Transcendental Sound Vibrations
On Christmas Eve, I was trying to distribute Srila Prabhupada's books around the famous Haight/Ashbury intersection in San Francisco. Bhakta Matt and I were distributing together all day. Dusk was upon us at about 6pm and the mode of darkness began strongly saturating the atmosphere. On almost every corner a maddened vagrant was yelling some nonsense or aggressively interrupting one of our interactions.
Bhakta Matt and I agreed that we needed to chant Hare Krishna with more vigor to transcend these heavy modes. So we chanted Hare Krishna fervently as we marched on. Just one block away we ran into two girls who looked like spiritualists. They were ecstatic about the books I showed them – Bhagavad Gita and Science of Self-Realization. They each happily donated and took one.
They were so excited that they just wanted to stand there and talk. This was a mystical encounter for them – one of them told me, "The vibes out here are getting so bad – people getting into fights and crying – that I told Lucy we need to chant 'Om' so we don't get affected. And then only a minute later we ran into you guys with these books! How amazing!"
Pranavah sarva-vedesu: Lord Krishna is the syllable om in the Vedic mantras.
Ananta koti Vaishnava vrnda ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada's winter marathon ki jaya!
Your Servant,
Krishna Kumara dasa
ISKCON San Diego
