(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 June 2014, Stockholm, Sweden, Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya 22.75)
Sometimes, it is nice to remember that kind of magic shortcut of giving out the mercy. It is amazing what mercy one can give. I sometimes tell the story of how I was in the Netherlands and I had to do a program in Rotterdam and we were going by bus. I was waiting with a devotee for the bus, a new devotee, and just then, you know, a junkie comes by. It is full of junkies there. So this junkie comes and he wants some money, you know what I mean, and I did not give anything because, well if you give to junkies…
So, I used all my India experience of what to do if you want to get rid of a beggar! See, the system is this: do not look the beggar in the eye, no eye contact, first thing is no eye contact, never look in the eye; then, make a sort of gesture with your head like, “Go there, go forward!” A cold face. Gets rid of any beggar any time! Right, you know it too. This is how it is done. Sort of like a semi-annoyed look, “You are wasting your time. Take him!” Then they look at him (another person) and think, “He will give.” Then he also does not. Anyway, so I did my India trick on him and it worked immediately, and he just was gone in no time.
Then the devotee that was with me, he called him back! A new bhakta, you know! A brand new bhakta and he calls him back. He says, “Hey, I have got something for you!” And then, it is evening time by now, he pulls out a piece of apple, a brown piece of apple from breakfast, holds it up in the air and says, “Prasadam!” And the junkie, his mouth fell open. I mean, I guess he had expected something else. Whatever, his mouth fell open and the bhakta took full advantage and popped the apple inside and gave him human birth! Human birth, he gave! Just like that. I mean, we can advertise like that, “Practice bhakti yoga for two weeks and you can give human birth!”
It is not a small thing he did because if anyone takes prasadam, Krsna prasadam once, human birth is guaranteed in the next life, Prabhupada said. So just imagine, that junkie, where was he going after this life? I mean probably not even the animal species, probably he was going to be a stone – since he was always stoned! Where was he heading? But that apple, just that little apple! So, such little things, sometimes small things can make such a difference…