Lord Jagannatha Ratha Yatra
Dear Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I think I didn't send you this one before.
It was Saturday and we went to distribute books in Santa Monica at the 3rd Street Promenade. Mataji Santatma was taking care for the table, while bhakta Isidro, bhakta Tony Fajardo, Gaura Nitai Brown and my self were trying to distribute books to people in the street. It was interesting to see how many tricks you gave to do in order to get over the mental walls set around the pure spirit soul and get them to take books and in this way start their spiritual life.
I saw a lady and two girls (probably her daughters) standing in the middle of the street, waiting for someone. Seeing this as a nice opportunity I approached them. The mother immediately replied that they were not interested in the books, so I told them to check out this simple but wonderful vegetarian cookbook I had. The mother and one of the girls immediately showed interest, so I simple asked for donation. Lady pulled out a $10 bill and I happily handed the cookbook to the young girl. The young girl was so happy that she met "these people" again. I was a little confused and then she explained to me that last summer she was at the Venice beach when there was a big festival of chariots. This is where she saw a drama about vegetarianism and heard about the law of karma and reincarnation, and how it is bad to kill or eat animals. Feeling so enlightened and inspired by tasting all kinds of varieties of delicious prasadam, she decided to become a vegetarian. After hearing all this I gave them a Govinda's restaurant card and invited them to our Sunday love feast.
We know that in a society where animal killing is going on, there is no question of having peace and happiness. All glories to Lord Jagannatha Ratha-yatra festival!
Your servant,
Mahat-tattva das
