Book Distribution in Boise
For those of you in other parts of the world, Boise is the capital city in the state of Idaho which is in the Northwestern part of the USA.
Not many devotees know, but this is one of the nicest temples in the USA. The president and his wife, Ananta Rupa das and Arudha dasi, have been running the temple for the past seventeen years.
Arudha dasi regularly goes out to distribute books at the University and at some malls in the area. She home-schooled her two boys Radhika Raman dasa and Gopal Hari dasa. Many know of Radhika Raman through the BTG articles that he used to write a few years ago about "India's Heritage" (before his initiation by Hanumat Presaka Swami his name was Ravi). At the end of this year he'll finish his PHD in theology at Oxford University at the age of 21. When he was studying at the Boise State University the professors referred to him as "the boy wonder" and everyone knew he was a Hare Krsna devotee. At his graduation he was the valedictorian (the best student of the year,and gave the speach at the graduation ceremony, and wore tilak for the occasion).
His younger brother Gopal Hari is of the same nature. He's graduating from Boise State University with a masters at the end of this year at the age of eighteen. But, he mentioned to me a couple of days ago, after he graduates he just wants to distribute books. In the past two weeks he's distributed three full sets to people visiting the temple.
On top of all this, the next door neighbors are the same way. The boy Aja Govinda dasa is fifteen and a junior (third year) in the university. While we were at the Ratha Yatra site after the parade in Los Angeles he came up to me and asked how to distribute Bhagavad-gitas, so I explained to him that I basically show and explain the pictures, so he did that and people started taking the books. Now he goes door to door here in Boise with Gopal, and they have great success in their book distribution. Everyone in these two families distribute books. Preaching really is the essence in Boise. The result of this mood (Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati said, "If you have life then you'll preach") is that everyone is nice; there's so much affection and warmth coming from these devotees that it's difficult to leave.
Besides coming here to have the association of these great souls and to distribute books for a couple of weeks I'm here at the request of Bhakta Nim from Cambodia who received a book from me four years ago at Washington State University. He's getting initiated today by Hanumat Presaka Swami. This is a "dream come true" for a book distributor. It doesn't happen much, but when it does, it's all worth it, the austerity, the abuse, etc. This devotee has also taken on the mood of all the devotees here in Boise: couldn't be nicer.
His name is now Nimai Murari dasa. Hari Booooooooooooollllll!
Your Servant,
