Simple Follow up Technique
Dear book distributors, Please accept my humble obeisances. ALl glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Naikaja dasa tought me the following simple and effective tool for making people we meet on Sankirtana become deeply touched by ISKCON devotees:
When you meet someone that you consider worthwhile keeping in contact with, you ask them, in the course of your discussion with them, what their birthday is. Then you change the subject and you remember the date. If they ask you, "why do you ask this question?", you can answer, "Oh, I was just curious." When they part with you, you immediately write down their birthday information in a notebook or folder that is divided into 12 parts (according to the 12 months of the year.) You will quickly accumulate a good number of birthdays. Then, every month, you check your notebook and write birthday cards to all those people who are born during that specific month. You send them some prasad or a picture of Krsna or some incense… The result is wonderful.
To illustrate this, just yesterday, as I was distributing books on Franklin street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (sweet young students!), a young lady came up to me and said, "excuse me, but I think it was you who send me a birthday card which I recieved yesterday (I had met her 6 months ago). I wanted to thank you, but since you did not leave an return address, I prayed that I could somehow get in touch with you, and here you are today! What a coincidence!"
I could clearly see that she was really touched by my simple deed of sending her a birthday card. It takes only a few moments on our part, but the effect is very great. They really become your friends, and you can cultivate them for your whole life.
Hare Krsna,
Your humble servant,
Candrasekhar Acarya dasa
