33 years in ISKCON part 1

[Paramananda das]

 

Dear Devotees

Please accept my humble obaisences

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

In Summer of 1977 a german friend introduced me to Srila Prabhupadas Bhagavad gIta as it is in German.

I had been reading different Buddhist books also , and was somewhat familiar with Karma and Reincarnation.

Reading the Mahayana doctrines of Buddhisme opened my mind, but reading Srila Prabhupadas Bhagavad Gita as it is, explained everything to me.I really developed strong attachment for Krsna, and it seemed I had been on this path in a previous life. In September of 1978 I met a devotee from Sweden Janesvara Prabhu , selling Srila Prabhupadas books , a triology of Krsna book ,Isopanisad and Vedic philosophy and religion .I just gave have a huge donation as I was so excited to meet a devotee.

I did not know 5 month later February I would go see the devotees hundreds of miles away in Stockholm.In the beautiful Korsnaas Gaard, then Gaura Nitai temple, New Radha Kunda.

My first question was when will Srila Prabhupada arrive, the devotees told me he has left his body in mid November of 1977.I was tearful and sad, as I had really hoped to meet and become Srila Prabhupadas disciple. So I had already accepted Srila Prabhupada in my heart as my eternal spiritual master.

My second desire was that I wanted to learn to distribute Srila Prabhupadas books, because simply by reading his books , my life was changing.

Shortly after that I moved into the temple, leaving high school, my apartment, my friends , my  girlfriend and of course my family, I had just turned 19.No one could understand me, of all of them...they thought I had gone mad.Yes mad for  Srila Prabhupada and Krishna.

 I   almost died in a motorcycle accident in mid November  of 1978 a year after Srila Prabhupada had left this world, and in the hospital I was reading Srila Prabhupadas Krsna book ,and Isopanisad with intensity, then I know I had to become a full time devotee.