All the Best!
Surrey, British Columbia
She made a comeback. Her name is Banke Bihari, a name given to her by her guru. I knew her about twenty six years ago or more when she was a young woman who came to the Toronto temple after being introduced by her boyfriend. She hails from Brantford, the birth place of hockey great, Wayne Gretzky. Who born in Canada doesn't have a love to some degree for this national sport hockey?
Well, I don't know Banke that well to know of her likes and dislikes, but she did like Krishna, and she did like her boyfriend. But things changed. Her boyfriend had many mental challenges. He left Krishna. So did she. Fortunately, she came back after years of an apparent absence of Krishna. She came back as a seasoned person who dealt with the trials of life.
Banke, her husband Rob, and their young son have got hooked onto Krishna and His culture, and are regulars at temple functions. They routinely chant on their japa beads. Banke has become the superstar of the community, in a sense, as the top distributor of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Publications, in the Vancouver area. She has got the gift of speaking with total strangers on the street about the glories of spiritual life and of the books that can make spiritual life begin. God has given her this bravado and with that she is receiving great results.
Generously, Banke and Rob arranged to hold a satsang (home gathering). I was their guest speaker and I chose to read about our guru from the book, "Prabhupada Lilamrta". The other guests were immersed in the details about the early days of New York's lower east side when hippies and beatniks were abound trying to sort out life. You just can't find a better story than that of a Swamiji fresh out of India, offering his benevolent hand.
Banke, Rob and Nicolas, all the best!
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