Warm Welcome for Book Distributors
Bhakta Manoj reports on his activities:
For the past three fortnights, since February 1, I was ably supported by three other devotees: Amit Prabhu ( a student and a devotee at Radha-Gopinath Temple, Mumbai), Achyutanand Prabhu (Lokanath Maharaja's disciple and a householder), and Janaki Ballabh Mataji (also a disciple of Lokanath Maharaja, and the wife of Achyutanad). Whenever I thought of book distribution, I could never foresee how I'd be able to do even a little bit of that service. But with the encouragement of this group, I was able to do something. We were inspired by the powerful lectures of Bhakti Vikas Maharaja and by the telephone calls and letters of Rukmini-Krishna Dasa (a senior executive in an oil company in India and an initiated disciple of Gopal Krishna Maharaja).
We did book distribution on an average of twelve hours a week, split in three days at three different spots in a town in Jammu. Right from the beginning of this service, we were greatly encouraged by the mercy of all the generous Vaishnavas. To date, we have distributed a number of books worth more than thirteen thousand rupees. I never thought that we would be distributing books worth even Rs.1000/- . But Srila Prabhupad has his way of teaching each aspiring devotee. By sending interested people in hordes he dispelled the myth that I was carrying out the book distribution. And the process is still going on.
We were immensely surprised by the response from the people. A vast majority is just waiting for us, to help us spread Lord Chaitanya's mission. All of them we met for the first time, but they behaved as if they knew us for ages. We met with responses like "Why didn't you come early?" "So many people want to read these books."
We could not believe the kind of belief people from all walks of life have in Prabhupada's movement. And without even our uttering even a single word, fifty percent of them say, "Sir, you need not tell us about these books. We know about ISKCON and Prabhupada. At times we feel overwhelmed by the influnce Prabhupad carries with so many millions who met him through his temples or book distribution, street chanting, and Ratha-yatras.
Jai Srila Prabhupada! It seems as if he left us a vast empire, about whose vastness none of us seem to be aware. From policeman to street shopkeepers, from snake-charmers to students, from businessmen to shoppers, everybody seems eager to help us facilitate the distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books. People encourage us by giving us space, furniture, advice, lights and by purchasing the books.
And what effect do these books have on them? Oh, just as expected, they come back for more, try to know about the process, and go back even more enthused. And to us it has done wonders. All of us find our sadhana much more inspiring.
Greatly enlivened by the response, we tried to split these enthusiasts into groups and do programs for them when possible. Janaki Ballabh prepares tasty prasadam for them all, and Achyutanand Prabhu helps me arrange the logistics.
Last week we met two brothers, twins, who are here studying Sanskrit. We called them to our place last night. They had nice kirtana, group japa, Bhagavad-gita lecture, bhajan, and nice prasadam. They exclaimed, "Perhaps this was the most important day of our lives," and took a vow to start chanting. We gave them bead bags and a book about chanting. They were immensely pleased and almost forcibly took us to their place at 10:30 PM, where we met fifteen of their friends, all studying Sanskrit. After a bit of discussion, they were all so eager to discuss the subjects of spirituality that we had an hour-long class and finally fixed the time for another class on Sunday evening. We left them with loud Hare Krishna and lots of inputs regarding life's aim and the role of religion.
When I was coming back I felt astonished at the mercy of Srila Prabhupada. I never thought that I would be of any use to anyone, what to speak of a Vaishnava, but Srila Prabhupad set me right once again by showing his immense consideration for all of us.
Jai Srila Prabhupad!
