Baby's first steps...

Hare Krishna!

Yesterday, Saturday November 27, 2009, Gita Jayanti, was the first day I went out to distribute books. Sure, I had been out on Sankirtan before, lively and rousing Harinams led by various exalted devotees such as HH Bhaktimarga Swami Maharaja, manned the book table at a few events, and even the last MSF in October, where we enthusiastically sang out the Holy Name to all who passed by Kensington market, chanted from the heart, with abandon and not a care.

The Sankirtan trip started later than planned, due to a small emergency, we were roped in to perform some other service in the temple kitchen by the ever-enterprising, ever-ready-to-serve Shyama Mohini Mataji, and supervised by the kind-yet-firm, tremendous-attention-to-detail Vrindavan Prabhu. But I'm sure, for reasons we cannot hope to understand just yet, that this was part of an incredibly intricate master plan.

Baby's day out...

But yesterday was a first. With a bag full of Prasadam pouches, Mantra cards, and a few books, I set out, with Arusha & Tara, nervous and really scared. My hands were cold, and not just due to the chilly weather here in Toronto, my stomach was doing somersaults, and surely I hadn't had much to eat, it being Ekadashi and all. Nervously stepping out onto the South side of Queen Street West between Peter & Spadina, I stood in front of a clothing store, positioned with a copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is in my hands, flashing nervous smiles to passersby. At the temple, I had been praying to Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, to Sri Sri Radha Ksira Cora Gopinatha, to Lord Jagannatha, to somehow or other include me in the Sankirtan movement started by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. I begged and pleaded for strength and humility, and patience.

Nervous tension, and nothing happens...

Just before that I had dropped the Matajis off and found a parking spot, paid for parking, pulled out my bag, put on my wool cap, and headed out. We nervously gathered in front of a store that sold all kinds of aromatic scented soaps and cosmetics, the Matajis were quite disappointed to hear I'd never actually done this before, they were both hoping to be out with someone with more experience. All I could do was say we had slightly over 90 minutes, all we had to do was try our best, then head back to the temple. Then I crossed the street and started out.
At first, nothing happened, well, a lot happened, but it amounted to a whole lot of nothing. People ignored me sometimes, some went out of their way to walk out of earshot, others pretended to be engrossed in their music with iPods and MP3 players, yet others suddenly got into animated conversation with their walking companions, even though they had been quiet just ten meters before coming to where I stood. Then something began happening, a shrug, a nod, even a puzzled smile, a sarcastic eye-rolling expression, a friendly and cheery "good afternoon", "how are you, fine, and you"... thinking some interaction better than nothing, I started to feel encouraged. Though, so far not one soul had stopped and looked at the book I was holding out.

Training to the rescue...

So then I recalled the training imparted that morning by a fired-up Ateet Prabhu, and very timidly began to say something like "May I show you this cool book?", "Would you like to see this book on Yoga?", "May I show you something really amazing?", the ignoring continued, some people almost were offended to be accosted in this way by a strange stranger with an orange book in hand. I almost had one young man, but he pleaded that he only had 20 minutes on his break, no time to chat. I wondered what else he could do that could possibly be more important, maybe he was just hungry, though didn't I have Prasadam in my bag? I asked another young man for 2 minutes, he said “sorry”, I said one minute, he said "nope", "30 seconds" I called out as he was 20 steps past where I stood, he laughed heartily and carried on. Well, that wasn't too bad, at least I was giving people some laughs. Then I prayed to Krishna to give me more patience and courage, as I continued getting strange looks, especially from many passersby who wore female bodies and looked at me with suspicion.

My first “customer”...

A young student stopped by, his friend gave me a leery smile and disappeared from sight (reappeared briefly later), quite disapproving of his friend stopping by for a conversation. Bright inquisitive eyes, and he was familiar with Gandhi, he read the back of the book, what Gandhi had to say about the Gita. He had a beautiful name 'Hezron', named after a forefather of Jesus Christ, and he went along exactly like the "ripe fruit" was supposed to, according to Ateet Prabhu's training, until it came time to part with some donation so he could take the book home. He had no money, not even a toonie for the small book. I asked him if he knew about meditation. He said yes, they do it at school, I asked him what they do, and he described a Buddhist-like ritual with silence and a bowl/spoon... I said, see, it is hard to get our minds to shut up, and that is why mantra meditation was so much easier. I handed him a Mantra card, he nicely chanted the Hare Krishna Mahamantra with me, took some Prasadam, he said he might come back, I told him I'd be there for about an hour. He sauntered off. Then I mentally kicked myself in the head when I realized what Ateet Prabhu had said about the sincere souls who may not have any Lakshmi on them, to just give them the book. I thought, here I am, a businessman, I'm supposed to have good “closing skills”, speaking of deals and transactions, yet the process of Krishna Consciousness is teaching me more about business than any business magazine, consultant, or training session ever has.

Experts galore...

"Would you like to see this book about Yoga", I called out to a passing couple of ladies. "Its alright" one of them said, "I'm a Yoga teacher, I know all about it". "You'd really appreciate this book then!" I called out, but she had no time for me. I continued, sometimes feeling out of sorts, sometimes impatient, mostly always afraid of what someone might say, maybe a policeman or shop owner would shoo me off...

Krishna sends someone along...

