Hare Krishna!
Hare Krishna!
It was during my final year of Engineering, one day it was heavily raining, wind was heavily blowing and the lights went off at home. I thought to go to Sri Krishna Mandir near my home. But before that I decided to go to Shiva’s mandir which was bit far from Krishna Mandir. I decided to walk making my way to Shiva temple that night stopping here and there under the shelters, to avoid the rain and again walking when the rain temporarily stopped.Wind did not show any mercy, neither the rain, so I was already late to the Shiv mandir. I had the darshan of Shiva at 9:15 PM and I have to go to Krishna mandir but the temple shuts by 9:30PM everyday. I thought, I will not be able to have a darshan of Shri Krishna.
Staring at the night sky and feeling the wind and sprinkles of rain on my body, in my heart I said to Lord Krishna-
“Krishna, I want to have your darshan, but I guess I cannot see you tonight. The wind is heavy and the rain was not stopping. By the time I reach your temple it will be shut.” Just at that moment when I finished my thought, as if Lord Krishna listened to my heart, nature responded to some sort of a divine command. Suddenly wind stopped, not even a single leaf was moving, not even single drop of rain falling. I could feel no wind , nor sprinkles of rain on my body. The way was clear, I thought, I should not delay any more. So I wore my sandals and left Shiv mandir in a flash as if like a Gandhi on a Salt Satyagraha! I could not make it by 9:30PM, but reached the temple at 9:45PM. To my surprise, the temple was still open. I went inside and walked to the altar of the Lord, so beautifully stood with a sweet smile and with a flute in his hand! The temple priest got up when he saw me and said: “Please come my dear friend, I have been waiting for you, without shutting the temple, otherwise I would have shut by 9:30PM. At last you came”. He did special archana and lit the camphor and chanted the mantras and gave me the teertha with a smile. The words got me! Stirring in my mind even after many years, where ever I went, whether to Australia or to Singapore, these words have a remarkable influence on me.Does the priest know me? No! Why should he leave the temple open until I came? Do not know! Only my heart has its answers which baffles my mind!
I do not call myself a devotee. But I know with all my imperfections, there is a greater power than anything in this world we can imagine! It is fruitless to argue, it is fruitless to dream! When the facts of divinity confront us, there is no room for doubt, we cannot but accept the truth. When the sun shines, how can we even doubt its existence!
Where was Krishna when I was thinking at that time? He was and is in my heart! Whats more! he listens to you more than you can listen to yourself! He is the supreme Self residing in everybody’s heart. There is a call from within in everyone of us, we rarely listen and the nature from outside tries to push us within our heart with all the life’s experience! We are trying to find something and the call is the sadguru from within that is giving you the address of the Supreme self! Yet we look for the home outside which we know we cannot find! Haven’t we discovered yet that permanent happiness is not outside! If not we need to grow! No matter how many lokas we might have heard in puranas, it will not help! Because the true abode is within! The underlying peace is within, the goal is within. Honey bird of African jungle guides the wayfarer looking for honey by making musical tones, and the wayfarer goes in the direction of the music. If he goes in the wrong direction, the honey-bird changes the tone and the wayfarer stops and changes the direction. The bird guides him until he reaches the tree with honeycomb. The call within is like the music of the honeybird. Sadguru is the honey bird. Until we go in the right direction within, the music leads us, but when we loose sight of goal in worldy existence, the music changes in the form of life’s experiences, some of which are very hard to bear and painful! This hard to bear music will continue until we again pick up the music, the call from within (the Sadguru’s call). This waxing and waning goes on until we reach our peaceful abode, the abode of Supreme!
Hare Krishna!
Kishore.