Humility is the first sign of wisdom

At one door I took great pains to get a man to buy a book. He gave back the Gita, so I gave him a smaller book. When I asked for a donation, he said he had no money. I asked for a penny and explained that it would give him sukriti. Finally, he came back with a handful of change. However, he also tried to hand back the Chant and Be Happy, saying, "Why don't you give it to someone else?"

I said, "I would except that our aim is to give them to the most intelligent people."

He said, "That rules me out."

I said, "This book teaches that humility is the first sign of wisdom. Since you are showing humility, this proves that you are intelligent." Finally, with a smile, he relented and took the book….

Vaisesika Dasa

Door to Door -- An Amazing Experience

Narendra is my colleague, and he is new to book distribution, i have requested him to join me for Door-Door. He was bit scared as it was his first time and initially he was bit worried how poeple react when we knock their door. Somehow i have convinced him that its great service and pleasing to Krishna. For the first few mins, he used to hide himself and stand few meters away from me while i was knocking , After We have met many americans , most of them were very receptive and they chanted the maha mantra. Narendra was stunned. After seeing that he has started knocking the door on his own and started speaking to them freely.

At the end he said that this was amazing experience for him and he was very happy that many people chanted maha mantra and gave donations. Now he is very much eager to do Door-Door.

ys

Bharath

Fortunate Souls

All Glories to Srila Prabhupada

Please accept my humble obeisances

Dear Devotees,

I just wanted to share this nice experience with you. As most of you know the landlord next door decided to close off his property to our cars due to liability. He hired a worker to put up a barrier and signs that said "no Temple cars". This worker's name is Randy Durbin, and he was so impressed by our philosophy that he asked me for some help. He has been recovering from some health problems and has been searching for the truth. He asked me for some books and opened his wallet and gave every thing he had. I did not even ask him for a donation. He left with a hard bound Bhagavad Gita, a hard bound Science of Self Realization and a new determination to inquire about the absolute truth. He was so happy to receive these books and says that he will come to the Temple.

Ys, Bhakta Jorge

Bhagavad gita in every Motel

After Gideons, 1Million Hindu Holy Books to Don Hotels Across North America

Christian Post John Beita 2009 Inspired by the Gideons, who are known for distributing and placing the holy Bible in hotels and motels around the world, a Hindu group has followed the suit, believing that "whoever reads one verse, one line, or even touches will have perfection in life." Now along with Gideon's Bible are Hindu holy books `Bhagavad Gita' placed side by side in many hotels and motels across North America.

`Motel Bhagavad-Gita Project' taken up to distribute one million Hindu holy book `Bhagavad Gita' all over the hotels and motels in the United States and Canada has "yielded tremendous success," said the volunteers who are carrying out the work. The volunteers were members of Pancajanya Project, a branch of `Hare Krishna' movement, also known as International Society of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) dedicated to placing at least 1 million Bhagavad-Gitas in guest rooms across the U.S. and Canada.

"Whoever reads one verse, one line, or even touches one of these books will have an opportunity to achieve perfection in life and meet Lord Krishna face to face," said Vaisesika Dasa, president of ISKCON"s Silicon Valley temple in San Jose, California, and visionary of the Pancajanya Project.

Encouraged by the Indian community who owns a large number of lodgings in the States, Rohini Nandana a volunteer in Boston area said, "Something like 60% of the economy lodgings in the United States are now owned by Indian Americans, primarily Gujarati Patels. This gives the owners a unique opportunity to spread the wisdom and glorious message of Krishna throughout the country."

"We are finding that many of the owners we contact have been waiting for an organized effort such as this one and are showering their blessings on this Project," she added. The voluntary group said, the project got a big boost after

"it had taken a booth at a convention held by members of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) who met for their annual national convention and trade show" held near Washington D.C in April this year. It was where the group requested the AAHOA members, with a plea saying,

"Please let us provide copies of Bhagavad-Gita to place in your rooms alongside the Gideons Bibles." The volunteers said that with orders for nearly 30,000 books and counting, the goal of placing 1 million Bhagavad-Gitas seems quite realistic. ………… distributebooks

Hare krishna Six months ago HG Vaiseshika Prabhu asked us to do this and we have finally done it.

We have added MotelGita to facebook - Within a week we have about 35 members !! It is under CAUSES section with the title of "Bhagavad Gita at Motels".

Radhav

Book distribution in Trains

Thanks to H.G Vaisesika Prabhu for inspiring to do books distribution while commute to work. As part steady improvements I tried this and distribute couple of books to passengers

in the caltrain and my colleagues at work.

yhs,

Sreekanth

Smart Box---- Smart Ways

- In one of the grocery stores in Fremont, the lady owner knowing very well the importance of prasadam immediately started making small pieces of the doughnut like sweet and distributed it much to the delight of the customers there. Infact, this store owner took less than 10 secs to agree when I requested permission for putting our smart box there.

It is definitely pleasing and moreover encouraging to find such store owners who are readily willing to help us in our mission of distributing Srila Prabhupad's books.
Hopefully, we can find all such storeowners in the Bay area and establish our smart boxes in every one of them....:)

Hare Krishna !

On behalf of ISV Smartbox Sankirtan team
ys
Vijay.

