Even the Yamadutas, the expert servants of Yamaraja, the main upholder of dharma in the universe, couldn't perceive the purity Ajamila achieved by merely chanting the name of Narayana in namabhasa! Likewise, sometimes we also forget the potency of the holy name and other manifestations of Krishna; like the Deity, prasadam, vaishnavas, and Srila Prabhupada's books. But nevertheless they have the power to transform any conditioned soul, and just to prove that, sometimes Krishna performs these little "miracles," which I sometimes call "drops of nectar."
