8.00pm, Chattanooga time

As I was munching away my saltine fried French fries and veggies…I was saying “you are not this body…” I was not speaking to myself but to the chef who made me the vegetarian food. He was nice and accommodative.

Day 1 of my conference in Chattanooga, TN and it was 8.00 pm and I was scouring for vegetarian food. I was hungry and was preparing for a possible starvation that night. I already walked about 2miles and couldn’t find anything. Hence I finally decided to step into the hotel restaurant and check out my luck. I was greeted by a nice young woman. Before she could say anything more, I interjected saying, I am vegan and do not eat meat, eggs, and any dairy products. She was not sure if there was anything for me to eat. However, she advised I directly talk to the chef for he may “fix” something for me. Anyways, I sat next to chef work area (it was an open kitchen) and requested for something vegan. After some deliberations, I got French fries and overly salted veggies.

The chef was very inquisitive as he said he rarely sees vegans as customers and so he probed more into my meat free diet. As we discussed, we invariably ended up in philosophy, soul, body and God. I explained to him ch 2 of Bhagavad Gita where Krishna chastises Arjuna for his apparent weakness of heart based on bodily designations and his instructions on the eternal science of the soul. I repeated the essence of that chapter and argued with him based on Srila Prabhupada’s arguments. I was forceful at times but at the same time accommodating his arguments (I was practicing my tolerance factor, apparently it is non-existent to very low).

While he could not respond to my questions, he also was sticking to his argument as truth. Anyways, after a lively conversation for about 20 to 30 mins, he left for other engagements. But I was happy I talked about Krishna Consciousness and challenged his mundane intelligence. I don’t think I made any dent in his consciousness, but at the least I tried to question his assumptions of life and hence made him to think. He agreed with me and listened intensely on the explanation of soul, matter and supersoul. Finally, I ate about 40% of my food and left to my room.

I have sent him the “Science of Self- Realization” book along with a long letter from me again stressing the aspect of the soul, body and supersoul.

Srila Prabhupada said that just by seeing and touching a book, one gains sukriti (devotional credit), what to speak if one actually reads the book. So sending the book is sending the message of our parampara to one more lost soul who is aimlessly wandering in this universe.

Hope he takes this message seriously!

Hare Krishna