Book distribution seminar

Happy Janmastami!

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:15:01 -0400

Hari bol Prabhus,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I usually don't go out on Janmastami but I decided to this time because there is no better way to please Krsna "na ca tasman manusyesu." He says, "There is no one more dear to me than he that distributes my message of Bhagavad Gita." So what better birthday present is there than to do what is most pleasing to Him. Of course it is so nice to cook for Krsna and bring presents to Him and to speak amongst the devotees about His pastimes. But to go out and remind the fallen souls about their relationship with Krsna is Krsna's soft spot, he is soo pleased by this.

All glories to out most glorious Lord Sri Krsna!

your servant, Vijaya das

Voodoo Priest Gets the Mercy

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:15:01 -0400

In the evening, after a blissful day of book distribution in New Orleans's French Quarter, Raya Nitai Prabhu, Bhakta Steve and I were preparing to go on harinam. After we blew a conchshell to signify the beginning of harinam, a tall skinny man with a goatee, French beret, and long hair walked through a black gate from a dimly lit ally and approached us.

He asked, " Are you Hare Krishnas?"

We replied, "Yes."

He smiled and said, "That's wonderful! Tonight is the anniverssary of our head priest's passing away. Can you do a kirtan in his memory?"

It turns out that he was a voodoo priest and we were invited to his voodoo temple.

The walls were full of religious icons, pictures of saints and tribal statues including a murti of Lord Vishnu on Garuda.

There were several people in the temple, and they really enjoyed the kirtan. They were swaying back and forth. Raya Nitai lead a New Orleans style kirtana that got their emotions moving, and afterward we spoke a little about Krishna consciousness. They even purchased a hardbound Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

Lord Caitanya's movement is spreading to every town and village and hopefully every voodoo temple. Everyone gets the mercy.

Bhakta Vassilios

The greatest service

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:15:01 -0400

The greatest service one can render to the Lord is to try to infuse devotional service into the heart of the conditioned souls so that they may be released from conditioned life. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has said that a Vaisnava is recognized by his preaching work -- that is, by convincing the conditioned soul about his eternal position, which is explained here as nija-dharma.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Madhya 20.6

kindness conquers the heart

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:15:02 -0400

I was on my first day of book distribution with HG Navina Nirada Prabhu. We headed down to our local spot, Byron Bay. We did a harinam, sought the blessings of the ocean and then purified ourselves with some Prasadam. Now that we felt sufficiently purified we were ready to engage in the sankirtana yajna of book distribution. I stopped one young woman. She seemed very interested in the concept of Krsna consciousness but didn't seem totally inclined to take for some mysterious reason. She held onto the book for the whole time we talked and then handed it back. She moved on down the street where I saw Ekendra, ready to stop her again. I tried to signal that I had already stopped her but he just couldn't see me. I wandered over to see what he had to say. He showed her another Krsna book. She was still very interested in holding the book but revealed she was very financially down. She had a few more weeks of her vacation and she was only sure she could afford a potato for lunch. She seemed a bit down and we wanted to give her some of Krsna's mercy in any shape or form. I wrote a note to Dhruva (Veteran book distributor in Australia). He was working in the local Hare Krsna restaurant. I gave the note to the young woman and pointed her toward the restaurant. The note was asking Dhruva to give her a free meal. We kept distributing. It was a little slow. Half an hour later the same woman came back. She said the Prasadam was the best meal she had ever had. She asked me for a flyer to our local temple, New Govardhana. We returned to New Govardhana for a book distribution class by HG Navina Nirada. He was talking about utility being the principle. "Sometimes you have to do something out of the ordinary. Like today the boys gave a young women a free meal of Prasadam." Ekendra, who was sitting in the audience, shot up his hand and informed us that the same women, who's name was Elana, had called the temple and was coming to stay on the New Govardhana farm for a few days. Elana thoroughly enjoyed her stay in New Govardhana. On her first day she asked for some japa beads. She came to the Sunday feast in a sari and tilak. On her last day on the farm she took a few more books. After this she flew back home. Months later, 1000 km away, in Sydney, we were doing books with HH Devamrita Swami's squad. We had just finished our last day of a mid year marathon before I was flying off to Europe. We went to Govindas for a celebratory Prasadam feast. We were in a massive line up for the Prasadam, behind many guests. I was curious why it was such a busy night. I anxiously looked ahead to see if any devotees were in the line ahead of us, hoping to catch some sat sanga. The women in front of me turned around and it was Elana! She was there for her birthday and had brought thirty of her friends. This explained the big line. It was good to see Elana was still attracted to Krsna, the kind devotees, and still hooked on Prasadam.

