A half hour’s drive from the BCC Butterworth is Sungai Petani. We drove down to another enthusiastic congregation and a good turn out of about 60 devotees for our evening program on May 2, 2011.

In a rented hall they have two sets of Gaura Nitai,

and pictures of Radha Krsna and Lord Nrsimhadeva

I spoke on my Chanting seminar

At the end prasadam sweets were distributed, an arrangement that Srila Prabhupada always insisted on,

and then I had to face one of the hazards of travelling preachers -the 10.00PM feast.

I went with the determination not to eat, but when some lady has spent several hours preparing a multi-course meal for you, and three or four prabhus are camped out around you eager to fill you up to your ears, there’s no choice, you can’t say no.

It plays havoc with your digestion and its impossible to get up early the next morning when you went to bed at 11.00PM with a full stomach.

I did prepare for this to some extent though. Last October I got a checkup at our Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mira Road, Mumbai. I had my weight checked and was shocked to see the scale hit 88 kgs. I was even more shocked when the doctor wrote on my report “Pre-morbid obesity“!! Me! Obese!?!

The doctor was serious. Being overweight can cause a lot of problems

So I got serious and followed the doc’s advice

and started observing the four ‘nos‘ – no sugar, no milk products, no deep fried and no wheat.

The result was satisfactory. By the end of eight weeks I had lost 8 kgs with no sweat (I am not an exerciser) and was back to my usual buff form

ok so this was when I was a little younger, but you get the picture…

So for this trip I have insisted that the devotees give me the same diet, and it definitely helps.