[Nectar] Book distribution marathon ki jaya!

[Guest guest]

Caitanya Caritamrta saves the fallen.

Hare Krishna,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Lamenting a little from having recent recent surgery and being a little

restricted in my movements I stayed back at the temple as the other

sankirtana devotees went for the first day of the marathon content to

busy myself with other services. One gentleman rang asking if we had

Srimad Bhagavatam and Caitanya Caritamrta available! "Yes" I told him,

"In 3 days you could have both sets should you desire."

 

"My mother died recently and I have plenty of money to buy the books."

 

"I've been living on the streets for the last 3 years and every day I

have been chanting Hare Krishna to help me with my affliction with

alcoholism."

 

He has been reading the Caitanya Caritamrta which was donated to one of

the local libraries by a devotee through the course of his living on

the street and is now ready to read the rest. Whilst waiting to receive

the books from the BBT he rang me 5 times asking if the books had

arrived yet. Yesterday I drove 1 hr and 45 mins to his home to deliver

them to him. He had specially purchased a brand new book case for them

and I happily placed them there. He truly felt as if the Lord had come

to his home to help him he expressed. Thankfully he lives near

Govinda's Cafe and now has a full set of Srila Prabhupada's books and

beads to chant with.

 

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam yajnaih

sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasah

 

"In this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient

intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His

associates, by performance of sankirtana-yajna."

 

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Your servant, Dhruva dasa ISKCON Brisbane Australia

 

December 03, 2006 08:15 PM

Book Distribution News : December Marathon Message from Prabhupada sent

by Bhrgupati dasa

 

Prabhupada: No, that is missionary activities, that they do not

understand, but you have to make them understand. They are not calling

you, "I am suffering. Please come," but it is your business to go and

let them know that "You are suffering. You take this method." That is

the way of becoming very quickly recognized by Krsna. Otherwise, if you

think, "They are not understanding, what is the use of going there? Let

me sleep," that is not good. They are not understanding; still, you

have to go. Then Krsna will take that "He is laboring so hard for My

sake." Never mind he is successful. It doesn't matter. But you are

working hard for Krsna. That is noted down. So our business is to be

recognized by Krsna. Whether one man is converted or not converted,

that is not our business. We shall try our best. But Krsna must see

that I am giving service to Krsna. That's all. That is wanted. Not that

you have to judge that you have approached so many men; nobody became

Krsna conscious. That doesn't matter. But you have gone there. You have

endeavored your sincere effort. That is recognized by Krsna. That is

the order of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Yare dekha, tare kaha

'krsna'-upadesa: [Cc. Madhya 7.128] "Whomever you meet, you give him,

you inform him the instruction of Krsna." Caitanya Mahaprabhu never

said that "You see that he has actually become Krsna conscious." Never

says. You simply say and go and say. That is your business. It is not

that you have to see that he has become Krsna conscious. It is not so

easy to become Krsna conscious. It is not so easy. It will take,

bahunam janmanam ante [bg. 7.19], after many, many births. But you have

to do your duty. Go and preach. Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa

[Cc. Madhya 7.128]. Your duty is finished. Of course, you will try to

convert him. If he is not converted, that is not deviation of your

duty. You have to simply go and speak. Just like when I came to your

country, I never expected any success because I knew, "As soon as I

will say, 'No illicit sex, no meat-eating,' they will reject me

immediately." (laughter) So I was not hopeful at all. Devotee (1): They

are so attached. Prabhupada: Yes. But it is your kindness that you

accepted me. But I never expected. I never expected that "These people

will accept." I never expected. Hari-sauri: So simply if we rely on

Krsna... Prabhupada: Yes, that is our only business. Hari-sauri: And if

we look for results, then... Prabhupada: And we should do our duty as

prescribed by the spiritual master. Guru-krsna-krpaya [Cc. Madhya

19.151]. Then both sides, you will be favored, from the spiritual

master and from Krsna. And that is the success. My Guru Maharaja was

publishing one paper, Dayinika (?) Nadiya Prakash. It was worth two

paisa or one paisa. So if a brahmacari could sell a few copies, he

would have been so glad. You see? The collection was not even four

annas. Still, he was so glad that "Oh, you have distributed so much."

Our business is to carry out the order, not to see success. Success is

not so easy. That is not so easy.

 

morning walk May 20 1975, Melborne Austrailia

 

December 03, 2006 08:15 PM

Book Distribution News : FLood the World With Srila Prabhupada's Books

Please Accept My humble obeisances. All glories To Srila Prabhupada.

