![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/unH401ytkjM\/maxresdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Hare Krsna
\nPlease accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
\n\u00a0
\nMy mother had long standing desire to have darshan of Lord Tirupati Balaji as due to her earlier days of hard struggle, she could not go anywhere for pilgrimage. In recent years, by Krsna\u2019s grace, she is fortunate to visit some of the holy dhams like Vrindavan, Mayapur, Jagannath Puri, Udupi, Rameshwaram and Sri Rangam. In Tirupati, there was also a marriage ceremony of children of our dear friends so we thought it was good occasion of go to Tirupati so that she can have darshan of Lord Balaji, Sri Sri Radha Govinda at ISKCON Tirupati and also attend the marriage.
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\nSo after reaching Tirupati, although we had our booked darshan after two days, I decided to take her for additional darshan in senior citizen quota. We had heard that one person accompanying senior citizen is allowed but at that time due to rush and some volunteers offering the seva, I couldn\u2019t get to go inside but my mother had nice darshan of Lord Balaji with the help of the volunteers. This was an additional and bonus darshan in addition to our booked darshan after two days. Next day we visited ISKCON Tirupati temple and had nice darshan of Sri Sri Radha Govinda and asta sakhis. We were also fortunate to hear Srimad Bhagavatam Class by HG Gauranga Prabhu. <\/p>\n
Next day, which happened to be Akshay Tritiya day, in the morning first we visited mother Pamdavati temple. We were very fortunate to witness pushpa archana darshan and aarati of mother Padmavati for over half an hour. Then in the afternoon, along with few devotees we proceeded up-hills to have darshan of Lord Balaji. We had pre-booked the darshan online from UAE and were carrying our passports which were mentioned as our ID documents. After standing for over 1 hour in the queue, by Lord\u2019s grace, we had very nice darshan of Lord Balaji. Few devotees from UAE had asked me to offer some laxmi in temple on their behalf, which I did. After sitting for few minutes in the temple and praying, we came out of main gate, to collect laddu prasadam. There while removing the receipt for laddu collection, I realized that my passport and wallet had gone missing from the purse.
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\nImmediately after I realized that these were probably stolen, I went to security area and complained. They suggested me to go to Police. Along with one Telagu speaking devotee, I went to Police station, lodged the complaint and obtained a police certificate. We needed to get duplicate passports and visa in order to travel back but I realized that this process will take couple of days. I called up my friend in Mumbai to tweet to External Minister of India and to Head of Passport General about loss of our passports. I also posted the information of loss of our passport on my facebook page giving my mobile number to contact in case someone may find it. We had next day morning flight from Chennai so I cancelled the flight tickets and the car which was booked to travel to Chennai from Tirupati. \u00a0The accompanying devotees also were worried but were telling me to come back to Tirupati and apply for duplicate passports as there was no point in waiting up-hills as there was almost no hope of getting back the stolen passports in such a huge crowd. Since only mother and me had come to India for 2-3 days while my family (wife and kids) were in UAE, my old mother was crying as we had no clue on when we will be reaching back in absence of our passports and visa. At the same time, my wife and kids were worried understanding our situation. However in that circumstance, I had no time to cry but to put my sincere efforts searching the passports totally depending upon Lord\u2019s mercy.
\n\u00a0
\nIn the meanwhile, I was constantly requesting security staff at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthan to help me out and show me the cctv footage, which one official told me that these can be shown only if accompanied by police or CID and generally they can\u2019t show it. Somehow by Lord\u2019s grace after lot of patience, I could meet the Head of Security at TTD and he extended his support understanding our critical situation by looking into cctv footage in order to retrieve the passports. He very patiently tracked us in couple of cameras but due to much crowd at the main exit gate, we couldn\u2019t track the loss of passport. Lord Krsna says in Bhagavad Gita, \u201cmatta\u1e25 sm\u1e5btir j\u00f1\u0101nam apohana\u1e41 ca – from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness\u201d. So at that moment, I told the security head that generally the thief would be interested in money and may throw the passports\/wallet, which may not be useful for him so if he can help me to get it searched after the main gate. So he came out of his cabin and personally requested 2-3 cleaner ladies to help me search the nearby area including dustbins. I was really thankful to him for his genuine efforts in helping us.
