Friend-raising, with all varieties of people

Many weeks ago, on a cold winter evening, as I walked to my usual spot outside Urban Edge Yoga, I saw it was taken already. By a lady named Victoria, who had just started on her little tryst with a cigarette. As I approached and greeted her, she started to get out of the way, thinking I was going to head into the building. So I bade her to stay where she was, but she graciously moved out of the way. I continued talking to her, explaining what I was trying to do. Smokers are great conversation partners, as I've observed before, until that cigarette is finished or their craving subsides, they ain't goin' nowhere. She listened attentively, telling me her daughter was interested in these things. Victoria was interested too, she took a copy of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is and flipped through the pages, looking at the pictures long and hard. I am sure she would've taken the book on another day, seems like she just didn't have any cash. We do need to start accepting credit cards! Then, cigarette having reached end-of-life, Victoria stepped inside Noah's.

The usual parade of the uninterested and otherwise-absorbed continued outside, some people gifted me very nice smiles. We are fortunate to be living in a country and city where most people we meet are very friendly. When we go out on the street, we realize we cannot take it for granted.

A lady passed me by a few times, smiling gently each time. I spoke to her, she didn't respond the first couple of times. Then she stopped and asked me if I was from the 'centre'. I pointed to the board and said, yes, I was. She asked me if anyone could come. "Yes" I replied, and she was happy, said she will come by some day, and was happy that it was open to all. Well, as long as a person isn't being uncivil, and isn't a disturbance to others or ourselves, we don't restrict admission.

Tut stopped by, I almost grabbed him in conversation. A student of Mathematics and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, originally from Kenya, he explained how he'd already read the Gita, and liked the poetry in it. He also explained that it contained a lot of ideas, and that he always took ideas with a pinch of salt. So I started to tell him a little about my own education in mathematics and engineering and computer science, and what I did for a living, and talked about the content of the book, explaining that it was not speculation, but very true, and had borne out in the lives of millions of people as objective reality. I explained how I received my copy of the Gita over a decade ago on the street, how I initially read it to find faults and put it away, how I went back to it, and kept going back to it, and now, here I was, taking time off work standing out here trying to pass on what had been given to me freely. He complimented me for a good sales pitch, and said he had no money. In fact, earlier I saw him call a friend on his phone, to meet him for a coffee, and I suspected the friend may be paying... so I believed he had no money. Some day we will meet again, or maybe he will meet someone else and maybe delight them by just accepting a copy of the Bhagavad Gita from them, just as others have from me.

A young Jewish man stopped by, trademark little cap on the crown of his head, with a bright smile he took the book from my hand, and opened it, and I was pleasantly surprised to see him reading a couple of words in Sanskrit! Wasn't that something, to see that he'd somehow taught himself to read a little bit of Sanskrit. He didn't take a book home, he said he already had one. He wished me well, and I knew he meant it.

Carol breezed by straight to where I stood. As I called out to her and she saw the title of the book, she stopped, looked at me, and her eyes went big. Just a few days ago, her husband had expressed a desire to read the Bhagavad Gita, and she wondered where she could get a copy from. She was amazed to see me, I started talking about the book, but she was ready to buy even before I started. She pulled out her purse, had exactly the donation needed, took a copy and was about to rush off. Then she put the book in her bag, explained that her husband's birthday was coming around in a few days, and that he would never expect to find this book among his birthday gifts. I mentioned to her that when someone desires the knowledge in the Bhagavad Gita, the speaker of the Gita sees to it that they come in contact with it, and here we were. She was amazed, because really, what are the odds of meeting a book distributor holding out a book, in downtown Toronto, a couple of days after one's spouse expresses a desire to read that very book book? And to have exactly the right amount of money? On your way to work with not too much time to spare? These little miracles happen all the time, and they are too numerous and too precisely orchestrated to be mere coincidences. Some day soon, we may see this couple in Urban Edge Yoga.

