Higher taste

Gambling,intoxication,illicit sex and meat eating bring us so many diseases and ultimately suffering yet people are still not ready to give it up .

Conditioned soul due to illusion is looking for happiness in the wrong places and because there is nobody to guide them they end up suffering more and more .

Pure bhaktas are travelling around the planet trying their best to help the suffering jivas but even after receiving the knowledge they are still reluctant to give up the bad habits .

Sometimes even after becoming a devotee and accepting initiation those bad habits return,”knocking on the doors of a devotee” and reminding them of “pleasures“ that they can get if they engage again in those prohibited activities .

Few years ago whilst visiting Mayapur I had a strong desire to visit Ekacakra as well. I got a few devotees together and we organised a car to take us there the next day. We all agreed to leave at 5 in the morning.I was so excited that I could not even sleep. Finally I was about to visit places where Lord Nityananda took birth and performed his childhood pastimes.

As it often happens with devotees, in the morning none of devotees turned up.Our driver waited for 30 minutes whilst I tried to call devotees but there was no answer.I had only two options, cancel the trip that we already paid for or go by myself alone with a big 5 seater car on pilgrimage. I choose option two.

Here I am, my first trip to Ekacakra driven like a king in a big car. My driver realised that he became my tour guide as well. Adventure guaranteed!

Few miles before reaching Ekacakra dham, on the dusty road group of twenty Muslim people blocked the road and didn’t let us to pass thru until we pay them money. They even had sticks and clearly showed us that they are ready to use it if we don’t give required “donation”.

I was bewildered and was not sure what to do next. One of the people knocked on my side of the door and asked me to come out whilst others spoke in Hindi to the driver asking for money. I pinched myself hoping to wake up from a bad dream but quickly I realised that that is my reality. I looked at my driver who with his expression didn’t give me much hope. I offered prayers to the Lord begging for help.

Then thought came to my mind:”If i show them some money they all would want it and none of them would want to share it with others, this will cause disturbance amongst them”. I took a couple of hundred rupees out of the bag and showed them from inside the car. Moment they saw the money they forgot about blocking the car and ran towards my side of the car which my driver carefully observed and used the opportunity to turn the car on and escape. Whilst driving past them they threw stones at the car but we were gone.

These people were serious criminals and ready to even injure us if we didn’t give money. By Krishna’s mercy we escaped. I took it as a necessary purification before entering the Dham.

After we reached Ekacakra my driver, now also my private bodyguard, took special care of me, seeing me as his younger brother who needs special protection. He arranged a local sadhu to give me a nice tour around places of pastimes to my full satisfaction and later arranged a nice feast for us.

When time for our return came I worried what would happen if this same group blocks the road again on the way back. We didn’t have much choice then to take the risk. There is only one road for the way back home.

This time we prepared ourselves and whilst driving by this area my driver passed through with double speed and because it was a massive car none of the gang members dared to come close to the car to try to block it although whilst passing by we could notice their rage.

We reached Mayapur late that day. Friends who didn’t turn up for the trip came to apologise for letting me down.I thought to myself:” if I knew that they would not come I would have probably booked a small car and still gone which would mean that this gang of muslims in Ekacakra would probably catch us and we would have been in big trouble.

If we are seriously following the process of Krishna consciousness we will always be protected by Krishna and realisations and faith that we gain whilst performing devotional service will help us to overcome all anarthas and protect us from slipping back into bad habits.

Secret lies in getting a higher taste!

Ananta Gopal das

13.10.2020