On Saturday Dec 11, the weather was mild and people were in good mood. It was a large sankirtan party that went distributing books in the 'Villages Apartments' in Cupertino, the city well known for its excellent schools and brilliant students. Well, there is one more thing to add. It is a city of intelligent donors! There was hardly a door where our philosophy was not received well.
At one home a mataji applauded Manjulakshi Mtj and I for what we were doing, adding that if Christians can do it then we should too. At the same time, far away in another corner of the sprawling apartment complex, a Christian donated $20 to our cause. Jaya!
The team had success with Chinese donors as well. And, I had my first success with the Chinese community, a very sweet lady who has recently come from China took a book pack and parted with some Lakshmi - very difficult thing to do when you’re a fresh immigrant.
It was my good fortune to see Srinivas Dindu prabhu in action. I have only one thing to say: " All that I have heard about him is true." He stands there at the doors with his sincere charming smile, and people just open their hearts and of course their purse strings! There was a door where Sunny prabhu and I had gone knocking, but the owner asked us to come back later since they were having lunch. To be honest, I just told about it to Srinivas prabhu and completely forgot about it. But not him. Srinivas Pr returned to the household later, and came back with a check for $108! Lesson learned: even if someone shows the slightest interest it is worthwhile making the trip back.
Cannot emphasize the importance of dum-dum pops in endearing the kids and thus their parents ;). Sunny Prabhu was gracious enough to drive quickly to the store, and we got some more when we realized in the middle that we had none left in his van. He sure is driving his way back to Godhead.
It is amazing the many things one learns when out on book distribution. We met Kala Mtj and came to know that she has moved there recently. Needless to say, she offered us a place to rest our feet, and brought up our blood sugar level, to the tune of Sri Ramacandra Krpalu Bhaja Man rendered beautifully by little Vaidehi. I also saw Sukeshvari mataji's place from where the CHAD vibrations emanate every morning. I had not realized that she lived there. There were quite a few parents who liked the idea of Sunday School for the kids, and it helped us tell them that one of the teachers lives amongst them!
Krsna Dharma prabhu in addition to distributing books also carried out the very important task of bringing over our MSF lunch-prasadam, lovingly prepared by Hanspriya Mtj. Thank You! I had always seen him in the middle unit where all the book packing action goes on. It was great to see him out on the field, convincing the householders about the importance of Krsna consciousness.
If you have a short time, and you want to cover a lot of apartments then my experience of yesterday says: pair up with Manjulakshi Mtj. Full of energy, running up the stairs and talking fast, she will have the goods delivered in no time. When we paired up yesterday, we came to the last apartment where the name tag seemed to be like that of a Parsi - Narsi and we debated whether we should knock or not. Then we thought maybe it is short for Narasimhan. When we knocked, they opened the door and the couple began talking. They said they were not interested since they belonged to the Shakti cult. When we asked, "Oh Siva and Shakti?” we got a yes. We still asked them to donate for the cause and the man of the house said that he would not mind giving a donation but would not take the books since they were against his philosophy, like for example he told us that we use, "Hari Bol" as a greeting. When Manjulakshi Mtj asked him what did he say when he greeted people, to our surprise he answered, " Jai Sri Krsna". A Shiva/ Shakti follower using "Jai Sri Krsn" as a greeting? I am still trying to figure this one out. All I can say is Narsi's leader certainly has read the Srimad-Bhagavatam right.
I did not get a chance to spend time with all members of the team, I hope to some day, but I am sure they had a great time too, and have many better stories to tell.
We were very reluctant to stop in the evening fearing it would break the spell :). Overall it was an enjoyable day.
When we started in the morning Mohanvel Pr briefed us on Srila Prabhupada’s lectures that he had been listening to the day before. What else could have been a more auspicious way to start the book distribution?
On our way back to the temple, Monahavel Pr who had been tirelessly distributing books throughout the day, had a simple but very powerful thing to report: Krsna is all good and all merciful.......... Small wonder then that when I counted the lakshmi today, the collections totaled $1324.61. In any case, I should have known better. Nothing less than a thousand is to be expected when the team that I went out with had expert Krsna devotees like: Vaisesika Prabhu, Madhav-anand Pr, Srinivas Dindu Pr, Govinda-dutta Pr, HariGuru Pr, Krsna-Dharma Pr, Sunny Pr, Mohanavel Pr, Padarvinda Pr, Siri Babu Pr, Hansapriya Mtj, Malini Mtj and Manjulakshi Mtj! Here are the numbers:
Book Points
Small Book Pack: 130x3= 390
Bhagavad-gita : 91
Krsna Book : 25
Chinese Books : 8x10= 80
Total : 586
Lakshmi
$1324.61
MSF of 25000 ki Jaya!
Hari Bol! Or are we allowed to say Jai Sri Krsna :J)
Ys
Shraddha-devi Dasi
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