It was late spring of 1998 and i was traveling south in the state of Tamilnadu with my parents on a road trip. A road trip inspired by the journey of the four great nayanmars. They were called the 'naalvar' or 'the four'. These great saints lived more than thousand years ago in south India and traveled extensively in Tamilnadu state spreading the glories of Lord Siva. Their songs and poetry are still sung today in devotional forums.
I am writing this as a way to recollect my memory and appreciate the moment I received the sacred book Bhagavad Gita. Unfortunately, I do not remember the details but I will recollect in brief what I remember. My father rented a car and we started our trip south from Chennai. I was having an illness and despite the illness, i have to say looking back, the spiritual journey visiting Lord Siva temples prevented my illness from getting worse. The illness was rather serious and I was hoping it wouldn't get any worse. By Siva's mercy I did not get any more issues than I had.
Our itinerary went something like this, we would drive to a famous temple in a city. Book a hotel room, stay for the night. Wake up in the morning, visit the temples in that city and in the vicinity before noon. Then check out from the hotel and head to the next destination. Like this, we were in one Siva temple called 1000 linga temple (cannot remember where). I entered the temple and the priest welcomed us and performed the pooja. He was very confident in that anyone who sees the 1000 lingas will immediately be cleared of any bad karma of the past. Being the cynic that i was, i internally scoffed the idea. I finished my perfunctory prayers and headed off to the next temple.
There, I took darshan of the Lord and was returning to the car when my father stopped at a rather insignificant shopkeeper who was sitting on the floor with some books from different authors. My father perused the different titles and pointed to a red colored hard bound book entitled "Bhagavad Gita As it is". My first thought was one of curiosity - why is he buying this book? He murmured "for his library". If my memory serves me right, the rather poor shopkeeper had just one Bhagavad Gita. My father handed me the book and off we went to the car.
Sitting in the back seat, I opened the book expecting some "ananda" name to popup because that was my only exposure to spirituality - some chinmayananda or vivekananda type personality. Instead, I stammered through the name "P..r..a...b..h...u...p...a..d..a" and thought his name is so hard to pronounce and that I have never heard of such a spiritual name. Like this I thought who is this man? Thankfully, I did not criticize him. However I was intrigued by the paintings. I turned the pages admiring the different colors and pictures. The book was made of high quality glossy paper as it was the centennial edition. After flipping through few pictures, I closed the book and distinctly remember saying to myself "I will never touch this book again" and put the book in the back of the car.
Of course, Krishna had other plans. On this auspicious day of Gita Jayanti, I want to thank Lord Siva for allowing me to come to His 1000 linga temple and help me remove my previous karmas upon where I got some merit to touch the great and sacred book Bhagavad Gita! I should also thank the shopkeeper for having the book. I want to thank my dad (despite our theological differences) for buying Krishna's book and thus unknowingly becoming an instrument in my journey to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna.
My entry into Krishna consciousness in this life began by studying this centennial edition of the Bhagavad Gita few months later, after my father bought the book somewhere in an ancient Siva temple in south Tamilnadu.
Hare Krishna
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