By Kaunteya Das

Yes, I was chatting with a Dr. Mohammed, apparently a devout Muslim but also an intellectually inquisitive individual. At the beginning he had trouble accepting the idea of God having a form and being a person (and I understand him: in my dictionary the main definitions of “person” are: 1) a human being; 2) a human body).

What happened is that my wife, Sri Radha Govinda Dasi, was doing her skype preaching as usual, in the “skype me” mode, open for anyone who wanted to contact her and chat. She had already introduced Dr. Mohammed to different Vaisnava sites. On mayapur.com he saw the photos of Sri Sri Radha-Madhava and went into a mild crisis. He wasn’t able to adjust his conception of God with … well, God Himself. So an educated argument ensued. Prompted by my wife I also jumped into the dialogue.

I basically made sure that the atmosphere of the chat remained cordial. I expressed my appreciation for his willingness to discuss and my respect for his hesitation in accepting unfamiliar concepts. Then I started proposing the argument Srila Prabhupada makes in Sri Isopanisad, that God, being unlimited, must possess everything in our experience (form, personality, relations, etc.), and also aspects beyond. I was surprised at how Dr. Mohammed went along with the logic, in a cautious but honest way. At the end I sent him a gift: I gave him the link to a free downloadable Sri Isopanisad; to facilitate him, I actually sent him the pdf-file.

He had mentioned that the Holy Koran was transmitted by God through an angel; so I said that God, being unlimited, has unlimited angels and messengers through whom He can reveal knowledge about Himself, and that Sri Isopanisad contains holy utterances about the nature of the Absolute Truth—a non-sectarian message from God. I asked him to read the book.

He was thankful and expressed willingness to continue chatting on some other day (it was already past ten o’clock at night, so we had to retire). My wife uses skype (downloadable for free at www.skype.com) for preaching in cyber-space to interested seekers. She uses different introductions (yesterday her title was “A Mind Problem? Solution is Here!” and gets to talk (for free) to people from Afghanistan to Venezuela, from Turkey to Japan.

She invites them to visit www.krishna.com to get free articles and books on Krishna consciousness, and answers their questions and doubts. Some start chanting Hare Krishna, some pledge to visit Mayapur, some argue bitterly but then concede that her arguments are stronger… It’s an exciting adventure to deeply touch people’s lives while sitting at the computer in Mayapur Dham.

She proposes illuminations on reincarnation and other topics, and sincere souls find their way to her and start listening. She is my vartma-pradarsaka-guru of skype preaching, a yet vastly untapped resource.