Dimitri stopped. He had passed me once before, given me a little bow, turned towards me, and shook his head to say he was not interested. I was pleasantly taken aback at his extra politeness, and wished him well in my mind, smiling. Now, he stopped, and as I started to talk about the book, he got more and more interested, until he opened his wallet and took out a donation. He was concerned that this copy of the Bhagavad Gita may have been somehow damaged, as it was snowing lightly. I explained that I'd held this book for less than 5 minutes before he stopped by, and it was true, the lady Carol hadn't been gone long. He explained that he was quite finicky about his books, he didn't like the pages getting folded or the cover getting crumpled. I appreciated how carefully he placed the Bhagavad Gita into his bag, carefully rearranging everything else around it. I reflected how sometimes I was so careless with so precious a treasure, even after having such a good idea of its value! Dimitri was from Cyprus, he has always been interested in these topics, and is a sincere seeker. Maybe we will find him again at the Urban Edge Yoga or the temple even.

After a few more small books, I decided to head back to the car and go home for the evening, since I'd reached my cold limit threshold for that day. The flesh is indeed weak, from such experiences of cold and heat, we get an idea of how the soul must be transcendental to these things, but how it agrees to do things as convenient for the body, sometimes it is necessary to keep body and soul together, sometimes just pandering to its endless demands, I couldn't decide which it was in my case, though I'm sure I could have stuck out just a litte bit longer with more determination.

Ratha Yatra - Pulling Krishna Back!

While we've always had a book tent at Ratha Yatra, we've always been either short-staffed, or with not enough titles. This year because of the very recent India order, we not only had additional books in other languages, but also many new and old titles that devotees would be interested in as well (Siksamrita, Lilamrita, Namamrta, Sloka book and more). Also because of the Monthly Sankirtan Festivals over the last one year, we were able to have a team of very dedicated 10-12 devotees with Sankirtan as their primary service.

As suggested by Vaisesika Prabhu, this year we were able to get more than 500 small books sponsored. We wanted these small books to be distributed during the harinama on the eve of Ratha Yatra and also during the Parade. Since the books were already sponsored, we encouraged devotees to be liberal in giving them out for any donations. Devotees were able to distribute more than 200 small books during this time, and the enthusiasm of the participating devotees spilled over others as more and more devotees wanted to do books during the harinama and parade.

At the festival site, we had a 20x20 feet tent for books and 8 tables. Our goal in terms of the layout was for maximum visibility, accessibility and mobility. Since we had many different titles in multiple languages, we decided to have table signs (much like table numbers at weddings) that would read out the language/category. These signs, handmade by Vrndavan Prabhu, really allowed books to be very well organized and visible. We also had a special sale table comprising of the remaining sponsored books, where we offered any 3 small books for $5. This was a major attraction for most people, and a great way to get them through the door (literally). We also ran a festival special discount on all other regular books, which encouraged both devotees and guests to buy more books (including most of us!). We also distributed 1x4 fliers promoting the Book Tent featuring the special sale table and the discounted prices.

At any time we had about 5-7 devotees managing various tables in the book tent. There was a constant flow of traffic, hardly leaving any time for the core team to take a break or go around the festival site, which was in itself ecstatic.

We also had 2 sandwich boards (again handmade by Vrndavan Prabhu) placed at two sides of the book tent, which had 4 collages (prepared by Mangal Arti dd, Nicole and Romey), on 4 different contemporary themes that are addressed in Srila Prabhupada's books with the hope of encouraging people to check out the books. The 4 themes were - Love and Relationships, Environmental Crises, Overcoming Stress, and Science & Sastra. These displays attracted passersby, we even saw some people making notes of the content!

In addition to the main tent, we also had 4-6 satellite tables setup around various exhibits each manned by 1-2 devotees (e.g. Vegetarianism, Bhagavad-gita, Q&A, Reincarnation, Simple Living High Thinking, Mantra-meditation etc). This increased our visibility and captured the attention of the guests from all possible means. Our dear Walking Bhagavad gita, who turned 1 year this Rath Yatra, won everyone's applaud again this year, and remained an amazing channel for increased BG distribution as people would stop to take pictures and gradually end up buying a book!

