It’s Not Always Nectar in the Beginning
Today was chilly but sunny in Dallas. I had the day off from work, and it's the middle of the marathon. Still, I didn't want to go out. I thought, "Why should I do this on my one day off? None of the other devotees I asked wants to go on sankirtan. They're all enjoying, and I have to suffer? It would be easier for a suicide bomber to go to his job than for me to go out there."
But . . . duty prevailed. So I pushed myself out to the Fiesta Shopping Center, and the second person I approached was a grandmother named Maria. She bought a "Science of Self-realization" and chanted the Hare Krishna maha-mantra with me, reading from the mantra card I gave her. I realized how important it was that I'd sacrificed my own comfort to be out there. How else would Maria have met Srila Prabhupada and recited the Hare Krishna mantra?
An African-American lady bought "The Perfection of Yoga" but was afraid to chant. "I won't say it if I donÕt know what it means," she said. So I told her, "Read the book and then you'll know."
A Mexican man bought a "Science of Self-realization" because he is friends with the dishwasher at Kalachandji's restaurant. The Mexican man and his teenage daughter chanted the maha-mantra together.
An Indian doctor from Hyderabad came out of his clinic and bought "Beyond Birth and Death" after I told him, "The science of biology can only describe the symptoms of life, but this book tells what the living entity inside the body actually is. This entity must be present for the body to have consciousness." He read a Bhagavad-gita verse quoted in the book and chanted the Hare Krishna mantra from the card without hesitation.
As the sun set and my time was up, I was having so much fun that it was hard to stop. Everyone seemed to be taking books! What started out as a real grind became head-swooning ecstasy. We need to not let the mind cheat us out of the nectar of book distribution.
Your Servant,
Mishra Bhagavan Dasa
