Waka Flocka, a heavy rapper, reaches out for books
Recently, while distributing books at the Ockechobee music festival in Florida, something fascinating happened. Around 5:30 pm, I had already finished distributing. All of a sudden a thought came to mind: “Try to distribute Prabhupada's books to Waka.”
Last year, while I was distributing books on the Warped tour, I was handed a pamphlet promoting vegetarianism. I looked through it. There were quotes by famous people, and to my amazement there was a quote by Waka.
He said something like: “How can I eat something that will later eat me?”
So it sounded like he knew something about karma. This was all quite a surprise, because his rap songs are all quite materialistic.
I figured he would be interested in taking Prabhupada's books. I didn't even know what day or time he would be performing. Still I left the van with a stack of books and the determination to somehow give this man the mercy.
I asked the first person I saw whether he knew what time Waka would be onstage. He said 6 p.m. That was less than thirty minutes away!
Now a boost of enthusiasm hit me, and I was thinking, “OK, Krishna, it looks like You might want this to happen. Please use me as Your instrument.” My plan was to sneak backstage and catch him right before he started his show. There were a few entrances leading to the back, and I chose the one that was guarded by only one person. I just flashed my handy-dandy ISKCON nonprofit badge and was free to go in. She didn't even look at it.
Now it was only minutes before Waka performed, so I headed toward the main stage. There he was!
I walked up to him and said, “Hey Waka, I have a gift for you, brother. These are books on spiritual philosophy and ancient meditation.”
He reached out for the books with great enthusiasm, saying, “No way! For me?”
“Yeah, man, I know your into higher consciousness. I'm sure you will benefit from these a lot.”
When I started explaining the books and showing him a changing bodies picture and the Sanskrit, he was looking at me, and he said, “Who are you? Where did you get these?”
“I'm a traveling monk. I go around the country sharing this ancient knowledge. I had a feeling you would like them.”
Right then, a security guard came up to me, saying, “Hey kid, you can't be here. Get out of here.”
Before I could try to defend myself, Waka told him, “Naw, let him stay. He's good in my book.”
I thanked him and asked whether we could be in a picture together, with the books, and he agreed. I asked the security guard to take the picture, and he angrily refused.
Waka said, “Then I will take it.”
The guard felt embarrassed and decided to take the picture. It was pretty funny.
Waka told me he was going to go to the mountains to meditate for thirty days and that I should keep in touch with him on social media. He told me he had to go onstage and thanked me for the books. We shook hands, and I took my leave. Mission accomplished!
Srila Prabhupada, ki jaya! Nitai-Gaurachandra, ki jaya !
Your servant,
Dharmaraja Dasa
