The International Connection - Mercy from Down Under

Submitted by:- Mangal Arti dd

I was just stepping out of subway and was nervous to distribute fliers or books at the station. Somehow as I mustered the courage to approach this guy expecting him to say no - he looked at the Perfection of Yoga and to my sheer surprise said, ah Yes, I have read this book. Expecting an answer like Eaton Centre or something, I asked him where he received this book. I was in for another surprise as he revealed he found it in Australia - I told him I also found my copies of the book in Australia when I was living in Melbourne. I asked him where in Australia, hesitating a little bit, he tried to avoid the details. Then he said ah it was a hotel in Alice Springs where someone had kept it on a table and I took it, and he liked what he read. I showed him the Bhagavad gita and even though he looked attentively he said he was from Ottawa just visiting here and could not take it with him. I told him I dont feel right as i had to give him something.

I then showed him a Chant and be happy. He stopped and looked and I told him about Beatles. He said he would read it and also said his brother likes the beatles and would read it too. I asked him if he could give me some donation for the book and he gave me some laxmi for the book and left. In my heart I was thanking the devotee who left Perfection of yoga at Alice springs outback restuaraunt.

Amazon.com - The Transcendental Sankirtan Goof-Up!

Originally posted at :- http://rails.bharatavarsa.net/articles/show/10038 by H.G. Vijaya Prabhu

Jed was looking into Buddhism and found out about Krsna from one of the books. He purchased a Bhagavad-gita (not Srila Prabhupada's) and read it, but he couldn't understand what it was about. He still wanted to know about Krsna though, so he ordered a couple of books from Amazon.com about the life of Krsna (neither of the books he ordered was by Srila Prabhupada).

When he received the books he was surprised that one of them was Bhagavad-gita As It Is. He checked to make sure he hadn't ordered that book, and sure enough he hadn't. Amazon.com had goofed (or was it Krsna's arrangement?). He was getting ready to pack it up and return it to Amazon when he thought, "Well, they sent me the book. I might as well read a bit of it." So he opened it up and started looking through it. He was surprised to see such nice artwork; his other, non-Prabhupada Gita didn't have such beautiful illustrations. After studying the artwork, he started reading the Gita, and after only one paragraph he understood that "This is the highest truth." He located the Cape Town temple and is now Bhakta Jed.

The story continues . . . As last Christmas approached, Bhakta Jed asked his mother for an early Christmas present. She said, "Sure, what do you want?" Jed replied, "I would like you to chant one round a day for the month of Kartika, a special spiritual month of the year."
She agreed. And after a month of chanting she couldn't stop. She is still chanting and gradually losing her taste for material activities.

The story continues . . . Jed wanted to give his best friend a Bhagavad-gita As It Is. He was going to order the book from amazon.com, but before he did he had to clean out the attic of his house. While cleaning he saw a book in the shadows, and as he went closer he found that it was Bhagavad-gita As It Is! But it was the original, abridged one with the purple cover, published in 1968. His mother had bought it back around then, and it had ended up in the attic. Jed gave that book to his friend, who read it and became a devotee.

The domino affect . . . all started by some worker in Amazon.com's warehouse who was inspired by the Supersoul to send Jed "the wrong book" about Krsna.

Taxi - 243 Avenue Road please - The Hare Krsna Temple!

Scene 1:- 4:30am, rushing out to the temple with bags of grocery in hand, I hail a cab. 243 Avenue Road please - the hare krsna temple. Thank you
Driver:- What's this mark on your forehead? Is it your religion?
Me:- Yes, I am a Hare Krsna!
What followed was a 5 minute conversation on religion and what hare krsna's believe. As we came close to the temple, I offered my kind driver a complement on his interest in learning about other religions. I asked him if he wanted to read about mine and he gracefully agreed. I ran into the temple, grabbed one "bhakti yoga"from the hallway and brought it back.
Me:- We normally request for a small donation to help us cover printing costs. If you like you can give something, otherwise please keep it as a present.
Driver:- Oh sure, just give me 5 dollars for the fare and keep the rest as a donation!
Grateful I, smiled and ... wondered what the day would unfold!

Scene 2:- Running late for the cake decoration class at the temple, we hail a cab. 243 Avenue Road please, The Hare Krsna Temple! As we come close to the temple...the driver asks "oh is this your church", yes, its our temple - The Hare Krsna Temple. Are you interested in yoga and meditation. "Yes". Would you like to read something on it? Sure...

Again I run into the temple grab a Perfection of Yoga and ask the kind driver for a donation. He happily handed me a 5 dollar bill. I thanked him and thanked Krsna...yet again!

Scene 3:- Again running late, after printing the monthly newsletters...I hail a cab. 243 Avenue Road Please, the Hare Krsna Temple!
Driver:- But there is one condition. I want PRASAD!
I was dumbstruck! What just happened!
My driver, who was a very kind muslim guy, spoke to me about his religion...prasad...and other temples in GTA. We reached the temple, I ran in to find some prasad...on the way out I grabbed a "Higher Taste" and I offered it to him as a present and requested for some donation, to which he very kindly offered a portion of the fare!

With grateful memories of a Krsna-ized day, I went inside...praying to always remember the sweet little games that the blue boy plays!

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

Inspiration from the Street!

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