Jai Srila Prabhupada
Please Accept my humble obeisances. All Glories To Srila Prabhupada.
With Janmastami and Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa Puja coming up I have been trying to distribute more books I went to another concert. It was called the Projekt Revolution. Linkin Park was the biggest band but there were many other bands like Atreyu etc. These bands attract a lot of open minded people so it was a good show. The first people I met all took books and were from a small town in Wisconsin called Reedsburg. The devotee I stay with here in Madison where I'm now grew up there, so we used to always joke how it was a holy place since a devotee came from there. This town has the worlds largest Butter festival. For those who don't know Wisconsin is the Dairy state of America so there are lot's of Dairy farms. Wisconsin is also the Cheese state. In the little town of Reedsburg they have this butter festival every year so Murlidhara and myself said that someday we'll open a temple in Reedsburg for Sri Sri Makhanchor. We can have a butter temple and we'll be the first temple in North America to use only Ghee and Butter in our cooking for the Lord. No more 10W30 cooking oil. Yuck! Srila Prabhupada said that Oil is for the outside and Ghee is for the inside.
Alpine Valley music center is a good place for distributing books. It's a huge field where they park cars. It's in a rural area so it's a nice atmosphere for book distribution. There is tight security though. Many security guards and Sherrif's ride around in golf carts and on mountain bikes looking for underage drinkers or people using illicit drugs or people selling things. I have to sneak around so I don't get caught. It's a whole game of cat and mouse. I put many small books in a brown plastic shopping bag so it looked like I was carrying food or something since most people were hanging out at their cars eating and drinking before the show. I managed to sneak around and do 85 books that day. One girl I spoke to she said she had gotten a Gita at the airport in L.A. she said she read the whole thing. She said when she got on the airplane and started reading it the Indian man next to her was surprised she was reading the Gita. He said that most Indians don't read their own book. It inspired him to increase his faith. Then I met a guy who looked like the person least likely to take a book, but turned out to be the nicest. He gave a good donation and said he was into Martial arts and therefore interested in Meditation and Eastern Philosophy. I thought of not approaching this man, but something inside told me to. Krishna was inspiring me to approach everyone and give out the mercy. The concerts with younger people are the best, but there were lot's of older people here too so I decided to approach them too. It turns out that if they are interested they usually have more money anyway than the young people so can donate more.
All in all many books went out and then I returned to Madison after checking out the temple in Milwaukee which was near by.
I did a few days of Sankirtana in Madison on the streets. It was a little tough, and I was feeling a little discouraged, but that night Srila Prabhupada came to me in a dream. In the Dream I was Srila Prabhupada's personal servant. I was walking with him in Mayapura. In the Dream the New Temple of the Vedic Planetarium was built and I was assisting Srila Prabhupada in greeting guests, dignitaries and other important people who had come from around the world to see the Temple. Then we went into the temple room and Srila Prabhuapda started to sing Jaya Radha Madhava. After a few moments tears of Ecstasy streamed down his face, and mine and all the devotees present. A wave of ecstasy spread across the room. I felt completely whole and realized in K.C. at that moment, then I woke up. It was totally amazing. I realized from this that Srila Prabhupada's book distribution is so intimate and confidential and important to him that even a fallen dog like personality like myself with my mental problems can get the Mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Srila Prabhupada is here. His appearance day is coming up and his disappearance day later in the year, but to one who is serving him he is eternally present. For one like myself who hadn't met Srila Prabhupada while he was on the planet it's so encouraging to feel his presence in a dream and thus help me to realize his mercy in such a tangible way. This process of Krishna Consciousness is so amazing that anyone can get the mercy and go back to Godhead. I hope we can all try to bring as many people back with us as possible. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Your Servant,
Devaki Nandana Dasa-Radha Damodara TSKP
