Book distribution seminar

The mind is the problem

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:15:03 -0500

As I was distributing books at Orange Coast College in Los Angeles a man came up to my table and asked about the books on display.

He was a Muslim, and so he said to me, "My family would be very upset if I were to accept these books."

I said, "God is more important than your family. Bhagavad-Gita means the song of God. It tells us how to know Him and love Him."

We talked a little longer. A very nice man, he then went on to his classes.

The next day he came back and said, "I'm so happy to see you. I didn't think you would be here again today. You won't believe what happened. Last night before I went to sleep I was thinking about what you had said about God being more important than my family and how true that statement is. Then I went to sleep and I had a dream. My family members had all become evil and very cruel to me. I was shocked. Then this book Bhagavad-gita appeared in the dream -- glowing! It was so beautiful."

I said, "So, you see, this is a clear sign from God that he wants you to read this book."

Somehow he was still reluctant.

Then I said, "You want to read this book, you the soul, and God wants you to read it, but your mind is the problem."

At that he said, "You're right. I'll take it."

We talked for quite some time after that and I got his e-mail. We'll be in touch. A special soul.

your servant, Vijaya das (Text PAMHO:16488759) --------------------------------------

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Shop to shop sankirtana

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:15:02 -0400

Dear Vijaya Prabhu,

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

This last weekend Bhrgupati Prabhu and I went to the San Francisco area of California to distribute Srila Prabhupada's books. The first day we went to downtown Santa Cruz. At first I was a little bit skeptical, I had never gone shop to shop before. I went into the first shop with Bhrgupati to watch how he did it. He approached the people the same as he would anywhere else, but he would approach the manager or owner first, then the employees, then the customers if the workers were OK with it. I saw the reaction and then I felt much more comfortable with this style. I find it rather nice because it completely catches the people by surprise: Here they are working busily for Maya and then here comes someone telling them about Krishna. It is a welcome break from their job and their mind doesn't put up so many objections as it would if they were in a more social situation.

The first shop I went into was a liquor shop and there was a Hispanic person behind the counter. He was very interested in the books, taking both a Quest for Enlightenment and a Beyond Illusion and Doubt, and gave a nice donation. Feeling encouraged, I went from shop to shop down the main strip of downtown. A few shops down I meet an older lady who looked white, but was wearing an Indian shirt. She told me that she had already read Srila Prabhupada's Gita and that she was a follower of Krishna! I told her about our temple in San Jose, but she said she wasn't so much a temple person. She preferred to make her home into a temple. She said she would give a small donation, but wanted to write a check. I told her no problem. She started to fill in the amount and put 10 and I was thinking "Jaya, a nice donation!" when she put in an extra one at the end (a 101 donation)! Krishna is very kind to the fallen like myself. The rest of the day was very nice. I was simply trying to give out as many books as possible.

Later in the weekend Bhrgupati and I went to Daly City. This is a predominantly Philippino neighborhood and the people there are very nice. I went into one hair salon and there were three women there talking up a storm. When I walked in they stopped and looked at me. I felt nervous and lost my composure, I did not know what to say. "Hi, I'm a traveling monk visiting all the nice people around the country! I am showing everyone these books on meditation and yoga!" I said. One of the ladies had just done a taro reading from the hair stylist and the yoga card came up. When I said yoga and monk the women went into a frenzy, marveling at the synchronicity of the events. So I showed the books and the lady who did the taro reading was not interested, but the hair stylist had some interest. She took one book and gave a modest donation. After she gave a donation, the lady who was having her hair cut told her friend to give her her purse. She took the other book and gave a generous donation. I felt so happy that I gave both of them one of each book I had on me.

Later on down the road I met two high school kids. You could still see the blush of youth in their cheeks. They did not have much money, but were very interested. I gave both of them books. Later in an auto parts shop I showed the books to the assistant manager and one of the employees. They were very interested and both gave donations and got books. The assistant manager was asking very intelligent questions and was very sincere. I gave him one of every book I had. Some of the people I met could not even hardly speak English, but they somehow felt inspired to take books. I was feeling that this book distribution is very dear to Lord Nityananda. I beg to Lord Nityananda that He accept me and give me eternal shelter at His lotus feet, forever engaging me in the service of the servants of His servants.

