By: Madhumayi Radha d.d.
A few days ago I was on my way to the temple contemplating how we can encourage other devotees to support my Guru Maharaja’s congregational programs. At ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry (CDM), we are promoting monthly subscriptions to collect funds for printing more books, hire more devotees and develop new training courses. It is my service to write the promotion articles for Nrsingha Caturdasi so I was worried and nervous as to how to go about it. Knowing that the CDM is very important to my spiritual master my “small” writing-service became bigger and bigger in my head.
I stood in front of Lord Nrsinghadev and whispered a quick prayer, “Nrsinghadev please help me”. I didn’t give any explanation or reason. Walking up to H.G. Pankajanghri Prabhu’s office I was thinking maybe I should have prayed some more. Maybe I should have explained that I am asking help in assisting His Devotee and should have given some more details. I thought, that maybe that would make the Lord more inclined to help me. I rang the doorbell and his secretary, Murari Gupta Das, hands me the Nrsinghadev book. I thanked him and walked away, eager to start reading the pastimes of our Mayapur Ugra-Nrsingha. I opened the book to a random page. “Lord Nrsinghadev Reciprocates Instantly” was printed across the top in bold letters.
In this story Pankajanghri Prabhu mentions one mataji that he asked to distribute the caranamrita from Lord Nrsinghadev after which she said, “I was just praying this morning that I might be able to offer some direct service to Him, and now you have given me this service.” Pankajanghri Prabhu then replied that the desires are fulfilled very quickly in the Dham and thus that very same day she received His personal service. “No, not the same day-the same moment! The very instant I expressed that desire to serve Him, you called me over!” the mataji added.
Another fascinating pastime was of one devotee who was suffering from intense pain and standing in front Nrsinghadev’s altar he prayed to Him to take away the pain so he could serve Him better. At that very moment he felt the pain flowing up and out of his body. While the devotee was relating this story to Pankajanghri Prabhu, he had noticed another devotee standing nearby taking darsan and said “Mataji! Lord Nrsinghadev is giving instant benedictions. Why don’t you ask Him to remove your problem?” The next morning she arrived at the temple, problem non-existant and thanking Pankajanghri Prabhu for his advice. In this way, I could understand how Nrisimhadev reciprocates instantly with His devotees according to the circumstances and His supreme will.
After reading several pastimes of Lord Nrsinghadev’s reciprocation I realized that He had also reciprocated instantly with me. The fact that His help –in the form of this wonderful story book, where so many intimate pastimes can be shared with all of you-, delivered immediately and literally right into my hands shows how quickly the Lord is ready to reciprocate with us.
So here is my promotion: Many of you don’t live in Mayapur and may not be able visit so often, but by supporting the congregational preaching, you will be assisting H.H. Jayapataka Swami to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s desire to develop our congregations world-wide. As a token of gratitude for your subscription to a monthly donation we will offer a fruit plate to Lord Nrsinghadev in your name every month.
I thought that in many ways we, all of us, are the fruits of the Lord’s reciprocation with Srila Prabhupada. He wanted to fulfill his spiritual master’s desire to give Krsna Consciousness to the whole world and that all of his disciples and grand disciples will also take up this preaching mission. The Lord is certainly making arrangements for that to happen…
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