A students experience with Book Distribution on the trains of Mumbai
Rupesh Mahajan Prabhu, a student at the VJTI (College of Engineering) has been a steady book distributor recently at the Bhandirvan B.A.C.E. With full enthusiasm he ventured out on his first attempt to distribute books last December. He went to outstation trains to distribute books. He had not done anything like this before.
Using his college badge, he would introduce himself first and then his mission. Rupesh was in for a surprise. A railway official saw him showing people books in the Vidarbha express train and immediately pulled him aside. He was then taken into a station master's office. He found himself standing among other people who were also caught. Of course, he was quite a contrast to the other vendors, so he was the first to be interrogated.
Rupesh said that he attends an engineering college and tries to help people obtain peace in their lives. He said he was not shouting or troubling passengers like other vendors, but gently showing books and talking to people who were interested. He gave them a book at a discounted rate offered by the ISKCON temple.
The station master told Rupesh about the railway norms and required permissions. Rupesh had heard about a permission letter from the devotees. Not knowing that this was not the same letter that the station master was referring to, Rupesh confidently said that ISKCON has such a letter and that next day he would carry it while distributing. So the station master asked Rupesh to continue distributing and then focused on the other guys who were caught.
Rupesh Prabhu came out happy yet shocked.
The next day he returned to outstation trains, and this time he had another type of experience. He met a Marathi-speaking man and showed him a Gita.
Impressed that a young, intelligent man is studying and distributing the Gita, the man asks Rupesh to sit down and tell him about it, claiming that he had wanted to meet someone to teach him the Gita.
Now Rupesh was experiencing different feelings than the day before. Finally, as the train started moving, Rupesh said farewell and got down.
Humbled yesterday and respected today.
Rupesh went back for a third day. A man asked him, “If you are a student of the Gita, then tell me the name of the first chapter.”
He responded, “Observing the Armies on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra.”
The man opened the English Gita, checked the name and confirmed it.
He then asked the name of the second chapter, and so on.
The man kept asking, and Rupesh kept responding correctly. By the twelfth chapter, the man mellowed out, became receptive, and acted respectfully. He asked Rupesh to take a seat, and he offered appreciation for Rupesh's work and his knowledge of the Gita.
Rupesh humbly said that Srila Prabhupada is a great saint and that the man should buy and read the book. The man bought it.
As Rupesh prepared to leave, the man said that just yesterday a boy had been born in his family.
“Can you please give my son a name?” he asked.
Rupesh had never done that. He told the man that this was beyond his capacity, but the Man persisted.
As the train's hooter blew, Rupesh gave him four spiritual names that start with N and told him to choose one.
Then, just in time, he jumped out of the train.
Never a dull moment on book distribuiton.
