General News

 
Haridas prabhu first came to Bombay from Bangalore, looking out for a job. When he failed, he started picking pockets. This landed him in Arthur Road Jail. There, in a dust-bin, he found a copy of BTG. While going through the magazine, he saw a photograph of Srila Prabhupada and he was immediately attracted – not to Srila Prabhupada, but to his golden wristwatch. He vowed that when he was released, he’d steal the watch.
 
On release, he walked all the way to Akash Ganga, that was the address given in BTG. There he was told that they had shifted to Juhu. He walked all the way to Juhu, since he had no money. Krishna was actually purifying him before meeting a pure devotee. In Juhu, he met Giriraj Maharaj. Maharaj told him that Srila Prabhupada was in Hyderabad and was expected to be in Bombay very soon. Maharaj then invited him to stay in the temple. He would get free prasad and staying facilities. He did not mind shaving also.
 
After a few days he was exasperated and he asked Giriraj Maharaj if he could go to Hyderabad. Maharaj said okay. He then asked if he would get ticket money or would he have to steal it? Giriraj Maharaj gave him the money and told him to return soon. In Hyderabad, Srila Prabhupada was giving darshan when Haridas prabhu entered. Srila Prabhupada saw him and called him forward. On being asked, Haridas prabhu said that he had got attracted to Srila Prabhupada’s watch and that he wanted to steal it. Srila Prabhupada said, “You want this watch?” and he immediately removed it. Haridas prabhu said “No”, now he had lost interest in the watch, but Prabhupada insisted he keep the watch.
 
Prabhupada asked how long he was staying. Haridas prabhu said that he had promised Giriraj Maharaj that he’d return as soon as he had met Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada replied, “You must keep a promise, never to break it”. Haridas prabhu liked this instruction.
 

 
In his book “the scalpel and the soul” Dr Allen Hamilton, a Harvard trained brain surgeon for 30 years says the following “Theres a technique used on a handful of awkward cases. They put the patient on a heart pump and then cool down the blood. The heart flutters and stops, there is no blood flow to the brain and no electrical activity. Now you can operate on a significant blood vessel while no blood is flowing through it. Once the procedure is finished and you realise you are within the twenty minutes time limit, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Then the team gets ready to slowly warm the patient up”.
 
“Sometimes we find some banter amongst the staff. One nurse said she was getting engaged, they had gone to this particular restaurant, they had gotten a ring at a particular store, ect. When the patient woke up she reported the entire conversation, while her heart was stopped, while her brain had no activity, she somehow remembered that conversation and that is scientifically impossible. If the brain is essentially dead, how can it make a memory? A case like that really shakes you up, you,re getting very close to the holy grail. Is this what we mean by a soul? Is this what we mean by an entity that can exist seperate from the physical body and the brain?”.