Adventures in Lapland Finland
Greetings from Finland.
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga! All glories to Lord Caitanya's sankirtana movement!
Finland is quite a large country, but the majority of the population is concentrated in its southern parts. This summer we decided to flood the northern parts of Finland with Srila Prabhupada's books and Krishna's prasadam. The opportunity for this arose at the beginning of July, and a group of three devotees started for a one-week adventure in mysterious Lapland.
This was not just an enjoyable trip, since distribution in northern Finland involves lots of austerity. Because the villages there are small and far apart, every day one must drive considerable distances. Thus one does not always get enough rest or time for studying. Another austerity is the numberless mosquitoes, who are all looking for a feast.
On the other hand, just as Lapland is known for its uncontaminated nature, so are its people. They are very innocent and open-minded. So it felt like a rare opportunity to go out and distribute the mercy.
During the one week in Lapland we had many nice encounters, of which I would like to share a few:
Around the middle of the week we spent a day in a small town named Kolari. One nice aspect of distributing there was that the people were generally not in a hurry. Around noontime I met a lady dressed in black and stopped her. On receiving the books in her hand, she immediately told me she had interest in spiritual matters and mysticism. She explained that her husband was also a spiritual person and that they owned a bar in Kolari. She took me inside the bar, and after a while she handed me a nice donation for a Bhagavad-gita and Teachings of Queen Kunti.
Remembering a Caitanya-caritamrta set I had in our car, I said, "If you are really into mysticism, I have a set of books that are the best books on mysticism. If you like I can show you."
She agreed, and I said I would come back in a moment. I went to the car and got the books. I was intensely praying for mercy.
When I returned to the bar, she said she had phoned up her husband and he told her they already had a Bhagavad-gita. I showed her the Caitanya-caritamrta set and she became very attracted to the books. She added to her donation and then received the golden set of books. She also took an SSR and a CD with bhajans. When I left the bar she had put the CD in the player, and everyone there was listening to Gurvastakam sung by His Holiness Niranjana Swami.
On Thursday we ventured to the most distant places in Lapland. I spent the day in Kilpisjarvi, a minor village near the border with Norway. There I met a reporter from the main newspaper of Finland; he took a BG and SSR. He had a very positive attitude toward Krsna consciousness.
When Tapo-divyam Prabhu returned and we were about to start back home, we decided to take a dip in the local lake, which had just recently melted. I was a little faster than Tapo-divyam, and after I had finished, an old man appeared, driving a four-wheeler. (Somehow I was reminded of the Vedic teaching that each lake has its own personality. I thought this must be the personality of the lake Kilpisjarvi.) He was one of six locals I had met the whole day. All others were tourists.
The man had his binoculars out and was looking at the reindeer. He was a genuine reindeer-man, with knives on his belt. He knew the area and all the places inside and out, but he did not know Krishna. We had a little conversation, at the end of which he took an SSR. After the encounter I felt very happy that even this reindeer-man had somehow received the Lord's mercy by getting one of Srila Prabhupada's books.
Hoping to become your servant,
Avadhutacandra das
