A book in the bag

I met a young boy in University of Toronto last week and I showed him the chant and be happy. He responded saying he already had a book from me and was reading it. To my surprise he said he carried it everywhere and opened his bag to show me his copy. sankirtan yagya ke jaya!

Temple and book distribution

For preaching, construction of temples is also necessary. The Gosvāmīs not only engaged in writing books but also constructed temples because both are needed for preaching work. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu wanted the cult of His sańkīrtana movement to spread all over the world. Now that the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has taken up this task of preaching the cult of Lord Caitanya, its members should not only construct temples in every town and village of the globe but also distribute the books that have already been written and further increase the number of books. Both distribution of books and construction of temples must continue side by side in parallel lines.

Cc Adi 7.165

Temple and book distribution

For preaching, construction of temples is also necessary. The Gosvāmīs not only engaged in writing books but also constructed temples because both are needed for preaching work. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu wanted the cult of His sańkīrtana movement to spread all over the world. Now that the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has taken up this task of preaching the cult of Lord Caitanya, its members should not only construct temples in every town and village of the globe but also distribute the books that have already been written and further increase the number of books. Both distribution of books and construction of temples must continue side by side in parallel lines.

Cc Adi 7.165

Compassionate outreach

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the mercy incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is addressed by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī as mahā-vadānyāvatāra, or the most magnanimous incarnation. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī also says, karuṇayāvatīrṇaḥ kalau: it is only by His mercy that He has descended in this Age of Kali. Here this is exemplified. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not like to see Māyāvādī sannyāsīs because He thought of them as offenders to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, but here He excuses them (tāń-sabāra kṣami' aparādha). This is an example in preaching. Āpani ācari' bhakti śikhāimu sabāre. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches us that those whom preachers meet are almost all offenders who are opposed to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but it is a preacher's duty to convince them of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and then induce them to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Our propagation of the sańkīrtana movement is continuing, despite many opponents, and people are taking up this chanting process even in remote parts of the world like Africa. By inducing the offenders to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu exemplified the success of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We should follow very respectfully in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya, and there is no doubt that we shall be successful in our attempts.

CC Adi 150

30 years later

I was in Kensington market trying to reach out to people and I saw a man with two very little 7 year old (approximately) girls. I spoke to him and showed him the perfection of yoga and a picture of Srila Prabhupada and he really appreciated it. I requested a donation and he readily parted with some change. Then to know him better I tried to speak with his daughters and told him - I was their age when I got my first book. To my greatest surprise he replied "I was their age when I got that book (pointing to the chant and be happy in my hands". I was extremely surprised and asked him details of how he got. He had it and had read it and today 30 years later he was picking is second Srila Prabhupada book. Param Vijayate Sri Krishna Sankirtanam

Every minute can make a difference

I had a flight to catch to Harrisburg next morning and had not even started to pack my bag - but its marathon time so I had to try at least for a few minutes. I practically ran from my home and while i was running towards the closest major intersection I stopped to talk to a girl who had just stepped outside a sushi restaurant. I asked her if she had heard of yoga and she responded immediately saying " I have spoken with you before". I was not sure how this would turn out now but I asked her to remind me of our last meeting. She described how we met outside Starbucks and she got a book from me. I asked her if she had read the book and she explained that she had loved the perfection of yoga and wanted to come visit us, but she had lost our card. So I handed her a Chant and be happy and requested her to come visit us. She gave me some more donation and took the book promising to read it. We were discussing the rare chance of us running in like this and I knew for sure that this was no random event.

Shopping on the street

Submitted by : Mahabhagvat Das
A lady hurried by, something about what she said in response to my call "Yoga and Meditation?" made me follow her a few steps. She stopped and asked me what was yoga and why people say different things about yoga. I started explaining, and showed her the books. She kept looking through one, then another one, then another then back to the first one, then another, flipping pages, trying to absorb something from them, frantically switching from one book to the next to the next.

During the conversation, She told me her name, Gladys, that she was from Nigeria, that she had seen and heard this "Hare Krishna" many times. Eventually it got so cold that I offered to step into the mall, she agreed. She looked through the Bhagavad Gita again and again, and kept flip-flopping whether to take it or not. She expressed concern, what if she doesn't get anything out of it. I said what did she have to lose then anyway, as at the moment it didn't seem that she had anything any way, no loss. She expressed she didn't have much money. I handed her the softcover and said she could give me whatever she had. She expressed concern that she was not able to understand anything of what she read. I said that's because she kept flipping back-and-forth... that if she sat down and read carefully, few pages every day, she would understand, because the book was written for people like us who had trouble understanding complex things

Somehow or the other she counted out little coins, holding on to one particular toonie, which looked shiny, identifying it as her "new coin" which she did not want to spend. Then she took the Bhagavad Gita softcover, and said that if she didn't understand it, she would bring it back. I said I'd give her something even simpler to read in that case, and that simply keeping the book in her home would bring her good luck, but reading would help her more.

She resisted chanting the Mahamantra for some reason, but kept the invite to the Sunday feast.

I wondered how it was that someone would be very much attached to a shiny coin that had the same value as a dull-looking coin, but had so much trouble beating down the mind which kept posing objections, that kept urging her to shop and shop, even in spiritual books. Then I wondered how long I had been in that very same situation before somehow being fortunate enough to accept some little bit of devotional service, and I felt great compassion for this poor soul.