Yesterday, after His Holiness Indradyumna Swami finished his lecture a lady approached him. Indradyumna Swami was sitting next to the stage getting ready for the fabulous bhagavatam play and the lady came and said, ‘Can I sit next to you for a minute’. Indradyumna Swami said…”Hmmm….ok.” She said respectfully that she wouldn’t take much of his valuable time; she just wanted to thank Indradyumna Swami for what Indradyumna Swami shared in his talk today. So what Indradyumna Swami has said this afternoon has actually saved her life.
Last year she lost her son in a tragic car accident, and because of the trauma, tension and the confusion that it caused in her family, her marriage disintegrated. Her husband divorced her three months ago and it caused her to act in so many unusual ways that so many of her friends abandoned her. She couldn’t make sense of what’s happening in her life and she came to the point of complete desperation.
She said that she is embarrassed to say that seeing no other alternative, she was contemplating suicide. She was contemplating taking her own life and she was not even planning to come to Indradyumna Swami’s festival. She was just walking in a state of confusion down here by the port, and then she saw the colourful big event and she thought maybe it would cheer her up. So she came and sat on the front row, and immediately Indradyumna Swami came on the stage and in his lecture, Indradyumna Swami explained how we are all responsible for our actions both in this life. It was a little difficult for her to accept what Indradyumna Swami was saying about past lives, but logically it made sense to her, so she accepted it.
Why had all these problems come up for her? She had to accept the responsibility, and as Indradyumna Swami was speaking it was as if the good Lord was speaking to her. He was speaking through Indradyumna Swami. She said that the most significant part of Indradyumna Swami’s talk was when Indradyumna Swami explained that beyond this horrible tragic world, there is a positive alternative, and Indradyumna Swami said there is actually heaven; heaven really does exist. She said of course she had heard that so many times in church, but the logical way Indradyumna Swami explained everything point by point and with so much conviction, plus the conviction of the devotees here, convinced her that there is an alternative; there is another choice. She said she did not have to kill herself. She said she will bear all her problems and she will try to act in such a way that she can actually go to heaven.
Indradyumna Swami had mentioned in his talk earlier that when we pay attention to the Lord, there is confirmation from above, from the Lord Himself. So after their discussion, when His Holiness Indradyumna Swami walked upon the stage, he sent his garland with a little girl named Prema to the woman he had spoken to. She told the devotees that when she experienced that, she felt it was Indradyumna Swami giving a kind of sign of his concern for her, and mentioned that she was going to go to Indradyumna Swami’s tent and buy the Bhagavad-gita. Then she said that words cannot express how grateful she is to all of Indradyumna Swami’s disciples and to all the other festival devotees. She said Indradyuma Swami not only saved her life, but he gave her a new life.
And with that, she walked away with a big smile.