Year 2000 - the New Beginning

In Year 2000, an IT Professional from Starbucks Naresh Bhatt walked into the King County GIS office with his year and half year old daughter Aditi to retrieve some maps of the neighborhood around the small, temple on 1420, 228th Ave SE in the suburb of Sammamish WA. He was a bit apprehensive as there was a long line and he wasn't sure how long he would be there on a weekday. Fortunately for him, the employees liked Aditi and started playing with her; they took a special sympathy and send Naresh on his way with the information he wanted within a couple of hours. Naresh did not know at the moment the significance of those papers. Naresh was living the classic immigrant success story. Seven years ago he had left a very good job in the huge metropolis of Mumbai in India, left behind his family, friends and relatives and had landed up in this Seattle suburb to work for Paccar with his wife Banshri who also secured an IT job with a consulting company. They were here on a journey of exploration like countless other well educated software and IT professionals from India who used their talent and skills to come to USA in pursuit of their professional dreams with little idea of how their life story would unfold. Little by little, like countless other well-educated immigrants from Asia in the Northwest, he gradually started walking the slippery slope of the American dream. With the help of their well paying jobs, Naresh and Banshri climbed the material ladder of success; better jobs with Starbucks and Precor, bigger houses, fancier cars and so on. Somewhere along this rather mundane path, one that was hardly unique, Naresh's life took a critical detour. He got picked from the millions of aimless souls to a journey of spiritual purification by the grace and mercy of Srila Prabhupada. He met with the charismatic HG Harivilas Prabhu who was the VCC temple president (and a very successful local businessman). He also met with HG Aja Prabhu with whom he formed an instant bond of brotherhood. His life suddenly took a turn that took him down a path that he has been traveling ever since. The intersection that brought these three wonderful people together was rather anti-climactic in year 2000. It was a common bond of spiritual attachment to the Lord in a drab, one story rancher more than 40 years old – an incongruous sight in the upper-class affluent suburb of Sammamish. If you did not know what the building was, you would not give it a second glance. People used to pay their obeisances to the deities of the Supreme Lord of the Universe (Shri Shri Radha Neelamadhava) in this old decrepit rancher, and then nonchalantly used to drive home in their expensive vehicles to their expensive, well constructed huge houses with lavish furniture without too much of a second thought as to whose mercy allowed them to lead such comfortable lives – except for these three men who had a different idea. They realized that their Lordships were begging for a new home and they were so merciful that they were blessing all the folks around them to live in fancy big houses while they were struggling in discomfort.