For Book Distribution Seminar
Pamho agtSP
Last night on SKP I met a woman from Australia. I stopped her and put a book in her hands but before I could say anything about the book and why I was handing it to her, she handed it back. She said she was tired from flying and short of time and with many apologies she hurried off towards her gate.
About 30 minutes later I was still distributing and I saw the woman again. She had come back and was watching me from a few yards away as I distributed a book to a family headed for the Philippines. She saw me give them a book and them hand me money and must have overheard me say to them, "God bless you!" as they walked away.
After that she came over to me and said, "Oh, I didn't know that this was religious and that you were taking donations." She had five dollars ready in her hand which she gave to me.
She told me that she was a Christian. She explained that when she got to her gate, she realized that she had more time than she thought and had asked an airport employee if there was a house of worship inside the airport that she could visit.
The employee had sent her back towards a chapel that happened to be in the direction I was distributing. Then she said that as she walked back towards me on her way to find the chapel, "Something inside her heart told her to come back and talk to the man with the books."
So after she dutifully handed me five dollars, I dutifully handed her a Light of the Bhagavata. I saw her face change slightly when she saw Srila Prabhupada's picture inside the front cover of the book. She squinted showing uncertainness and in a voice that seemed to beg me to convince her that looking at the book wasn't a sin, she asked "You do know that I'm a Christian?"
I said, "That's great! Then you'll love this book!"
I explained that the subject of the book is Bhakti Yoga, which advocates that the ultimate purpose of a person's life is to rediscover her pure love for God. I told her that in Bhakti Yoga the main process for the practitioner to reconnect with God is by praying and by singing or praising God's divine name.
I went on to suggest that Jesus taught the very same thing as does the Old Testament of the Bible.
By the mercy of the Lord in the heart, (the same Lord who had directed this woman to come back in my direction and to give a donation), she began to accept what I was saying! (And for those of you who have met many Christians on SKP over the years, you know that I'm talking about something rare.) We talked for a while and I ended up giving her the Science of Self Realization to go with the Light of the Bhagavata. At the end of our conversation we were both feeling blissful, as if something life-changing had happened.
Book distribution is such a wonderful and mystical process. The act itself allows direct communion with the Lord. It requires faith to stand out there, explaining to strangers why you believe in this book and why they should believe it too and why you don't have "a normal job like normal people."
It's not easy to get up and out the door. It requires faith to get out there and battle the mind and the elements.
But it is worth it. The Lord does reciprocate. I highly recommend it.
Just do it.
Jaya Jagannatha!
Your servant,
Vaisesika dasa
