By Baldev das
January 11th January was the scheduled day for our Sankirtan bus Marathon GET TOGETHER . Like every year, Devotees would share their month long experiences of marathon on this day. H.H Radhanath swami had just returned previous night from his month long preaching tour from abroad. Though sick and busy with commitments and meetings, He was present there to inspire all once again.
Though this year – one of our Main sankirtan bus party had a major set back .They didn’t do well with their book scores. Yet Maharaj’s speech kept their hopes alive . He said “ When set back comes – keep crying for help and keep trying, Krishna will reciprocate .”
Radhanath swami began his address by telling us that – Each book distributor in ISKCON is like the ship JALADUTA. As Jaladuta carried Srila Prabhupad to reach out to conditioned souls, similarly book distributors carry Srila Prabhupad (Srila prabhupad said he is in his books) to all conditioned soul. He said that by presenting Srila Prabhupad books, we are also presenting people with the association of Lord Krishna, Lord Chaitanya and Entire Guru Parampara. He immensely thanked all devotees for their sincere endeavor. Maharaj said that today he felt as if he was sitting at a DOCK (Harbour) where all jaladutas were parked in front of him.
This Program of sharing experiences lasted for 3 hours. In the end , Maharaj distributed gifts to all Book distributors. Delicious dinner prasad (South indian menu) was served to all present.
Maharaj glorified the contribution of departed Vaishnavi H.G Madhupriya mataji, who was one of our leading book distributors and that this year’s marathon was dedicated to her service. He said- though she was a housewife, mother and a simple lady. Yet her enthusiasm for distributing books was superexcellent and in her own humble style ,she was distributing books for last 15 years – she distributed more books than any other devotee in our temple. Her consisitency in this service showed her love towards Srila Prabhupad. And that we will all miss her association.
We would like to thank all devotees in congregation as well as in temple who made this marathon memorable by their sincere endeavor. And also thank H.H Radhanath Maharaj for inspiring us throughout the marathon with heartfelt blessings. Sankirtan bus devotees were able to distribute this year around 25,000 Mahabig books, while the congregation devotees roughly did around 75,000 Mahabig books.
Srila Prabhupad Book Marathon 2012 ki jai