Power of Books
In Aurangabad, India, we mainly do door-to-door or shop-to-shop book distribution in the afternoon, and in the homes we mostly meet housewives, as the husbands are out working.
Many times I wonder: Are the people reading our books or not? Are their lives changing or not? One day, I got my answer.
A call came one afternoon from an elderly housewife asking for a Marathi Srimad Bhagavatam. It was the month of Shravan, when many people read religious books, so I thought that she might have wanted to read the Bhagavatam for that reason.
I noted down her address and assured her that the book would be delivered the next day. I sent a distributor to her home along with other books. When he reached there, she invited him in. He started showing the books and explaining them to her.
He asked, "Why do you want the Bhagavatam?"
She replied, "It is written in the "Beginner's Guide to Krishna Consciousness" that we should read pastimes of Krishna given in Srimad Bhagavatam."
The devotee responded, "From whom did you get that book?"
She mentioned the initiated name of the devotee who came to her house six months before. The lady had taken Sri Isopanishad, Bhagavad Gita and The Beginner's Guide to Krishna Consciousness. She read all three books and as she read The Beginner's Guide to Krishna Consciousness, she started changing her life. She made an altar, started getting up early and began performing the morning program, even though she did not know how to sing the melodies of the songs. Then she would chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra. She began cooking food without onions and garlics and offering it to the Lord. Daily she read Bhagavad Gita. She knew Srila Prabhupada Pranati and the Panchatattva Mantra.
"Do you have chanting beads?" he asked her.
"No," she replied.
"I will give them to you tomorrow," he promised. "Since you had the address of our temple, why didn't you come?"
"I came once," she replied. "But the place is too far from my home. I am old, and my knees hurt when I walk."
Here is another sincere soul delivered by Prabhupada's books. By her example, Lord Krishna nicely cleared all my doubts about book distribution.
Daso smi
Raja Gopala Dasa
