Amazing Radha Krishna Story Happened on November 28, 2012

http://www.hindutemplevc.com/images/radha-krishna.jpg Dear All: We have all heard stories about Radhas devotion to Krishna. Indeed, She is considered the very soul (atma) of Krishna by Her devotees and the devotees of the Lord. The inseparableness of the two is most evident in the following story about Krishna developing stomach pain (you can read it detail by clicking here, or use the link http://www.freewebs.com/lordkrishna/). Once, the story goes, Rukmini felt saddened and there were tears rolling down her eyes and Krishna wanted to know why. Rukmini said she was saddened because Krishna seems to be always thinking about Radha and saying Radhe!, Radhe!. Arent we superior to Radha in our
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devotion to you?, she asked Krishna. As usual Krishna smiled and replied, Radha has no such thoughts of Her superiority and Her devotion. She is totally merged in Me. And, Rukmini wanted to know how and why. Krishna smiled and said, You will find out some day on your own. Then a few days passed and Krishna started complaining of having stomach pain. All the queens were worried and tried to prepare different remedies to alleviate the pain. They tried everything they could think of. But, the pain kept on increasing. Krishna said the pain is getting unbearable. And He said the only remedy for this pain is a small spoonful of Charanamrutam of His true devotee. Charana+amrutam means water that has been used to wash the dust from the lotus feet (charaNa). For a devotee, the water from the lotus-feet of the Lord is like nectar (amrutam) itself. So, we call it charaNamurtam. In the temples, they give us this water to sip and also sprinkle it on our heads after they perform abhishekam (or snaanam) ceremonies with recitation of various Vedic mantras. Now, Krishna wanted the charaNamrutam of His true devotee. That was the only remedy for His stomach pain. He asked Rukmini if she will give him that remedy. She refused saying it would be a great sin if a wife allows her husband to drink her charanamrutam. Other queens, like Satyabhama and Jambhavatee, also felt the same way. They asked Akroora, a great devotee of the Lord. He also refused. Then, they went around Dwaraka asking if any devotee would like to give the charanamrutam for Krishna. No one could stand the thought. They all felt horrified by the suggestion and felt it would be very inappropriate to do so. In the meanwhile word had already reached Vrindavana (Vraja) about Krishnas pain and that He needed charaNamrutam of His true devotee. Some came to Radha and told Her. She did not even wait for the story to finish. She took an axe and chopped off Her feet and said, Here take this to Krishna. He can have my feet itself. Wash it and do whatever and He can have as much charaNamrtuam as He wants. Let my Krishna suffer no more. Radha was not worried about the inappropriateness of what was being asked by Krishna. To Her, the consequences of any sins accumulated due to such an action did not matter. She did not even think about them. She was not worried about
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suffering in hell (naraka) for letting Her dearest drink the charaNamrutam. If that was the remedy that Krishna wanted, She was happy to give it to Him. She was totally merged with Krishna. Anyway, after this episode, Krishna smiled and told Rukmini if she now understood why Radha is merged with Him. Then Rukmini asked, Oh, then all this stomach pain was just a fake to make me understand this? How did I not understand this. I am supposed to be your Jnana Shakti, she said. Krishna said, Dear, it was because you felt you are separate from Me. But Radha does not feel the same way. (For another version of the story, click here, see also message posted November 2008 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/detroit_gita/message/118 ), http://krishnaseva.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=92&sid=85d84299f21b8a929156d dcdbd2335ee ; also http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1912141

