Fwd: The untold story of Nelson Mandela & the Bhagavad Gita

[Pratham Arora]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vinit Mahiwal <vmah...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 2:21 PM
Subject: Fwd: The untold story of Nelson Mandela & the Bhagavad Gita
To: vrindavan_bace_core <vrindavan...@googlegroups.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: vijaya dasa <vjda...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Dec 7, 2013 at 10:44 PM
Subject: The untold story of Nelson Mandela & the Bhagavad Gita
To: boo...@googlegroups.com

Hare Krishna. I thought you might like to know a little bit of the untold
side of Nelson Mandela. He came several times to ISKCON's Ratha Yatra in
South Africa while he was president of the nation. The first time Bhakti
Tirtha Swami met him, in the course of their conversation, Maharaja quoted a
Gita verse. Half-way thru the verse, Mandela quoted the rest of it. BT Swami
was surprised. He asked "You know the Gita?" Mandela said "Try me." Every
Gita verse Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja knew, Nelson knew as well. Naturally, BT
Swami asked "How is this?" Nelson Mandela explained that he was imprisoned
on Robbins Island along with some of his fellow leaders of their political
party, the ANC. One of them was an Indian-bodied lawyer. The South African
government tried to break them by giving them mindless labor and routine.
Realizing that they needed to keep their minds actively engaged, the Indian
lawyer taught Nelson Mandela Gita verses which they quoted and discussed
back and forth to transcend their daily drudgery. Nelson Mandela told Bhakti
Tirtha Maharaja that learning the Gita helped keep him sane and did much to
infuse his view of the world and his strategies for bringing independence
and a better future for the South African people. Bhakti Chaitanya Maharaja,
the GBC for South Africa adds: "When Mr. Mandela visited our temple the
first time (he came several times thereafter as well) he, with dignity and
humility bowed before Srila Prabhupada, and then asked (me) "How did he do
it?", meaning how did Srila Prabhupada spread Krishna consciousness all over
the world. We then had a brief discussion about how Srila Prabhupada gave
Krishna consciousness to all nationalities and types of people, without
discrimination, and Mr Mandela was deeply struck by this, and was very
appreciative of Srila Prabhupada.

your servant,

Prananatha dasa

YS

Vinit

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Regards

Pratham Arora