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\nThese ladies started searching and after searching in 3-4 dustbins, they were telling that in the crowd of lacs of people it may be very difficult to get it back but I was determined. We kept searching and after searching for almost 15-16 bins, we were about to reach outside temple complex and there were 2 dustbins left. I thought if we still don\u2019t get it there then we have to undergo lot of difficulties and cumbersome process to obtain duplicate passports and visa. Finally Lord reciprocated with us!! After searching almost for an hour, we finally got the passports though my PAN card, ISKCON Life Membership card, Credit Cards and money were lost. \u00a0It was like a sting operation of around 4 hours in getting back our passports.
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\nAfter I got the passports, I called again to book the car and flight tickets, which I had cancelled. The car was re-booked but flight tickets were not available. In the meanwhile I called my bank and blocked the credit cards. I told one of my friends to check online about available tickets for next morning but he told these were super costly. So I decided to travel on the staff ticket, which was originally booked by my friend working in the airlines. I just took a chance to try my luck as these tickets are subject to load (seat availability at last moment if flight is empty). We started from Tirupati at around 3 am to reach Chennai at 6.30 am as flight was at 9.30 am. When we reached airport counter, the person issuing boarding pass told us that the flight was overbooked by 5 and there are no chance to get the seat so there is no point in waiting. Still I decided to wait till the counter closes. In the meanwhile I called one of our good friends in Chennai and told him the whole story of what happened. He told me that he is coming to pick us up from airport if we don\u2019t get any flight and we can stay at his place. <\/p>\n
In the meanwhile we were chanting our rounds and mother was praying to Lord Narsimha dev for protection. Later after 2 hours (15 minutes before the boarding counter closes), I again enquired and the ticketing person told me to wait till last moment. In the meanwhile I prepared my mother to travel alone in case we get only 1 seat and then I can take another flight and come. Finally just before 3 mins of closing of the counter, the airline staff told me that there were only 2 seats available and we can get the boarding pass!! I don\u2019t know how it happened but it happened only by Lord\u2019s special mercy. We had only 1 hour to clear the immigration, security check and my mother due to her old age can\u2019t walk fast, so we took wheelchair and immediately rushed to clear immigration\/security check and finally boarded the plane just few minutes before the they closed the gate and by Lord\u2019s mercy, we finally landed in UAE. It was a thrilling experience for us to realize and see Lord\u2019s hand in everything and everything in Lord\u2019s hand!!
\n\u00a0
\nIt is due to good wishes and prayers of many devotees who constantly prayed for us that we got our lost passport back just in time else it is quite impossible to get back the stolen things in that huge crowd. I had no grief in losing my wallet, money and credit cards though Lord very kindly saved us from undergoing a very cumbersome procedure to get duplicate passports\/visa just by giving back the passports. Along with Lord, I actually thanked the person who would have thrown our passports in the dustbins so that we could get it back, by Lord\u2019s mercy. I learnt a lesson that we should be very careful and take care of such important documents, not to lose it.
\n\u00a0
\nI am really grateful to Lord Balaji who allowed us to have fantastic darshan of Him and mother Padmavati on the same day of the most auspicious Akshya Tritiya. This incident gave me some lessons and also some realization understanding how Lord is very merciful! Obviously my faith increased in Him because while I was waiting at security area, I was speaking to Lord in my heart praying to Him, \u2018I have heard of many miracles done by You, so if You think fit, You may do one for us also\u2019; though I realized it was not the best dialogue on my part. After getting the passport, I wanted to see the Lord to thank Him but without booking, I could not do that immediately though I would like to visit again sometime JUST to thank Him personally for special mercy He has shown upon us. In one sense, it was not less than a miracle!!\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nAll glories to Lord Balaji. All glories to Lord\u2019s merciful devotees of the Lord. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
\n\u00a0
\nThank you very much.
\nYour servant
\nRasamrita Das<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-2H-jI-Gq6zs\/WuQx3ezcdgI\/AAAAAAAAj-w\/8bUTNW4fBqMYALd3D_TDhNV0DPfO7A6ZwCHMYCw\/s0\/2018-04-28_10-34-57.jpg\")
This incident gave me some lessons and also some realization understanding how Lord is very merciful!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45793"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61694,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45793\/revisions\/61694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}