Arrested for being a devotee in London...and then a miracle happened

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna

 

Everyone of us has something to share..some thought..some experience...or

some realisation....Please read this wonderful story sent in by a friend and

email me your own views, comments, experiences, realisations etc and this

could help encourage others in their own journey...the journey called life.

I pray that the Supreme Lord immediately blesses all of us with true love

for Him.

 

Hare Krishna

 

With prayers and best wishes for a truly happy life

 

K.S.Mahesh alias Mahaprabhu Caitanya das

_______________________

 

 

It was the Thursday before Christmas, and London's Oxford Street (the

longest shopping street in the world) was brimming over with Christmas

shoppers. Twice already that week plainclothes police had arrested devotees

chanting Hare Krishna there, but today we were intending to avoid any

trouble.

 

The five of us took a new route, profusely distributing the holy name to

everyone within earshot. As we made our way through Piccadilly Circus

(London's "Times Square") and then along crowded Regent Street, we brought

smiles to many faces and raised eyebrows on many others. Finally we reached

Oxford Circus, where we reluctantly stopped chanting and started back along

Oxford Street toward the temple.

 

But all the shops were staying open late, so the street was still filled

with pedestrians, though traffic had died down. The rustle of hundreds of

footsteps filled the air. With so many materially conditioned souls

surrounding us, there we were, chanting quietly to ourselves on our beads,

and just holding our karatalas (hand cymbals) and mrdanga drums! It was hard

to restrain ourselves from the loud glorification oi the Hare Krishna

maha-mantra. In fact, it was impossible! Casting aside any thoughts of our

inevitable arrest, we launched into the most ecstatic chant ever! The tall

buildings echoed to the sounds of Lord Caitanya's sarikirtana party while

dumbfounded shoppers stood open-mouthed and bus lines of bewildered souls

turned their heads to see the source of the transcendental sound vibrations.

Single file, we chanted and danced along the clear space at the edge of the

pavement, which widened as the crowds thinned out. Tottenham Court Road Tube

Station, the end of the gauntlet, loomed up ahead. We were almost there,

with no police trouble, when three highly suspicious figures suddenly

appeared, blocking our path a few yards ahead.

 

"All right, lads, yer nicked!" said the young "student," flashing his police

I.D. card with immense relish.

 

"What! How can you arrest us? We're not doing anything illegal."

 

His two hard-faced confederates, similarly disguised, moved in closer.

 

"Come on! You know as well as I do you're causing an obstruction. Down to

the station; you're all under arrest!"

 

"Obstruction? The pavement's fifteen feet wide, we're walking in the gutter,

and there's hardly anybody to 'obstruct'!" we

protested. "All around you there's drug addiction, prostitution, crime, and

violence, and you can't find anything better to

do than arrest us for chanting the names of God! What kind of policemen are

you?"

 

The retort seemed to catch him by surprise, but he quickly regained his

composure and barked, "Look lad, you're under

arrest. Anything you say may be used as evidence. Now move!" Then, adding a

liberal quantity of unsavory words (quite

unbefitting a constable of Her Majesty's Police Force), he joined his two

colleagues in forming a rear guard, and the three

of them escorted us toward the police station.

 

We were thinking of how unfortunate they were. Not only were they

obstructing Lord Caitanya's sankirtana party and harassing devotees, but

these were the same policemen who had arrested the chanting party twice

earlier that week! For protection we started chanting the glories of Lord

Nrsimhadeva-Krishna's half-man-half-lion incarnation-very softly at first,

and then a little louder. The mrdanga crept in, marking the rhythm, and the

karatalas soon followed. With no complaints from our police escort as yet,

we chanted louder and louder until the street once more resounded with the

holy names. Amazed that they made no objection, we turned and saw that the

three policemen were grinning from ear to ear! We were incredulous. Here was

the mercy of Lord Caitanya! By repeatedly arresting the chanting party,

these previously offensive policemen had become purified by associating with

devotees, and now they were taking great pleasure in the chanting of the

holy names!

 

"Now stop or you'll cause an obstruction," directed our police guide as we

approached a large bus line, which engulfed the

pavement. We obediently stopped, considering it our good fortune that we had

been allowed to chant at all.

 

Then something totally unexpected happened. After we had passed the bus

line, our captor definitely proved himself to be no

ordinary police constable when he ordered, "Okay, start chanting again."!!