All these efforts designed and pursued under Vaisesika prabhu's model, brought tremendous success to the Sankirtan efforts! Not only were we able to distribute more than 1400 books (which is 3 times the number as last year) for very encouraging laxmi points, but all the participating devotees were enlivened and inspired beyond compare.

The two Ratha Yatra days and the week leading up to it was very long and intense, but the smiling faces of the devotees dedicatedly engaged in Sankirtan was a treat for everyone - we also had a muslim lady walk up to us and say - I really just want to be as happy as you, can you tell me how! Every single devotee was so inspired to just share whatever they had, their realizations, the books and knowledge, that they did not even care for any discomfort or lack of sleep. Serving together like this, increased the bonding between the devotees, actually enabling us to realize how Sankirtan is our very life and soul.

Niagara Falls MSF - 1-year Anniversary Special

By Radhamohan das

Because of the G-20 summit in Toronto on the last weekend of June, we had to postpone our Niagara Falls special Monthly Sankirtan Festival (MSF) by a week. We were apprehensive about many things - new location, turnout, logistics, and above all, physical absence of Shyama-mohini dd (who was away that week attending the annual retreat with HH Bhakti Charu Swami in Vraj, USA). However, by Lord Caitanya's causeless mercy as always, everything worked out seamlessly. Shyama-mohini dd did an excellent job before leaving of planning and coordinating the prasadam with a team of devotees (both for sankirtan and devotees), and was also a constant source of inspiration and encouragement via email and phone. Devotees had their best time, were extremely inspired, enlivened and very enthusiastic to go out again!

We rented a 48-seater school bus to drive devotees to the Falls, which saved the hassles of coordinating cars and drivers. A few families drove their own cars, bringing the total participation to 55. Plan was to leave at 9am, do sankirtan from 11am to 2pm, picnic lunch 3 to 4pm, and return by 6pm. Given the 1.5 hour drive one way, we made special arrangements to make sure that devotees were on time. By Lord's inconceivable mercy, at 9:10am the bus had left downtown Toronto. The bus journey allowed devotees to bond together in an environment free from the stress of driving. There was kirtan all along, and for many this was the best part of the entire trip. We utilized the time on the bus to set the mood, bring everyone on the same page and do some training as there were some new people on the bus. We started by reading an excerpt from HG Vaisesika prabhu's email which was full of words of encouragement and inspiration. We also read a very inspiring message sent by Shyama-mohini dd. Next we discussed the "what" and "how" of book distribution based on Vasesika prabhu's instructions, assigned teams and team leaders, shared the itinerary and special instructions for the day. On the outskirts of the city, we were greeted by Mr. Sudesh Gupta, Shyama-mohini's grand uncle. He guided the bus to the best spot near the Falls, and also drove Vrndavan prabhu around later to show different spots including the park where we would take lunch.

It was the most beautiful day with thousands of people at the Falls. We found a good spot on the grass next to the side walk and made it our nucleus base, where we kept all the boxes of books, water and prasadam. Constant kirtan and dancing went on at that spot, which was a huge attraction for the tourists. They were taking pictures and many were dancing along. It also allowed devotees, especially with kids, to rest in the tree shade as the sun was scorching hot. At the same time, many devotees spread out on the side streets distributing prasadam, mantra & Rath Yatra cards, and books to the fortunate souls. Devotees had the greatest fun ever (you can read Shama Sharma's experiences - her first MSF - on this blog http://torontosankirtan.blogspot.com/2010/07/be-heard-my-first-tryst-with-msf.html). 3 hours later, devotees had distributed about 1000 pieces of prasadam, 100s of Rath Yatra cards and 82 books for ~$300 laxmi (1/3rd of which was in US$ suggesting many books went across the border!). Devotees were exhausted but no one wanted to stop. We then took few group pictures, and drove to the park for lunch prasadam, which was very elaborately cooked by a team of devotees. Devotees shared their experience while partaking in sumptuous prasadam. Around 4:30pm, we drove back to Toronto with non-stop kirtan in the bus, which heightened up as we entered downtown and neared the temple. As the final thing, devotees gathered in the temple hall and shared their realizations from the day, which brought tears in my eyes as I remembered the unlimited causeless mercy that Lord Caitanaya and the disciplic succession have showered on us undeserving souls. Devotees went home physically exhausted but spiritually enlivened and wanting more. One lady with a baby, who got Bhagavad-gita at the Falls from Sankalp and Shaun (both 14) showed up at the Sunday Feast in Toronto the next day! Few people who got festival cards at the Falls also came to the Rath Yatra festival a couple weeks later.

