Blog

The Deities Who visited Their devotee's home

There is a devotee named Adya, a Prabhupada disciple--very nice devotee. In Laguna Beach we have beautiful Panca Tattva Deities. He was thinking, "If only the Panca Tattva would come to my house, I could worship them so nicely." But they're big Deities, and he lives fifteen miles from the temple. "How's it every going to happen? Silly desires. What am I thinking?"

About a week later there was a fire in Laguna Beach. It was the worst fire they've had in 150 years. It came up all the way over the hill, came down the canyon, burned the high school, and it was coming right towards the ocean. They had to evacuate the temple. They had two hours notice.

"Where shall we take the Deities?" the devotee asked. "Adya's house!" They called him up: "Adya Prabhu, can we bring the Deities? We have to evacuate. The whole town is evacuating."

Adya said, "Fantastic!" It's a nice house, They brought the Deities to his house, and They stayed for three days. Then they went back.

So we joked, "If we ever want something from Krishna, we'll just ask Adya, because he seems to have an inside connection."

from His Grace Badrinarayan Prabhu, 22 Feb 2012

The Deity Who saved Gita Nagari farm

I want to go back and tell another little story. It's a kind of personal story that was just between me and Bhakti Tirtha Swami, that shows his personal relationship with Krsna.

One time there was a festival. Every year in Gita Nagari the devotees would have this festival. One day with marriages. One day there would be initiations. It was in May every year.

So I remember it was the year 2000, or 2001.

And there was a problem--a huge problem--that the land, Gita Nagari land, there was still money owed on the land. It is what is called a balloon payment. You have to pay a certain amount, a large amound, at a certain time, or you could lose the land. So the payment was due--thirty thousand dollars.

I said, "Maharaj, do you have the money?" He said, "No."

I said, "Can you get it?" He said, "I'm trying, but it's not coming. I need thirty thousand dollars in a few days, or else we could lose the land."

He said, "I've been offered by the lumber jacks to come and take our trees, but I can't do that to Giga Nagari's land. knowing how Prabhupada would be very unhappy if I gave the land simply for trees." He said, "I don't know what to do."

It was the festival. So he was struggling with that during the festival.

So one night, it was Gaura Arati. He went on the altar and did the Arati. Then he came off and he said, "While I was on the arati, I was praying to Sri Sri Radha Damodar, 'Please, help us make this payment. We don't want to lose this land. We don't want to lose Your worship here.'" Gita Nagari is so important. Prabhupada really had a lot of hope for this project, make it develop into something wonderful--self-sufficiency.

Then he said, "While I was offering the Arati, Krsna spoke to me. He said, 'Henry!' "And I said, 'Henry?', He said, 'Henry! You see Henry? He's sitting over there.'"

Now Henry was a very wealthy person. And Henry was very kind, and he would give money to devotees.

"When He told me 'Henry,' I said, 'Damodar, we can't ask Henry, because everyone's asking Henry for money. And you know how it is, when you're rich, people asking for money, you get a little annoyed after awhhile. Sometimes you get a little less generous. So I can't ask Henry.'"

"When I said to Damodar, 'I can't ask Henry,' Damodar said to me, 'Henry!' again. So I don't know what to do. What do you think?"

I said, "Well he's over there. Give him a try."
So he said, "Ok, you watch. and pray."

He was standing at a distance. He went over to Henry. He was talking to Henry. And Henry's got this look on his face. Like, "uh oh"-- it doesn't look good at all.

Then all of a sudden, the whole thing changed. A big smile came on Henry's face. And then a big smile came on Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja's face. Then it was over, and I came and I said, "What happened?"

"You know the most amazing thing happened. Henry was just given a lottery ticket. He won a car and it was worth thirty thousand dollars, and he sold the car and got the thirty thousand dollars. So he just happens to have that money. It just happenend last week. So now, Henry gave the thirty thousand dollars.

All Glories to Radha Damodar. All Glories to Bhakti Tirtha Maharaj.

from His Holiness Candra Mauli Swami, 02 March 2012