You Never Know who you’ll meet on skp
This is a letter from Jnana Caksus Prabhu:
Hare Krishna,
Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
During August I was in Seattle, and in an attempt to distribute books there a disciple of Prthu Prabhu, Jaya Govinda dasa, took me to the Capitol Hill district. This is where the alternative scene is. While driving there he and I discussed the topic of dealing with persons who have left devotional service.
So I was distributing, and after about an hour or so, while I was trying to interest one man in a book, a lady came to see what I had. The man did not take a book so I started talking to the woman.
She said that she had the two different book titles that were there, and after that I showed her another book from my bag. she said, "Oh, I have all of Srila Prabhupada's books."
You rarely hear somebody say "Srila Prabhupada," and her pronounciation was not as accurate as a bhakta reciting the Prema Dvani. So I asked what her name is, and she said Srimati.
Once, I had looked up Prabhupada's conversations in Seattle, 1968. In Volume one of the conversation books Srila Prabhupada and Tamal Krishna Goswami discuss about Srimati and her situation of having two children, no husband, and desiring to travel with the devotees. I told her all the things that I had just read, and she was appreciative. She encouraged me to keep up serving, and I requested her to come to the temple some time.
That evening I went on Harinam, and I saw one person ducking in a car parked next to the harinam party. The person was hiding. I went over, and the person lifted herself up from a scrunched position and established herself as a devotee; she was purposely avoiding contact with the devotees because she was intoxicated and did not feel it appropiate to be seen.
At the same time as she spoke, the harinam moved to the next corner and her partner had returned to the car. This man was curious about Krishna consciousness as his friend, the ducking devotee, had informed him about Krishna. Her help and his interest let him get two books for 8 dollars and because of the situation she as well gave 5 dollars.
Now I am in Chicago, and on Monday I was changing downtown locations, from Michigan Ave. to State St. As I was walking down State St. dressed in dhoti and kurta, a lady who was passing by curiously stared at me. In a normal situation I try to avoid too much contact with people before reaching specific corners for distributing. Somehow or other Lord Krishna had me pay attention to her. I asked where she was from, etc. She replied "Croatia," and I said in reply that I had two book distribution parters from Croatia, Damakartu Prabhu and Sriman Karuna Bhagavan dasa.
It turned out that she had once taken up devotional service and had been aspiring for initiation from Danavir Goswami, my guru. Her name is Ivana. She told me how in the days preceding our meeting she had been thinking about Danavir Goswami and was feeling bad for choosing not to continue under his shelter. We conversed a while about her situation here in America and how she is considering taking again to the shelter of devotional service. She told me that she wanted to give me some change and she gave 30 dollars as a donation. She came to the temple on Wednesday with a group of friends and has since gone to Croatia. She e-mailed me and told me that she will come to the Sunday Feast when she returns.
Your servant,