The Srila Prabhupada Marathon Is Here. I'm very excited. The last

Prabhupada Marathon I engaged in due to misfortune I wasn't able to

distribute very many books. This year at least I'm feeling more

enlivened in My Krishna Consciousness and I feel ready to try and

please the Lord by going out almost every day to try and give Krishna

Consciousness to as many people as I can. Being a Grhastha now often

times I don't have a team of devotees to go out and distribute with.

It's a little tougher now, but being older and wiser, Sankirtana only

get's better. I was thinking of previous marathons and the nectar

realizations I got from them and wanted to share them with the devotees

to help increase desire for the Srila Prabhupada Marathon. One of my

fondest memories was of the 1994 Marathon. Nirguna Dasa and myself

travelled in his Van around the southeast of America for the month of

December. It was very cold, snowing and icy rain. We would go to a

town, find the Wal Mart or Kmart and distribute all day in the cold

till night, then drive to the next town and try to find a hotel owned

by Indian people and try to convince them to let us stay for free since

we were American Vaisnava's. Usually it worked. On a few occasions they

even brought out their deities to show us. One man even had met Srila

Prabhupada in 1971 or 1972 When he was in Surat. For those of you who

don't know, Nirguna Prabhu is a very dear disciple of Srila Prabhupada

who has been distributing books most of the time for the last 31 years.

Nirguna prabhu has been one of the most inspiring devotees in my life.

Without his association I don't think I would've made it in Krishna

consciousness. His association has helped me very much. One day during

the 1994 marathon, Nirguna and I had been out late distributing and

found a motel, but the man was very stingy and demoniac and wouldn't

let us stay for free. We paid and took rest. The next day was the

coldest day yet. Our cooker wasn't working, so we couldn't cook. In the

cold it's important to have hot Kitchri or something to keep you

strong. Plust the hotel owner was harrasing us to leave early because

someone wanted to use the room. We went to a laundry mat and did some

laundry while we finished our rounds and I cooked up some kitchri

outside on the sidewalk using an electrical outlet I found out front.

We finally got prasada and were ready for sankirtana around 2:30 in the

afternoon. We thought we were going to have a terrible day. Considering

the inauspicious start to the day. Plus It was raining, mixed with

snow. We were tired too. It was near the end of December. We'd already

worked about 20 days in a row. We got to the Wal Mart parking lot in

London, Kentucky and started distributing. We put our books in plastic

bags inside the shopping carts, propped up an umbrella in the cart and

approached people as they were leaving the store at their cars. We were

expecting not to distribute many books, but because we surrendered to

Krishna despite all obstacles miracles happened that day. Almost

everyone took books. I still remember the first guy who took a book. I

went to his truck and he had a big gun rack in the back with a big

rifle on it. His name was Elmer. I showed him the Gita and told him it

was about meditation and Ancient Indian Knowledge. Some sort of light

went on in his Primitive country mind and he pulled out ten dollars and

Grabbed that Gita like there was no tomorrow. It pretty much went on

like that until around 11 pm that night. I remember seeing Nirguna

blissfuly running around the parking lot with big boots on all wrapped

up in warm clothes. By about ten thirty I had distributed 26 Hardbound

Gitas, an assortment of small books too and went back to the van

because I was too tired to continue. Nirguna was so fired up he went

for another half hour or so and when he returned he had distributed 44

hard Gitas and had around 450 dollars. I rememer driving around late

trying to find a motel and telling stories and laughing about the days

events. When I fully surrender on Sankirtana like that I can't think of

anything that even compares. Sometimes the nectar is so thick on

Sankirtana you can cut it with a knife. I think it's important to get

the names and addresses of people and do follow up preaching but the

world is in an emergency Situation. Red Alert On Planet Earth. Even

though there wasn't much follow up preaching when Srila Prabhupada was

on the Planet, still thousands joined ISKCON and millions were

affected. At no other time In ISKCON's history has it been more

successful than when the devotees focused mainly on Sankirtan. Simply

by distributing these books the whole world will become Krishna

Conscious. I was in New Zealand distributing a lot of books and one

devotee complained saying it was,"Hit and Run" book distribution.

Implying that I should get more names and addresses. I've tried to do

this, but I just don't have time in the day to get names and addresses

and Keep in touch with many people. What I do now is if I meet a

sincere person I put my email in the book for them or invite them to

the temple. THis method has already proved effective in many cases. I

wanted to bring this point up because now that the marathon is here all

over the world devotees should simply focus on distributing as many

books as possible.If one wants to distribute mountains and millions of

books all over the world, like mad, like anything that it glorious.

THese books are Krishna and they will find the person they are meant

for and make them a devotee. Now that the Marathon is upon us I hope

every able bodied devotee will give up unnecessary endeavors for this

month and help Srila Prabhupada in his most important mission of Book

distribution. THank you for your support. Your Servant, Devaki Nandana

Dasa

 

 

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