During the 9th Monthly Sankirtan Festival, several devotees who had never been out on the street before went out for sankirtan. Everyone was inspired to the core, beaming with enthusiasm and more than eager for next time.
Below are some realization/reflections from H.G. Rupanuga Das from his first sankirtan ride:-
It was with a lot of trepidation that I arrived at Dundas square, never having gone outside before, to distribute books. I had been inspired by all the wonderful descriptions of Milind prabhu's experiences and the enthusiasm of all the samkirtan devotees led by Ateet and shyama Mohini prabhus. As soon as I arrived, I saw a group of devotees chanting ecstatically. This brought me immediately into my comfort zone of following a leader and I stayed there more than a half hour with the chanting group, almost not wanting to leave to distribute books.
However, I felt guilty. So I took a few books in my hand and walked half a block away. Most people on Yonge Street looked exactly like what Milind prabhu had described in his emails - harried and in a hurry, not wanting to look into my eyes, finding it hard to smile, chatting away on their cell phone, talking to their companion or just looking straight ahead as if no
one else existed on the street. It took me about 10 minutes before I tried to say hello to anyone. The first person who completely ignored me. I blamed it on my "soft voice" and tried another person who nodded at me without changing his facial expression of being mad at this world. Some more people responded with an audible hello without looking at me. This was
discouraging, so I decided to move right to one of the exit doors of Eaton Centre and started trying to make conversation with every one who came out. Somehow it never went beyond saying hello and them ignoring my question regarding their interest in Yoga or meditation. One person completely ignored what I was saying and just kept asking if I knew where the closest
Tim Horton's was. He was not interested in me walking with him so we could both "find it".
So, I moved another block south. But by now I had enough courage to say hello to any one who walked by and ask them if they were interested in Yoga. Well then the fun began. First a man came by and shouted "You guys will do any thing for money". He was not interested in my response and kept repeating his "mantra" and kept walking. A few minutes later a lady responded to my question by saying " I love Jesus". I responded "so do I" and asked if we can talk about it. But she was not interested in talking. Yet another lady announced she was Christian and walked away in a huff. Well after receiving a few more dirty looks and crude remarks, I felt I was ready for some training. So I came back to where some devotees were trying to distribute books. I decided to observe and learn from the veterans. Jai Keshava prabhu seemed most animated. So I asked him for help. His advice was simple: " Just start talking to them and start walking with them". So, now fully trained, I decided to go independent.
First family I started "walking with" was visiting from Paris and did not speak English beyond "Thank You". So I volunteered to take a picture of the whole family using their camera which allowed them to use their entire English vocabulary on me.
A few more attempts and finally one lady responded by saying "Yes, I am very interested in Yoga". At this time it was so unexpected that I almost said great and walked away, before realizing I may have a real taker. So I stopped and talked about bhakti Yoga and the temple etc. and tried to interest her in Gita as well. But she wanted to go slow, so just took the Yoga book and gave a donation of 50% more than the list price of the book. I must admit that I did not handle it right because I started talking too much and too fast. But she was patient and smiled before walking away promising to one day visit the temple.
I carried on for a while longer, but was unable to distribute any more books before leaving.
However, the whole experience was exhilarating. It felt so good just to be there and have people hear the name of Krsna. It was simultaneously scary, humbling, joyful, exciting and amazing. I would do it again.
Thank you Ateet and Shyama Mohini prabhus for engaging me in the service of
Srila Prabhupad
Hare Krsna
Your servant and recently humbled
Rupanuga Das
Below are some realization/reflections from H.G. Rupanuga Das from his first sankirtan ride:-
It was with a lot of trepidation that I arrived at Dundas square, never having gone outside before, to distribute books. I had been inspired by all the wonderful descriptions of Milind prabhu's experiences and the enthusiasm of all the samkirtan devotees led by Ateet and shyama Mohini prabhus. As soon as I arrived, I saw a group of devotees chanting ecstatically. This brought me immediately into my comfort zone of following a leader and I stayed there more than a half hour with the chanting group, almost not wanting to leave to distribute books.
However, I felt guilty. So I took a few books in my hand and walked half a block away. Most people on Yonge Street looked exactly like what Milind prabhu had described in his emails - harried and in a hurry, not wanting to look into my eyes, finding it hard to smile, chatting away on their cell phone, talking to their companion or just looking straight ahead as if no
one else existed on the street. It took me about 10 minutes before I tried to say hello to anyone. The first person who completely ignored me. I blamed it on my "soft voice" and tried another person who nodded at me without changing his facial expression of being mad at this world. Some more people responded with an audible hello without looking at me. This was
discouraging, so I decided to move right to one of the exit doors of Eaton Centre and started trying to make conversation with every one who came out. Somehow it never went beyond saying hello and them ignoring my question regarding their interest in Yoga or meditation. One person completely ignored what I was saying and just kept asking if I knew where the closest
Tim Horton's was. He was not interested in me walking with him so we could both "find it".
So, I moved another block south. But by now I had enough courage to say hello to any one who walked by and ask them if they were interested in Yoga. Well then the fun began. First a man came by and shouted "You guys will do any thing for money". He was not interested in my response and kept repeating his "mantra" and kept walking. A few minutes later a lady responded to my question by saying " I love Jesus". I responded "so do I" and asked if we can talk about it. But she was not interested in talking. Yet another lady announced she was Christian and walked away in a huff. Well after receiving a few more dirty looks and crude remarks, I felt I was ready for some training. So I came back to where some devotees were trying to distribute books. I decided to observe and learn from the veterans. Jai Keshava prabhu seemed most animated. So I asked him for help. His advice was simple: " Just start talking to them and start walking with them". So, now fully trained, I decided to go independent.
First family I started "walking with" was visiting from Paris and did not speak English beyond "Thank You". So I volunteered to take a picture of the whole family using their camera which allowed them to use their entire English vocabulary on me.
A few more attempts and finally one lady responded by saying "Yes, I am very interested in Yoga". At this time it was so unexpected that I almost said great and walked away, before realizing I may have a real taker. So I stopped and talked about bhakti Yoga and the temple etc. and tried to interest her in Gita as well. But she wanted to go slow, so just took the Yoga book and gave a donation of 50% more than the list price of the book. I must admit that I did not handle it right because I started talking too much and too fast. But she was patient and smiled before walking away promising to one day visit the temple.
I carried on for a while longer, but was unable to distribute any more books before leaving.
However, the whole experience was exhilarating. It felt so good just to be there and have people hear the name of Krsna. It was simultaneously scary, humbling, joyful, exciting and amazing. I would do it again.
Thank you Ateet and Shyama Mohini prabhus for engaging me in the service of
Srila Prabhupad
Hare Krsna
Your servant and recently humbled
Rupanuga Das
Thank you for sharing that!!!
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