Mercy of Durga Mata
It is not easy to describe the Durga Puja Festival we just attended in Bangkok. We got a pretty big party ready and a big supply of books and headed for the the "WAT KET" (Indian Temple) on Silom Road. Silom Road is a famous place for tourists where everything genuine and copy is for sale.
I was expecting a busy night at the temple, but it turned out to be much more. At least one mile of the street was blocked off and hundreds of Durga worshipers had set up their altars (Durga, Shiva and Ganesh).They were busy giving blessings and exorcizing ghosts. This had been going on all afternoon. The devotees who went early had already run out of books. The kirtan and even though it could only be heard for a few feet, the blissful dancing attracted big crowds. The book table was mobbed and the devotees who wondered into the crowd, including me, could barely keep up with the souls who wanted books.
One couple stopped to look at the BHAGAVAD GITA As It Is. The mataji was fascinated and her husband was telling me that she wanted to know where she could buy it. They were ecstatic when I told them I was selling. I took them to the book table where they bought two volumes of the GITA and a RAMAYANA. They already had the KRSNA book and had even been to Vrndavan.
It just kept getting more crowded since they were waiting for the Deity to come out of the temple for a procession. That would start sometime after midnight and go until 2 or 3 in the morning. We were blessed by the Devas and sold 60 maha big books and 700 small books.
Next year we will be prepared with a big altar and a proper sound system and be there all day. We hope that many devotees will stop by on their way to Vrndavan for this. HG Satyanarayan Prabhu was looking for us but the crowd was too much and he could not find us. No one could hear their phone ringing beneath the noise of the kirtan that blasting music coming from all the exhibits.