 

So we did, all the way to the police station, accompaned by the three

blissful police constables, who, grinning from ear to

ear, made no objection as the ecstatic sankirtana party passed right into

the police station, past the main doors, through

the hallway, and into the charging room itself!!!

 

Everyone was thunderstruck. Arrestors and arrested alike couldn't believe

it. Shaven-headed Hare Krishnas chanting their

way into the cop shop? With drums and cymbals? It was unthinkable! The

sergeant on duty turned a vivid scarlet and exploded

in a fit of anger, threatening to "throw the book" at us and charge us with

all manner of subversive criminal activities.

We apologized profusely, pleading that we didn't quite realize where we

were, and he became somewhat pacified. As we

answered philosophical questions from some of the interested constables, the

sergeant charged us with obstruction, one by

one, and we had to wait as he filled in numerous forms.

 

"All right, boys, tomorrow morning at ten o'clock you'll be appearing in the

Magistrates Court," said the sergeant, now quite amiable. And with that he

allowed us to go. Feeling very blissful at the way things had turned out, we

filed into the hallway and prepared to return to the temple for the evening

arati (temple worship) of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha- London-isvara.

(London-isvara means "Krishna, the Lord of London.") On our way out of the

station, we passed a high-ranking plainclothes detective inspector. He

paused and turned in our direction.

Not knowing what to expect, we were surprised when he glanced over us in an

almost fatherly way and said in a concerned voice, "Don't be discouraged,

lads; keep up the good work!"

 

Next morning in court we pleaded "not guilty" to the charges against us, and

the judge deferred our case to February 2. At

the time, we were unaware of the significance of the appointed date. Our

trial was to be on the appearance day of Lord

Nityananda-the incarnation of God who helped spread Lord Caitanya's

sankirtana movement, and who personifies His mercy.

 

The Trial

 

As is customary on such holy days, the five of us fasted through the morning

of Lord Nityananda's appearance day and

chanted His glories. At noon we attended a blissful arati and then broke our

fast with a splendid feast. Afterward, we set

off for Great Marlborough Street Magistrates Court, confident that Lord

Nityananda would protect us. We were accompanied by

a new and enthusiastic visitor to the temple, the Reverend Norman Morehouse

(second only to the Bishop of Norwich), who

came along to observe the court proceedings.

 

We arrived at the courthouse a few minutes before our appointed time of 2:00

P.M. and waited in the big hallway while the

Reverend went through to the public gallery. The plainclothesmen who

arrested us soon turned up, now in uniform, and waited

with us. (It took a little persuasion before they cautiously took some of

the hazelnut cookies we had earlier offered to

Lord Nityananda.) At last we were beckoned into the courtroom itself and

ushered into the dock. A stir went through the

assembly. Shaven heads and saffron robes were the last thing anyone expected

to see in Magistrates Court on a Tuesday

afternoon. The Magistrate (a balding, portly man in his late middle age,

sporting a red rose in the lapel of his dark grey

suit) surveyed us over the top of his goldrimmed spectacles. After we

reaffirmed our plea of "not guilty" to the court

clerk, one of the constables, who had been sworn in at the witness box,

proceeded to report the alleged conditions of our

arrest.

 

In the constable's version of the story, the chanting party miraculously

grew from the original five members to seven-and

later to eight when he described how three devotees "ran off and escaped

arrest." According to his description, it seemed

that there were many more people on Oxford Street than we had been aware of.

Indeed, we had supposedly forced unlimited

numbers of pedestrians into the road and had exposed them to the grave risk

of being run over by the almost nonexistent

traffic! The judge listened impartially and then, since we had no lawyer to

speak on our behalf, he asked us if we would

like to comment on the policeman's evidence. We humbly pointed out that the

constable, like everyone else, had imperfect

senses, and that he had contradicted himself in assessing the number of

devotees on the chanting party. The judge politely

suggested the constable had made "a mathematical error." At this a titter of

laughter rippled through the courtroom, while

the constable shuffled his feet and looked embarrassed.

 

The magistrate then asked if we would like to speak in our own defense.

Having been previously chosen as spokesman, I

stepped forward to be sworn in at the witness box-and was taken aback when

the usher asked me to hold a copy of the

Bhagavad-gita in my right hand. He handed me a card, and I read out the

words: "I swear by almighty Sri Krishna that the

evidence I give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the

truth."

