Hare Krsna Dear Devotees,
Please accept my respectful obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In Japan, which was recently hit by Tsunami waves, cherry blossoms are a symbol for the ephemeral nature of life, demonstrated by their beauty and swift death. So, what could then be a better choice of spot than the Cherry Blossom Festival in Cupertino, to spread the teachings of Lord Krsna on the transient nature of material life and the endurance of the spirit soul! That is exactly what the ISV team of book distributers consisting of:
did on Saturday Aptil 30, 2011 on the occasion of Sri Narsimhadeva’s Monthly Sankirtana Festival of Anartha Nivritti.
We had an auspicious start when Sri Krsna Purushottam Prabhu charmed the volunteers into giving him a parking slot very close to the grounds in a place reserved for those who had stalls at the festival. And true to his reputation he distributed a Krsna book right there in the parking lot!
Srinivas Dindu Prabhu, Sri Krsna Purushottam Prabhuand I took strategic spots where people were entering, or just leaving a show or crossing a gap between the two stalls. I was a bit skeptic as to whether people coming to such an event would be interested in transcendental literature. But I was wrong. We met Japanese Chinese, Indians and Mexicans and they did take books. Raxit Prabhu was quick to notice that people were more approachable near the stalls in the food-court area where they stopped to chat compared to other areas of the park!
I met an elderly gentleman sitting in the crowd watching the display of martial arts in a disinterested manner. Perhaps, I thought, a Bhagavad-gita would interest him. He loving touched the book in his hands and said this was something he would really like to read while he was in USA visiting his daughter, but he had no money of his own. I suggested that he ask his daughter to donate a small amount. He turned to his daughter and requested her to give me one dollar, while hiswife chimed in to say, “Give her $5”. The daughter settled for $2. While I was happy for the man, I was also thinking that in this case I certainly did not break even! Krsna compensated soon enough when someone gave me $20 for a small book pack!
Kameshwari Mtj went out with Raxit Prabhu and his family. The permit-seeking volunteers in their pink shirts did not deter them as they went from stall to stall sometimes having to hide behind the trees to escape from them, were very successful in giving away a lot of Mandarin books! While they worked through the crowds with Damodhar Vamsi Dhari Prabhu and his kids, some of us left for Santa Clara where we went door to door in two apartments on Warburton Road where we were joined by the others and more. At the first apartment we met a lot of very old people who did not speak English. Srinivas Dindu Prabhu gave books to a lady who was 95 years old! While she happily took them, Sunny Prabhu and I had tough luck with a petite but very strong 87 year old lady who will turn 88 on June 9. She held the book pack in her hands and told us that she had no need to hear anything from us, that she knew how to be happy, and had her own books to refer to. Soon we discovered that the anger was towards her son who had tried to take away her money, and she had to change the locks on her door. She was sad that Mother’s Day was coming and that the son would not wish her and that she would be lonely on her birthday. It was sad to see her entangled in the web of Maya. We wished her in advance for the two events in her life, and politely walked away while she stood at her door, hugging our book pack!
At the very next door we met a lively young women Isabella, from Mexico, who works in the hospital. She rattled off the maha-mantra so fast, that it seemed she had been doing it for many years, if not lifetimes.
While Isabella seemed to have been chanting for years, Sri Krsna Purushottama Prabhu met a lady who had been smoking for a very long time. She promised to chant the maha-mantra for one and a half hours every day. “If she keeps her promise,” he said, “then this would be the best showcase of anartha nivritti!”
When Sunny Prabhu and Sri Krsna Purushottama Prabhu met with a Muslim resident, they had lots to discuss about the acharyas, Prophet Mohammad, Haridasa Thakur, Rupa and Sanatana Goswami. He took a book pack.
When Sunny Prabhu and I later met George and Mathew from Kerala, I witnessed their happy conversation as they discovered that their houses were close by in their native place. Sunny Prabhu asked and George Prabhu gave. Simple transaction and simple mathematics. Our hundi was richer by $20 and George Prabhu’s sukriti priceless!
Malini Mataji and Makeshwari Mtj came across a couple; husband a Mathematics teacher and wife a Civil Engineer. They were both not interested in books and clearly told them, signaling the end of conversation. That is when Malini Mtj asked them if they had heard about the Beatles, while she fervently prayed that she had a “Chant and be Happy” with her. Her prayers were answered. She had the book, and that was the turning point of the conversation! The couple was delighted and they took the book pack. They met a fine Muslim lady who spent her money helping her sister pay for her debts. She had nothing to donate but took some books.
The fact that Ramananda Sakha Prabhu was able to join us on book distribution, after he had taken care of all the cleaning and other miscellaneous activities at the temple, that tie him down every Saturday, is in itself a GNAB!
Where the time went we did not know. It was only when the stomach roared that we realized that it was past 6 pm and we had not had lunch. When Kumar Allmaraju Prabhu and his wife Sushma had helped pack and load the MSF lunches in my car in the morning, I had no idea the treasure I was carrying. Everything was super delicious from the puris to the lemon rice to the vegetables,……. all the way to the two flavors of super soft cakes that seemed to melt in our mouth and made us want more. Everyone was in a state of ecstasy as they honored the prasadam. Thank You!!
We met students, lawyers, engineers, teachers, performers, tourists, artists, senior citizens, nurses, software engineers and Amway distributors and many more. It was a beautiful day spent amongst children of Krsna - Some were friendly some not so friendly.
As I drove back home that night, I kept thinking about this lady I had met, and her words kept ringing in my ears. When I had knocked at her door and showed her the book pack, she had looked at it and said, “Oh this Kreeeesna, I am not interested in Krsna!” I couldn’t help smiling at the Lord’s ingenuity in making us chant the Holy Names!
MSF of Anartha Nivritti ki Jaya!
Hari Bol!
Ys
Shraddha-devi Dasi
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