By Sri Krishna Purusottama das
Lord Chaitanya took great pleasure in hearing the activities of preaching by His devotees while He was in Nadia. At dusk, every team reported to Lord Chaitanya on what happened during the day. Devotees at ISV still follow the tradition reporting the Weekend book distribution activities for the pleasure of Lord Chaitanya and His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.
Some Snippets of Gaur Purnima MSF are below:
From Traffic Lights to Temple Bells by Vittal Prabhu
I was driving to the temple on Lawrence expressway and the lights turned red. As my car came to a halt, I looked to my left and saw a car with three passengers in it.
The son was driving the car, the father was in the passenger’s seat and the daughter in law was in the rear seat.
I saw the father wearing a Sri Sampradaya Tilak. I thought of inviting him to the temple before the lights turn green. I rolled my windows down and tried in vain to shout to get their attention in that traffic noise. Then I waved frantically which caught the daughter in law’s attention. They rolled their windows down and then I shouted, “Please come to ISKCON temple… We have a nice Arati every Sunday at 6PM”
The son at the driver’s wheel asked “Where is it?”
I said , “1965 Latham St. Mountain View…by the way, you are wearing a nice tilak!”
The father smiled and they nodded as the lights turned green.
The next Sunday, Krishna inspired them and they were at the temple. I saw the father taking care of his grandson. They struck me as a pious family. I got to know more of them. They were a nice Hindi speaking family from Bhopal. The father told me that he is a devotee of Lord Venkateswara. He also mentioned that he participated in several programs conducted by devotees from ISKCON Ujjain in Bhopal.
I introduced them to Sri Krishna Purusottama Prabhu (SKP). We talked to the family on Srimad Bhagavatham. The son was very receptive as well…He said he likes books and reads Srimad Bhagavatham (some other non BBT version) daily. We showed him the pictures and glorified Srimad Bhagavatham. He was particular about getting a hindi version and while I was continuing to speak to them, SKP and Malini mataji managed to find the Hindi Srimad Bhagavatham Set from our books repository.
While he seemed slightly hesitant when he looked at the whole set, he immediately said “Ok ! I will take it!”
How a chance encounter led to Srimad Bhagavatham at their homes would be an amazing and cherishing memory to me.
Work Place Wonders ! – by Shraddha Mataji
I met this incredible young woman from Peru at my workplace. A newcomer at work, I met her in the office kitchen back in October/November where she honored some prasadam and took a few small books. She has got a CC set now, and has started reading it in parallel with the Bhagavad-Gita. She also planned to visit temple on Gaura Purnima Day!
How to communicate when your house is on fire – by Malini Mataji
We knocked a door and one elderly Chinese lady answered the door. I showed her a Bhagavad Gita and she kept saying “No English, No English”. I explained with signs that these are good luck books and her grandchildren can read these books. I said a few lines in Chinese but she kept on saying, “No English, No English”. I left the book in her hand and tried asking for donation in Chinese but she did not understand. I finally said in English, “Donation! Donation!”. She said, “Oh.. Donation ?”, went inside and got some donation. Then I wanted to teach the Maha Mantra and I asked her to repeat after me. She did not understand what I was saying. I tried saying in many ways to repeat after me “Hare Krishna..” she did not understand. Then I stopped explaining and just said “Hare”, she repeated “Hare”. Then I said “Krishna”, she repeated “Krishna” and in that way repeated the entire maha mantra very nicely. We thought of the example that if your house is on fire, somehow or the other you try to get the message out to others.
When Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda takes charge of us and our book distribution – by Sri Krishna Purusottama Das
When we (Myself, Vittal Prabhu and Sanjay Prabhu) went on door to door book distribution. In the beginning, no one opened their doors when we knocked one by one. Remembering Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda, we tried the last home in that street before moving to next street. At last this door opened and his name was Dileep. He invited us to their home and spoke for long time. They are very happy to receive a Srimad Bhagavatam Set. In fact, we came to know that Dileep bought many Srila Prabhupada’s small books at Indian Grocery Stores from our devotees. Dileep refered one more Indian house.
We went to this other house and met Neeraj, who is from Lucknow. Vittal Prabhu mentioned the glories of Bhagavatam in Hindi. Sanjay Prabhu also encouraged him saying that he received similar holy books from his grandfather and that he found them very valuable. Neeraj mentioned to us that he was praying intensely to his beautiful Radha Krishna Deities at home for some spiritual guidance and experience. He cried in front of us in happiness while receiving Srimad Bhagavatam Set. Later he wrote to me “Certainly, you are The Gods’ messenger. Thy directed you to my house. Please pray to always keep blessings on my family.”
When we are out in Sankirtan, Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda prabhu takes charge of book distribution and also us
CC and SB s(we)ets in a Bengali House – by Sivakumar Prabhu
A lady opened the door and joyfully invited us all inside her house. She was from Bengal and needed no introduction about Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. She was asking us about various staying facilities around the Mayapur dham. She asked if there is any good ashram for old age people around that area. She was a very ripe soul and did not need much talking about CC. She wrote a cheque for $200 for the CC Set . We were all looking at each other and we felt she was a ripe soul to receive Bhagavatam as well. When Ram Sundar Prabhu told her that for $100 more dollars she can get a set of SB, she immediately agreed. She did not even ask us about SB or how many books it contains. She gave us another check for $150 for that as well. It was the joyful ending of a blissful day.
“Start distributing books right from childhood” say our ISV Kids by Kamesvari Mataji
Kids at ISV form a very powerful team assisted by parents. At one of the doors, Balaram (9yr), Abhay (6yr) were presenting Srimad Bhagavatam along with his father. Balaram started telling the story of Dhruva maharaj and also quoted the verse from Prahlalad Maharaj kaumāra ācaret prājño (SB 7.6.1) saying that the pursuance of spiritual life should be right from the childhood. They were impressed by the amount of knowledge these kids have. They immediately took Srimad Bhagavatam set.
At another door, Abhay (6yr) explained why Lord Chaitanya was called Nimai. He said because Lord Chaitanya was born under the neem tree, He was called Nimai. They also explained that it was predicted that Lord Chaitanya’s pastimes will be broadcasted all over the world. “So we are distributing these sets. Please take them” Done ! They sold a CC set !
And such success stories never end…
In all:
• More than 60 devotees participated in book distribution
• Team ISV distributed 918 books which includes
· 182 Chaitanya Caritamrta sets
· 16 Srimad Bhagavatam sets
• Team ISV raised $26,246.25 in laxmi surpassing the previous year’s total of $13,436.30
Acknowledgements
We thank all participating devotees, donors and our Sankirtana devotees who contributed to this MSF. We express our deepest gratitude to our beloved Vaisesika Prabhu who is the source of enthusiasm and life of Team ISV
Thank you,
ISV Sankirtan Department
