by Badrinarayana das

We hear many stories of devotees receiving special treatment from people who used to attend the Krishna Lunch program-bank managers, police officers and many more have gone out of their way to show their appreciation. This ongoing column will highlight the best stories about the power of prasadam.

In our first installment, Badrinarayana Prabhu, Governing Body Commissioner tells about his experience with a former Krishna Lunch patron.

It was around 1990 and I was temple president in San Diego when I was invited to be on a radio talk show hosted by Dan Something. This guy was famous for haranguing and being rude to his guests so I was apprehensive. This was during the time when deprogramming and anti-cult groups were prevalent, so I hesitated. On the one hand, it was a great opportunity to reach thousands of people (his show was one of the most popular in San Diego). On the other hand, Dan may just grill me and criticize and “slap us from pillar to post” in front of everyone.

Deciding to go, I armed myself with a whole tray of sweets and cookies and went down to the studio. Dan greeted me and took me into the small booth where we sat face to face; just Dan, myself and the plate of prasadam. The technician came in and started to remove the prasadam from the table and Dan said, “No, that stays here,” and pulled the prasadam close keeping his hand on the plate.

I started thinking “This guy might be alright.”

During the interview Dan asked good questions. He started taking calls from the audience and the first caller, obviously a Christian, started in on us. Dan shot back, “As far as I’m concerned the last Christian died 2000 years ago,” and he hung up on her.

I thought, “Wow, he’s heavy! I wonder what he has planned for us?”

When we took a break and were off the air I had to ask him what was going on-is he planning to bring out Ted Patrick (a famous deprogrammer) or spring some other surprise on me, so I asked him, “I thought you would be a lot rougher. So what gives?”

Dan explained, “I got my degree from UF and you guys fed me every day. My mother taught me, ‘Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.’ The microphone is yours, say whatever you like.”

While I talked, Dan snacked on the prasadam, but he stayed completely mindful of what I was saying and even asked good follow up questions after each caller. Sometimes he would pile on his own strong reply when the callers were overly challenging. He was having a great time interacting with the callers and giving it his shot at preaching.

The show was a great success thanks to Dan. I was only scheduled for thirty minutes, but we ended up staying on the air for an hour.

Although infamous for tearing into his guests like a tiger, he was tamed by the power of prasadam.