‘Only an empowered personality can distribute the holy name of the Lord and enjoin all fallen souls to worship Krsna. By distributing the holy name of the Lord, he cleanses the hearts of the most fallen people; therefore he extinguishes the blazing fire of the material world. Not only that, he broadcasts the shining brightness of Krsna’s effulgence throughout the world. “

Chaitanya Charitamrta, Madhya 25.9

This is a real photo, no Photoshopping or any digital manipulation whatsoever. I saw this last summer and grabbed my camera and snapped it. It was actually happening just like this.

While my first inclination was to take it as a miraculous thing, and maybe it was, I know my level of realization isn’t such that I would be treated to that sort of thing so I went over to the kitchen door and saw what caused it.

There in the garden was a window used for the top of a cold frame which had been removed and was leaning against it.  The time of the year, with the sun in its position relative to North, the time of the day, the angle of the leaning window, the position of the movable  cold frame in the garden so the reflected ray would pass through the kitchen door window, that it was sunny and not cloudy at the time of alignment, the angle the reflected light hit the hanging photo to be re-reflected off the ceiling  — everything had to be so precise that if I had wanted to do this I would never have been able to and will never be able to duplicate it.

That I happened to be in the house during the minute or two that everything lined up to get this shot, again, what were the odds?

I can say that it does  represent what my sentimental side feels about Srila Prabhupada and I felt really blessed to have experienced such an external manifestation of that.

Who’s to say what is a miracle, even if it can be explained scientifically?