Your servant, Madhavendra Puri Dasa.

sannyasi's book business

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:15:01 -0400

This, our book distribution is the most important task in our society. Therefore I am giving so much stress and I am working so hard on this. Because this is my life and soul according to the order of my Guru Maharaja. And by his grace it is to some extent successful. And I took it seriously. I take it seriously still now. That is my life and soul. I never tried in India to construct big temples or even in your country we didn't. I never tried. But I was selling personally books. That is the history. Sometimes they are criticizing, "What kind of sannyasi? He is doing book business."

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Room Conversation -- December 31, 1976, Bombay

Sent by Bhakti Vikasa Swami

Krsna works in mysterious ways...

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:15:01 -0400

Arcita Prabhu, whose service is with the BBT, recived a call from a lady who wanted to pay for the daily prasadam of the devotees at the New Dwaraka temple in Los Angeles.

He asked her, "How did you become interested in Krsna consciousness?"

She said, "When I was seven, I died, but then, mysteriously, someone took me around to different amazing places and I came back to life. When I was fifty, someone gave me a book about Krsna. As soon as I saw Krsna's picture I knew that He was the person that took me around and then brought me back to life. I bought the book and then went to the temple. Eventually I bought all the books available. I've read the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and I'm now reading the Caitanya Caritamrta. I'm retired and spend most of my time reading the books of Srila Prabhupada."

What if she had never met a sankirtana devotee? She would never have known who it was that took her and brought her back. It's so important that we go out and meet people.

your servant, Vijaya das

A Saintly Boy

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:15:02 -0400

In Russia a thirteen-year-old received one of Srila Prabhupada books, became attracted to the philosophy, and went to the temple and loved everything. The devotees gave him beads and more books.

He became more interested and became a devotee. But he knew his parents wouldn't approve, so he secretly continued his Krsna consciousness.

He heard about a three-day festival a few hundred miles from Moscow. He really wanted to go, so he told his parents that he was going camping with a friend. He had all of Prabhupada's books hidden in his room, but if he went away they might come into his room and find them. So he locked them in a chest. They gave him permission to go, and he went to the festival confident that there would be no problem.

However, when he returned there was no one home, and he found that the lock on the chest had been broken. Now he was nervous.

His father later asked him, "Why didn't you tell us about these books? All this time we didn't know what you were up to, but when you left we decided to find out what it was. We opened the chest and found your books. We were shocked to find so many books. Then we decided to find out what these books were about, so we read and read and read. Both of us were happy to find these treasure-houses of knowledge. Why didn't you tell us about this?

The boy was surprised and happy. He said, "I thought you would not approve."

The father embraced him and said, "Not only do we approve but we want to know more." Then he said to his wife, "We're so fortunate to have a saint as a son."

