A Muslim bussiness man has a change of heart
Around one and a half years ago, while distributing Srila Prabhupada's books on a street in Blantyre, Malawi, I met Mr. Khan, a Muslim businessman from India. He was amused to see an Indian sadhu in a dhoti and kurta on the busy streets of a remote Central African country and asked me in Hindi what was I doing. I explained to him that I was from the Hare Krishna movement and was distributing books about how to develop love for God. At that time he bought some small books. A few days later, when we met again on the street, he started criticizing Srila Prabhupada, saying that he uses abusive language and calls people rascals. When i met him again on the street after a few days, he had started appreciating the books and said that Srila Prabhupada was actually very intelligent. After that I met him quite a few times on the street and also we crossed paths a couple of times while devotees were doing harinaam sankirtan. He consequently bought Bhagavad-gita As It Is. During the marathon, when I met him at his lodge (he runs three lodges), he said that he was going to India in February and wanted to visit Varanasi and buy copies of the Vedas, as he had knowledge of Sanskrit and liked to read in Hindi.
Recently, we received a consignment of one Hindi and three Gujarati Srimad Bhagavatam sets. I thought that the local Gurudwara (Sikh temple) would take the Hindi set for its library, as the priest likes to read in Hindi and has read some of our books, but the Gurudwara committee declined to buy it because it was too expensive. So I was wondering who would take the Hindi set. as now there are not many people who want to read in Hindi. There was one person, and I told him we have the Srimad Bhagavatam set in Hindi. He said that I could bring it and he would take a look at it. The next day I went to his lodge and explained that Srimad Bhagavatm is the ripened fruit of the tree of the Vedas. He asked the price, and by the mercy of guru and Gauranga agreed to pay in three installments. I felt that the Bhagavatam set in Hindi came all the way from India in a ship for three months just for this Muslim gentleman.
Sankirtan yajna, ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada, ki jaya!
Thank you.
Your humble servant,
Nitai Nimai Das
ISKCON Blantyre, Malawi, C Africa
