Shocked then Shocked Again
We continue the pastimes of the bus party of Sri Sri Radha Gopinath temple chowpatty that went to the coal mines last year.
We shifted operations to a new area. After a couple of days of good book distribution we decided to try the head-office. Jagganatha Prabhu met the head officer and obtained the permission and the next day we set up stall besides the vehicle parking inside the gate. It was 8 am and slowly the officers were trickling in. Sun had just begun to show its face dissipating the early morning fog and it was warming up. From the corner of my eye I saw a security man, who had just arrived, rush at our table. He had fair complexion, a shikha and tilak and when he arrived nearer I noticed on his name plate a surname that showed that he was a Brahmin. But what he did next was anything but brahminical.
"Stop this!" he shouted. "Stop this immediately. You are not allowed here. What do you think? Is this some vegetable market that you can enter inside and sell your stuff? Come on get out. Just get out."
Our bus had just left out of the gate, but seeing the commotion, Rupa Raghunatha Prabhu stopped. I called the man and assured him that we had the permission of the officer to do the exhibition. But he did not listen. He physically began to move the crowd away from the table and shout expletives. I got so angry that my voice choked up. I had the urge to grab his collar and give him a smack but seeing his age I checked myself. I got the permission papers and with shaking hands showed him the signature of the authorities, but he just did not listen.
"You first stop this and shift your table outside the gate. Just go out," he said.
"We are not going out," I said. "We have the permission and just now the secretary to the head officer had come and sanctioned our stall, if you have problem you meet him."
"No, you meet him," he shouted back, "and ask him to call me in my office." I stormed to the office of the secretary and told him the events. "Please call your security and tell them to allow us."
"Sorry, I can not do that. You have to move out," he said.
"But we have the permission of the head officer," I said, "We met him yesterday."
"That is ok, but some men are objecting to this religious exhibition."
"I want to speak to the head officer," I said.
"OK," the secretary called the head officer, but before I could speak to him, he briefed him about the objection raised by a certain section of office staff against us. The head officer sympathized with me but said that he was unable to help.
Crest fallen I returned to the stall and told the devotees that we had to move out of the complex. The problem was that once we moved out hardly anyone would have come to our stall. Most men had vehicles and they would speed away once out of the gate. Only a rare soul would cross the road and come to us.
I explained the situation to Rupa Raghunatha Prabhu. "Just show that you are shifting," he said. "Move some boxes and meanwhile continue to distribute on the table. If someone again comes show that you are going but since some customers are there hence you are entertaining them. Wait till 11:30 am and then shift to some other location. I will take the bus to next mine." I did as he told me. We packed 4-5 cartons and one devotee stood with them across the road while another continued the sales on the table. Then I went to the security man who had charged at us, and said that we were shifting. He called me inside his cabin.
"I am extremely sorry Maharaja," he said folding his hands. "What you are doing is a very noble thing. See I am also a Brahmin," he took out his sacred thread, "but what to do, we have to act rough. There were certain men at your stall who are against our dharma and simply to appease them I behaved in such a bad way. I know that your man had come yesterday and got the permission, still I troubled you only to make those men go away. Now you can continue your sale. Only thing is do not keep many books on the table. You can keep the excess in my office and when you need them you can take them from here."
"Hey Dharmu!" he called his man, "go get Swamaji's books from the road."
His men brought all our boxes from the road to the office. "And please give me a set of books," the security man requested me.
My jaw hung in sheer shock at the turn of events. I gave him the books and continued low-key distribution even when the head officer arrived. Later we met him and he gave us a vehicle on which two of us carried 12 sets and went to a peripheral office and sold all of them.
Since there was no vehicle to return we walked about 3-4 km and climbed a hill to reach the mine on which book distribution was going on. On book distribution we never throw away our card board boxes. And on this occasion we carried them with us. When we reached the top of the hill we got so exhausted that we spread out the card board and slept over them for good 45 minutes. Then we were reached the next stall
Murgesh Prabhu had done book distribution in a district head office. But unfortunately he lost the list. There were 34 people on the list and more then Rs 10.000 were at stake. Where was the list? What to do? Find about it in the next issue in 'The Case of the Missing List'.
Your Servant,
Murari Gupta Das
