By Smitha Shetty (Sri Nandini Radha Devi Dasi)
As a child, I was quietly fascinated by paramilitary forces—their discipline, courage, and unspoken strength. It was a world I admired from a distance, never imagining I would step even remotely close to it. Life, however, has its own way of guiding us.
When I entered my first year of college, destiny nudged me toward the judo mat. I joined the college judo team with immense enthusiasm, but my body didn’t quite share my spirit. I was fragile, physically weak, and unmistakably the weakest link in the team. Yet something within me refused to give up. Around the same time, another unexpected companion entered my life—the Bhagavad-gita. I began reading just two verses a day. At first, my mind resisted. I couldn’t accept Krishna as the Absolute Truth—Lord Shiva, for me, was everything. Months passed, verses unfolded, and slowly a realization dawned upon me: it was Lord Shiva himself who had led me to the Bhagavad-gita.
On the judo mat, my coach, Mr. Mushtaq Ahmed, was shaping me physically—teaching me resilience through pain, discipline through repetition. Spiritually, Srila Prabhupada was doing the same, quietly grooming me from within. The journey wasn’t smooth. A fractured collarbone tested my endurance. At home, resistance brewed—my family wasn’t vegetarian, and my growing devotion confused them. My father was working in the UAE, away from home. My mother carried the responsibility of raising my younger sister and me, single-handedly navigating my ambitions, injuries, and inner transformations.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/from-fragile-beginnings-to-world-judo-championships-a-journey-of-faith-and-fighting/
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