Navina Nirada Prabhu
PAMHO, AGTSP
We had the wonderful opportunity to associate with Navina Nirada Prabhu on the Warped Tour this summer. The Warped tour is a 2 month rock conccert tour in North America that the devotees are invited to take part in every summer. Devotees have been distributing books on the Warped Tour for the last 13 years. This summer was my 8th summer. I was accompanied by Paramesvar, Adwaitacarya, Omkar, and the world famous Navina Nirada. Navina Nirada, from Switzerland, if you didn't know, was a world leader in book distribution in the 80's and 90's and was the former global minister for book distribution. So we got to see him in action.
He is super empowered! He would distribute 200 to 250 big and maha books a day, and on at least a few occaisions he did over 300. He mainly focused on the parking lots in the morning and early afternoon. He would approach a group of kids as they pulled up for the concert and he would start telling jokes. He was always blissfully smiling, and before long he would have the whole group laughing. I noticed that his approach is very personal. He would really give his whole heart and attention to the person he was talking to. They could feel that, and they could understand he was representing something very serious.
He's quite bold and fearless. He doesn't ask someone to give a donation. He tells them to give a donation… and they do. He has a vey authoritative presence. Whoever he's talking to he lets them know he's the boss. Sometimes there is a group of people who are really kind of rough and intoxicated that the rest of us might ordinarily avoid. But he would go right up to them and somehow or other win them over, and the next thing you see, they've all bought one of Srila Prabhupada's books. One of his tactics is to hand everyone in the group a book and tell the one who has money, "if you give a twenty it's for the whole family". His style is to go out early and distribute intensely for a short amount of time. He would usually be finished between around 2:30 and 4:00 distributing sometimes twice or even three times as much as the rest of us the whole day. He's super fast. As soon as he's finished with one interaction he goes to the next. He doesn't waste any time.
Although distributing such a large amount of books, he had a spirit of detachment which was really inspiring. He told us on a few occasions "I'm just doing it for the rasa". In other words he wasn't out there for recognition, fame, or even any financial obligation. He had already been through all that as a world champion for so many years. Now he's just doing it for that unique nectar that comes from connecting a soul to Krishna by distributing them one of Srila Prabhupada's books.
I'm glad I got the chance to get his association. We don't know who these personalities are who have rendered so much service to Lord Caitanya's mission. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Your Servant,
Anandavidya Das
