Urban Monk: Exploring Karma, Consciousness, and the Divine

by Gadadhara Pandit Dasa

one day I was standing in the middle of a narrow street lined with small houses, when a monkey jumped down in front of me, took my eyeglasses right off my face, and jumped up onto a balcony on the other side of the street. I could feel his fingers graze my face, but he didn’t scratch me. It happened so quickly that I was caught off guard, and it’s usually not a good idea to resist because they can get vicious very quickly. He sat on the balcony holding my glasses while looking down at me. I’m pretty blind without my glasses, so I was panicking and worrying that I would need to get a new pair. Fortunately, I was with a monk who had spent a lot of time in India, especially Vrindavana, and had become acquainted with the bargaining techniques of the monkeys. He quickly got a banana and threw it up to the monkey. The monkey happily grabbed the banana, dropped my glasses on the balcony, and took off. We knocked on the door of the house and the homeowner returned my glasses to me.