Opportunity at every step

As I was walking outside Urbanedgeyoga, I saw a girl crossing the street and tried to give her a card and she said no she has her own practice. At that time i asked her if she was interested n a little book - she looked undecided but at that very moment i saw the little Ganesha earings she was wearing. So i told her by the way - you know Ganesha wrote these books (Vyasadev dictated and Ganesha was the scribe). She got all interested and started to tell me that she lived in India and thats where she got earings from. Encouraged by Ganesha, she took a book home to explore

We have a book from everyone

I had a few minutes and was walking down Yonge and Finch and could see almost no one when suddenly a man passed by. He didnt want to stop for Yoga and passed me by saying 'I am Buddhist'. Remembering Vasesika Prabhu's strategy - i asked him really - you are Budhist, wait I will give you a book Buddhists use and handed him a Bhagavad gita. Luckily for me as I opened it, opened right on chapter titled 'Karma Yoga'. I told him how Budhism talks about Karma and he readily agreed and appreciated the picture of Lord Buddha in the Bhagavad gita. He switched from saying no to taking a flier to giving a donation for Bhagavad gita.

Altar of Sankirtan

We wish that this mass of our body of flesh and blood may be sacrificed at the altar of preaching the samkirtan movement propagated by lord Chaitanya. We are not desirous of becoming a hero of work or a reformer of a religion, but our reality may be identified with the dust of the lotus feet of Sree Rupa and Raghunath for that is our everything...We shall have no love or hatred for anyone in this world. All arrangements made in this world are temporary. There is, therefore,unavoidable necessity for that ultimate need for every one in this world. You should attain the transcendental loving service of the objective, being situated in concerted action for that one aim. Let there be constant flow of the ideas and thoughts as conceived by Rupa Goswami and His followers. We shall not at any time show our slightest dejection for the seven tongued 'Sankirtan' movement. If we have undaunted faith in it we shall then only achieve all protections. You should all therefore preach with fearlessness and with utmost energy the message of Rupa and Raghunath under the guidance of the followers of Sree Rupa.

His Divine Grace Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj, 23 Dec 1936 a few days before his passing from this mortal world 

A risky life

Foolish persons do not know how risky life is here if one does not follow the instructions of Kṛṣṇa. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, therefore, has been started so that by practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness one can avoid the risky life of this material existence. There is no question of accepting or not accepting Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is not optional; it is compulsory. If we do not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, our life is very risky. Everything is explained in Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore, to learn how to become free from the miserable condition of material existence, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is is the preliminary study. Then, if one understands Bhagavad-gītā, one can proceed to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and if one advances further, one may study Caitanya-caritāmṛta. We are therefore presenting these invaluable books to the whole world so that people may study them and be happy, being delivered from miserable conditional life.

SB 10.8.49

I remember

Two ladies were trying to cross the street at Avenue and Bloor when I waved and tried to stop them. As I reached out to them with a perfection of yoga and bhakti yoga each, one of them looked at the Bhagavad gita in my hand and exclaimed that she was looking for it as her friend had mentioned about it to her. So I opened the Bhagavad gita and started to show them. As I showed the picture of reincarnation the other lady started to say that she knew this picture, she had been seeing it from her childhood days. She told me she didn’t know what it means but since she was little, her mom in Russia used to show her this picture. Then as I turned the pages she saw the picture of Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot and she started to say she knew that one too – it was like her memories were flashing in front of her eyes. I could see pretty clearly the effect of association of Srila Prabhupada’s books. They both ended up taking two books each and gave their emails with nice donations. I am wondering how through the change of bodies from childhood, to youth to middle age one remembers a picture that they don’t even know the meaning of – surely there is some special power there.

An opportunity at every step

Submitted by : Bhakta Milind

We traveled recently to Chicago, the hotel front desk clerk seemed to be unusually bright for that job. So I asked him if he was the owner, as it is not unusual among hotel owners to stand in for their employees. He said no. Then I asked him what he was doing there. He explained that he had just completed a Master's degree in Health Administration, and was worried about getting a good job, that this was his "survival" job. So I asked him what he was doing about it... he used the words "Trying to making it happen". I asked him if he thought that "making it happen" was all in our hands. He said yes. So I asked him why then was he anxious when he clearly did not want to be anxious. That got him thinking. I asked him if he was interested in spiritual matters. He said yes, and immediately wary, taking a quick second look at my Vaishnava Tilaka and Prabhupada T-shirt, replied "yes, yes, as long as it does not interfere with my schedule". So I asked him if a 30-minute investment of time in understanding the nature of anxiety was too much of an interference with his schedule. He said no. I asked him if he would read some books that helped me a lot to overcome anxiety and are helping me succeed in life. He said yes. I commended him, praised his studious and honest nature, and went to the car to get several small books, Beyond Birth and Death, Bhakti Yoga, Dharma, Civilization and Transcendence...and some more, I don't even remember exactly which ones. I was thinking maybe he would take one, maybe two. He took all of them! Next day, when we were checking out, he gave me his email address, confirmed that I would write to him, and said he had only flipped through the books last night, but would surely read them soon.

Intelligent persons all over the world are just waiting to be introduced to this sublime philosophy of Bhakti Yoga, and the joyful life that comes from living the philosophy ourselves. WHen we try sincerely to live that philosophy, then our simple sincerity, inspite of all our imperfections serve to attract everyone to hear about Krishna. Our enthusiasm is contagious, everyone who is open minded wants to know, what are these people so enthusiastic about? What, they are not even making any money doing this? Why are they doing this? "Let me see." and they take a book. Which is the beginning of the end of their material imprisonment. We're all about freedom from enslavement, and the intelligent get it.

Network of sankirtan army

I was at Kensington for Sankirtan this Saturday but a series of events, completely unplanned, resulted in me reaching Bloor and Spadina for Sankirtan. As soon as I reached there I ran into a young couple who were just passing through the intersection. As I showed them Srila Prabhuapda's books, they recognised him and explained that they were from Ottawa. I told them we have a centre in Ottawa and they told me they were regular visitors to the Govindas. I told them I knew Shankar Prabhu and they said they did too and really loved the food. Their appreciation for Prashad and prabhu perhaps got them the bonus points needed to come in touch with Srila Prabhupada's books so they ended up taking books and saying they would read it.
My realisation was that we may think that here we are standing all alone doing sankirtan but that is a very limited and tiny vision. If you look at the big picture, there is a network of Sankirtan army all through the universe and we are never alone on Sankirtan. Very kindly Srila Prabhupada has given us all a spot here in Toronto, we just have to be there at the spot to recieve the people he sends our way to pick these books.