Smuggled Gold at the Temple?
// July 29th, 2010 // 79 Comments » // Stories
Stories from Radhagopinath Community of Love
“Don’t you know? The Radha Gopinath temple is a safe haven for smugglers. Every Sunday after their bhakti programs the bhakti yogis transact in their turf,” an acquaintance, a local goon, had chimed in during one of our underground get-togethers. That struck a greedy chord with many in our group, but I was the one who dared to venture into the ‘bhakti den.’, run by Radhanath Swami.
On Sunday I was in time for the bhakti meeting at Radha Gopinath Temple. All through the proceedings and even after, I strained to look for something sleazy, but every aspect of the program seemed to radiate nothing but purity. Crestfallen, I decided never to fall pray to rumors again. I had neither found gold nor was the stuff discussed of any interest to me. But before leaving for good, I went for one last try. “Where’s the gold? I want to buy some,” I inquired from a monk casually, pretending to be a regular buyer. “What gold?” he retorted. “The smuggled gold,” I said confidently. Silent moments passed as he sized me up. Then he replied, “Perhaps you came a little late. The interactions get over before the program begins.” As I went back, I silently thanked myself for mustering the courage to question the monk.
Next Sunday I reached one hour before the program was scheduled to start, but found nothing. The proceeding went on like the previous Sunday. In the end, I went searching for the same monk in desperation. With a sorry look on his face he said, “This Sunday we decided to avoid transactions due to security reasons.” “Never mind,” I replied, as I silently resolved to come back the next Sunday.
Sunday after Sunday the monk gave excuses, and I kept coming back. In the first few visits I had detected the ambience of affection in the temple faintly attract my heart. I had dismissed it as worthless and sentimental. But with every passing Sunday, while I slowly realized that I was cheated by the monk, the attraction I felt for the place grew stronger until it compelled me to genuinely try out the bhakti stuff. When I tried, I discovered real gold, the treasure of the soul.
As I got sucked deeper by the Bhakti waves, the shores of criminal tendencies went farther and farther away until it completely disappeared from vision and thought.
- by Nathu Shinde
