Standing in the Bakery of the Krishna Balaram Mandir, Vrndavan UP India, and leaning on the bench against the white wall, I was savoring my evening hot milk. Since a day or two I had suddenly and inexplicably caught a cold, with a slight fever, sore throat and runny nostrils. In a different situation, my God-Brother Prasanatma Prabhu, later on offered the explanation that it was the change of season and the coming of summer that caused such discomfort. At the temple Bakery, the milk program starts at 7.30 PM only and I did have a first cup of milk outside about an hour earlier for ten rupees extra. The temple gives the better deal at rupees 20.00.

Especially in light of the many warnings given by Srila Pabhupada that too much milk will cause disorder, I was hesitating and thinking: “Shall I have a third cup of milk, that would be a bit much, would it not be?” Here is one of the warnings: “So if you take too much milk then there is possibility of dysentery, disorder of the bowel.” 690109BG.LA. The hot milk running down one’s throat represents in fact quite a sanitary feeling and I hoped to counteract the disease by drinking this as-hot-as-possible milk and let it act. Then Krishna decided to answer my question directly. He is actually Hrishikesa, the controller of all and everyone’s senses. He sent one Russian bhakta from Moscow to the bakery and without further preamble this young, tall and lean devotee, clean shaven and dressed in white dhoti and kurta, offered me a drink. He offered a choice of Fanta and Coca Cola, or something of that nature. The drinks were respectively orange and black in any case. I declined politely and explained that I could not mix these drinks with milk. These types of synthetic beverages are in fact strictly banned from my diet anyway. We don’t trust these artificial mixtures. So he immediately fetched me my third glass of milk. I accepted immediately of course and thanked him very much, as I saw it as Krishna direct answer to my question. No need to mention that I did not suffer from any stomach disorder as a result of accepting a third glass of milk but my cold disappeared as if by magic when I arrived in France.

I had briefly interacted with this devotee previously. We could not speak though, as he did not speak English and I do not speak Russian either. This is another instance that the relevant message can be gotten across and business transacted without speaking a common language. Srila Prabhupada gives the example of the burning house. When the house is burning the inhabitants can be saved without speaking their language. They can be saved “somehow or other”.