As souls, we need loving relationships, and we have that eternal loving relationship with Krishna. But we're not at that point yet (I should speak for myself). I'm not at that point where I can always feel that love of Krishna. So, I feel His love through His reciprocation with me, through the devotees.

And one of those ways is through acts of kindness. While preparing for this, I was thinking of all the many, many acts of kindness that have been shown to me over the years. I'll tell of a few personal ones, but one thing that came to mind was devotees who have empowered me to do service, or have shared service with me, or given me service to do. It really has turned out to be one of the biggest acts of kindness, in my life.

I was in Los Angeles, and I started helping the devotee Jalasayi. She was in charge of the free feast. So I became her helper. We had our first Rath Yatra in 1977, and after a few years, she couldn't continue it, so she passed that responsibility of managing the free feast for the Rath Yatra to me, and I still do it. I passed on the management of it to someone else, but by Lord Jagannath's mercy and Prabhupada's mercy, I still am able to do that every year.

So that was in 1977, and I've been through a lot of changes. And the movement has been through a lot of changes. L.A. has been through a lot of changes, so many things, but having that anchor, even though it was a yearly service—you know, there was all the planning every year and the shopping and so many things. I go down a week before Rath Yatra, and so I felt like I had Rath Yatra for the whole week, and not just the day. And of course, I was working, so I had to plan that I would have that time off, and so it really anchored me throughout my whole year. And I'm just thinking back, that was just one of the nicest things that a devotee could have done for me.

Even when I first joined, Manjuali was the temple president's wife, and she was exceptionally kind to me. She still is. I had an hour-long conversation with her just the other day, and she's so full of encouragement, kind words, wonderful realizations. But I was fortunate enough to have her as my mentor when I first joined the temple, and she was always encouraging me, always giving me service, so that was something that I thought of when I was thinking of acts of kindness.

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