http://file1.hpage.com/009194/48/bilder/radha_krishna.jpg

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Now, with this background, please allow me to share the amazing story about Radha and KrishNa about the statues of Radha and KrishNa that happened just yesterday, on November 28, 2012. We have a small temple in Sterling Heights, Michigan Sri Balaji Temple not far from where I live. I often visit the temple and participate in various religious activities. On November 30, 2012, the temple will relocate to a new place a free standing church has been purchased which will be slowly converted to an authentic Hindu temple over the next few years. Preparations are being made for the inauguration on Friday, which is tomorrow, as I write this. On Saturday, devotees were cleaning up various things from the present location and preparing to move various items to the new location. Among these were statues of Krishna and Radha that were obtained from India. The statues were really lovely. Unfortunately, when they opened the package, they found that Krishna statue was damaged. The legs were broken, the pedestal was detached, and there were some other small pieces too. But the Radha statue was intact. While the entire cleanup was going on, the temple President called me and showed me the broken statue asked me what we should do. I suggested that we take the statue and immerse it in a river, or some natural body of water, nearby. There is a river, called Clinton river, which flows not far here, I said. Then I was given the task of taking the broken Krishna statue and putting it in the river. We kept the statue in a box and attended to the other cleanup activities. I did not feel like going alone and doing this. I requested another young devotee to come and help me. He said, Why dont we do it tomorrow, when we are taking all the stuff to the new place. At that time, we will also go to the river and immerse this statue. I said fine. Later that day I was thinking about this and felt bad that I did not insist on telling them to also immerse the Radha statue along with the broken Krishna statue. What is the point of just keeping Radha alone? But, it was too late. Next morning, Sunday, it had been snowing overnight. This is the earliest that I can remember seeing snow on the ground in November in all these 40 plus years that I have lived in the USA. All the trees and the entire landscape was covered with a light dusting of snow and it was very beautiful. I was
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thinking about the Krishna statue and that I have to go by 10:00 am as agreed. But, I was not feeling too well. Felt some kind of mild discomfort and so did not even take shower and got busy with reading my emails etc. and made myself a cup of coffee. Then, I told myself, dont want to go today to temple and do this in this weather. If the other young boys want to take care of it, let them. I got interested in something else and was doing some of my writing too by then. I went the next day, Monday, to the temple and there was nothing there. The temple was looking quite empty. Many things had been moved on Sunday to the new location. I asked the priest if they had also taken care of the broken Krishna statue. The priest said, No. It is still your job. Everything was back in the office area, which was locked. He said, I should come the next day, Tuesday, in the evening during the monthly Satyanarayana pooja. It was also full moon day. I went the next day in the evening to the temple and the temple Secretary gave me the box which had been kept aside. Now, I found that they had included the Radha statue too. I was surprised and asked if they want me to also take Radha with Krishna. He said, Yes, what is the point of keeping Radha statue alone? We cannot separate them. So, please take both. I was overjoyed. All the delays were for a good reason then, including my sudden laziness and discomfort on Sunday and all that snow which I had never seen in November, that early in the season. Then, I said, I will do this tomorrow, because tomorrow, November 28, 2012, the nakshatram will be Rohini nakshatram, Krishnas birthstar. They all helped me to take the box with the statues to my car and I left it overnight in the front passenger seat. I decided to go the Clinton river Park the next day to immerse the statues. I finally got to the river just before the sun was beginning to set. I got tied up with some things during the day but this was on my mind all day. There is a small park along the river bank there with a small dock leading to the river. The river actually flows into a huge lake called St. Clair Lake which is connected to Lake Erie by another river called the Detroit river. Lake Erie is one of the five Great Lakes, the largest natural lakes on earth. (The five lakes are Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario the largest bodies of fresh water on
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earth. Three of these surround Michigan, making it a peninsula with the tip facing north, unlike India, which has tip facing south.) The water from Lake Erie flows into Lake Ontario, and then over Niagara Falls and then into the St. Lawrence river and then out into the Atlantic Ocean. The five lakes are at different levels and so this cascading flow of water is continuous. I was imagining that someday the statues that I was about to throw into this small river here might find their way to the mighty ocean. The river current would carry the statues down and so on. Of course, once they get to a huge lake they would sink to the bottom and then there is no question of moving down to the ocean. But, who knows, if Krishna wishes, anything is possible and the statues might not even sink as they are carried by the current. Anyway, now it was time to take the statues to the river. I first picked up the Radha statue and put it carefully in another plastic grocery bag (with handles) so I could carry that statue in one hand. I also put all the broken pieces in that bag. I wanted to carry the broken Krishna statue and hold it pressed to my body and then take the Radha statue by picking the bag with the other hand. As I was picking the Krishna statue and holding it close to my chest, the Radha statue, which was placed at the bottom most location, below the front passenger seat (to keep it stable), tipped and I heard it hitting the gear shift handle which is in the middle of the car, between the driver and the passenger seats. I was worried a bit but the Radha statue seemed fine. After I had securely picked up Krishna statue and picked the bag with the Radha statue, I realized that the Radha statue had also broken. I was troubled. The left hand had broken off. And, a small piece of Her crown too. I thought for a moment and said, See Radha, did not want to go intact with Krishna being broken. She broke Herself. I did not think much more and started walking towards the river. I said Jai Radhe and hurled the Radha statue first so it falls near the middle of the river. Then I felt bad. Oh, what did I do? I should have thrown both Krishna and Radha together. Now I am going to separate them! Then with that thought, I said aloud Jai Shree Krishna and threw the statue and amazingly, it landed right on top of the Radha statue! I could not believe it.
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When we play dart board, we cannot even land two darts at the same point. Here I was able to throw both these statues into the flowing river, I was seeing the river current, and they both land right on top of each other! Then, I threw the broken pieces one by one and they all fell in the same place between the two. After the statues were thrown, the water had cleared and I could see the statues lying at the bottom of the river bed. After finishing this, I went straight to the ISKCON temple in Detroit and spent some time there and chanted the first three chapters of the Gita. As I have mentioned before, in other contexts, according to the Gita Mahatmyam story, chanting the first chapter absolves one of all sins. All sins are destroyed when we read Arjuna vishada and his lamentation. Devout chanting of the second chapter, the story says, will bless us with full knowledge of Krishna. And, reciting and chanting the third chapter, the story says, will liberate all your ancestors and release them even from naraka and give them moksha. I was feeling hungry and had been fasting all day, except for one cup of coffee that I had, before I took my bath (after brushing just my teeth). I told myself I would eat only after I finished immersion of the statues. After immersing, I thought I will pick up something to eat along the way. I resisted that and told myself, eat the temple prasadam after getting darshan in the temple. So, I got my darshan, and then had nice prasadam. The events of the day were still on my day. I thought it was amazing that Radhas statue was also broken before it was thrown into the river. I tried my best not to damage the statue. But, it was as if Radha decided to break Herself and only then go with Krishna into the river bed. I told this story to three people. They all thought it was amazing and felt just like I did that it was Radhas will that She wanted Her statue also to be broken, like Krishna statue was. I was going to keep my mouth shut and not tell anyone. But, the events were bothering me and I remembered the charaNamrutam story as well. Then, one of those who heard the story encouraged me to share it. So, here it is.
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I do not know the purpose of those statues and why they were acquired. May be they were only meant for decorative purposes. May be they were to be used for religious rituals, or some pooja, and consecrated. But, even in that form, it seemed like Radha was truly merged with Krishna. When Krishnas statue was broken, She broke Her own statue too before merging with Him in the river bed. Do use the comments section of the document and share your thoughts. Very sincerely V. Laxmanan November 29, 2012.

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