Finally, one couple, who looked as if they were from India, who had earlier stepped into the clothing store walked out. "Hello, How are you? Are you from India? Which part of India", the questions tumbled out. They stopped, "Yes, from Bombay". Krishna had answered my prayers. Here were two people starving to speak to someone in Marathi. So I spoke to them in Marathi, one of the languages Krishna taught me as I was growing up. They were hard up for cash, but took a Bhagavad Gita and Higher Taste, after much deliberation and careful thought. The few dollars they gave were clearly a luxury for them. I kept the pressure up, invited them to the temple, gave them Prasadam, they even filled out a contact form. What were the chances of a Marathi-speaking couple from Mississauga passing by Queen Street West meeting a Marathi-speaking book distributor in downtown Toronto? They didn't even have a car; they'd taken the GO bus downtown and were visiting a friend. Krishna sent them just to encourage me; clearly I had nothing to do with anything that happened. He brought them, He gave them the books, and He gave them Prasadam, He gave me lots of encouragement in this way. They promised to come by later that evening for the Gita Jayanti celebrations at the temple, but looks like they couldn't make it that evening.

I ran across the street to my fellow-compatriots, who were by now very focused on handing out the Prasadam, also they were quite cold in the chilly air on the pavement. They were very excited to observe from a distance the interactions I seemed to be having and offered a tremendous amount of Vaishnava encouragement. Because I had just given out my display copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is, and the others were far away in the car, I took the one they had, and went back to my spot.

Timeless Message, Engaging Images...

A group of siblings passed by, a young man, a young lady, a young boy, maybe about 8 or 9, and a little girl, about 4 or 5. From Grenada originally, except for the little girl who declared she was "Canadian". They listened intently, though they hadn't heard of Thoreau, Emerson, even Gandhi failed me. So I moved on to the pictures. As I explained how we are the same person even though the bodies changed constantly externally, and asked them to point out where they were on the changing bodies picture, the young man clearly pointed to the young man in the picture, the young boy pointed to the boy in the picture, the little one jumped enthusiastically and said "there I am" and pointed to the little boy in the picture. I turned to the picture of the senses, the little one jumped up and down "Horsieeee" she went. The picture on the opposite page was about how the wise one sees the soul within every living entity, regardless of the external covering; now the little one was really excited "Whee! Elephant!" she went. Then I realized how really powerful those images were! Prabhupada had conveyed his transcendental vision to the artists, and the artists had faithfully executed his instructions! This little girl will some day again see the same images and maybe she will be as receptive then? Just then the streetcar they were waiting for arrived, I had just enough time to shove as many little packets of Prasadam as possible into their hands before they had to run to catch their streetcar.


Warmed up and grateful...

By now I was all warmed up, had almost overcome my fears, didn't mind being ignored or looked at strangely, and was just raring to meet the next person who was interested in the transcendental timeless message of Sri Krishna, as brought to the modern world by His dear devotee A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I reflected how over 12 years ago a young bright-faced Brahmachari had literally chased after me as a strode along on the first day of my first job feeling like the most important person in the world, and gave me my copy of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is even though I was so incredibly rude to him, and walked off haughtily without any donation, how this young and anonymous devotee was really one of my best well wishers, even though our interaction lasted less than a minute, but that's another story. Here I am, 12 years on, trying to pass on his kindness to others. Paying it forward at its best.

Another man stopped by, hands full with shopping bags, coffee, and a snack from a fast-food store. We had a quick chat about how the literature was not Hindu, he mentioned Buddhism, said he will check it out on the Internet and then ran off. All I could do was put some packets of Prasadam into his shopping bag, which contained bananas. He wanted to know if it was vegan, I wholeheartedly said yes, even though at the time I didn't know for sure if the cookies were vegan.

People are open...

Finally Michael stopped by. We got chatting about how he'd moved to Ajax recently, and how he was into Tai Chi. He had heard of Gandhi, and was intrigued enough to look at the pictures. He mentioned that this was a Hindu literature. Thanks to the excellent training, I asked him if he thought Thoreau or Emerson were Hindus, or the Professors at the various universities were Hindus. He agreed that this was "Kind of like Buddhism", I didn't argue. As I pointed to a younger version of Michael, he said he was actually much older but his lifestyle made him look younger. So we read a verse from the Bhagavad Gita, I gave him a Mantra card, he chanted Hare Krishna, asked me how much I was selling the book for, I told him all about our costs, and how our intent was not to make a profit. He insisted he wanted to pay me more than cost, gave me a modest donation, and said he'd come to one of the Sunday feasts soon, if he couldn't make it that evening.

Krishna's All-encompassing Mercy...

Feeling gladdened by the mercy Krishna had just showered upon me, but realizing that we were out of time, and all of us were cold, we decided to head back to the car. On my way back, I reflected, what could I have possibly done to “earn” this amazing experience? Is there anything anyone can ever do do be able to deserve this privilege? Nope. Nada. So that's what I understand by the word “causeless” as in “causeless mercy”.

My Sankirtan companions Arusha and Tara have their own amazing success stories when speaking to people... some people knew Prabhupada by face, others had been to our Sunday feast, one claimed her friend had a copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is, and that she was going to borrow it. Another girl was happy to get vegetarian treats, said she and most of her coworkers at the cosmetics shops were vegetarian...

So now, I have some training, and I have some experience, and have a target audience, people who are somehow offbeat, different from the others, maybe they walk differently, or dress differently, maybe they have some time on hand unlike others, most people are in a hurry always, or maybe they have a different skin color, or speak a different language. A colleague once told me I was an "odd duck", well, if some other "odd ducks" get along with me enough to get chatting about Krishna's message, then that's who Krishna wants me to speak to! Bottom-line? I'd do it again in a heartbeat. We have nothing to lose, except our own fears. And we have everything to gain, EVERYTHING.

Who's coming to our next outing? It’s going to be the mostestest fun you've ever ever had. Don't take my word for it, come out and see for yourself.

Milind Joshi, neophyte in Krishna Consciousness at ISKCON Toronto
(Originally written 28th November 2009 )