Sankirtan Nectar

[Guest guest]

Today we have the great honor of hosting a guest speaker, who has

submitted a very nice sankirtan story. His name is Jay Gurudev Prabhu,

a disciple of Srila Prabhupada. Here is his story:

 

In 1984 I was serving Srila Prabhupada by distributing books in

Austria. Oneday I droped a group of book distibutors in one town and

drove to distribute inthe a smaller town about twenty kilometers away.

As I drove a few kilometers Isuddenly came to a railroad crossing. The

red lights started flashing, just asI approached. " What the heck " I

thought. " I´ll still make it, I don´t want tostand and wait for the

local train to pass " . I drove on. About five hundredmeters down the

road I came to another railroad crossing (the road led througha

forested valley). This time the barriers were already down. I turned

of theengine. I was the only one waiting. Then, on the other side, a

black Mercedes,with number plates from Vienna stoped in front of the

barrier. A figure emergedfrom the back door, streching in the morning

fresh air - it was Austria´spresident, Mr Rudolf Kirschleger. I didn´t

hesitate a moment. I grabbed one ofPrabhupadas´ books in German,

crawled under the barrier and proceeded towards the presidential

limousine. The driver got out.I felt uneasy. From the distance I

greated the president who smiled. I gave himthe book and introduced

myself as member of a small community of Vaisnava monksliving in

Vienna. I gave him an invitation card to our Govinda Centre. All inall

It took less than 3 minutes. The train roared by, the barriers went

up, thepresident of Austria hopped back on the seat next to the

Austrian First Lady,I hopped back in the samkirtan van and off we

went.A few weeks later I got a letter from the president, adressed to

the GovindaCenter. He thanked me for the book and at the end of his

letter he wrote: " Barriers are usually meant to sepparate people. In

our case they united us. "