Radhanath Swami in NYC Part 2

Last night was another amazing program with Radhanath Swami. This time the program was at Second Ave, and it was an invitation only program primarily for college students and new devotees. There was around 50 new people there and about twenty devotees as well.

There were only a few devotees allowed to attend, but Chaitanya Prabhu somehow convinced Radha Vallabha Prabhu to let us come, but only if we came "undercover" dressed as college students.

I was hesitant to acquiesce, this would be the first time I would go before Maharaj dressed in "karmi" clothes but of course it would be worth it to hear from Maharaj and have the chance to see him interacting with the youth of America.

As soon as I got there I felt very really uncomfortable, especially around all the devotees who were used to seeing me as a brahmacari. It was a nice lesson to see how attached I am to the image of myself as a brahmacari.

Maharaj gave a nice introductory lecture on Krishna Consciousness, Everyone really liked the the stories of his travels on his spiritual quest. He told one story that he had never told before.

When he was in Hrsikesh he decided to venture into the forest so he walked across the the Laksmana Jula bridge into the forest. Suddenly he found himself surrounded by a large mob of lepers all screaming "Bhakshis!" Some of them had hands without fingers, some had faces without noses, some had open wounds oozing blood and they were all in extreme pain, and suffering terribly with food, clothing, or shelter. And they were expecting Maharaj to give them a donation, but he didn't have anything to give them. It was a very confusing situation, on one hand he was completely repulsed by the grotesque features of these lepers, and he was also afraid because he knew that leprosy was contagious, and he was also feeling very compassion to the people who suffering so terribly. Eventually after about twenty minutes of harassing him they finally realized that he really didn't have anything to give them so they let him pass. As he was leaving and wondering why God had put him in this situation he saw an old lady in her sixties or seventies who had a very advanced case of leprosy, as she was lying there on her deathbed she raised her hands, and although she had no fingers left, she joined her palms to offers respects to Maharaj. Maharaj was so moved by this gesture of love. Here was this destitute old woman on her death bed, suffering terribly from leprosy, and she was reaching out to him trying to find someone to reciprocate her love. He went closer to her and knelt down next to her. She placed what was left of her hand on his head and rubbed his head saying "May God bless you my son. May God bless you my son." And as she spoke tears poured from her eyes. At this time he realized what the true need of the soul is, love. Everyone in this world looking for someone who they can perfectly reciprocate love with.

And later in Vrindaban Maharaj found the perfect source of and object of all love, the divine couple, Shri Shri Radha-Gopinath.

After the lecture it was wonderful to see Maharaj meeting with all the students and to see how he was able to melt their hearts and attract them to Krishna.

The whole evening Maharaj didn't say anything about my dress but I really felt uncomfortable, then as he was leaving I went outside to put his prasadam in the car, when he came outside and was about to get in the car he pointed at me in the direction of my pants. I began to apologize, "I'm sorry Maharaj, they asked me to dress like this." And he replied, "You're not wearing any shoes, it's cold out. What would you mother say?" I was taken back, he didn't notice the fact that I was wearing pants instead of my usual saffron dhoti but he did notice the fact that I wasn't wearing shoes, and that concerned him.

It was a really reminder about the consciousness of a devotee, he was concerned about me, not my dress.