Shop to Shop Sankirtana
Dear Vijaya Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
This last weekend Bhrgupati Prabhu and I went to the San Francisco area of California to distribute Srila Prabhupada's books. The first day we went to downtown Santa Cruz. At first I was a little bit skeptical, I had never gone shop to shop before. I went into the first shop with Bhrgupati to watch how he did it. He approached the people the same as he would anywhere else, but he would approach the manager or owner first, then the employees, then the customers if the workers were OK with it. I saw the reaction and then I felt much more comfortable with this style. I find it rather nice because it completely catches the people by surprise: Here they are working busily for Maya and then here comes someone telling them about Krishna. It is a welcome break from their job and their mind doesn't put up so many objections as it would if they were in a more social situation.
The first shop I went into was a liquor shop and there was a Hispanic person behind the counter. He was very interested in the books, taking both a Quest for Enlightenment and a Beyond Illusion and Doubt, and gave a nice donation. Feeling encouraged, I went from shop to shop down the main strip of downtown. A few shops down I meet an older lady who looked white, but was wearing an Indian shirt. She told me that she had already read Srila Prabhupada's Gita and that she was a follower of Krishna! I told her about our temple in San Jose, but she said she wasn't so much a temple person. She preferred to make her home into a temple. She said she would give a small donation, but wanted to write a check. I told her no problem. She started to fill in the amount and put 10 and I was thinking "Jaya, a nice donation!" when she put in an extra one at the end (a 101 donation)! Krishna is very kind to the fallen like myself. The rest of the day was very nice. I was simply trying to give out as many books as possible.
Later in the weekend Bhrgupati and I went to Daly City. This is a predominantly Philippino neighborhood and the people there are very nice. I went into one hair salon and there were three women there talking up a storm. When I walked in they stopped and looked at me. I felt nervous and lost my composure, I did not know what to say. "Hi, I'm a traveling monk visiting all the nice people around the country! I am showing everyone these books on meditation and yoga!" I said. One of the ladies had just done a taro reading from the hair stylist and the yoga card came up. When I said yoga and monk the women went into a frenzy, marveling at the synchronicity of the events. So I showed the books and the lady who did the taro reading was not interested, but the hair stylist had some interest. She took one book and gave a modest donation. After she gave a donation, the lady who was having her hair cut told her friend to give her her purse. She took the other book and gave a generous donation. I felt so happy that I gave both of them one of each book I had on me.
Later on down the road I met two high school kids. You could still see the blush of youth in their cheeks. They did not have much money, but were very interested. I gave both of them books. Later in an auto parts shop I showed the books to the assistant manager and one of the employees. They were very interested and both gave donations and got books. The assistant manager was asking very intelligent questions and was very sincere. I gave him one of every book I had. Some of the people I met could not even hardly speak English, but they somehow felt inspired to take books. I was feeling that this book distribution is very dear to Lord Nityananda. I beg to Lord Nityananda that He accept me and give me eternal shelter at His lotus feet, forever engaging me in the service of the servants of His servants.
Your aspiring servant,
Omkara Dasa
