Gou-ranga?

Everytime I fly to the US, I get the jitters! I don't know what it is, but something scares me! Hence, I make sure that I have said my prayers to Lord Nrsimhadev a couple of times before going through immigration! Recently, I had a really nice experience at an airport that showed me that if Krsna desires, he can show his beautiful form to any one!

I was in Austin, Texas for Gaura Purnima this year and got the chance to witness the festival at the beautiful Houston temple. There, they had beautiful plaster-of-paris deities of Gaura Nitai and it was love at first site! I had to bring them so that they can shower their mercy at my home! While packing them in my bag, I made sure they were properly put away so that they wont break in the travel. Since I am so nervous about my travel, I make sure that my hand luggage meets all travel regulations and hence rarely get pulled over by security. However, at the Austin airport, when I put my bag through the X-ray, the security officer stared at the screen intently and then told me, that he wants to put it back again. I was shocked as I had no idea what he was concerned about as I had no liquids or food in my bag! After going through the X-ray again, he asked me if he could run it the third time. Now I was getting really scared as I had no idea what was going on!

After the third X-ray, he comes to me with the bag and asks, "Ma'am, do you have a statue in there?".. I nodded and said that it is an Indian statue that I purchased a local temple. He then asked me if it was a God's statue and I said yes it is. He looked at me very seriously and asked, "Which one?". At this point, I was just confused and I said, "Gauranga". He looked dissappointed and said, "I guessed it wrong then! Who is Gou-ranga?" I was just amazed at his question and proceeded to tell him about Caitanya Mahaprabhu and how he spread the chanting of the holy name to everyone without the consideration of colour, caste and creed! And then the officer, who was clearly ignoring other people who were in line asked me, what did he ask them to pray? And I recited the Mahamantra for him and he was so excited to hear it! He then asked me where he can find more information and I gave him the address to Krishna.com and told him about the local centers in Austin and Houston. As he bid me farewell, he said, so I have to search for "Hare Krishna?"

I secretly smiled! By the unbelievable mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, his spiritual journey may have just begun!