Prabhupada on Yonge Street

Submitted by Mangal Aari dd

There was a slight drizzle and I was really praying to somehow be able to render some service to Prabhupada and someway deepen my relationship. Wondering how it would happen I was standing outside UrbanEdge Yoga, when this man came from the internet cafe next door. I tried to speak with him but he was so extremely distressed, and just told me he was very very upset. He looked like he was choking. Upon asking, he said he was in love with a woman and she would not have him. He was so shaken up and depressed by it. I asked him why - what happened. He said she didnt think he had enough money and he really didnt care about it but the woman would not be with him. I tried to explain to him how this was the way of the material world and we talked a little about nature of men and women. He said he was afraid she would find someone else and I said she will find someone regardless if she has to. (Just this morning i was reading 4th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam where narada muni narrates the story of king Puranjana and how he loses his lifespan following his wife and senses and now I was getting a practical example) I showed him a perfection of yoga and asked him to read it. Initially he said he was too fragile and needed a job and couldnt read. then I showed a picture of Srila Prabhupada and recognizing the picture he said he had met him. As he didnt look old enough, I said it wasnt him, you must have met some of his students, he insisted he had seen Prabhupada on Yonge street. I couldnt figure out what he was talking about so we went back and forth until he said he had seen prabhupada at the parade and thats when i realised he had seen Srila prabhupada's diety and now Prabhupada got him here. I told him it was a sign and he took the book for a donation. He told me he was feeling better already and he started to thank me. I asked him if i could teach him a one word mantra - and he learnt to say Gauranga. He asked what it meant and i said it meant 'be happy'...he chanted Gauranga 3 times smiling and shaking hands and while leaving told me he was feeling much better. Srila Prabhupada is personally driving his marathon, we just have to be there.

4.27.6 The great sage Nārada then addressed King Prācīnabarhiṣat: O one whose life-span is great [virāṭ], in this way King Purañjana begot 1,100 sons within the womb of his wife, Purañjanī. However, in this business he passed away half of his life-span.

Purport 4.27.13 As the sun rises and sets, it snatches away the balance of our life-span. Thus as each day passes, each one of us loses some of life's duration. It is therefore said that the duration of one's life cannot be saved. But if one is engaged in devotional service, his time cannot be taken away by the sun. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2.3.17), āyur harati vai puḿsām udyann astaḿ ca yann asau. The conclusion is that if one wants to make himself immortal, he should give up sense gratification. By engaging oneself in devotional service, one can gradually enter into the eternal kingdom of God.