 

Heartened by smiles from the devotees in the dock, I began to describe the

circumstances of our arrest-this time as they

actually had happened. The magistrate listened as I went on to say, "We

understand that the police have a duty to perform,

sir; but we also have a duty. We have been instructed by our spiritual

master-indeed, we are instructed by all the

principle scriptures of the world-the Koran, the Torah, the Bible, and the

Vedas-that we should glorify God by chanting His

holy names. Whether you know the Lord by the name of Allah, Jehovah, Rama,

Govinda, or Krishna, God is one."

 

"Oh, quite so, quite so," affirmed the magistrate.

 

Encouraged, I went on: "In the Vedic scriptures, in the Brhan-Naradiya

Purana, it is said, harer nama harer nama harer

namaiva kevalam-

 

"In English-but what does it mean in English, please?" he interjected.

 

"-Kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha. This was written in the

Sanskrit language five thousand years ago. It

means, 'In this age of Kali [the present age of materialism and quarrel]

there is no alternative, there is no alternative,

there is no alternative for making positive spiritual advancement but the

chanting of the holy name, the holy name, the

holy name of the Lord.'"

 

The judge-in fact the whole courtroom-sat there fascinated. I remembered

Srila Prabhupada's introduction to the Srimad-

Bhagavatam and began to speak further.

 

"Although mankind has made great material advancement in so many spheres, we

can see that factually there is a fault in the

social body at large. People are not happy with their day-to-day activities,

and there is an increasing disturbance of drug

addiction, prostitution, violence, and crime. The root of the problem is

lack of God consciousness. People are unaware of

the actual purpose of life."

 

Intrigued by this sound philosophy coming from the witness box, the judge

relaxed his judicial appearance, sat back, and

took a sip of water from his glass.

 

Even more encouraged, I asked, "Sir, with your permission, I would like to

read a short passage that appeared in the London

Observer in October 1972. It is an excerpt from an article written by that

eminent English historian, Arnold Toynbee."

 

Upon hearing the name of such a distinguished personality, the judge smiled

slightly, and nodding his head in approval, he

asked that I continue.

 

"'The cause of it [the world's malady] is spiritual. We are suffering from

having sold our souls to the pursuit of an

objective which is both spiritually wrong and practically unobtainable. We

have to reconsider our objective and change it.

And until we do this, we shall not have peace, either amongst ourselves or

within each of us.'"

 

I continued, "As devotees of the Lord we strictly follow four principles:

mercifulness, truthfulness, cleanliness, and

austerity. These are the higher qualities of human life, and the absence of

these qualities means the degradation of

society. So the spreading of spiritual understanding among humanity at large

is the highest welfare work. And an essential

part of this program is the distribution of literature, and the

congregational chanting-in the street-of the holy names of

God."

 

"Is that all?" inquired the judge.

 

"Yes, sir," I replied.

 

"Then you may step down." Adjusting his spectacles and regarding the

devotees, who were once more assembled in the dock,

the judge then said in a very firm yet amicable manner, "In legal terms you

are guilty of obstruction, although it is of a

very minor degree. Taking this into consideration, and seeing your obvious

sincerity, I have decided to dismiss the case."

 

We smiled jubilantly, thanked the magistrate, and were about to step down,

when Kr na prompted me to add, "Sir, we were

wondering if you had a court library here, in which case we would like to

present a book for addition to the collection."

 

"Thank you," he replied. "I am quite sure we can accommodate it."

 

I gave a copy of Srila Prabhupada's Sri Isopanisad to one of the clerks, who

promised to pass it on to the judge. Then we

left the courtroom, thanking Lord Nityananda for His mercy.

 

Outside, our friend Reverend Morehouse greeted us with an ecstatic "Hare

Krishna!" Beaming from ear to ear, he took each of

us warmly by the hand. "Congratulations!" he exclaimed. "It was wonderful! I

am so proud of you all. I must say, though, I

was somewhat surprised at the decision of the judge. In the cases before

yours he had been quite severe. I'm sure that the

Lord must have had a hand in the matter."

 

And so were we. Sankirtana is always successful, but it is especially so on

Lord Nityananda's appearance day: even a judge

will take a book!

 

On the way back to the temple, I read one verse in Srila Prabhupada's

Caitanya-caritamrta that summed up our whole

wonderful experience:

 

aparadha ksamaila dubila prema-jale keba edaibe prabhura prema-mahajale

 

"Lord Caitanya excused all the offenders, and they merged into the ocean of

love of God, for no one can escape the unique

loving network of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu" (Cc. Adi-lila, 7.37).