By Kapiladev das
I was running the Food for Life program in South Africa. We were distributing 1 million plates of prasadam yearly along with mass harinams all over the countryside. The South African Police got in touch with us and asked us to become part of their Community Policing program. We would go out with them to troublesome neighborhoods and put on festivals with prasadam distribution, singing, dancing and sports events (the police would run the Sports events, we were in charge of everything else) One particularly bad area was called “Thousand Hills” Every day, there were murders, car hijackings, robberies.It was so bad that riot police were permanantly stationed there. We went in and had a big festival. Thousands of people joined the harinam. The colonel in charge of the area later told me that from that day, there was not one crime committed. Not only that, the local people caught all the criminals and brought them into the police station. It was completely extraordinary. Til this day Thousand Hills has remained a peaceful place.
YS
Kapiladev das
Hare Krishna Kapiladev Prabhu,
Dandavat Pranam! Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
Thank you so much for posting about this miraculous effect of Harinam and sharing it here. This incident clearly animates this verse from Srimad Bhagavatam which says:
[ Yatendyante Katha Mrshtas Trshnaya Prashamo Yatah
Nirvaira Yatra Bhuteshu Nodvego Yatra Kashchana
“Whenever pure topics of the transcendental world are discussed, the members of the audience forget all kinds of material hankerings, at least for the time being. Not only that, but they are no longer envious of one another, nor do they suffer from anxiety or fear.” – SB 4:30:35 – http://vedabase.net/sb/4/30/35/ ]
Thank you once again. Hare Krishna!
Dasanudasa //Somesh.