By Dhirasanta dasa
Religious persecution is nothing new, and those willing to suffer and be martyred for their faith have always been among us. In the former Soviet Union many devotees were put in prisons, labour camps and mental hospitals. There they were being heavily beaten and otherwise abused although their only crime was the enthusiasm to distribute the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. The following is a story told by a devotee prisoner of one such abuse and what came of it.
"One day a guard dragged me across the floor by the hair to his room. He was looking straight into my eyes. His eyes were like burning red coals of hatred! His terrible screaming sounded like a demon. He took his baton and beat me very severely on my forehead and temples. Then he hit me once with most probably his full energy. The blow sent me flying to the other end of the room, and I fell down with heavy bleeding from my nose and mouth. Then he come close to me and started to kick my back and chest so hard that I lost consciousness and do not remember anything whatsoever after that. I opened my eyes after some time and saw him dragging my body on the floor. He was cursing me and stepping on my stomach and face mercilessly. In order to protect my face, I then turned. As soon as I had turned he kicked my spine and I went unconscious again. Then he threw me in my cell and closed the door with a curse.
I do not remember how long I was in my bed, but when I opened my eyes everyone was sleeping already. I tried turning myself and going to bathroom, but I felt no connection between my upper and lower parts of my body. I screamed loudly and fell unconscious again. It took me many weeks to recover.
After this incident I didn't see that guard for a long time. Then we heard from another guard what had happened to him. One Saturday he, his wife and two children went to a city for a wedding party. On the way back, he was driving the car while he was drunk and had a very serious accident. The car plummeted over a cliff, and everyone inside was killed.
I felt bad about the guards death but at the same time happy that after this incident the other guards were not as inclined to beat me like they had been before for fear of what would happen to them. I could never understand why some persons were so inimical towards devotees and wondered what bad things they must have heard or seen about devotees that they wished our death."
It could be said that the radio, television and newspapers' false information at that time was the main reason for their hatred towards the devotees of Lord Krishna. Whatever the reason, when there is a very dire situation, the Lord will personally come to protect His devotees and punish the demons.
Krishna wanted a change behind the iron curtain and as a result of the personal sacrifice of these early devotees, eventually the Krishna Consciousness Movement was registered officially in Russia and today there are more than one hundred temples and many thousands of devotees.
Hare Krishna!
The unpredictable plan of the Lord
