How Nectar Flowed in Alachua Prabhupada Marathon
Prabhupada book Marathon in Alachua 2008
By Ramiya dasa
Here are some of our amazing results. 5561 total books which includes 684 Maha Big Hard, 739 Medium Soft, 1295 Magazines, 2183 Small Soft books and many more. 85 devotees participating. It began when the new President Mukhya dasi and Vice President Ramiya dasa started planning this marathon more than a month in advance. Permits for legal store fronts and the library were secured and teams were formed.
Devotees from 6 yrs old to 70 yrs old volunteered to join the book distribution teams. Many ladies volunteered to bake prasadam cookies and then eager for the nectar of book distribution went out to join the party. Our GBC- Tamohara prabhu dusted off his old sankirtan skills and joined the first party and later went back for more nectar. Our president Mukhya dd joined the table at Walmart and was ecstatic to taste the nectar again after many years.
Temple board member Dr. Advaita Acharya went with his wife to give the mercy to everyone who tried to enter the city hall at a nearby city. Mother Sri Vrndavan took a group of 8 to 14 yr olds store to store with cakes and books charming the hearts of many people on 2 Saturdays. Our teenage girls home school class got their first taste by meeting people on the street and in their homes. Our resident Sankirtan General, Divyanga, returned from an ecstatic week with Vaisesika prabhu, to lead and teach our warriors in door to door and store front table sankirtan.
There was a special team of Spanish speaking devotees headed by Visnu dasa and Govinda Priya at a table in front of La Aurora market giving out the mercy. Even our veterans, Harinam dd and Andharupa dd would not be denied a chance to give the conditioned souls the taste of the nectar for which they are always hankering. Sankirtan Expert, Mother Akuti, took out a team going door to door for a weekend. Our head pujari Nitai dasi inundated everyone at the Alachua Christmas parade, selling 75 books in 2 hours while devotees chanted.
Then at a store table the next week, no one could pass by her without receiving a cookie or a book- another 80 books that day. Her husband, Krsna Keshava, temple vice president, was not to be out done by his wife distributed many, many books the next day and even brought an eager lady back to the Sunday feast. Our day school principal, Navina Syama, went out to store tables for 2 full days and was delighted when one of his 6 yr old students and his father joined him and with great enthusiasm they told everyone to chant Hare Krishna and take a book. Another veteran, Parama Karuna, after teaching all week, took a party out door to door which totally enlivened him 2 weeks in a row.
Mirabhai dd, a high school student, so much enjoyed her first time out distributing books that she stayed at the store table all day long. Our Bhakta Joe decided to try out sankirtan and he got such a sweet taste that he just wanted to go again every week. Jaya Jagadisa told me “just tell me where to go and I will go out any day for book distribution”. So he dived in the ocean of nectar again and again. My wife Ananta enthusiastically took an opportunity to join a book table. I joined our team of Indian preachers to put on a Gita Jayanti event at a Hindu temple. Their president complained that his previous effort to have a Gita Jayanti failed because no one would come but 60-70 people came for our program.
At the end of the program, I made an appeal to everyone to help us give Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita to everyone. Then one nice couple came up and put a roll of dollars in my hand and said use it to give out Gitas to everyone. Later I was surprised when I found that he had given me $200. Our leading Indian preachers, Sakshi Gopal and Radhika Raman planned to distribute some books to 2 bus loads of Indian senior citizens that came to visit our temple. But they were surprised when every person took a Gita and some took 2 or 3 Gitas home.
Our 2 dear Indian devotee couples in nearby Jacksonville, Prema Sindhu and Brajavilas and their wives were so enthusiastic to distribute books that they went out every weekend in December and even took vacation time to travel all over North Florida distributing hundreds of books to the conditioned souls. When the Marathon was over and we gathered at a party to reminisce and thank all the devotees, many approached me and requested, no I mean demanded that we continue every month to have book distribution events. So now we are busy planning out our monthly weekend warriors book distribution for January and beyond. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Srila Prabhupada’s book distribution.
