Nectar story from Toronto
Please accept my humble obeisances All glories to Srila Prabhupada
I met this man at Finch and he told me we had met before 2 months earlier. When I inquired he told me he had taken the Bhagavad gita and he even confirmed he had read bits of it. I offered him another book and his first reaction was that he has his own practice and no more books. So I did not push him but then he asked me ÒI have read that Bhagavad gita, what is this Krishna consciousness? I tried to answer his question with examples on how we imagine happiness to be a by-product of senses and sense object interactions but it never happens and frustrates us and told him how we need to look for the ultimate pleasure object of the senses – Krishna. We discussed several examples and then he inquired How do you make others see this. I told him we start from the point of purifying ourselves and instead of looking down upon and try to serve. Then he asked, Ôwhat is the process of purifying yourself? By this time I was shocked so I asked him, would you do it if I told you. So I asked him to repeat the Maha mantra after me but he said D no, no mantras, I have my practice I don't want to leave. So I said no problem, I will tell you a small mantra Gauranga and then I continued to explain to him how sound vibration transforms consciousness. By this time he was holding the path of perfection in his hands. Finally he asked me what does that mantra mean, the one that you were asking me to repeat. So I shared with him the Hare Krishna maha mantra and explained the meaning and how it works on the dirt in our heart. He himself gave a generous donation for the book and asked me when the discourse in the temple is. He was such a sincere soul; I encouraged his practice and complimented his mother who I commented had a strong influence on him. He was very surprised and asked me how did I know. Remembering Srila Prabhupada's words to one of his disciples parents I said O When the fruit is so nice, you can judge that tree is wonderful He was a genuine soul so affected by just a few words of Srila Prabhupada's books, he left saying he would come again and I pray that he does.
The next day he turned up at Urbanedgeyoga for the Bhagavad gita class and stayed for the evening. The day before he was saying no to trying the Maha-mantra but I could see that he was chanting and singing nicely with his eyes closed. Later after prashad he told me that first time we met 2 months ago he actually took the wrong train and went to wrong station so he ended up meeting me. And he told me as he was walking home from station that he was praying to God for some help, some spiritual answers and thatÕs when he had met me.
Your humble servant
Mangal Arti devi dasi
