North Carolina State University: Book Distribution at Yogafest
Last Friday, our traveling sankirtan party visited North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, and the devotees felt very well received.
In the beginning of the day, I met a person who told me that the next day there would be an event called Yogafest at a conference center on campus
I looked up the event online and called the organizer. I told him that I am a Vedic monk who travel all over the United States distributing the original yoga texts like Bhagavad Gita, Puranas and Upanisads. He had heard of Bhagavad Gita and was interested in our mission.
For no charge, he offered to let us set up a table at his event, which was advertised on the website for $340! We called at just the last moment; he said that right before we called, he was about to close the registration.
We felt well received at the conference and had a nice table with many types of books, instruments, japa beads, information about the local center and a clipboard for contacts, and we were fully engaged all day talking to people. In the middle of the day, Howie, the event manager, asked me to lead a kirtan for everyone as they went into lunch. We distributed about 80 books, mostly soft Gitas, and the people we met were quite generous with their donations.
One thing to mention is that I felt the quality of the interactions with the people we met at the conference was unusually high. Practically everyone there was a yogi or some kind of spiritual seeker and so we ended up having some very deep and profound exchanges with the participants and the other exhibitors as well.
Later that day we went to New Goloka Dhama in Hillsborough, NC and met Mother Tulsi, the famous book distributor from Miami. She told us that Lord Caitanya personally arranges our sankirtan spots and that seemed particularly evident this time because, apart from making a phone call, we hardly had to do anything to arrange it. It just seemed to manifest, almost like everything was being effortlessly done for us.
If all yoga conferences are as sweet as this one, I would like to attend many more in the future.
All glories to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's Sankirtan Movement! Jaya Srila Prabhupada! All glories to all the devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu!
Your servant,
Madhukari Dasa