Be Heard - My First Tryst with MSF

Shama Sharma

It was the very first time that I participated in Sankirtan festival at ISKCON Toronto and that too at the annual big anniversary at the Niagra Falls!It was personally my third visit to the Falls but this was the first time that I enjoyed this beauty of the nature from inside out with Krishna's mercy and in the loving association of the devotees. It was huge fun sitting with so many devotees in the same bus with all of us singing, dancing, clapping, laughing and make our way to the Falls. We got very nice training and guidance during the journey from Radha Mohan Prabhu about how to have a humble Krishna Conscious mindset while distributing books.On reaching Niagara Falls, I started with participating in Kirtan and enjoying the Harinaam. People there were so attracted to the Kirtan that some of them even joined and started dancing with us. It was so fulfilling for me personally to see the big smiles on their faces which originates from the internal happiness with the effect of none other but the Holy Name!I felt so enthusiastic while distributing books because it was really a humbling experience to meet so many awesome people. I am so thankful to have so much mercy from Krishna to make it happen for me.I also realized that the guidance that we got on the way from the sankirtan team was so practical as it helped me to keep my focus during whole time while I was on book distribution.The bus tour, food, trip guidance and actually everything in this tour was so organized that I would like to convey my heartiest Thanks to the organizing members who made it a wonderful experience for all of us!

How I Came Through Srila Prabhupada’s Books – One Devotee’s Story

As compiled by Rashi Singh

One year ago, HG Vaisesika Prabhu graced ISKCON Toronto with his presence for the first time, and our temple has not since been the same. Not only had he empowered and inspired a group of devotees to form the Toronto Sankirtana Team, but by his mercy, many people are feeling the buzz of book distribution, and so many more are reaping its benefits. One such person is now a regular, valued member of the ISKCON Toronto family. At a regular Sunday feast, I have the privilege of honouring prasadam with this devotee, who explains her story to me.

About a year ago, Haleh Ashkevari was driving with her daughter in the Bloor-Spadina neighbourhood. Haleh was unassumingly parking her car, while her daughter walked into a nearby store in the trendy area. As Haleh stepped out of her car, a devotee approached her and asked if she was interested in yoga. She said yes. The devotee began showing her the pages and some pictures of the Bhagavad Gita, using the tips that HG Vaisesika Prabhu provided, that Haleh herself is now very familiar with. Intrigued, she gave the devotee $20 in exchange for the book, after which he introduced her to Vaisesika Prabhu. “Do you believe in the power of prayer?” Vaisesika Prabhu asked.“Sure,” she said.“I’m going to teach you one – repeat after me.” And then Haleh uttered the Hare Krishna mahamantra for the first time in this life. “I’ll never forget that feeling,” she remembers. “I really felt like something had taken over me. The mantra was so powerful.” Snapping her out of her somewhat bewildered and happy state, Haleh’s daughter then approached her to leave for the next store. And she did, but not before Vaisesika Prabhu invited her to the temple. She came the very next day, and gave Vaisesika Prabhu her contact information, upon his request.

