Amazing experience that I’ll never forget.

Sandamini : I was able to go to India in 1977 and when we got to Mayapur, the ladies were given the rooftop of the kitchen to reside. It had no plastic over it so there was no shelter at all. Within a couple of hours a huge storm came. It was blowing everything away, and we were totally unprepared. Everyone got sick. Some of the girls I was with from San Diego became delirious. There was no facility. The bathrooms were stopped up and on top of that there was a horrible flood. But Prabhupada was there to give class, so the next morning, I literally crawled to the temple. It was quite a distance but I had to see Prabhupada give the Bhagavatam class. Due to my pain I was barely listening as I was bending over holding my stomach for the entire class. After the class Prabhupada would circumambulate the temple with the gurukula boys. All the devotees were up dancing, but I was sitting down because I was so sick. I was dizzy with fever watching Prabhupada. At one point Prabhupada looked over in my direction and of course I thought he was looking right at me. Then with his hand, he gave a very beautiful, graceful gesture to rise up. With that one gesture he uplifted me off my suffering bodily concept and I jumped up and start dancing. I was realizing at that time that not only was he lifting me, but he was lifting the whole world. He was lifting the whole world with simply a mere gesture because behind that gesture was all the potency of the disciplic succession and Sri Krishna Himself. I was transformed for that brief time. I was totally transformed into the spiritual world, and it was ecstatic. After three times around, Prabhupada went up with his entourage and again I crumpled down to the floor and somehow crawled back to my room. But that was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget.