{"id":15181,"date":"2015-01-22T11:24:12","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T11:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=15181"},"modified":"2015-01-22T11:24:12","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T11:24:12","slug":"catching-srimad-bhagavatams-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=15181","title":{"rendered":"Catching Srimad Bhagavatam’s Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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GNAB by Sushil Sapre Prabhu.<\/p>\n

As the cold crisp 27th day of December dawned, the ISV Sankirtan team members were feeling grateful to Krsna for giving them one final opportunity of distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books before the “2014 MSF of Yoga of Cooperation” was over. They were already brimming with confidence after an energizing conference call with ISV Sankirtan leaders, the night before. Moreover today, they were carrying along their lucky charm, the Kids Sankirtan team. The ISV Kids Team was joining the grown-ups for the first time in this MSF and as we all know, where there are young boisterous Gopas & Gopis, can Krsna be far behind ??<\/p>\n

As the team loaded the books in their cars, one could easily see their faces lit up with joy, in anticipation of meeting the lucky souls whom Bhagavad Gita & Srimad Bhagavatam had chosen to associate, from that day onwards. With the cars packed to the brim and with a prayer to Sri. Sri. Radha MadanMohanji, Sri Laxmi NarasimhaDev Bhagawan & Sriman Mahaprabhu, the team set forth towards the two book distribution spots, one in Fremont and second in the heart of SFO, at Union Square.<\/p>\n

Despite the extreme cold weather and high winds, the Union Sq milieu was chock-a-block with people of various ages, cultures and geographic diversity. To an outsider, it may appear daunting but for a Sankirtan book distributor, this is like a kid going to the toy shop, so many options(souls) to distribute Srila Prabhupad’s books. It’s situations like these, when he wishes, time could stand still. As soon as the Brihad Mridanga started playing, people started getting drawn towards the transcendental sound, like bees to a jar of honey, thus confirming what Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, The transcendental sound of the Holy name will automatically evoke the dormant love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The initial skeptic inquisition turned into joyous dancing to the beats of Mridanga joined by Kartals and soon the whole Union Square was reverberating with HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE, HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE. In this blissed out moment, all that was left to be done was to place a Bhagavad Gita in their hands. Needless to say the copies flew thick & fast and people opened their mellowed hearts to give generous donations to the Sankirtan team. In span of 3 hours, the “Bhagavad Gita As It Is” had found 123 deserving souls and embarked on a new journey.<\/p>\n

Unlike Union Sq settings, things at the Fremont residential community were dramatically different. Due to the cold weather, people had settled in the comforts of their homes. So now our Sankirtan team had no option but to knock on every door and show them the books. Braving the cold winds, this dedicated band of warriors started walking down the pavement when suddenly a door flings open to the left and a lady comes bursting out shouting something. Startled as we are, we halt abruptly but our fearless leader SKP Prabhu waves at her, trying to gauge the situation. Surprisingly she waves back and shouts out loud that she is calling for her cat, Cleopatra. What happened hereon can only be described as a miracle. While the rest were still transfixed, SKP prabhu immediately set off in the direction of the house. Needless to say, the rest quickly followed suit. After the initial greetings & small talk, she shared some titbits like she was a Bikram Yoga practitioner and lately had some realizations due to her steady Sadhana. The discussion gradually turned to JivaAtma & ParamAtma and we showed her a copy of Bhagavad Gita. Turns out she knew about Gita and always wanted a bonafide copy but didn’t knew where to get one. As it is said in shastras, If the desire in your heart is pure, Krsna shows the way, so here we were, at her doorstep with a bonafide copy of Gita in our hands, as she desired. She happily accepted the copy and further surprised us by saying that she belonged to the Moslem faith and had a Pakistani heritage. <\/p>\n

While we were still trying to assimilate the unfolding situation, her mother joins the conversation and we re-introduce ourselves as representatives of local Yoga center, the very next statement she mentions, This world is a material covering and the spirit souls have to rise above it and Love God. We were ecstatic to see the spiritual advances made by this family. She also mentioned that her husband had visited Himalayas and lived with the ascetics and that’s where we could make the connection of the Sukruti experienced by this family. The discussion gravitated to Srimad Bhagvatam and its pertinence to today’s times and she was in complete agreement of it. At this point SKP prabhu felt this family was ready to receive Srimad Bhagavatam in their home and implored with her. To our utter amazement she gladly accepted to bring Srimad Bhagavatam set in her home. If you look deeper in this situation, the door opened for the cat but it had really opened to welcome Srimad Bhagvatam in that home. Indeed once Srimad Bhagvatam decides to reach its destined home, nothing can stop it and anyone can become a reason for it, even a humble Cat.<\/p>\n

This experience set the team off on a good note and they were able to distribute 2 more Srimad Bhagavatams that evening. The teams were constantly sharing updates & highlights with each other over WhatsApp and encouraging each other. At the end of the day, everyone felt that the lucky charms indeed proved lucky and because of them “No Book was left behind”. <\/p>\n

By the expert guidance of H.G Vaisesika Prabhu and the blessings of Srila Prabhupada Here is the Team ISV 2014 total results are.<\/p>\n

1) Total remittance to BBT for 2014 – $148,100<\/p>\n

2) Total sets in 2014: 429<\/p>\n

328 Srimad Bhagavatam sets
\n 101 CC sets<\/p>\n

These are the actual distributed sets and does not include the sponsored sets .<\/p>\n

3) Maha Big books in 2014 ~ 31,000<\/p>\n

We offered our Marathon results to Srila Prabhupada. Here is the our offering video:<\/p>\n