Your aspiring servant, Omkara dasa

more book distribution i Iraq

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:15:03 -0400

Normally I'm out on missions about 12 hours a day, so to stay motivated to go out and distribute books is hard to maintain. I dragged myself out and went to my normal spots. At first no one would take a book. I started to feel sad and thought "better to sit and read, get my head straight and then try agian." As I was reading someone yelled: " Hey, Partha!" Stunned, I turned around, and a soldier approached me. I thought maybe he is the child of a devotee, but how would he know what I look like? As he got closer I could see others with him. I could not remember his face. He asked if I remembered him and I apologized and said no. He laughed and said we met in 2003 in An Nasariya, in southern Iraq. My memory started to come back, but was still somewhat unclear. So he began to tell everyone how we met. We were getting ready for a convoy, and I was sitting on my truck reading a book. He was interested after seeing the cover. So I gave him an extra copy of the Bhagavad-gita.

Turns out, he was the first person I distributed a book to in Iraq! Amazing. He went on to say that he was hurt bad during that tour, and while recovering from his wounds he read the Gita. As each day went by in his recovery, he found safety in the words coming from the lotus mouth of Lord Sri Krsna. He said that he was certain that he made it through that rough time only by reading Srila Prabhupada's books. I didn't know what to say, I just was in shock, but he took my box of small books and handed a few out to his friends. We exchanged email addresses, and as he was walking away to his truck, I heard him saying, "You guys should read these books, they will save you in the end."

Your servant, Partha-sarathi dasa

more book distribution i Iraq

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:15:02 -0400

your servant,

Partha-sarathi dasa

birthday present

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:15:03 -0400

At the Baltimore Rathayatra, I saw Bhakta David, whom I hadn't seen for a while. He lives in Frederick, Maryland with his wife, and they seriously practice Krsna consciousness. He came to Krsna consciousness after his sister got books from me at a mall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and she gave him the books for his birthday. He read the books, and as he started getting serious he met the devotees in Gita Nagari. This shows the potency of Srila Prabhupada's books and the way that they get into the right hands and go off like time bombs to obliterate someone's material life.

your servant, Anandavidya das

preaching gives strength

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:15:02 -0400

If you preach you will become strong, and all these teachings will be in the proper perspective. When we stop our preaching, then everything becomes stagnated, and we lose our life.

(from Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta)

Santa Monica College distribution

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:15:03 -0400

Dear Vijaya Prabhu,

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

Reading Mother Karuna's post about her experience distributing at Santa Monica College reminded me of an experience I had about two years prior. I was distributing books there when I saw the same person in the wheelchair. I think his name was something like Miguel. His body was very contorted and he could not speak. When I first went up to him my mind was saying, "Don't talk to this guy, he probably won't be able to understand anything." But, Krishna was inspiring otherwise. So by the time my mind began protesting my body was already showing him the pictures in the book. The book was either the Bhagavad-gita or the Nectar of Instruction. It was too long ago for me to remember clearly. After I showed him about the book I asked if he could even understand what I said. He proceeded to laboriously punch buttons with his big toe on the keyboard mounted by his foot. Then a mechanical voice said, "Yes, I can understand you." Since he was Hispanic looking I asked if he could read English. He punched a few more buttons and I heard a "Yes." I asked if he was interested in the books and he said he was. So he gave a small donation and asked me to put the book in his bag. Now, after two years he has boon looking for another devotee to get another book. Thus when he saw mother Karuna he became excited and went straight for her table. He got two more books from her.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Your aspiring servant, Omkara dasa

Airport book distribution in Iraq

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:15:01 -0400

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Letter PAMHO:15556753 (28 lines) From: Partha-sarathi (das) KKS (Brooklyn, NV - US) Date: 25-May-08 18:42 (22:42 +0400) To: Vijaya (das) HDG (USA) [13711] Subject: Airport book distribution in Iraq ----

Dedicated to Srila Prabhupada, savior if the fallen souls!

