Last Saturday (May 7 2011) was an amazing day of book distribution and I would like to share a few of my realizations with you.
Instead of having to go to the Himalaya mountains to perform fiercely, terribly hard austerities, we can gain more benefit simply by doing this fun and easy service of book distribution which pleases Prabhupad , Krishna, and us!! The ultimate goal of life is to please Krishna and he is better pleased through this service of book distribution than 100 Ashwamedha sacrifices.
On Saturday we distributed books in Bernardo apartments in Sunnyvale , California where our dear Balaram Candra Prabhu had graced the residents for more than 20 years!. We were assigned by Nilesh Prabhu the apartment units we were to distribute to. On one occasion I met a Chinese person. He looked at the book and said,"I don't understand what I should do." I said,"These books are very special. All you have to do is read them and take care of them." He looked at me inquisitively and said,"OK,how much." I said, "thousand dollars++."."You must be kidding", he replied. I added, "I am serious, these books are worth so much more. But for now you may pay whatever you feel from your heart." He gave me 10 dollars."Thank you" I said. Little did he know what great treasure he had received. But, he innocently took the book with gratitude. When he was talking to me he was searching for suitable words to express his thoughts so I concluded, it might help him to be able to read a book in his own language. I ran back to get a Chinese book, Shailesh Prabhu was aware that I was talking to a Chinese person and almost instantaneously a Chinese and Korean book popped out of the transcendental load of books he was carrying. I went back to the Chinese person’s apartment and handed over the book. Just as I guessed, he said "this will be very helpful to me, I can read better in Chinese than in English. I appreciate it."
In the meeting with this one person, I realized how many facilities Srila Prabhupad has made for us to distribute books and reach out to the community in a most helpful way. He has directed the books to be printed in many different languages, and as this person said, be helpful. Srila Prabhupada’s dear disciple Vaishesika Prabhu has made many facilities available and taught us many innovative ways to perform book distribution so it is helpful to people.
On another occasion, I met an Indian woman named Ashwini. Like a traditional Indian she invited me to come into her house as soon as she saw my tilak. At least in California, whoever sees the tilak is bound to ask what it means. So always have a description of tilak at hand! Few of them have some good karma so they even come to the point of wanting to have one on their forehead. So you might also consider having a ‘tilak kit’ in your pocket! I told her that I am from ISV (as she could see on my shirt) and we had a team of 20 or so volunteers going around and distributing books on Krishna. As soon as she saw Bhagavad Gita she remembered visiting ISKCON temple a few times back in India several years before. Then my mom walked in and elaborated on the matter. She got a Bhagavad Gita , gave her contact details, and expressed her gratitude by showing her excitement to visit our temple. I got the chance of putting it on her altar. I didn’t fail to notice that her altar was occupied by Shiva, his two sons and mother Parvati. I am sure they are all now satisfied by the appearance of their own Lord in the form of BG. But I still prayed that her altar be occupied by Krishna (& his dear servants) and she realizes that by satisfying Krishna all 33 thousand+ demigods are automatically pleased.
I realized how people can be transformed, sooner or later, by visiting the temple just a few times. She had visited ISKCON temple a very long time ago and the impression was still in her heart. Prabhupad has created for us such an amazing environment to cultivate our love for Krishna in the best and easy way.
After all this fun, we got to relish lunch prasadam. This prasadam was cooked by Anu Mathaji. We had chapatis, rice, subji, sambar, and a sweet.
Book distribution is not hard AT ALL!! It is easy and can be ‘joyfully’ performed!
I encourage everybody to go on book distribution. Trust me; it is much better than sitting in front of a laptop doing the work assigned by your boss. ISV's spirit is to go and reach out to the community with a helpful hand.
Please Join ‘Team ISV’ in the effort to preach the message of Srila Prabhupad and Sri Gauranga all over the bay area and the whole world!
Thank you very much for reading my insignificant realizations on Saturday’s ecstatic book distribution.
With Gratitude,Ys,
Poojha Priyadarshini
No comments:
Post a Comment