Basket Ball

Submitted by - Mangal Aarti dd

I was really struggling at the corner of avenue and bloor, no one was stopping and it was cold. I thought I guess I prayed too much to lord Caitanya for a taste of sankirtan and now He was going to make me stand there and not stop anyone. So i decided to just try to accept - time to practice what i had heard. Try to please lord Caitanya :)

I started to chant and this really tall tall man with a NBA Sweatshirt came along. I thought he wouldn't stop or even see me but did. First I handed him a tiny book and showed him a picture of Srila Prabhupada. He said he would take it. Then somehow I asked him if he was interested in ancient history and as soon as he looked interested I handed him the Bhagavad gita. He dived right into it. I showed him Sanskrit mantras, he tried and then just asked me how much for the book. I told him whatever he would like to give and he handed me a lot of laxmi for the books. I asked him if he was around for a while and he said he was playing today and leaving the next day back to US.

This is the time I started to put his over TALL hieght and lots of money and game together - i asked him to write to me and gave him a card. I am very ignorant and have no idea about what game he plays or who he is - but perhaps one day, he will take to Krishna Consciousness!

Krishna book – The heart of India

I met this lady and she was just passing by but somehow stopped when she heard about the monk. We got talking and I showed her the Bhagavad-Gita and she just turned her head around saying it was too much. Remembering Vaisesika prabhu, I thought lets show her the 'Perfection of Yoga' and she took it and gave me some laxmi for it. I thought I should keep trying. So I asked her more questions and found out that she had recently gone to India and spent 6 months studying Buddhism. So we talked a bit about Monks and Buddhism, while I was contemplating my next steps. Then I thought of trying an old tip by Vaisesika prabhu, and I said– hey you know what You want! - a book about India – here take the Krishna book. And she just took it. I showed her pictures, told her these were very easy narrations to read and had beautiful pictures (that she liked) and told her that it would give her the heart of India. I showed her the addresses of bhakti yoga centers at the back of Krishna book and she liked that for her future travels to India. She left with the Krishna book and happily gave her email to stay in touch.
- Mangal Aarti Devi Dasi