Book Distribution in the Grand Canyon
On my way to Denver I went to see my old friend Ganapati Swami at the Grand Canyon. He's an unsung hero in our society, and also my siksa-guru for book distribution. He's been distributing books for the past 45 years. Not many devotees know about him because he stays mostly in the USA, going from college to college year after year for decades, often by himself. He's a diksa-guru but has stopped initiating; his interest is in reading Srila Prabhupada's books and in distributing them, which he does very well.
Maharaja has a little competition at his distribution spot in the Grand Canyon — a Christian named Mel. Mel is 88 years old. Maharaja told me, "If I'm still distributing at 88, I'll be doing real good." Mel is very friendly with the devotees.
Mel is getting purified just by being around such a great soul as Ganapati Maharaj, what to speak of being friends with him. Mel shows us that if he can distribute books into his late 80s, so can we.
I’ve attached two pictures of Mel and Maharaja.
While distributing books at the Welcome Center at the Grand Canyon, two devotees who’d stopped there on their way back to the Chicago temple after attending the LA Ratha-yatra were pleasantly surprised to see Maharaja and myself distributing books.
What's amazing about these devotees is that they’d both emigrated from the formerUSSR to the USA to enjoy life. They found out that even in the USA there is suffering, so they went on a search for something higher. They didn't know each other before coming to Krishna, but they both went on the internet to see if they could find some guidance. Many of you may remember a recent post of mine about a devotee in Russia who may be making more devotees than anyone else — Audarya Dham Prabhu. When I asked these devotees how they joined, they both said, "Audarya Dham Prabhu." I was shocked. Even in the USA he's making Russian devotees!
They wanted to hike down into the canyon and asked if I’d like to join them. I’d never gone before, so I distributed a few more books and then went with them. It was a beautiful trek. We descended two miles and then returned, exhausted.
Our picture in the Grand Canyon is attached.
Your servant,
Vijaya das,
www.iskconbookdistribution.com
