Book Distribution at Akola
Story of sankirtan devotees distributing books at Akola- Brahmachari trainee devotees distributing books at Akola divided themselves into 2 party and left for 2 different village places. One party reached a village called “Barshi takli”. They inquired from locals about schools and colleges in the vicinity. 2 important institutions were to be covered as per info collected – one was Savitribai Vidyalay and other Dhabekar Mahavidyalay. Bhakta Deepak chavan pr gives his report below.
“ As we parked our vehicle outside saraswati vidyalay gate, we saw only girl students playing in school ground. Implied its was Girl’s school. Then we saw girls were wearing black scarf around their head .Now that implied they were from URDU medium school. So many thoughts of dejection bounced off my mind..oh we cant do here. but then We saw a teacher approaching us. we met him and informed him of our purpose. Teacher then gave a quite interesting detail to us. Barshi takli village had equal population of both hindu as well as muslims. Therefore every school or college in this village had both Marathi medium and Urdu medium students.
Bh.Atul pr ,Bh. Pradyumna pr and me entered the URDU cum Marathi medium Savitribai Vidyalay. We met one Marathi teaching staff and told him about our presentation and purpose. Marathi teacher agreed and told us to make presentation. Meanwhile, he quickly called the other Marathi teaching staff and also politely asked the urdu staff “ Wont you come too !”. Pradyumna pr immediately added “ yes, yes ..all can come, since our presentation is for all religions”.
A group of 15-20 teachers (both Marathi medium as well as urdu medium) sat to hear the presentation. Atul pr gave a very nice presentation and many teachers took set of Bhagavad Gita and Krishna book. Seeing the Marathi staff buying our books, even Urdu staff was encouraged to pick up books. Many Urdu teachers purchased our books. Thus Marathi staff helped Urdu staff to buy our book.
In the next school Dhabekar mahavidyalay , there was similar but opposite experience. In Dhabekar school, there was gathering of principals of all schools just the time when we reached. Around 100 principals were present and we got chance to give a presentation to all. It was Krishna’s great plan that principals of all schools were meting us at one place. After Atul prs presentation, many principals came ahead to purchase books. While it was all happening, a group of principals (Maharastrians) started arguing with me about price of the book and were asking for reducing the cost. While we were trying to convince this principals about the book and also the cost, a principal from URDU medium school came ahead and took a KRISHNA book. He paid the whole amount and turned to his Maharashtrian friends and spoke in marathi. “ He kai Bhaji pala ahe ka .paise kami kara bolta tumi.. Is it some vegetable that you are trying to bargain like in market”. Now this group of principals had no answer, so they all without further argument purchased the books. It was nice to see this reciprocation – in previous incident Marathi staff helped Urdu staff to buy and now Urdu principal helped the Marathi school principals to Buy.
Later in the same campus of dhabekar, we met the incharge principal for permission to show his school staff. we introduced ourselves to him. He was surprised to see a doctor , an engineer, a stock broker in dhoti kurta. We showed him Marathi Bhagavad gita – jasi ahe tasi. He said in his broken English . “oh I do not want this because I have AS IT IS” Happily ,we told him that it is the same version of gita but in Marathi. He exclaimed “ oh you are giving books of Swami prabhupad..oh! very nice. You know I respect 2 people in my life very much .One is swami Prabhupad and other is Swami Vivekananda”. He then told his staff members to also buy books .We were in Dhabekar campus till evening and we managed to distribute around 150 books. our conclusion was that book distribution helped in making people aware of srila prabhupad as great saint in the modern era.
