Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #12 – Do You Believe in Miracles? II

Who is Murti Murti and what in the world does her name mean?

Murti Murti’s father was already a yogi when she was born, so she practiced vegetarianism from the beginning of her life. That was unusual for Venezuela in 1973. So, when Havi dasa, the first devotee preaching there, found out about her while visiting her school, he gave her some special attention and carefully explained to her the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. She was all ears. She must have had a connection with India from a previous life.

Soon after meeting Havi dasa she implored her father to let her join the ashram. She told him she had found God. The pious man, hearing her sincere plea, signed the legal documents giving permission for his teenage daughter to move into the ashram. Soon after, Śrīla Prabhupāda visited her country and initiated her.

“Your name is Murti Murti,” Śrīla Prabhupāda announced, “the perfection of all forms.” She was a young and attractive teen, so when the brahmacārīs attending the initiation heard her name and looked at her, they blushed. But Śrīla Prabhupāda hadn’t yet finished his sentence. “Devi dasi, Murti Murti devi dasi, the servant of Śrī Radha, who possesses the perfection of all forms”

She remained a strict brahmacārīṇi (a celibate lady in the ashram), preaching and distributing books, for seven years. She then married an Argentinian devotee whose family were pious Catholics and insisted they get married in the Church. The kind local priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio (later Pope Francis) married her in the Church knowing that she was a Hare Krishna and later also baptized Kamala, her daughter. When later she was having a problem getting permission from the government for a Ratha-yātrā in Buenos Aires, she requested him to help. He agreed! The permit was quickly issued.

I first met Murti Murti when preaching in Argentina in 2005 where she served as temple president. She had never stopped her dedicated service to her guru maharaja’s mission. I was therefore surprised when Kaveri dasi, who is one of her students, and also mine, told me that Murti Murti had never been able to visit Vrindavan, the more-than-Mecca of the Hare Krishna faith.

How was that possible? It seemed an injustice that such a stalwart, selfless servant of ISKCON was never rewarded in this way for her life of devotion.

Well, from Argentina a round-trip ticket costs almost $2500. She also has health challenges and is elderly so it would be necessary for her daughter to accompany her. In that economy the amount required is a fortune, and a life of service is not necessarily monetarily renumerated. And the flight with layovers can often take nearly forty hours. But still, almost fifty years of selfless service. Something seemed wrong!

The Yogamaya Fund was started just for this purpose. We help those devotees who have done or could do substantial service for the mission of Śrī Caitanya but cannot afford to come to India. We therefore coordinated with Kaveri to start a GoFundMe for the ticket and pilgrimage of Murti Murti and Kamala, her daughter, and collected their expenses in less than ten days.

Could there ever be a devotee more deserving of this?

Murti Murti devi dasi and her daughter had a wonderful pilgrimage to the Govardhan Eco Village, Mayapur, Puri, Vrindavan, and finally Govardhan Hill.

On the next to last day, we started to walk around the sacred Govardhan. There is a place with a short clear path towards the hill where stones are piled up in a way that allows one to hug Govardhan in devotion. One devotee mentioned that to her, so she enthusiastically went in quickly and then came out waiting for the others who followed her. Suddenly, a small śīla (stone) fell next to her. Her friend noticed and pointed it out to her. They had no idea where it came from. She picked up the śīla and then showed me. I was astounded.

Any stone from Govardhan is considering worship-worthy as non-different from Krishna, but I had never in my life seen a śīla like this. It was heart shaped and on one side golden and the other side black, which in our tradition represents Śrī Śrī Radha and Krishna. Now sometimes in devotion one can find something with a slight resemblance to what one hopes to see and see it in that way. But this was different. Although it wasn’t painted, it could have been. It was dark black and distinctly golden on opposite sides of the śīla.

With proper blessing she took the small śīla for personal worship.

Later I consulted a sādhu friend who used to walk around the hill praying for Giriraja to appear when a similar thing happened to him. He had asked a revered local saint about it. “When Giriraja wants to enter a devotee’s heart, He can mystically appear in this way!”

Just a coincidence or did Giriraja appear to a devotee who selflessly served Śrīla Prabhupāda without apparently receiving the reciprocation and facility she deserved? Did He grace Murti Murti by bestowing Himself upon her in the form of an extraordinary, never-seen-before, heart-shaped golden and black śīla? I have no other explanation.

Do you believe in miracles?

Murti Murti Devi Dasi at Govardhan.