New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

By Srila Jiva Goswami dasa

Disappearing

One morning, at the Columbus Temple, Krpa Maya Prabhu saw me cleaning the floors, as he had taught me, and he asked if he could talk to me a moment. “There is a boy who is coming to see me,” Krpa Maya declared. “He is sort of a nuisance.”

I thought to myself, “This person must be QUITE a nuisance in order to reach the level of a desire for avoidance by Krpa Maya.” Out loud, I said, “You want me to tell him you are not here?”

Krpa Maya smiled at me. “Yes, Bhakta Jesse,” he said. “Would you please?” With that Krpa Maya turned and darted quickly up the stairs. I went back to cleaning.

In less than a minute, a young stranger came in the front door. “Have you seen Krpa Maya?” he said to me.

I put my sopping rag back in the soapy water. “Krpa Maya?” I wrung out the rag. “Krpa Maya left just a little while ago.”

“Oh,” our visitor said. “Do you mind if I talk to you a little?”

Me? Mind talking? I plunked the rag into the bucket and got to my feet. “What’s on your mind?” I asked.

The boy had a lot of questions about Krsna Consciousness. He had been reading, but he wasn’t sure The Process was right for him. After a few minutes of talking, I got the impression the boy was simply jerking my chain. I needed the practice though. It isn’t as if the lad was arguing as much as he was just going around and around in circles. I enjoyed the process of trying to keep the conversation linear, but I could see how this could become wearing, particularly if you were a guy, such as Krpa Maya, who had a LOT of Service to do. At the time, Krpa Maya was running a popular health food store upstairs in the Temple.

To my amazement, after talking with the boy for a while, Krpa Maya himself appeared on the stairs right next to us. What was he thinking? Krpa Maya had instructed me to tell the kid that he was not in, and now he was appearing, practically in our faces. I played it straight, and kept talking with the boy. Krpa Maya stood and listened for a while, and then he actually came on down the stairs, and walked directly by us into the Temple area.

Our guest did not even blink. He made absolutely no gesture which indicated he had seen anyone at all. After the boy finally left, I found Krpa Maya taking morning Prasadama. I had put away the cleaning tools and washed my hands. Krpa Maya allowed me to serve him a little extra rice. I took the opportunity to ask Krpa Maya how it had happened that this visitor had not seen him.

“What’s that?” Krpa Maya shook bits of Prasadama from his fingers.

“How is it that you did not want this boy to know you are here, and yet you stood next to us and then walked by, and he did not see you?”

Krpa Maya looked up at the ceiling as if he was trying to remember something from long ago. “Oh,” he said. “Yoga Maya.”

“Yoga Maya?”

“The covering potency,” Krpa Maya said. “Krsna hid me.”

I nodded. It isn’t that I understood fully, but I do know that of course, Krsna can do anything. I also understand that Krsna favors His Devotees. The idea that Krpa Maya would insert himself in a situation and be seen by only those Krsna chose to see was an amazing act of faith to me.

Additionally, the person who did happen to see Krpa Maya in those moments was your correspondent, and ironically, I am blind!

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Here another quick example of Devotees becoming invisible: Years later, I was outside the front office, down at Bahulabhana, having a conversation with Gaura Sakti Prabhu. A federal looking Ford, stereotypically replete with black walled tires and four doors, pulled up with a screech and a swerve, down in the brown dirt parking area at the lower level. Two agents got out and looked around. They were in a hurry about something.

They both wore dark glasses. Their jackets and ties made them look quite Western in our transcendental environment. Over the speakers attached to the corner of the main building, one of Srila Prabhupada’s classes was playing.

I remembered when I first came to Old New Vrindabana and I heard Srila Prabhupada on those speakers. Other than His chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, I found it hard to understand Him.

“You will,” one of the Devotees had promised.

It was true. Now I did understand His Words, and even loved Them. Srila Prabhupada would clear the air with concepts brighter than diamonds, and then He’d say, “Sooooooo …” with an undulation to it. Listeners could understand that with the understanding came responsibility.

Now I’d been standing with Gaur Sakti Prabhu, talking about those items he’d put on the list for the Town Run, and listening to Srila Prabhupada, when these agent types came hurrying up the stairs towards us. One carried a manila envelope.

I’d expected them to sweep by and perhaps check in at the Front Office. They certainly seemed to be in a hurry. Instead they stopped and addressed Gaura Sakti and me. They had dark jackets and red ties. The one closest to me asked for someone with a Karmi Name. I responded quite honestly that I did not know that person.

The one by Gaur Sakti pulled a picture from the envelope. “This is his picture,” he said, unnecessarily. The two agents looked at Gaura Sakti and me and waited impatiently. Over the speakers then we could hear Srila Prabhupada beautifully playing the Harmonium. I leaned in and looked at the picture. It was an 8X10 of none other than Gaura Sakti himself! I didn’t know what to say.

Gaura Sakti smoothly spoke up. “Oh I know him,” he said of himself. “He’s up at the Palace today.”
“The Palace?”

I got into the act. “Sure,” I offered. “Just a little ways up the road.”

“You can’t miss it,” Gaura Sakti added. Observing what the agents were not seeing, I wasn’t so sure. Maybe they could miss it.

“Thanks!” The agents left us with the picture, dashed down to their car and took off with a cloud of dust and a quick spritz of gravel. I listened to the diminishing sound of their car’s engine as they swung up the hill and into the distance.

Gaura Sakti calmly returned to addressing the particulars about the items on his Town Run List. This time I did not feel the need to ask how this had been done. Over the speakers, Srila Prabhupada was singing in the blue blue sky, “…Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare …”

We never saw those agents again, but then, they hadn’t exactly seen us either.

These are two incidents of Devotees becoming invisible which I recall very clearly. One thing about the magical feats I’ve seen rendered by Devotees is that I never saw a Devotee roll up his or her sleeves and say, “Now I will perform this or that.” No, these manipulations of perception clearly always come from above. Further, I am aware of the fact that 99.9% of these spectacular feats are totally beyond the range of my meager perception. But I have seen a few!

When I submit another recollection for your entertainment, Dear Reader, it will be about the times I’ve seen Devotees fly and or levitate.