Something Worth Hearing by Navina Nirada Dasa
Navina Nirada Dasa
HERE ARE SOME experiences and realizations of devotees who give people Krsna consciousness by giving them books by Srila Prabhupada and his followers. I start with an experience of my own.
While distributing books recently I met a young man very interested in Krsna consciousness. As we were speaking, he put in hearing aids to understand me.
He told me that when he was a child his parents quarreled so much he wanted to lose his hearing, and after a few months he lost ninety percent of it. The doctors had no idea how it happened and said there was no cure.
Then he met devotees and started to chant the maha-mantra. Now he has something valuable to hear, and with the help of his hearing aids he has about sixty percent of his hearing. He is reading Srila Prabhupada's books and chanting Hare Krsna, and he comes to the temple every other day to do devotional service.
The following stories are from other Hare Krsna book distributors around the world.
Bhagavatam for a P.M.
One Sunday morning I felt I wanted to do something valuable for guru and Krsna, so I took a few books with me and went out to distribute in the old section of Stockholm. Because it was Sunday and only ten o'clock in the morning, finding people was difficult.
Then I spotted Olof Palme, the prime minister of Sweden, out on his morning walk. I offered him a book, saying that it was about the most essential questions of life and would be useful for his career.
"I'm not so philosophical," he replied. "Besides, I don't even have any money with me."
Still, he reached into his pockets, found a few coins, and gave them to me, and I gave him a Srimad-Bhagavatam.
Just in time. Two weeks later he was assassinated.
Subala Dasa adhikari
Stockholm, Sweden
Books and Shoes
I was distributing books in a parking lot in a small town one Saturday when I met a man who told me about his previous meeting with a book distributor.
Years ago the man met a devotee distributing books. The man was fascinated by the books and thought they were beautiful, but he had no money to buy them, because he had just bought a pair of shoes.
The devotee told him that their meeting was not by chance and that he should take the opportunity to buy the books. Convinced, the man left, returned the new shoes, and came back to buy the books.
When the man went home, some friends came to visit and gave him some brand-new shoes.
Bhakta Slavek
Krakow, Poland
"No More Books!"
Govinda Dasa was distributing books door-to-door in the CIS. An old woman answered the door.
"Mother, please look at the nice books I have."
"They may be nice, but I won't read them."
"Please, just hold them and look at them."
"No, since I read one small book by I don't remember the author's name I realized that no other books are on the same level and I decided not to read any books except by this author."
"What if these books are better?"
"No, they are not better. Please leave me alone. I don't want any more books!"
Govinda Dasa asked her to show him the book she was talking about. He entered the room and saw several empty bookshelves. It looked as if she had once had many books. Now she had one book, sitting alone as if on an altar Srila Prabhupada's Easy Journey to Other Planets.
Manibhusana Dasa adhikari
CIS
A group of devotees traveled from Mumbai to Nasik, Maharashtra, to distribute books at a big religious fair. One of the devotees showed Srila Prabhupada's books to a shopkeeper selling pornography. The shopkeeper became inspired. He bought Srila Prabhupada's books in English, Hindi, Marathi, and other languages and changed his little pornography shop into a shop for selling Prabhupada's books, which he knew would purify him.
Damodara Dasa adhikari
Mumbai
Navina Nirada Dasa, a disciple of Harikesa Swami, has been one of ISKCON's leading book distributors for many years. He is based at the ISKCON temple in Zurich.
Source: http://backtogodhead.in/something-worth-hearing-by-navina-nirada-dasa/
