More Mercy from Lord Nrsimhadeva
by Manidhara das
It was sometime in the year 1979. The city was Freiburg, South Germany. It has several small shopping streets connected with small water channels at the sides of the city.
As I distributed in one of the small side streets I could suddenly hear the shouts of people. Then I saw a big crazy man running around half naked, attacking people with a big leather belt. A very unusual sight. I decided to turn into another side street to stay away from the trouble and kept on distributing. Again the screams came, only closer this time, then I saw the man just around the corner. I turned away..but he instinctively saw me! Immediately his eyes turned towards me as I somewhat couldn't hide in the crowd. I thought in that moment that since he already saw me, running away would result into some chase. Somehow I thought, "I don't care, why should I hide from him? Lord Nrsimhadeva will protect me while I'm distributing". I turned to a lady and gave her a book. Then I felt a heavy push on my back. The man very violently pushed me from behind to the ground. I hit the street and all the books flew out of my hands and even out of my sankirtan bag. There I was, lying on my back with the man raising his big leather belt over me. I started to scream really loud the Nrsimha prayers. "Namaste Narasimhaya….."
Then something amazing happened. The man could raise his hand with the belt, but he couldn't move it anymore, it wouldn't come down. It was exactly as if somebody was holding his hands over his head. He yelled at me. "Stop it!Stop it!". Unable to move.
In the same moment a German police Volkswagen bus came in full speed around the corner. While hardly stopping, the side door flew open and a couple of policemen jumped on the man. As I looked upwards I could see only the legs of that fellow sticking out of the side door of that van as all the policemen kept him there on the floor beating him heavily. As the van departed again in full speed, one of his legs still stuck out of the side door which couldn't be closed. The van departed as fast as it came and I slowly got up, collecting my books.
I found myself surrounded by spectators who looked at me like I just took part in some very strange play. I immediately turned to the first lady standing there and amazingly she took a book. However, I never forgot that if Lord Nrsimhadeva doesn't allow somebody to move, then that person just won't move.
Lord Nrsimhadeva is always there to protect those devotees who preach His glories.
