As It Is
Look! Look! It’s Krishna! It’s true!
Posted by Rupanuga das
The experience you are about to read is true in every detail including names and locations. It revealed a mystery hidden to me for twenty-eight years (my whole life until then).
My story begins in New York City, 1967, after I met Srila Prahhupada. One becomes fortunate when he gets the rare opportunity to assist a saintly person of the stature of Srila Prabhupada. My chance came when Mr. Lal Goel, an Indian graduate student at the University of Buffalo, inquired at Srila Prabhupada’s storefront temple: Could a devotee come to teach a non-credit course about “transcendental meditation” as part of an experimental program? I volunteered because I wanted to do something to please Srila Prabhupada. It had been almost a year since first we met and my conscience was pushing me to begin paying my debt co him for bringing me to Krishna consciousness. So I left my job which paid nearly $10,000 per year, a good salary in those days. My wife and small son remained in New York where she had a job of her own (they would join me later). Off I went to buffalo with Srila Prabhupada’s blessings, $500, a couple of suitcases, and some devotional paraphernalia.
The long ride on the Greyhound Bus seemed magical. I chanted many rounds of Hare Krishna on my beads and practiced singing basic mantras or prayers I learned from Srila Prabhupada. Mr, Goel was waiting at the bus station. I arrived after midnight, February 6, 1968, having no idea how cold Buffalo winters were.
Lal and his wife were very kind, allowing me to remain as a guest in their home for months. In my modest room I set up a small altar, Students attending my experimental course were coaxed over for lunches. In my room we chanted together and distributed the philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita. In time one student agreed to share the rent on a house, and with my income from a new job we opened a small center there. Then an unusual opportunity came.
As a liberal attempt to pacify the students, who were increasing their demonstrations against the Vietnam War, the University opened a new program, the Bulletin Board College. A course, proposed by anyone, could be posted; if enough students signed, it would be considered for full credit. I posted my suggested course, and to my great surprise fifty-five students signed up!
At a preliminary interview, Dean Welch, head of the College of Liberal Arts, agreed to support my course before the necessary review board of which he was the chairman, I had no special academic qualifications, only a PA degree. And how could I convince them that the philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita is not sectarian? By law they could not favor a particular religion. Somehow I managed to convince them that chanting Hare Krishna was not a sectarian prayer. They were impressed when I showed them an advance book-cover from the MacMillan Company, a widely respected publishing house. Their soon-to-be-published Bhagavad-gita As It Is was to be my course text.
The book cover included an unusual photograph of the author, Srila Prahhupada, his eyes downcast, almost veiled, so one couldn’t see them directly. Within myself I prayed that similarly the board would somehow indirectly perceive this course as philosophy instead of universal religion. They had only the book cover to admire, and the real spiritual purport of the course remained veiled to them.
With the Dean’s support the meeting seemed to go well; their decision would come later. I left with feelings of immense relief; l had honestly tried my best.
Early the next morning, feeling very purified by my experience, I boarded my usual bus to work. The bus passed south along Main Street between tall rows of office buildings and department stores. The buildings on the left cast down their heavy shadows across the wide sidewalk and over the street as the sun rose behind then. Abruptly, I noticed the beautiful winter morning sunlight cascading down the side streets between the buildings, illuminating the pedestrians- Brilliant shafts of sunlight covered the passersby with golden mantles of light as they stepped from the buildings’ shadows across the blazing side streets and into shadows again. I wondered as how they seemed oblivious to the stark contrast as they passed from shadow into warm sunlight and then into cold shadow again.
Suddenly my eyes widened in astonishment as a phrase from the Bhagavad-gita popped into my mind, “I am the light in the sun…” My mouth opened in amazement as that utterance took on its literal truth. All at once Krishna was there, personally present in the sunlight! Impersonalism (darkness) fled from my heart as I understood the literal meaning of Krishna’s words. He was there, personally present in the sun. I realized Krishna could be, just as He said He was, personally present in His energy — yet without revealing His personal form.
I had believed theoretically that Lord Krishna spoke the truth, but now I could see that truth before me.
A tremendous desire pushed me to leave my seat and rush up and down the aisle pointing out the presence of Krishna to everyone. In my mind I shouted, “Look! Look! It’s Krishna! It’s true! It’s Krishna!” But I realized, as the Krishna Sun flickered through the windows of our passing bus, that the passengers would think me quite mad. Remaining in my seat like the others, afraid to abandon myself before them, I regained my composure and waited for my stop.
In Krishna consciousness both intellect and emotions bleed in devotion or bhakti. In retrospect, I’ve concluded that somehow my clumsy attempt to assist Srila Prabhupada enabled me to receive the blessing to realize and experience what Lord Krishna had spoken. Yasya prasada… “By the mercy of Krishna one gets the spiritual master, and by the mercy of the spiritual master one gets Krishna.”
Two weeks later I received another benediction — my course had been accepted, —Rupanuga das
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