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Two Ghost Stories

Once when Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was opening a new center in a house that had been
given for the use of the Gaudiya Mission, a ghostly incident occurred.

He was staying in a room on the second floor. One brahmacari was in attendance, reading
Srimad Bhagavatam while he worked at his desk. That brahmacari suddenly saw a bone-hand float in
through the window. He cried out and fainted. When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta inquired the cause for his
alarm, the brahmacari told what he'd seen, but Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati didn't seem to take it as very
important. He told the brahmacari to chant Hare Krishna, not cry unintelligibly.

Thereafter the hand again appeared and floated into the room as if to grasp the neck of
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati. This time the brahmacari chanted Hare Krishna and then fainted. Srila
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati revived the brahmacari, saying, "Don't faint. Chant and read Srimad Bhaga-
vatam." When the hand came again, the brahmacari did just that. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta saw the hand
and chanted, "Haribol!", and the hand disappeared. He then said to the brahmacari, "No need to worry,
that ghost is now delivered."

In Vrndavana, one baba was visiting from Bengal. He was staying at one guest house (the
owner of this guest house told this story). So that baba, not knowing Vrndavana too well, inquired
directions from the guest house owner how to visit one temple and return. The proprietor gave him
directions, but with the warning to stay off the sidestreets in a certain district he'd have to pass through.

So that baba went on his tour, and when returning, he passed by those small, narrow side roads.
From down one he heard the sweet sound of kirtan. He thought, "There is a festival of Harer Nama! It
sounds ecstatic. Let me see this. After all, this is Krishna's own holy dhama - what can be the harm in
passing this way?"

So he went down that street, and soon came upon a group of men and women chanting the Hare
Krishna mantra to khol and karatalas. They all looked like pukka Vaishnavas. The baba happily joined
in the kirtana. After some time they offered him a place to sit for honoring prasad, but he told that he
had to return. So they rolled prasad into a bananna leave and gave him.

He arrived at the guest house in ecstacy. "It was wonderful!" he began telling that proprietor. "I
went down your forbidden narrow street on my way back here, and saw the most wonderful harer nama
kirtan festival. And just see - they've given nice prasad!" He unrolled the leave - there was only hunks
of raw meat inside.