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By Sastra Dana<\/strong><\/p>\n Original newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n Bhakta Mike is one of the latest new devotees at Iskcon of San Diego. An activist at heart and a spiritual seeker, Bhakta Mike quickly found our temple attractive and the Sastra Dana missionary activities appealing.<\/strong><\/p>\n Follows an excerpt from an intervew with Bk. Mike.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n SD:<\/strong> How did you come to know Krishna Consciousness?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> I was sitting outside a caf\u00e9 in down town San Diego. Some young women walked by and one of them handed me a flyer. It was an invitation to the Hare Krishna Festival. <\/p>\n I always identified with Eastern philosophies. It seemed like I aspired toward Krishna consciousness before I knew anything about it. It was natural.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> What did you think of your first visit to the temple?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> I liked it. I thought the music was nice.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> Was that a Sunday Festival?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> Yes, it was on a Sunday. I got a free book, everyone was accommodating, food was good—it was just really nice. I liked it from the very moment I was there.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> How did you get to develop interest in missionary activities?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> I\u2019ve always been an activist. If I am not doing something for the common good of humanity I feel anxious. Instead of being a political or environmental activist I will now be a spiritual activist. I was just sitting on the couch one Saturday, with nothing to do, and decided I wanted to distribute books.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> How did you learn about Sastra Dana?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> On the Sastra Dana\u2019s website I saw an interview with Bhaktin Lori. I thought it to be a good idea. <\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> How did you come to getting a rack and placing it in that store?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> I spoke to you about book distribution and you said, \u201cLook, you could put a book-rack.\u201d I happened to be at the World Beat Culture Centre in Balboa Park. They have many workshops and festivals; lots of musical events. I asked the person who runs the place if I can bring a rack full of spiritual books to give away for free. He agreed.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> Did he ask any questions?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> He asked what kind of books are those and I showed him the Path of Perfection. One of the women there said: \u201cOh, I met Prabhupada one time.\u201d She just asked me where I want to put it. In the past three weeks around 50 books have been taken out.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> Very good! What does it take for you to maintain one rack?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> I go every week. They have Chi Gong class on Monday that I attend, that\u2019s when I do it. It doesn\u2019t take extra time. It is also on the way home from work. It isn\u2019t much of an effort.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> Besides maintaining a rack you also go on the street to sell books. How often do you go out?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> I distribute books every weekend. I stay Saturday and Sunday at the temple and go out with the sankirtana devotees.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> Do you have any memorable events on sankirtana?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> It is wonderful every time somebody takes a book.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> What was your experience first day on the street?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> Well, nobody took a book. I was discouraged when people wouldn\u2019t take. I felt bad thinking I was wasting time, but it showed me a lot about myself, and who I am. On the second day I was coming to the point where I am just going to give a book out there; it is bound to happen, there is someone who will take a book. Eventually a nice person from Germany took a book. Since then I got progressively better.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> How many books you distribute now?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> Ten or eleven a day. I got one Bhagavad-gita out last weekend. I was happy about that.<\/p>\n SD:<\/strong> What are your plans for the future?<\/p>\n M:<\/strong> I want to join the temple.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bhakta Mike is one of the latest new devotees at Iskcon of San Diego. An activist at heart and a spiritual seeker, Bhakta Mike quickly found our temple attractive and the Sastra Dana missionary activities appealing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-distribution","category-newsletters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
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By Sastra Dana<\/strong><\/p>\n