Dear _________. (Dear Friend)
Hari bol, I hope you are doing well. You look very good. What a life! What next? Well, we can be sure it will be ecstatic whatever Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has in store.
Seeing you at Ratha Yatra, St. Augustine, was really sweet. The history is amazing. The Ratha Cart parks in front of the first church in America. Just wonderful.
Ratha Cart carrying Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra
Parish established September 8, 1565. Present church cornerstone laid in 1793, dedicated in 1797. Elevated to Cathedral when Diocese of St. Augustine was created in 1870. Became Basilica in 1976.
I was remembering the Boston Krishna temple in the early 70's and you, bhaktin N______ in the sewing room with Su________, G________ in the kitchen making muffins and me running around with Tulsi Devi. Sa__________ was kidnapped and deprogrammed. Those times were really something that no one could make up.
But I reached a breaking point. I so wanted to feel I had a friend in the temple, I know Krishna is the Friend, but I needed to connect with the devotees and it just wasn't happening. I didn't know how to relate to anyone. I came in like that and it has been a long road to get to where I am now and OMG there is so much further to go. It's not just me, we all are on the same journey with our individual challenges. Nothing new here. 馃檪
Su___________ was ordering me around and I was trying to surrender to it. But one day at lunch I couldn't stand it anymore. I threw a chapati at her Frizbee-style with amazing accuracy. Just as she was about to sample her maha sample plate the flying chapati caught her on the cheek.
HaHa. We really did need to develop more of a sense of humor. But there was none. We were all under tremendous pressure.
T___________ with raised fist threatened he would punch me but because I was a woman he didn't. He opened the front door and threw me out. December in Boston. No shoes, just plastic flip flops, no coat, wearing a saffron sari, and no money with orders to everyone not to let me back in as he drove off for two weeks with the brahmacaris to distribute books.
Oh, God. But there was N____________. an angel for sure, leaning out the second-floor window of the renovated funeral-home-Krishna-temple with $2 wrapped in a kleenex. Where she got the money from? Who knows. None of us had even a penny. How can I ever forget you?
Then 1971
The whole thing turned out to be a blessing in disguise and a chance for me to make more advancement very quickly. The $2 was enough to get back to my parents' house in Randolph and after 2 days of 64 rounds a day walking all around the house, they offered me a 1-way ticket anywhere in the world. But it would be 1-way. Haha. I called G________ at the temple and asked her what to do. She told me Prabhupada was in LA and if she had a ticket she would go there.
So I did. Jaya Srila Prabhupada. That was during the publication of "Chaitanya Charitamrta." and all the excitement that surrounded Him at the time.
Link to "Chaitanya Charitamrta"
https://prabhupadabooks.com/cc
$2? A little goes a long way in eternity....鉂わ笍
Evidently, I am eternally yours in Krishna..
