Another day of distribution: good sales
Our book marathon in New Zealand started on November 2nd. I have been trying to present two or more than two books at a time. My experience is that people at least take one. They find it hard to refuse many books. Still there are those who escape the causeless mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by making excuses: no money, dyslexic, read online, etc.
I had a few services to do at the temple before going out for sankirtana today. A person came to fix something in the kitchen, a very happy and friendly local Aussie. I asked him to eat something, and he was happy to take some Krsna prasada. Doyamoya Krsna Prabhu, the temple chef, made him a good size plate. He ate and glorified the prasada. Then I gave him a burfi from the Raja-bhoga offering. He was in great bliss after that. As he was about to leave, I asked him whether he likes to read.
He confirmed that he did–a little, and the next moment we were at the book shed. He was amazed to see a shed packed with books. I told him we are doing a book marathon to give spiritual knowledge to people and handed him a Bhagavad Gita. I prayed to Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha to allow this person to take this book. He was thinking for a while.
I told him, (as Devamrita Swami says) “This book is the prime yoga text from India and is widely read across the world."
So he consented, saying, "All right, you are a good salesman."
I replied saying (what Vaisesika Prabhu says): “We don’t need people’s money. How it works is this. When you give money for spiritual knowledge, it's a sacrifice done by you. It gives you the power to understand the knowledge the book offers.” He was very happy to know this and made a donation.
Door to door:
I went door to door in a suburb close to the temple. At a few houses, no one wanted . . . I went to the other side of the street, and a person made a donation,
but his wife did not allow him to take a book. Surpisingly enough she was the one who gave the laxmi.
After knocking at three or four more houses I met a person from Hong Kong named Francis. Now I had only few minutes left to get back to the temple. In my heart I thought this will be the last house today. I told him that we are doing a book marathon to share this higher knowledge about yoga, meditation and higher consciousness with people. We are monks. Each book cost $10 to print and everyone gives a donation. I had four more in my hand, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1, Krsna book, The Nectar of Devotion and Chant n be Happy. As he was looking at the Gita, I gave him the other four.
I said that Bhagavad Gita is spoken by Krsna and Krsna book is about Krsna; Nectar of Devotion is about devotion in the heart; and SB1.1 is about persons who practiced these meditations and developed advanced consciousness. Some people take a set of 5 and some choose a few. You can take all and give a donation. Then I prayed for him to accept the books. He said I have nothing to do and getting bored at home. He went inside with the books and came back with a $50 note.
He asked, "Is $50 good?
I said, "Yes, it should be fine."
To finish, I also explained to him that SB1.1 is part of a spiritual encyclopedia and exchanged contact if he would like to get the whole set of 18 books.
His reply was “I find it difficult to read, but these five I can read.”
I was in ecstacy seeing this person take all these books.
Your servant,
Dhira-Lalita Dasa
