December 28 2008

Here’s a wonderful story from Sriman Nanda Kishore prabhu to add to my post on December 3 2008 about miracles:

“On 18th March, 2008, Sri Maheshbhai Dhokia, congregation member from London called me and told me that His wife, Srimati Jayshree Dhokia is suffering from acute uterine cancer and she is being flown to Frankfurt for the last time. Maheshbhai asked me if the devotees in Mayapur could do some prayers for his wife. Doctors in London had given up the hope and claimed that she may not last more then 3 months as the cancer had spread to most parts of lower body that is abdominal and pelvic area.

The following morning, I humbly requested HG Pankajanghri prabhu and explained him the whole situation. We were both in the pujari room near Radha Madhava altar. I was dressing Mahaprabhu at that time of the year and HG Pankajanghri prabhu was making his final preparations for all the abhisekha of Lord Nrisimadeva.

HG Pankajanghri prabhu asked what is the name of the mataji. I just gave the name written on a piece of paper.

In Germany, it was just during the same time the operation was going on to save Srimati Jayshree mataji. After she gained her consciousness she told her husband that she dreamt of lord Nrisimhadev of Mayapur. Bhakta Pralad Maharaja was there  to tell her the glories of Lord Nrisimhadev.

She also told her husband that she completely feels like a new person and something evil has left her body.

Now back in London, she was taken back to the doctor for a check up. During the PET scan, the radiologists were shocked to discover that there was no sign of cancer at all. They called up the hospital in Germany to confirm the medical details of the patient. The German surgeons who operated on her could not believe what they were just hearing from the radiologist in London. The German surgeons were shocked to hear that there was no sign of  cancer at all. The German research medical unit is now deeply studying the entire case.

Now little do these doctors know, that there is somebody by the name of Lord Nrisimhadeva, Who protects His devotees.

While both HG Maheshbhai and his good wife Srimati Jayshree came back to Mayapur to really have a close darshan of Lord Nrisimhadeva and come to their senses and understand  as to just what had happened. Srimati Jayshreeben just cried and cried in front of lord Nrisimhadeva. HG Jananivas prabhu summed up the whole transcendental episode, while blessing both the couples, HG Jananivas prabhu said “Lord Nrisimhadeva performs operation with his transcendendal nails and the devotees just feel blissful.”

Jayshreeben now chants 16  good rounds and with this new Krishna Consiousness life, she thanks all the devotees of ISKCON and she feels very proud to join the real spritual family of Srila Prabhupada. She vows to come to Mayapur every year and be near Lord Nrisimhadeva. She also thanks Both HG Jananivas prabhu and HG Pankajanghri prabhu for
having saved her life through powerful prayers to Lord Nrisimhadeva .

ALL GLORIES TO LORD NRISIMHADEVA !!!!!!!!!!!

[end]

Its a incident which ordinary persons, such as the doctors involved, might consider miraculous, but Srila Prabhupada made it clear that such exchanges are not miracles, but the natural relationship between the Lord and His devotees, as in this conversation on October 14 1976 in Chandigarh:

[TD5] Prabhupada reciprocated with the man’s humble attitude, and for the next few minutes he impressed the attentive assembly with both his erudition and his realization. He told them that people in general fail to understand that they are fully under the control of material nature; rather, they are thinking themselves independent.
The man agreed that nature was inexorable for all except God. “Does He intervene in our actions?” he asked.

“God interferes if you are a devotee,” Prabhupada told him. “Otherwise, you have to undergo the laws of nature.” If a child touchs fire it will still burn even though the child doesn’t know it will. Ignorance is no excuse, and we cannot surpass the laws of nature.

“Then what about miracles performed by so many people?” the man asked.

Prabhupada was immediately dismissive. “That is rascaldom. Nobody can play anything. Magician also can make. It is all foolishness, all rascaldom. They are all rascals and who understands miracle, they are also rascals. Laws of nature cannot be changed.”

The man ventured that there may be laws that we don’t know about.

Prabhupada agreed and with a good-humored chuckle told the man, “There are many laws. What do you know? You do not know anything.”

The man agreed, thinking that therefore his point was established. “We do not know. Then I say those miracles may be possible according to those laws that we don’t know.”

But Prabhupada shook his head, not willing to credit the so-called ‘god-man’ phenomenon that has so enraptured India’s ignorant masses. “There is no miracle. If you touch fire, it will burn; that’s all.”

And on the next day Srila Prabhupada replied a letter from an older Indian lady, Sacimata dasi, who had written to tell him that she had recently obtained a set of Gaura Nitai deities under what she considered to be very mystical circumstances:

[TD5] Chandigarh 15 October, 1976

“There is nothing mystical about getting Gaura Nitai deities for worshiping. The Lord is all powerful and omnipresent, he knows the heart of the devotee and reciprocates with the devotee accordingly. So now the Lord has come to your home and agreed to be worshiped by you, therefore everything should be clean and neat. Nice prasadam should be offered regularly and distributed to guests. Kirtana may be performed morning and evening and some discussion from Bhagavad-gita as it is, or other books from our publications.”

