![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/xlBFeEs.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Badrinarayan Swami:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn San Diego a devotee was distributing small books in a parking lot. As he approached a car he saw a young man sitting in the driver\u2019s seat. When the devotee knocked on the window, the man shouted, \u2018Look, just leave me alone! Get outta here!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe devotee went on his way, but then he thought, \u2018This guy\u2019s pretty bad off. He needs a book.\u2019 So the devotee returned and stuck a small book under the windshield wiper. Later the young man showed up at the San Diego temple and told this story. \u2018When the devotee saw me, I was very morose. I was frustrated about school and felt no inspiration in life. My parents had sent me to a psychologist, but he was no help, and I became even more depressed. I thought there must be something wrong with me. I saw how my friends were so enthusiastic about going to school, getting jobs, making money. I concluded that everyone else was okay and I was just messed up, a total failure.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018So I decided to kill myself. I ran a tube from the exhaust pipe through the trunk into my car, rolled up the windows, and started the engine. I thought this would be a good way to end all my misery and pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe car was quickly filling up with carbon monoxide when someone walked up holding a big stack of books on his arm and knocked on the window. I told him to get lost. I thought he was a crazy fanatic\u2014especially when he came back and put one of his books under my windshield wiper. \u2018But then I began to get bored and thought, \u201cWell, what would be the harm if I read something before I die?\u201d So I rolled down the window, reached out, and grabbed the little book. The title looked interesting\u2014Civilization and Transcendence. I started to read.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that book I found that Srila Prabhupada directly points out the defects of modern civilization and gives people an alternative, the Krishna conscious way of life. Suddenly I realized, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m not crazy. Everyone else is!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018So I rolled down the windows, disconnected the tube from my exhaust, and drove home. After reading the book cover to cover, I\u2019ve come to the temple to become a devotee.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe young man stayed in the temple and became a very nice devotee.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
\u201cIn San Diego a devotee was distributing small books in a parking lot. As he approached a car he saw a young man sitting in the driver\u2019s seat. When the devotee knocked on the window, the man shouted, \u2018Look, just leave me alone! Get outta here!\u2019<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94424","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\/94424","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=94424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94439,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94424\/revisions\/94439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}