Sankritan Tradition, working the airport:

On the 15th I received a skype message from HG Balaramacandra Prabhu and to my amazement HG Murti Prabhu. For those that don't know, Balarama is the college preaching acarya. His vegan cooking workshop is bringing so many to this movement. Murti Prabhu is an amazing sankritan devotee. He lives, breathes, eats and sleeps distributing Srila Prabhupada's books. We had such a nice conversation about preaching and Murti Prabhu offered to send two cases of books to me. I accepted and promise to somehow find a way to distribute them. By his mercy, we did, as the first annual Spring marathon began. Myself and a few bhakta's grabbed some books on a hot Sat. morning, and made a goal of distributing these two cases of books. As the day went on, we met very nice people, some took books, some did not. As I was leaving the air terminal, I saw a small crowd. I walked over a little curious about the scene, and to my surprise I saw Bhakta Kristopher in the middle of a crowd with a huge smile on his face distributing books to everyone around him! I just sat back and watched and as each person grabbed a hold of the Bhagavad-Gita, I could feel Krsna grabbing hold of them, and while He is doing that, grabbing a hold of Kris's heart.

Final scores: PsD/38, KB/27

Your servant, Partha sarathi das

Nice End for a Heavy Day

Sat, 31 May 2008 19:15:02 -0400

Please accept our humble obeisances,

Jaya Srila Prabhupada!

On our Sri Narasimha marathon we were traveling in central and eastern Finland, in areas called Savo and Karjala. Different flavors of tamo-guna, mixed with a pinch of rajo-guna. Savo especially has a reputation for being a heavy place for distribution. One day we were in Kuopio, the main city of Savo. The fact that I needed to drive our car back and forth to the repair shop didn’t make things easier.

We had a 250km drive in the evening, so we had to stop a little early. I distributed for some four hours and got a not so glorious total of 3 books out.

I was carrying a Srimad-Bhagavatam set with me that day. Some 7 years earlier in Kuopio, at an office, a person of a right-wing political party had taken 6 books from me, and I had meditated since then on distributing a Srimad-Bhagavatam set to members of the party. The right person was not in the office and didn’t answer her phone either, but I tried a couple of other shops and offices besides distributing in the street.

I ended up at a new-age place where there was library of some hundreds of books, including some of our books. The ladies there where not much into it, but they gave me the cell phone number of the man who oversaw the library. Just before the end of the day I called him. He was just then driving from the city of Joensuu to Kuopio; Joensuu was where we were going, so we made an appointment to meet on the road.

When we met, the man immediately agreed to take the Bhagavatam set and gave a reasonable donation. (We have a special campaign for selling Bhagavatam sets, and I could give him quite a low price.)

Two thoughts came to my mind: If we make the effort to always keep a set of books with us, Krsna will arrange that someone takes it. Also, although I often use so much energy speaking for a long time about our books on the street, it is not always necessary. If Krsna arranges, people can take many books smoothly and easily.

Your servant,

Muniraja Dasa (Text PAMHO:15561893) --------------------------------------

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A gift

Tue, 27 May 2008 13:15:02 -0400

This happened in Aurangabad, India . . . .

Rasayatra Prabhu, one of our enthusiastic brahmacaris, loves to go out practically every day to distribute Srila Prabhupada's books. It's now the hottest part of the year, and he distributes at railway stations and on trains, as these are the most crowded places because of summer vacation.

One day he made announcements on a train and was showing books to everyone. He was doing quite well. He noticed someone at the door watching him. Most of the time TTE (Travelling Ticket Examiners) are unfavorable to book distribution, and they threaten us. Also, other hawkers see us as competitors, and they complain to the railway authority about us.

So Rasayatra ignored him and continued his activities. But ten minutes passed, and still this fellow was there standing.

When Rasayatra had covered the whole coach and was getting down, this fellow shouted and called him near. Then he pulled something out of his pocket: a new pen.

He said, "Maharaja, I want to give you this gift. Please accept it."

He was a Muslim. He gave Rasayatra the pen and started walking. Rasayatra thought it was a nice opportunity to give him a book. So he starting walking after him and calling out.

"Wait! I also I have a gift for you. Look at these books."

The man said,"But if I take this book, you will have to give an account to your authority, and I don't have money."

He showed all his empty pockets. The devotee thought for while.

He said, "No problem, you can give me money next time. "

There was another Muslim standing there, his friend, and he asked how much it cost?

"Ten rupees."

He said, "I will pay for him." The man went on after happily thanking the devotee.

Rasayatra was astonished to see how the Paramatma reciprocated. When this man gave whatever (& the only thing) he had as a gift, the Lord arranged that he received the most precious and best thing: Srila Prabhupada's book.

daso smi Raja Gopala das (Text PAMHO:15558453) --------------------------------------

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