They became devotees. (Text D:3377186) -------------------------------------------

------- End of Forwarded Message ------

Book distribution in Czech Republic

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:15:01 -0400

One summer day I began distributing the books of Srila Prabhupada at a square in a small south Czech Republic city. The third person I stopped was a lady and as I presented the books, I noticed an older man listening to us from a small distance. In our devotee-slang we call such people SPA (secret police agents), and because they are a disturbing element in book distribution, we try to avoid them. This man looked a bit crazy, due to his slow motion and special accent. He interrupted our conversation and asked how he could help me. Meanwhile the lady took the opportunity and left. A bit annoyed, I told him, I don’t need any help and asked him to go on with his business. The man was persistent though, and inquired what I was actually doing there. Judging by his ways and appearance I concluded he must be one of the musty, bored and curious old men who are more or less obstructions for a book distributor and take away his valuable time and determination. So I briefly replied that I am a Hare Krishna monk from Prague and today I am distributing books about God here. To my surprise he didn’t leave as I expected and further inquired about the books, so I told him that they are encyclopedias of spiritual wisdom and one costs 2.800 crowns (price for a book set in Czech, 16 books). Because he was a retired person who didn’t look that he could take even one of them, I was convinced that this mantra will work and he will leave.

Then he said, "I will gladly take one encyclopedia."

My jaw dropped. I started to wonder, "What is going on. Here is a soul, part of Krishna, who is very much eager for the books of Srila Prabhupada and the only obstacle is me. How absurd!" I felt terrible.

This man gave a donation of 1.000 crowns on the spot, without even seeing the books, and the rest he bought within one hour. I invited him into the van, where I showed him and gave him all our books and spent about forty minutes in pleasant and friendly talk. This man turned out to be a nice person, interested in spiritual things with deep understanding of our philosophy. He very much appreciated our traveling life and the sublime mission of Srila Prabhupada. It was the first time that I have distributed all our books to one person, and, overwhelmed by bliss, I promised myself that I will never again judge people on the street according to external appearance, but rather will try to convey the causeless mercy of Lord Caitanya to all conditioned souls without distinction.

Panca Tattva Dasa

Book distribution in Czech Republic

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:15:01 -0400

Then he said, "I will gladly take one encyclopedia."

Panca Tattva Dasa

Nothing Happens by Chance

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:15:02 -0400

Here are a couple of interesting exchanges I had on book distribution in Australia . . .

In Perth I walked up to a house and saw a man sitting on a low brick fence by his driveway and holding a half-empty beer can. I walked straight up to him (wearing dhoti and kurta) and told him I was showing everyone some books on inner peace. As he spoke I could see a lot of anguish on his face. He asked if what I do made me happy. I said yes, especially the meditation we practice. He looked at the SSR I was showing him and said he liked this sort of book and would have a look at it. Then he opened up to me and told me he'd been a sniper in Afghanistan for ten years and had returned to Australia a year ago to see his family for Christmas, whom he hadn't seen all that time. Just before he was able to see them, his mother, father, brother, and sister -- all his immediate family -- were killed in a car accident. He said now he was trying to clean up his act and tolerate the emotional pain he felt due to both the death of his family and all the killing he'd done in Afghanistan (he felt especially guilty about accidently killing a five-year-old boy). He'd become a vegetarian and was growing veggies in his garden. He gave a donation and said he'd try reading the book.

At the next house I was greeted at the door by a young chirpy boy. I asked him if his parents were home, and he said they were and went and to get them. When they came to the door, I showed them the book and told them it was about peace. They said to me, "Sorry, we're not interested," and began to shut the door.

Just then the boy, who couldn't have been more than ten, grabbed the book from me and said to his parents, "I'd like the book." He was really serious about it. His parents, seeing his mood and wanting to please him, said OK and asked me how much it cost. I told them and started showing the boy what was in the book. He said he believed in karma and reincarnation, and the more I showed him the more enthusiastic he became. I told him he was continuing his interest in these things from a past life, and he and his mom agreed.

In fact, now his mom was also showing a lot of interest and was confirming to me how her son had always been very spiritually minded. I showed him the "Higher Taste" cookbook and he wanted that too. So Mom went and got some more money to give me. Then she told me that just a day earlier they'd returned from Italy, where she'd pointed out to her son some Hare Krishnas walking down the street. I said, "Nothing happens by chance, does it?" They were really in ecstasy now, and we parted with big smiles on our faces. I gave them the details of how to stay in touch if they wanted.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya ! Sri Sri Gaura Nitai ki jaya !