Lord Krishna reciprocates in ways manifesting divine desires within us. At times when we realize such reciprocations, we want to joyfully cry or perhaps share such reciprocations with other devotees. However, we must be conscious that we are not boasting of such realizations in the garb of sharing. Our motive should be to increase faith in Lord Krishna in the heart of other devotees. The advice I received in this regard is to keep such reciprocations close to your heart. The picture you see is of two Canadian Brahmacharis, whom I hosted at my student residence in Waterloo, Ontario. On the left is Prana Gauranga Dasa, and on the right is Bhakta Emile. And, if you take a closer look, there is Tulsi Maharani, whom I received as a sapling from a devotee. Under the luminous warmth of lights resembling Anant Sesha, the Tulsi Maharani grew into a beautiful plant. In Canada, sunlight is a bit of a problem, and the devotees rely on artificial lighting to grow Tulsi Maharani. These Brahmacharis are from Montreal, and their service was to travel from city to city and distribute books. Their van was a 9-seater, two seats for them and seven for the books. From dawn to dusk, these devotees would distribute books and rest at night at the homes of devotees. One may ask why not take rest at temple? Well, there was none. The nearest temple was 100 km away, ISKCON Toronto. In December 2022, I was in Los Angeles for a two-day trip with my cousins. On the second and supposedly the last day, I went to ISKCON Los Angeles to take darshan. I was astounded while taking darshan and could not take my eyes off the most beautiful presiding deities, Sri Sri Rukmini Dwarkadish. As I was paying obeisances, I prayed intensely, that I would like to stay with them longer. After taking darshan, I joyfully met Bhakta Emile, who happened to be residing in the temple at the time. And hurriedly, I booked myself a cab to Los Angeles Airport as I was getting late for my flight. My cousins were anxious, if I would make it in time. I reached the Airport, joined my cousins in the luggage drop queue for our Chicago bound flight. As we were moving through the line, there was an announcement. Hundreds of flights were cancelled due to an extratropical cyclone known as the “December 2022 North American Blizzard.” This meant there will be no flights to Chicago for another week. No one was more joyous than I was. Krishna had reciprocated my desire. While my cousins chose to drive 3,200 km, I called Bhakta Emile. He arranged my stay in the Brahmachari Ashram of ISKCON Los Angeles for as long as I wanted. I was in the Ashram for two weeks, sharing the room with three other Brahmacharis. In the association of Brahmacharis, I also clean-shaved my head, although my parents were not very happy about it. We would go out on book distribution in the morning, relish delicious prasadam, go out for sankirtan in the evening. Book distribution is different in the west, yet easier. There are missionaries of different faiths including Christianity and Islam propagating their faiths, so sometimes devotees have to face abusive slurs from some of these missionaries. However, it is easier, because people in the west, do not have the “overfamiliarity/ know it all” tendency regarding the Bhagavad Gita. They try to understand Srila Prabhupada’s books and often get attracted to the pictures. I was fortunate to participate in the New Year’s celebrations at the temple and lead a Sankirtan Party at the Rose Parade in Los Angeles. Rose Parade is celebrated every year on January 1st with elaborate floats, marching bands, and more. And our Sankirtan Party, in the eyes of spectators was a marching band dressed in dhotis and kurtas, playing mridangas and kartals, and singing the divine Maha Mantra: HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE.
