During a discourse, Radhanath Swami was relating the story of a saint who gave benedictions to a prince, a butcher and a monk. I sat in the front row of the audience, listening.
The prince indulged in sinful ways of enjoyment, maddened by wealth. If he were to die, only the karma of suffering awaited him. So the saint blessed the prince, “May you live forever.”
Quite some time back, I was in US for few weeks in Pittsburgh. I had learned from my friends that Radhanath Swami was in Chicago and would be readily available. I somehow managed to get the number of the place in Chicago where he was staying. And early in the morning I called him. I was ignorant that US had 3 time zones and I was calling him at an unearthly hour.
From the moment I had woken up at 3:30 in the morning, I was an engine revving to go. Go, go, go! Go to Mangal Arati, go to the Mayapur Academy, go practice, go chant, go! Get everything done so that I could go hear my guru speak tonight.
Radhanath Swami had been here in Mayapur for almost a week, speaking every night to 4,000 people on the glories of Lord Chaitanya. Even though the pandal where he was speaking was only a couple hundred meters from where I was studying, I had not yet had time to spend one full night to listen. I was just so, so busy.
But tonight would be different. I was scheduling my day meticulously to leave school on time. Not only that, I was going to sit up at the very, very front and look at Maharaj’s (Radhanath Swami is affectionately addressed by his followers as Radhanath Maharaj) face the entire time!
On 14th May a plane crashed in Jomsom, Nepal, and among those killed were eight Krishna devotees from Mumbai. Radhanath Swami’s reaction to the disaster revealed the heart of a transcendentalist on the Bhakti path.
15 July 2007. At 7:15 p.m. my cell phone rang.
“Can you arrange for a driver please? Urgent! I am waiting at the gate.” It was Radhanath Swami calling.
