Sankirtan Stories
By Yadavendra Das
This morning, the second stop was a small shopping center with only two or three shops open for business. The question on my mind was whether to stop or not to stop. I decided to stop anyway. It was a Vietnamese area and from experience I know that Vietnamese people generally like to engage freely and liberally in the Sankirtan Movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This is indeed a great credit to the Vietnamese people. As I entered the beauty shop the whole family was present; that is the young mother, father and daughter. The father was holding the two-year-old daughter in his arms. As I asked for the donation he opened his daughter’s left hand, which was holding some small change and handed it over. As a gesture of reciprocation, I immediately placed a copy of “On the Way to Krishna” in her little hand, which she accepted and held firmly without hesitation. She then started to glance at the front cover, a reproduction of an exquisite painting of Krishna playing His flute in the forest along with a peacock and deer. I took leave and went to visit the other shops and when I came back some minutes later the little girl was still glancing at the picture of Krishna, undisturbed in her meditation. Chances are these events will make a lasting impression in her mind. The father then also chanted “Hare Krishna.” To me this was a direct and practical illustration of Srila Prabhupada words in the Purport on the Hare Krishna Mantra that anyone can take part in the cultivation of Krishna Consciousness without any previous qualification, even a child can take part…or even a dog ..
As I was chanting the Maha Prasade Govinde prayer at dinner prasadam, one devotee remarked that he was not very familiar at all with this prayer and implied that he was eager to know more. I decided to supply him a copy of the prayer with word for word translation from my (actually Rohininandana Prabhu’s) Vaishnava verse-book asap. Photocopies can be obtained easily on book distribution Sankirtan as I visit business after business and most of them have state of the art photocopy machines. So the next day, I arrived at this travel shop in which I spotted a nice copy machine in the back right hand corner. I decided to ask this business for the small favor. Unfortunately, the only person in my visual field was a single lady travel consultant talking on the phone. Under such circumstances one can generally not afford to wait inactively. I decided to come back later. I did come back later and as I walked into the shop she actually replaced the receiver back onto the cradle. But another call immediately followed. I decided to finish the whole area and try one third and last time just before leaving this particular shopping center.
This third time I was lucky beyond my original expectation. The lady actually agreed to purchase a Quick Vegetarian Dishes by Kurma Prabhu for a vegetarian relative. In dollars terms, it was the biggest contribution of the day. She also gladly accepted my complimentary copy of Renunciation Through Wisdom and even requested a pamphlet for future reference. The photocopying matter became a side issue. It became a matter of granted courtesy. I find that when Krishna makes it difficult to approach someone for book distribution purposes, it is generally better to just move on and if it hadn’t been for the photocopying, I would not have insisted. But neither would I have gotten the Quick Vegetarian Dishes sale. In other words, simple and sincere service to the Vaishnavas is the source of all good fortune.
