In 1970 I lived for sometime in the forests of the Himalayas at river banks or under trees or in nice caves. There were snakes, scorpions, leopards, tigers, wild elephants and so many mosquitoes. One may think it is a very dangerous place, but actually when we live there we realize it’s not so dangerous. We just have to watch for our steps so that we don’t step on snakes. If we don’t step on them, they will leave us alone. Once I was living in a cave that also had some snakes and scorpions. I respected them they respected me. No problem. Sometimes I saw a leopard, but if we just leave them alone they leave us alone. It is not that much dangerous.
In 1971 I returned to America, which is considered a very civilized place, and I visited the temple in Miami, Florida. Then I decided to go to New York. I did not have money so I began to hitch-hike from Florida. I had matted hair like a sadhu and I was in the robes of a devotee. People were throwing things at me. I was thinking, ‘Nobody in the jungle ever treated me like this.’
Finally I landed in the New York City. But I arrived late at night and I had to walk miles and miles through Manhattan in Brooklyn in the middle of the night. Practically the only people on every few street corners were street gangs, just standing around taking intoxications and waiting to fight somebody. That’s their business: to rob someone or fight with someone. So they saw me walking alone down the street with my robes on and they were very angry at me. They were calling me all kinds of names, talking about beating me and killing me. That night I chanted very attentive rounds. Some of them would show me their guns and knives, and sometimes I would be crossing streets and cars would go very fast with intoxicated drivers and they would almost hit me. I was thinking ‘How safe the Himalayan jungles were! This is a forest, a very dangerous one.’ Somehow I walked for hours and hours through these streets in the middle of the night. I was walking through one neighborhood with all black people. No white person ever goes there even in the daytime. They were shocked that I was walking through there in the middle of the night. But somehow I was protected. But I was one million times more fearful in the city of New York than I was in the jungles of the Himalayas.
By Radhanath Swami
