“Make Them Happy and They Will Take a Book”
Yes, a jolly devotee at the book stall can make others happy and thus distribute many books. Many times in the name of selling books we become desperate and frown at people who do not buy. Well, such attitudes may often turn away probable customers.
Mahesh Hande Prabhu, age 25, is an active youth member at the ISKCON temple in the Chowpatty section of Mumbai. Every day he and his friends have been setting up their book stalls for two to three hours in the evening, after their jobs. Here is a beautiful account from Mahesh of how he pleased an elderly sardarji and induced him take a book.
"I was distributing books at a railway station stall with some devotees. Suddenly a Punjabi sardar came to our stall. He told us that he had purchased our Bhagavad-gita way back in 1992 and read it. Since then, he said, he had always felt happy though so many problems had come into his life. He told us how he chants Lord Krishna's holy names in the morning and at night. He even quoted a few verses from the Gita. Suddenly tears came to his eyes. This big-bodied sardarji was literally crying for five minutes!
"Then he said something peculiar: 'Don't give this knowledge to less intelligent people, because this is a diamond and should be given only to really intelligent people so its value can be properly appreciated.'
"The devotees in the stall respected his point but also requested him to take a Bhagavad-gita to give to his relatives or friends as a gift. But he refused, insisting that they were not spiritual enough to appreciate it. We realized that he'd come to the stall not to buy a book but just to express his appreciation for our work and share his experiences with the Gita.
"But we didn't want to miss this chance to distribute a book; we wanted the sardarji to take a Gita and give it to one of his friends or relatives, thus sharing his experience of happiness. Finally I said, 'OK, don't worry about buying the Gita, but at least hold it in your hand. We want to take a photo with you.' I handed him the book and then posed with him for a photo, taken by Pravin Prabhu with his mobile phone. As soon as the photo session was over, the sardarji took a hundred-rupee note from his pocket and said, 'I want this Gita.' We were surprised, because he'd been pretty insistent about not taking the Gita. But we saw that just by our inviting him to be in a photo with us and letting him touch the book and hold it in his hand, his mind changed completely and he happily took the Bhagavad-gita. This is the power of Srila Prabhupada's books — just holding one changes a person's mind."
Mahesh Prabhu and others feel that Prabhupada's books are so special that just by touching one a person will agree to buy it. Well, we don't disagree. but we also want to give credit to Srila Prabhupada's followers who make his books come alive. The spiritual power of Srila Prabhupada's books and the kindness and spiritual bliss of Srila Prabhupada's followers — on book distribution both factors are irresistible to the countless human beings suffering due to false pride and utter ignorance.
[You will find many such nice stories on the "book distributor of the day" column at Radhagopinath.com.]