For the devotees, everything is at once wonderful and understandable, and at the same time inconceivable. Lord Krsna is the controller of  His own energies. He can do anything at any time. From September through November 1976 Srila Prabhupada stayed in his rooms at Krishna Balaram Mandir. One of his favorite spots was his back garden, lovingly tended by his English disciple Caranaravinda dasa. While Prabhupada had been away on his summer world tour Caranarnavinda had installed a fountain in it and made a real effort to make it beautiful. The first night he arrived back Srila Prabhupada spent several hours in it, appreciating his disciple’s efforts, and appreciating the inconceivable energies of Lord Krsna:

 [TD4] September 3, 1976 – Vrndavana

When Srila Prabhupada observed the year-old banana trees growing around the outer edge of the garden, Caranaravindam said they would flower soon. Prabhupada tipped his head. “So it is very pleasing spot. You have done nice. I’m feeling nice.”

His simple statement made us feel completely satisfied. “Your pleasure is our pleasure,” I told him.
Caranaravindam was deeply gratified that his efforts were giving Srila Prabhupada so much satisfaction. “It is your mercy. It is ecstasy to come in here and do something on the garden for you. Very good. I want to see lotuses growing. Then I will be happy. Nice lotuses. When I can pick a lotus and give to you, then it is nice. Then it is finished. Lilies, lotus, nice bushes, very happy inside. This grass has just been laid, and I think after two weeks it will be very first-class.”

Prabhupada smiled. “And due to this fountain it will be very nice, green always.”

Caranaravindam said that he wished he could make the flowers grow faster to give off their perfume, but he realized that he had to wait for them to grow in their own time.

Srila Prabhupada’s response again reminded us that his pleasure in being in the garden was not the mundane gratification of his senses but rather an appreciation from the transcendental plane. “And who is growing it? That is Krsna’s hand. His hand is working invisibly. Krsna’s hand is there. Krsna says, mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram. ‘I am giving direction to the nature and she is manufacturing.’ That’s a fact. Krsna is giving dictation, ‘Do like this.’ Intelligence is of Krsna.”

Caranaravindam recounted the story of how Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu made a mango tree grow almost instantly with His direction.

“Yes, He can do that because He is Krsna,” Prabhupada said. “Immediately He can do. That is His inconceivable energy.” He mentioned an incident from the new section of the Srimad-Bhagavatam he is currently working on. “Now by medical treatment man is made into woman, and woman is made man. Is it not? So formerly, by simply desire of very exalted person like Lord Siva and others, they could turn a man into woman, woman into man.”
Wanting clarification of an unusual tale I had heard, I asked, “Visvamitra, once he grew people from trees. Is that correct?”

Prabhupada wagged his head from side to side in affirmation. “Everything is possible by Krsna’s inconceivable energy. It is called therefore ‘inconceivable.’ We cannot conceive how it is done. Our intelligence is very little. Therefore we say, ‘Oh, this is all mythology.’ Because whatever we cannot conceive we take it as mythology. Nothing is mythology; everything is possible. That is inconceivable. But they cannot understand what is inconceivable. Unless it is conceivable by them, they do not accept. That is their foolishness. We can see at night worms or flies so small. Just like if you divide one grain of rice into one hundred divisions; one division — such a small fly. They are independently walking, flying. Freedom. Nowjust imagine how their anatomic physiology is manufactured within that small particle of life. But he’s exactly doing everything just like a big fly. How it is doing?”

Caranaravindam brought up Prabhupada’s description in the Srimad-Bhagavatam of the giant flying eagles that travel in outer space.

Prabhupada raised his eyebrows. “They go from one planet to another. And while flying they lay down eggs. And the eggs, while falling down, they become birds. By the velocity of falling down, it becomes fermented, and then the birds come out. just like … parasites? No? Parachute?”

“Yes, parachute,” I said.

“While falling down, it opens. This is God’s creation — inconceivable. And that airplane, flying machine, is so perfect. There are birds who can take away the elephant for eating, such big birds. They can carry elephant like a small rat. And monkey-eating birds I have seen in Los Angeles. They go very high on the top of a tree and capture a monkey. And take him high and drop him. As soon as he falls he dies, then again comes down and eats it.”

Caranaravindam laughed because the monkeys in Vrndavana come and break the branches of the banana trees and generally destroy things. “We need one of those birds here to capture these monkeys.”

Prabhupada smiled. “There are so many wonderful creations. That is God’s inconceivable energy.”

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