What a Scene

Reincarnation

Hare Krsna Prabhus,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

As I was speaking to someone in the airport, a man came up to me who was so nasty cussing and criticizing that the person I was speaking to left. Then the nasty man got even worse. He was so loud that everyone in the airport lobby, whether at the ticket counter, the gift shop, or the restaurant, turned their head to look. He had a real foul mouth, this critic.

I considered leaving, but then I thought he might throw my books around. Anyway, I just sort of dealt with him in a humorous mood. One thing he said during his rant was how he didn't believe in reincarnation and we did. So I just sorta teased him: "I wonder what you'll be in your next life." After I'd made a few comments like that, he started softening up, so I offered him a cookie. At first he said I was probably trying to kill him, but suddenly he grabbed it and began to eat it.

Then he started revealing his mind. He told me how a few months earlier a very dear friend of his, his best friend since childhood, had been killed on the highway. He'd been in his early 40's. Then he told me how a couple of weeks after his friend died he'd had a dream in which his dead friend came to him and told him not to worry that he'd reincarnated and was alive and happy. So in the dream my fellow at the airport had asked his friend where he was and what he was doing, etc. The friend replied that he was living in a beautiful forest with a big meadow. After waking up in the morning he would eat a healthy, natural breakfast and then go for a walk. Sometimes he would run in the beautiful meadow and get lots of fresh air and exercise, with the early-morning sun beaming down and all the birds singing. And not only that: there were plenty of beautiful ladies around to choose from.

In the dream the man I was speaking to had asked his friend, "Where are you living?" His friend had replied, "Don't worry, I'm living now in Canada. I've reincarnated as a moose!"

My airport critic was bewildered about this dream, obviously, and didn't want to face the reality of reincarnation. And that was why the main thing he was agitated about was our belief in it, besides thinking we were cheaters, frauds, etc.

I told him he objected so much because he didn't want to deal with the fact that he was going to be responsible for all his activities, that he would be subject to the law of karma. I told him that the dream was no accident, that his friend was trying to help him, and that ultimately God was trying to help him.

Suddenly, to the amazement of him, me, and everyone else in the airport, he bought a book! And even as he walked away, his mixed ideas and emotions were coming out: "Cheating! . . . Really, that's what's happening?" He was pretty blissful by then.

Whew! What a scene! Afterwards, many employees and passengers and even a police officer came up and apologized that I had to be confronted with such a low-class, horrible person. It had happened so quickly and it was such a scene that no one knew what to do. Usually, we tried to avoid any ugly scene so as not to discourage others, but it worked the opposite way: two weeks later, the person I had been speaking to when this wild man came and interrupted, causing him to leave, was flying again, and he took the trouble to come over to me, apologize, and take a book.

All glories to Lord Caitanya's and Lord Nityananda's and our spiritual master's mercy!

Your Servant,

Tulasi Devi Dasi

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