By Gauranga das
It was my first day of distributing books in the long distance trains. I had gone to Mumbai Central station carrying a bag full of variety of Srila Prabhupada’s books. I took a platform ticket and entered the posh and luxurious Rajdhani Express departing to New Delhi. Since it is a centrally air-conditioned train with an expensive fare, only affluent people travel in it. But big money doesn’t always mean a big heart, which is what I shortly experienced.
I entered one train car and began showing books to the passengers. They were not the least interested. Some politely said, “No thanks,” while others just plainly ignored me not even bothering to acknowledge my presence. It was very hard on my false ego, still I continued patiently. I reached a compartment where two ladies were sitting on the side berth and one family was on the main berth. One of the elderly ladies in the family asked for the books. One by one she saw all the books but then returned all of them back. I tried explaining about the books but she waved me off. I turned to the two ladies on the side berth. They were talking to each other, but when I showed them the books they vainly rotated their necks away. Dejected I heaved my bag over my shoulder and took a step to move out when suddenly I heard, “Can I see these books?” My heart jumped. I looked at the source of request and all my excitement fizzled down – it was a small kid 6 or 7 years old.
“Hey kid, these books are not for tiny-tots like you.”
“Do you have them in English,” he demanded.
I was surprised at his boldness. “What is the harm anyway?” I thought and took out all the English books and handed them to him.
“What is this?” he asked.
“This is small Krishna.” I said.
“Mama I want Krishna, Mama I want Krishna.” The boy grabbed the book and dashed to one of the lady on the side berth. “No beta (son), we don’t need this book, please return it to uncle.” “No, no, I want Krishna, I want this book.” The boy broke in to a hysterical fit.
“Please take this book mataji,” I requested, “this will make your son very happy.”
“What smart cheaters you people are!” the lady hissed, “It is very nice trick that you people employ – give the book to a kid and then make him trouble his parents. Well done!”
The remark pierced my heart. I had honest intentions and had in no way tried to trick or cheat the lady. Somehow I was trying to serve Srila Prabhupada and now I’m faced with this situation, it was necessary that I represent our movement in the proper way.
“Mataji, my intentions are very clear and honest,” I replied. “It was your son who asked for these books and I forewarned him that these are not for his age group. OK. Now your son is asking for a book based on Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, he is not doing some sin, is he? Why are you coming in between him and Sri Krishna? As a mother it is your duty to give proper culture and training to your son and there is no better literature than this book. I request you please take it.”
“Please mama, I want Krishna,” the boy implored, “PLEASE!”
“OK,” she gave up, “how much does it cost?”
“Only ten rupees.”
She looked at the book and the cute face of Krishna and then opened her purse.
“Thank you, here is our temple card, please visit when you are in Mumbai next time,” I said while pocketing the ten rupee note she gave me.
“How fortunate is this boy,” I thought, while walking out of the train. A few people stared at me. I cared the least. My heart was bursting with joy and my face beamed as I remembered the fortunate soul who was so spontaneously attracted to the beautiful picture of Lord Krishna.
>> Ordinary people sometime think that sankirtana devotees are just like
>> mundane salesmen who are out to sell their product by hook or by crook.
>> Sometimes, they even accuse the devotees to be cunning or cheater.
>> Here is one story about how a devotee dealt with the issue.
I had a similar experience once while distributing hard bound Bhagavatams on the street outside a post office in a small town here in Sweden. A lady with a retarded daughter passed by and the young girl grabbed the book I offered the mother. The girl refused adamnantly to return the book to me despite her mother’s repeated enteaties. The mother had little choice but to ask me the price. I gave it at the minimum BBT price. A little later from the distance I spotted a gentleman headed toward me with a book in hand. Expecting trouble I met him politely. He was enraged, loudly claiming I had cheated his wife, demanding their money back. He also complained that, “this book is not even in Swedish.” (which it *was* not including the sanskrit, of course). Calmly, I assured the man I would return the laxmi. “Please however first just look at any page in the book and see if it is in Swedish or not”, I requested. He consented to open the 3rd canto Bhagavatam by chance to chapter 11 and read aloud to me verse 31:
“My dear King, just consider what I have said to you, which will act as medicinal treatment upon disease. Control your anger, for anger is the foremost enemy on the path of spiritual realisation. I wish you all good fortune for you. Please follow my instructions.”
He closed the book, put it under his arm and walked away taking with him the advice of Svayambhuva Manu to Dhruva Maharaja.
Your servant, Yogindra das
Incredible. If Krsna isn’t in control, I don’t know who is. All glories to the devotees who go out to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Once upon a time in downtown Montreal, Satyahit Prabhu and I were on St. Catherines
street doing our best to sing sweetly; a two man harinama sankirtana party. Our mrdanaga was lame, and the karatalas decidedly deadish, but Satyhit Prabhu sang with obvious sincerity and determination.
Suddenly, a car passing by screeched to a stop just in front of us, and a well-dressed young man jumped out, with an expression of amazement and ecstasy on his face. He quickly approached us. He said, “I just can’t beleive it! I ‘m a business man, and my work takes me all over the world; Chicago, New York, London… Everywhere I go, I see you guys on the street chanting! Give me some of those books! !” With great delight, he got his books, and away he went, another spirit soul defeated and benedicted by Srila Prabupada’s sankirtana soldiers.
Another time, in Winnipeg, Bhudeva and I were running back and forth in full dhotis etc. distributing Raja Vidya or some such small books, between the Bay and Eaton’s store ,on Portage avenue. After a while, a Christian “demon” started following us about, reading loudly from his Bible, and basically attempting an exorcism of the devotees! It was kind of funny, and the irony of the whole situation didn’t escape me. Somehow he thought that the power of the words of the scripture would castigate us and drive us from the streets!
We tolerated, and continued to pass out the small boks and accept donations. However, after a while, his nonsense was disturbing the minds of the people whom we apporached, as he would approach also, apparently to save the poor victims from us demon Hare Krishnas. Remembering that the Holy Names are our protectors, I turned to him, and with a determined voice, simply siad, a little loudly, “Hari!”, with a mood of similarly casting out the ghosts. At this, his eyes widened, he showed a look of shock, then literally jumped, turned, and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him, and we never saw him again!
the thumbnail picture accompanying this on the dandavats front page is gorgeous, can someone please tell who the artist is and how to get a print of that pic?
I was doing book distribution, door to door, in Paris with a nice Italian devotee, Govardhan Puja Prabhu, and when we were coming back to our center, we met a young Indian girl. She comes from Pondichéry and is doing advertising work, and she took the book “Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers” but said that she had no money. So we let her go with the book. Two days later, she came for the evening class, attracted by this sublime knowledge.
Later, we invited her to come for the morning program and to chant japa. She did, and one morning she gave me 300 Euros and said, “This is the payment for the book. I didn’t know the value of this book, but now that I do know it, I can pay the price.” So I gave her a lot of books. Two months after she received the book, Bhaktine Issabelle is already chanting sixteen rounds and going on Harinam with us.
All glories to the Sankirtan of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu!
Your humble servant, Bhakta Lawrence