Realisations

"Nanda Kishor," the swami was saying. "Say something about your realization of Krishna consciousness."
Nanda Kishor scrutinized his hands, turning them over as if examining them for forensic evidence. His orange T-shirt and yellow dhoti were splattered with cooking stains; I knew he'd been cooking a lot today - every day. There was a long pause, and I thought perhaps he hadn't heard the swami - we had been fasting all day, so maybe he'd just zoned out. Then he glanced up at the swami.

"Well, I like to spend time doing service in the kitchen," he said in a voice so soft I could hardly hear him. "Especially rolling chapattis. For the guests that don't know, chapattis are round Indian pancakes made of wheat flour. I make them every day for the devotees instead of bread."

"This is really weird," I thought. "Why is he talking about food instead of philosophy?"

"We make them out of whole meal flour," he muttered, continuing his flat- bread soliloquy. "You roll them in a circle and then put them over a flame and they inflate like a balloon." There were a few giggles in the audience. "Anyway, if I have nothing else to do for the rest of my life, I would be happy to continue rolling chapattis for Krishna. Whatever we can do for Krishna, whatever talent we can offer, Krishna will accept that service and give us complete satisfaction."

I looked over at him; he looked like he was recalling the happiest moment of his life. Chapatti rolling suddenly took on a new meaning: the service he did - something I thought to be tedious - was his way of pleasing Krishna. I realized at that moment that devotional service could be varied; it wasn't limited to the front-line type of work I thought I was doing. Nanda Kishor was speaking philosophy after all! And his heartfelt talk made more of an impression upon me than any other speech that evening.

- From "Miracle on Second Avenue" by Mukunda Goswami