Los Angeles Stories
A couple of weeks ago I was in the LA airport distributing books and I was having a very difficult time. I also had severe lower back pain that was keeping me up at night. The books were just not going out and the pain in my back was keeping me distracted from my duty. I begged to Krishna that, "I do not mind if my back hurts, but if you like you could ease the pain a little so I can concentrate a little better on distributing these books." A minute later I met a nice guy from Nicaragua who was currently living in Sydney. He was interested in the book (Bhagavad-gita) so I asked if he would give a donation. "I am a poor man and I don't have much money," he apologized. I told him it was just a donation and any amount would do, even a penny. "OK," he said, "but you won't like what I give you, I am very poor." So he reached into his wallet and sheepishly asked, "Is this OK? I am sorry I do not have more to give" as he handed me a hundred dollar bill. I thanked him and we talked for some time longer and exchanged contact information. As I was walking away I noticed my back did not hurt anymore! After this the rest of the books in my bag quickly flew out of the bag to their proper homes.
Yesterday I was having a hard time at the airport again. The first four hours I must have distributed only two Bhagavad-gitas. I was also feeling very tired from a week of only five hours of sleep at night and my ankles were hurting terribly because I broke both my ankles at the same time about eight years ago and they never healed back right. I was considering calling it a day to go back and rest, but I was feeling like Lord Nityananda would not be pleased if I did so. I stayed the course and told Krishna I would do my duty regardless of the result. Shortly afterward the whole atmosphere changed. All of a sudden everyone I was meeting was interested and had laksmi for donations. I was shocked. Within the next hour I distributed the rest of the books in my bag (ten Gita and 16 SSR).
Today we went to a poor neighborhood called Leimert Park. It is just west of South Central LA. This is a predominantly black ghetto. We had permission to distribute in front of a grocery store. We stayed there for a few hours distributing and then we decided to go shop to shop heading north on Western. I found the shop to shop to be much nicer. Unfortunately we did not bring enough Gitas. I brought eighteen Gitas and I ran out. By the time we ran out of books it was still early, it was 3:30 pm, but we decided to call it a day. I was driving back by myself and I was feeling like it was too early to call it quits. I remembered that I had some more books in my trunk so I headed out to the airport. I got there by 4:30 pm, loaded up my bag with twenty SSRs, and began distributing around 5 pm. I was feeling very blissful when I started distributing there, it was so nice. Most of the people I met were favorable. The more books were distributed, the more blissful I became. By the time I got to Tom Bradley International Terminal I was smiling ear to ear. I met one guy there who took one look at me and said, "How much for the books? I have to have one because you look so happy!" By the time it was 7 pm I had distributed my last book and was on my way back to the temple.
Lord Nityananda is so merciful. He becomes very pleased when we make any endeavor to reach out to the Jagais and Madhais. After all, I would still be a Jagai or Madhai if some devotee had not reached out to help me become delivered by Lord Nityananda's mercy.
Your Aspiring Servant,
Omkara Dasa
