There was a pujari serving in a temple. After performing his seva for four or five years, he suddenly started to feel a longing for an old hobby—surfing in the ocean. This thought became obsessive and he decided that he had had enough of temple service. Without telling anyone, he left the temple, grabbed a surfboard and went to the ocean, thinking that he was now free to do as he pleases.
As he was surfing, out of nowhere, he spotted a shark in the distance. The shark started coming closer and he thought to himself, “Before I became a Hare Krishna devotee, I surfed a lot and never encountered a shark. But now, after leaving the temple, the first thing I see is a shark.” He realized that Krishna has his own way of following up.
Panic set in as the shark approached and the pujari instinctively started chanting the Narasimha song, knowing from his temple days which “emergency buttons” to press. However, the shark kept coming closer, so he began chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and reciting other verses he knew. Despite exhausting all his prayers, the shark continued to approach.
Finally, he folded his hands and prayed earnestly, “My dear Lord, I promise you, if you save me from this shark today, I will serve you forever. Just save me this one time.”
As soon as he said this, the shark came close, looked at him, circled around him as if doing a parikrama and then swam away.
The pujari hurried back to the temple. When the temple president saw him, he asked, “I didn’t see you for the last two days, where were you?” The pujari replied, “Wherever I was, I am not going anywhere now. I will stay at the Lord’s Lotus Feet, serving Him forever.”
(As told by H.H. Bhakti Govinda Swami)