The early days in Philadelphia
I'm now in Omsk Siberia, traveling around Russia distributing books and giving seminars on book distribution. It's a bit of a shock to come from Vrindavan, where the temperature is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, to Russia, where it's around 30 degrees Fahrenheit. This gives one the opportunity to try to live Krishna's teaching not be disturbed by heat or cold and happiness or distress.
While in Moscow one disciple of Srila Prabhupada, Jaya Madhava Prabhu, told me a couple of nice sankirtan stories.
In the early 1970s, the way he and the other devotees in Philadelphia distributed books was to go to the subways and give BTGs to the passengers. First, they would go around with cans to collect donations (the real early days), and then if someone gave a quarter the devotee would present a BTG
One man who gave a donation and got a BTG, looked at the magazine, saw Hare Krsna on it, and threw the magazine across the subway car. It landed on another man's lap.
He was surprised and apparently thought, "Well, it looks like someone wants me to read this."
So he started reading it, and liked it very much, and later thought, "This is great — it's what I'm looking for."
After reading it, he saw the address of the temple, went there to see what it was like, and liked it well enough that he stayed and joined.
Jaya Madhava's other interesting story:
In the Philadelphia airport one man got a Bhagavad-gita, but didn't like it, so he put it in the trash. The trash can was full, so he just laid it on top of the trash. One man walked by and saw it and took it off the trash. He had heard of the Bhagavad-gita and was surprised that someone could throw away such a nicely done version. He brought it home and read it, and after some time he found out about the temple, visited a few times, and then also decided to join.
These stories show that Krsna in the form of literature has a way of getting to a person who is open-minded and attracted to the Absolute Truth.
As I travel around the world, sankirtan devotees tell me how much they appreciate the book distribution stories sent out on BDN, which inspire them to go out and distribute books. So please send me your stories. Just as we distribute books to inspire people to serve Krsna, we should also desire to inspire the other sankirtan devotees, because that means more books go out. I know there isn't much time, but as the saying goes, "Where there's a will, there's a way." Sometimes devotees tell me they don't send stories because they aren't good writers or English isn't their first language. But don't worry. I have editors who are excellent at editing. Everything I publish gets edited, including this letter. So just send in your stories, and they'll be fixed up. Hare Krsna.
Your servant,
Vijaya Dasa