Too shy to chant ....

One lady opened the door and listened to our presentation about the Gita. Her daughter, Alicia, (12 yrs old), sitting in the living room watching TV, half listened too. After mom bought the Gita, we taught her the maha mantra. By that time her daughter had gone into another room. But, I told the mom that Alicia should come back out to learn the mantra too. So, mom called out, "Alicia, come in her and learn this mantra!" Alicia came in but was too shy to repeat after me. So, mom said, "I will teach her."

Then mom proceeded to teach her daughter the mantra, making her repeat it after her, the same way that I had just taught her. The daughter laughed while saying the mantra, but she chanted the whole mantra. "One who chants the holy name of the Lord is immediately freed from the reactions of unlimited sins, even if he chants indirectly [to indicate something else], jokingly, for musical entertainment, or even neglectfully. This is accepted by all the learned scholars of the scriptures." SB 6.2.14

All glories to the MSF of twenty-thousand!

YS,

Vaisesika Dasa

Fortunate Souls

* It was another lesson for me not to judge people based on their appearance. While we were doing book distribution inside the apartment complex, I found one old american lady going past us with her pet dog. Usually from my experience, such kind of persons never replied in affirmation when approached with books. So I told Sreekanth prabhu to be careful in approaching her because some of them can get upset when we solicit and can complain to apartment leasing office and get us thrown out. But still, being magnanimous by nature, Sreekanth prabhu still went ahead and knocked her door. At first, a black middle-aged person opened the door and did not respond positively. But behind him, that old lady came after listening to our words. She looked very depressed, stressed out and sad. She listened to what Sreekanth prabhu has to say and she responded very positively, politely and enthusiastically. It seemed she has a little background knowledge about mantras, spirituality etc.. She liked our effort and very much welcomed what we had to say. (This came out as a big lesson to me in terms of not judging people by their external appearance or based on our past experience with some one else). After talking some time to her, we understood that she is some one who is very much down and out in her struggle with material world. She has a plethora of health problems, mental problems and various other complexities going on in her life. She actually cried a bit in front of us trying to explain how frustrated she is with her life and the world around her. She said that inspite of all the problems she is happy (Reminds me what Prabhupada says about a sick man. When you ask a sick man how he is doing, he will say "I am fine", even though he is bed ridden with all the health problems.. such is the conditioning of maya that we live in). But we should appreciate her openness to accept our books, accept what we had to say, and she also repeated the maha-mantra which was taught by Sreekanth prabhu. She didn't know how much sukruti she has gathered by chanting the maha mantra and by being favorable to devotees. Now that the books have gone to her, her path back to home has just started, either in this life or next.

* We met one person who is a worshipper of Lord Shiva. He instantaneously told that he is a 'shaivite'. He worships only Lord Shiva but said that he is not against Vaisnavas. I asked him to bring his children to ISV Sunday school where they can learn Bhagavad-Gita etc. He was reluctant and said his children already chant some siva mantras and are happy about it. But he was very open and took Bhagavad-Gita and other small books and donated $20. He was very cordial and invited us to come inside their house. He appreciated our efforts in spreading this knowledge. Again, I was touched by his open-mindedness. If some 'Shaivite' comes to my residence and solicits for their books, I am not sure if I will take them. Although I am sure I will respect them…

Kishore

Following in the footsteps of ISV sankirtan model in Laguna Beach

By mercy of Srila Prabhupad and Sri Panchatatva and guidance from HG Vaisesika Prabu along with HG Tukaram Prabu and HG Rupanuga Prabu, we have expanded book distribution at Laguna Beach temple.

We were able to get Walmart spot during holiday season and the devotees have been going out with great enthusiasm for last few weeks.

Laguna Beach Sankirtana team wanted to contribute for MSF of 20K and the party went to Walmart@Laguna Niguel last Sunday.

Thanks to Raxit Prabhu for sending books from BBT for this Yagya and Praveena mataji for detailed step by step instructions for getting permission.

Deepak

Wife Saying YES & Husband Saying NO

One of the doors I knocked, an Indian lady answered and said that they were running late for a dinner party. I said it will be quick and gave her a book pack and asked for a donation. She went inside and I heard someone yelling that why are we obligated to give any donation and so on. It was her husband and then he slammed the door on me. They both were arguing inside and I was not sure if I should have stayed or not. Wife was arguing that they should get the book and the husband was saying no. Finally the wife came back really upset and her eyes were red. She very politely asked if she can the books back. I did not put any pressure on her and I left. I was remembering the Wives of the Brahmana's from Krsna book where the wives were so eager to help. Just the argument that the lady put for Krsna may have elevated her to higher position.

Another door I knocked, a teen age spanish boy answered the door. He was wearing a cross around his neck. He was talking through a small slit so that the dog would not come out of the door. I told him that these are the books on yoga and meditation. He was saying that back to their parents in the house, " This is a book on yoga and meditation. Do you want it? " . The parents were saying no. Then I told him that it helps us to get free from stress and anxiety. He was saying the same thing back to them. He was trying to sell the book to his parents. I was so happy that he was preaching this message unknowingly. They did not take the book but I was very happy that he preached.

.. Malini devi dasi.