Kindness Conquers the Heart
I was on my first day of book distribution with HG Navina Nirada Prabhu. We headed down to our local spot, Byron Bay. We did a harinam, sought the blessings of the ocean and then purified ourselves with some Prasadam. Now that we felt sufficiently purified we were ready to engage in the sankirtana yajna of book distribution.
I stopped one young woman. She seemed very interested in the concept of Krsna consciousness but didn't seem totally inclined to take for some mysterious reason. She held onto the book for the whole time we talked and then handed it back. She moved on down the street where I saw Ekendra, ready to stop her again. I tried to signal that I had already stopped her but he just couldn't see me. I wandered over to see what he had to say. He showed her another Krsna book. She was still very interested in holding the book but revealed she was very financially down. She had a few more weeks of her vacation and she was only sure she could afford a potato for lunch. She seemed a bit down and we wanted to give her some of Krsna's mercy in any shape or form. I wrote a note to Dhruva (Veteran book distributor in Australia). He was working in the local Hare Krsna restaurant. I gave the note to the young woman and pointed her toward the restaurant. The note was asking Dhruva to give her a free meal.
We kept distributing. It was a little slow. Half an hour later the same woman came back. She said the Prasadam was the best meal she had ever had. She asked me for a flyer to our local temple, New Govardhana. We returned to New Govardhana for a book distribution class by HG Navina Nirada. He was talking about utility being the principle. "Sometimes you have to do something out of the ordinary. Like today the boys gave a young women a free meal of Prasadam." Ekendra, who was sitting in the audience, shot up his hand and informed us that the same women, who's name was Elana, had called the temple and was coming to stay on the New Govardhana farm for a few days. Elana thoroughly enjoyed her stay in New Govardhana. On her first day she asked for some japa beads. She came to the Sunday feast in a sari and tilak. On her last day on the farm she took a few more books. After this she flew back home.
Months later, 1000 km away, in Sydney, we were doing books with HH Devamrita Swami's squad. We had just finished our last day of a mid year marathon before I was flying off to Europe. We went to Govindas for a celebratory Prasadam feast. We were in a massive line up for the Prasadam, behind many guests. I was curious why it was such a busy night. I anxiously looked ahead to see if any devotees were in the line ahead of us, hoping to catch some sat sanga. The women in front of me turned around and it was Elana! She was there for her birthday and had brought thirty of her friends. This explained the big line. It was good to see Elana was still attracted to Krsna, the kind devotees, and still hooked on Prasadam.
Your Servant,
Madhavendra Puri Dasa.
