Distribution of Tamil Bhagavad Gita and Krishna Book
On one of the Saturdays, I went for book distribution. It was at Hanuman Mandir, Tilak Nagar. When we reached the temple, I saw huge crowd had gathered for Ayappa Puja and procession. Iwas hoping that many of our devotees will be there on the stall. However, only Manish Jani Prabhu was there with one new devotee. As, I reached, Manish Jani Prabhu, asked me to stand near the book stall, as he had to go home to bring more books. There was lot of noise of musical instruments inside the temple.
I prayed to Guru Maharaj and Srila Prabhupada, for becoming myself an instrument in distributing the books. The result was almost immediate. One old SouthIndian lady approached the stall and was going through the books. I askedher, which language she will prefer. She said, tamil. I knew that we had ordered 1 or 2 books of south Indian language from temple. However there were no south Indian books on the stall at that time. I was hoping and praying that Manish Jani Prabhu will bring some Tamil books from his home. She asked me whether our stallis there everyday? She was not carrying money and she wanted to buy Gita . I said, we keep at different places, as per the potential. I didn't want to miss the opportunity to give her books. I had a task to keep her engaged in a discussion till Manish Prabhu bring the books. Since my wife is also a Tamilian. I informed her that, and told her to wait for some time, as she was on her way. I also informed her that she is from Palakkad area and belongs to Iyer family. It just struck. She was also a Palakkad Iyer. This opened up the discussion and she was sharing, why she was here (her daughter had delivered a baby girl). I took the opportunityto introduce Krishna book, and told her that, she can tell stories of Krishna s birth and childhood pastimes. Her, daughter's mother in law was also there, who immediately agreed to this idea (I got to know that she belongs to a place called Tirunelveli, where my mother in law was born). This was unimaginable and the bonding was becoming stronger. As I was speaking to them about our FOLK program for children, and our efforts to give values to children, they were getting more and more favorable and appreciative about ISKCON.
By this time Manish Prabhu had got the books and Iquickly scanned through the books and with their help we could identify 23 Tamil Gita and Krishna book. They were happy to receive it. Now only concern for them was that they were not carrying money. Manish Prabhu and myself told them that they can pay us later. Manish Prabhu and those ladies exchanged phone numbers and address. They were amazed to see our trust in them. They returned after some time with money and assurance to send their grand children for FOLK. We could not distribute many books, but this interaction with them was very satisfying.
Sudhir Chaitanya Prabhu, Sion