For two months, she didn’t come to the temple due to a busy travel schedule, but Vaisesika Prabhu stayed in touch with her. “He was so kind, and very personal,” says Haleh. “I don’t think I knew how lucky I was!” With the encouragement of HG Vaisesika Prabhu, Haleh began coming to the temple more regularly. Although she felt it was a little scary at first, the devotees made her feel very welcome. Also at the insistence of Vaisesika Prabhu, Haleh began going out on books. “It’s been a wonderful experience. I feel that going out on books is a self-cleansing process for me. Every time I recognize things in people that are preventing them from surrendering to Krishna , I feel like I’m looking in a mirror.” At this point in Haleh’s story, I’m in awe. Was it just one year ago that Haleh came into our lives? She is such an integral part of our community, and such a warm and loving personality. And as she says something so simple, and so humble, I begin to appreciate the power of Srila Prabhupada’s books, and of Vaisesika Prabhu’s care. “I feel like going out on books allows me to meet people who remind me of what the things are that I need to work on to progress in my Krishna Consciousness,” she continues. “I’m reaching a point in my spiritual life where I’m realizing many of my faults, and my personal obstacles. I hope that going out on books will continue to purify me, and I really hope that I have the blessings and association of all the Toronto devotees to help me!” Again, I’m deeply inspired by Haleh’s humility, and the depth of her realizations. There are so many people in our city who are in desperate need of Srila Prabhupada’s books. With a little bit of courage, and a lot of mercy, we should all try to assist the Toronto Sankirtana Team as much as possible, and play a small role in pushing on Srila Prabhupada’s glorious mission here in Toronto .

Speaking to Haleh makes me realize that we really are just instruments, and Krishna will send us people who are ripe for Krishna Consciousness if we endeavor with sincerity. I also realize that book distribution is as much for our own purification than anything else. “Here I am a year later, praying for the mercy and blessings of all the vaisnavas,” Haleh says. “I am eternally grateful and indebted to HG Vaisesika Prabhu.”

We're Back!

After having been away for a while, we're back to blogging again! What you may ask, were we upto in all these days/months!

Well, well summer is time for activity everywhere...and so the Sankirtan Team has also been buzzing with heightened activity in the last little while. The Anniversary MSF trip to Niagara Falls, Receiving and processing the humoungous book order and finally preparing and executing the Ratha Yatra Sankirtan Plan. While the fun doesn't end here, we thought we should update you on the happenings nevertheless. Stay tuned for reports on these very exciting events that just happened.

Also coming up next:-

1. CDM - Ceto Darpan Marjanam - Organized cleaning of the temple - July 24th

12-4pm

Lets clean the temple of Sri Sri Radha KsicoraGopinath in the association of like-minded people and relish yummy pizza after!

2. Vaisesika Prabhu returns to ISKCON Toronto August 12-16th - More info coming up soon

Toronto Sankirtan Team's First Anniversary!

Sankirtan is a Sanskrit term which means the congregational chanting and sharing of the names and glories of Krishna, which is the recommended process for spiritual success. In the Hare Krishna tradition, sankirtan is associated with sharing our spiritual culture with the public via the timeless books, translated by Srila Prabhupada.

For the past one year, the Toronto Sankirtan Team has been organizing monthly sankirtan festivals (MSF), where enthusiastic Bhakti Yoga Practitioners go out on the streets to share spiritual books, prasadam (karma-free food) and the holy name. This month marks the one year anniversary of the MSF, and on this special occasion, Toronto Sankirtan Team invites you to join in for a memorable sankirtan outing at Niagara Falls on July 3rd, 2010.

Tentative Schedule:
7:45am Srimad Bhagavatam Class
9:00am Depart from temple
10:30am Arrive at Niagara Falls
11:00am-2:00pm – Street Sankirtan
2:00pm – Lunch Prasadam
4:00pm – Drive back to temple

A nominal contribution of $15/person applicable if transportation is required.Pre-registration is mandatory (deadline: June 30, Wednesday). For registration / questions, please fill the form or email toronto.sankirtan@gmail.com. In the email, please specify if you would require transportation.

We look forward to seeing you on the 3rd!