Bhaktivinod Thakurs Mercy showered at Harmony festival

I had the honor of associating with devotees of ISV at the annual Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa. There were thousands of festival goers who were there to shop and listen to live music. Krishna Purushotam Prabhu and Malini Devi Mataji had encouraged me to get a booth for book distribution. My work schedule was a major conflict, but at the last minute, my client missed her flight from Europe and my job was postponed. Immediately I tried to get a booth but it was sold out. Within 1 hour, somebody had cancelled their booth and we were in the festival.

I was thinking that this would be a good event since there was Kirtan performances on the main stage and their would already be many, possibly thousands of people chanting. There were also many rock musicians and so there was a very diverse group of people. There seemed to be a little bit of everything. There was craft vendors selling hand made jewelry, food booths, massage, clothes, new age products, henna tattoos, palm readers, astrologers, chiropractors, and many, many hippies. The one thing missing was the Hare Krishna devotees.

Everybody was so happy to see us. It was very rare to find a person that did not take a book and leave a donation. I can't tell you how many times I heard someone yell, "Haribol" or "You guys are awesome" or "Thank you for being here". Several people began to cry when they got books. One man said he was a Prabhupada disciple and had not been to a Temple since Prabhupada had left his body. He told me a Prabhupada pastime and thanked me for bringing the books to the festival. I listened to his story about our glorious spiritual master as one tear streamed down his cheek. I could feel the gratitude emanating from his heart. Another young boy took a Bhagavad Gita and was happy to hear that God was a person. He was amazed and said that he had never heard that before. He was familiar with the impersonal feature of the Lord and was just swept off his feet by the thought of Krishna. My neighbor at the next booth bought a Srimad Bhagavatam set and many other books and made a $427 donation within the first hour of the festival. Another woman who was an inter-faith minister also began to cry when I told her that God was a person and that He was waiting for her love. I told her that Krishna had given her some minute independence because Krishna would not force her to love Him and that Krishna would not be satisfied until He tasted her love for Him.

I watched in amazement as Ramanda Sakha Prabhu would greet each person that came within 25 feet of our booth. His arresting smile charmed their hearts and he would extend his hand to pull them in. I heard many people thanking him for stopping them after they had received a book. Krishna Purashotam Prabhu, Aparna Matajiand, and Vinode Prabhu would leave the booth with bags full of books and would return with big smiles and reports of big success. Sridhar Prabhua and Padma Mataji along with their children brought so many smiles to everyone. They kept telling me that everybody was taking books. We estimated that 98% of the people that we came in contact with left with a book.

My deepest gratitude goes to Hansa Priya Mataji for preparing so much prasadam for us and the festival goers. The ladhus were a big hit. The devotees fasted on Nirjal Ekadasi, but she knew that I probably would not fast from all food and water, and had prepared special Ekadasi prasadam for me. I was never too good at fasting and could not believe that the other devotees were abstaining from all food and some were also not taking water. This was unimaginable to me, but somehow they were able to go all day, talking and preaching to hundreds of people.

Towards the end of the festival we performed Kirtan. A devotee hip hop artist joined in and started rapping the Maha Mantra. People yelled, "Haribol" and flower petals were showered upon us. I kept looking to see who was throwing the flowers but I could not find the person. Afterwards we went back to our booth and Krishna Purushotam Prabhu was preaching to a young man. Then this young man wanted to chant 1 complete round right there. I felt that there was no shortage of mercy to give and that everyone was very happy to get it.

Ys

Bhakta Jorge