Book distribution and Harinama at the World Cup in Brazil
Hare Krsna,
In the midst of the foot ball fever, teams of book distributors and a large Harinama party and has been a hit as they travel to the major cities where World Cup games are being held, as well as to viewing parties in nearby locales.
The devotees are bringing their own message – the absolute truth found in Prabhupada's books and celebration of God’s names. And the audience for them is huge.
“Brazil usually receives a lot of tourists, but never like this,” says Harinama party member and professional football commentator Sri Krishna Murti Das. “Around 700,000 people came from all over the world for the World Cup. The hotels are crowded, the roads are crowded. People from Chile came with 4,000 cars and trailers. Three guys from Colombia spent over a year traveling to Brazil on a rickshaw just to see the World Cup. It’s crazy.”
Sri Krishna Murti explains that the World Cup has always been a time to get together with family and friends in Brazil, and with the nation hosting this year, the mood of togetherness has only heightened.
“All over the country, people are getting together on the streets, or gathering at city-organized parties in squares or on beaches to watch the game on big screens,” he says.
It’s not just the numbers that are ideal – the mood is, too. “Generally, when we do Harinamas, people in Brazil are really open-hearted — they like to dance and get together with us and chant Hare Krishna.
Led by Paramgati Das, Bhakti Dhira Damodara Swami and Bhakti Narasimha Swami from South Africa, devotees began their World Cup tour on June 12th, the first day of the Cup, in San Paulo. There, they chanted Harinama to 40,000 people from Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and more at the Fifa Fan Fest, a FIFA organized big screen viewing party of the opening Brazil vs Croatia game.
“But the biggest Harinama so far was on Sunday July 6th in the Vila Madalena neighborhood of San Paulo, where about 50,000 people are arriving every day,” says Sri Krishna Murti. “A typical football chant is ‘É! Ha!’ But when the devotees were doing kirtan, the crowd was shouting, “É! Hare Krishna! É! Hare Krishna!” all together in one voice. It was fantastic. Paramgati Prabhu and Bhakti Narasimha Swami said that it was best Harinama of their lives.”
In fact, it made such an impact that newspaper reporters from Kolkata, India that were in San Paulo to cover the football game ended up publishing an article about the Harinama instead.
According to book distributor Prananatha Das, devotees also distributed approximately 8,000 of Srila Prabhupada’s books in Portuguese, Spanish and English all over the country during the World Cup, in cities such as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Recife, Curitiba and Porto Alegre.
Daruka Prabhu, who is in charge of book distribution in the North of the country, went to distribute books outside the Brazil vs Mexico game in the city of Fortalezai. But when he met some people who had extra tickets and they gave him one, he got to go inside the stadium to distribute. The game may have been 0 – 0 that day, but the book distribution was a win!
Devotees also distributed 10,000 Maha-Mantra cards inscribed with the addresses of ISKCON’s largest temples in San Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte along with ISKCON Brazil’s website and Facebook addresses.
More recently, they held a Harinama in San Paulo on July 9th during the Argentina vs Holland game, amongst 150,000 fans from Argentina and 15,000 from the Netherlands. They’re now back in Rio doing Harinamas there every day until the World Cup final between Germany and Argentina on June 13th, when they’ll hold a massive final Harinama and book distribution.
For the devotees, the World Cup was life-changing, because it was a unique opportunity to broadcast Lord Krishna’s glories to huge numbers of people from all over the world in one place at one time.
“And that is the biggest victory in this World Cup, for us, and for Brazil,” says Sri Krishna Murti.
