Book Distribution at a Party
One Saturday I went door to door in Hamilton, NZ. After a stretch of houses, I could hear someone playing a guitar in the next driveway on the other side of a hedge.
As I came around the corner I recognised Regan, a guy who studies law and once came to the Krishna House.
He had a drum with him, so we tried to jam and chant Hare Krsna to a famous "Nirvana" riff. Befitting the band's name, it was a nice beginning to my spiritual journey that day.
Further up the road, I could hear some really loud bass and lots of shouting. I couldn't find the front door when I came to the party house, so I peeked around the side gate and saw some guys sitting on couches in the backyard.
I ventured in and found about thirty guys sitting around drinking and shouting, plus a few girls sitting amongst them. They didn't seem too out of control yet, so I thought I'd offer them some spiritual alternatives for their entertainment. As I stood there, I tried to get one guy's attention and pretty soon they all turned their focus on me. They saw my books and immediately thought I was a Christian preacher. They all shouted different sorts of jokes (mildly abusive) but I could see it was pretty lighthearted.
There was a funnel beer-drinking mechanism beside where I was standing, so they started to encourage me to drink from it. They chanted different slogans to ridicule my supposed Christianity: "Thou shalt drinketh from the funnell!"
One guy stood up and came over to present me to the party ("Give him a fair go," he pleaded). After a few minutes of joking and shouting, they decided to let me give a speech, so they turned down the music. All thirty-or-so of them shouted different jokes at the same time. Finally after a minute or so they all went silent and I had a chance to say something.
I just wanted to keep it simple, so as the crowd hushed, I revealed: "I'm with Hare Krsna!"
They all roared off into jokes and laughter for another couple of minutes.
I could only focus on one at a time so I just nodded and smiled at different people as I heard their input. Finally one convinced them all to let me continue.
"We all like to enjoy. That's natural. It's a spiritual fact. But here's a spiritual alternative that doesn't just happen on Saturday! It happens every day!"
Again they soared off into their different suppositions and jokes. One presented his bottle of beer and claimed that it was his religion to drink.
One guy, Nigel, had a claim to make: "If I want to be happy every day, then I'll just drink every day."
I replied, "But look at the state of older generations, who had the exact same theory. How have they ended up? Are they happy?"
One guy asked "Do you have to count the beads every day?"
"Yeah", I said "How did you know?"
"Oh, I have some friends," he said, then sipped from his bottle quietly.
Then my short presentation ended with an introduction to mantra meditation.
"Have you heard of a mantra?" I asked everyone.
"Yeahhh! Curry muncher!" they shouted.
"No, a man-tra. Man means 'mind', and tra means 'to free'. Everyone repeat after me: Hare Krishna!"
"Hare Krishna!" They all shouted scatteredly.
"Hare Krishna!"
"Hare Krishna!" They were getting better.
"Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama! Hare Rama! Rama Rama Hare Hare!
They all shouted the mantra enthusiastically.
"Guys, what the hell is going on?" one intoxicated guy shouted.
They all seemed quite blissful now, and I showed the book to the guy who was presenting me. I quickly explained it, and a few others came over to see it.
The guy went into the house and came out with $20 to take a Bhagavad Gita. A few of them said they see Hare Krsnas all the time, and they each and all expressed their 'love and respect' for the devotees and what we do.
I scooted off to the next house and the next to meet many more interesting people that day, with many more stories to come.
A few hours later I again passed by the party house, and, sure enough, the intoxication level of the people had reached its limits. The party didn't even last a few hours let alone a day. They staggered around out the front. One of the girls ran around in anxiety about leaving her alcohol behind while another guy tormented her.
Some of them shouted 'Hare Krsna' and waved at me and told me that someone had broke into the neighbor's property. The fun always ends in the material world even before it actually starts.
Your servant,
Surata Natha Dasa
