Revati Raman Das, Tirupati: Recently I heard a lecture by a devotee who recounted how a world-famous traditional Carnatic musician from South India named Balamurali Krishna became mesmerized by your divine bhajana of Sri Shad-Gosvami-ashtaka. In the 1980s a party of traveling sankirtana devotees set up a stall in Chennai to distribute books while your singing of Sri Shad-Gosvami-ashtaka played in the background. A passerby dressed in a simple way stood nearby for quite some time, absorbed in hearing your bhajana with closed eyes. A Western devotee taking care of the stall thought he might be there to steal, and so the devotee was trying to push him away.
Meanwhile, a local devotee helping at the stall informed the Western devotee that the man was the world-famous Carnatic singer Balamurali Krishna and that the Western devotee shouldn’t treat him that way. Then the devotee apologized and started conversing with him. During the conversation, Balamurali Krishna asked the devotee, “Who has sung this song?” The devotee replied, “It is our founder-acarya, Srila Prabhupada.” Balamurali Krishna then said, “This voice and music are not from this world but from the spiritual world.” Srila Prabhupada, even an ordinary materialistic person can recognize that you are undoubtedly an ambassador from the spiritual world. Of this there is no doubt.