Fat Greek 5 (purity and monetary) by Aisvarya das
When she approaches people she remembers the wise words of her guru: “Just tell them, ‘please take this book, it’s a good book,’ and because of your simple-hearted purity they will accept your words very easily.”
When we approach people we also try to remember the wise words of her guru.
When she presents a book to someone they have one recurring thought throughout the whole conversation, “I trust this person!”
When I present a book to someone they have one recurring thought throughout the whole conversation, “He wants money. How much money does he want? What does he want money for? He DOES want money!”
Vaisnava Seva Mataji didn’t receive her name by chance. Her and her husband, Nama Sankirtan, make a determined team when it comes to Krsna Consciousness. They spend time together on any given morning chanting the glories of the Lord’s Names, reading Srila Prabhupada’s books to each other, and humbly serving anyone who comes along; whether saintly, like their guru H.H.Kavicandra Swami, or whether accidentally washed up on the shore of Krsna Consciousness.
One lady spent the night with them after her purse was stolen along with her house keys in downtown Thessaloniki. Somehow or other she held onto her Bhagavad Gita with Nam’s mobile phone number written in it as her only contact left.
Whatever the case may be this couple will find a way to serve.
So one day Vaisnava Seva and Nam were distributing on the University of Thessaloniki’s main campus. Seva was using the lines that her guru had taught her and was doing well.
While holding a book Seva had just handed to her, a young academic student listened carefully to an interesting explanation on Vaisnava siddhanta, Vaisnava Seva said “It's a very nice book from India. I've been reading it for three years now and I'm very happy with it.”
The student looked at Seva with wide eyes and asked, “Really? Is this true?”
Seva offered an ultimatum, “If it's not true then my eyes will drop out from their sockets!”
“Ok, I'll read it,” said the young lady, “and if I'm happy with it I'll call you".
Quick as lightning, Seva wrote her phone number in the book and added, “If you are not happy with this book then call me. But I know you will be very happy and you'll have to find me and take another book!”
The student concluded, “If I'm happy then I’ll live like you!”
Seva’s purity affects. One day, our second day in Thessaloniki to be precise, she had been distributing for half an hour on a famous walking street when she approached one intellectual looking gentleman and plonked a Bhagavad Gita in his greasy palms.
“Ahhhh, very interesting,” he proclaimed.
"We have these very nice books from the Himalayas of India,” Seva enthusiastically said. “They’re for the tranquility of the mind".
"Ahhhh yes! I love India," our intellectual raved and once seeing that there were more titles in Seva’s bag, demanded, “Give me more!”
Seva obliged by setting down two more Greek books in the man’s open hands.
“You have more?” he was on a roll.
Seva began stacking up a couple more small English books but stopped short to make a stern warning, “Ok, I can give you more but you have to give me something back.”
The man haphazardly pulled a 20 Euro note out of his pocket and hinted that it was too much for the books. But in true Sankirtaneero fashion, Seva was not daunted, “I’ll make change.” She fumbled in her purse but somehow or other couldn’t find anything small.
Not to be defeated she made a proposal, “Can I give you one more book instead of change?”
“Of course! That’s better!”
Just as she finalized the deal another person came over and asked, “"Do you have Bhagavad Gita?
“Of course,” Seva professed.
The boy then told her how he’d been looking for the Gita since time immemorial and had minutes ago been told by a friend to come to that very place: “You’ll find a person there who has that very book,” his friend had assured him.
Seva was curious and asked, “Why do you want this book? How do you know about it?”
He simply replied, “I'm interested in Yoga and I heard that this is the best book on it”
True to the Sankirtanero sampradaya, Seva followed up, “Do you want anything else?”
He was happy, “No, only the Bhagavad Gita!”
It wasn’t long before Christina came running over to Seva with her newly acquired Srimad Bhagavatam 1st Canto part 1 – “Look what I’ve got!” Christina managed to excitedly tell Seva how she had just bought this sublime literature from some crazy half-Greek monk a couple of hundred meters up the street.
Meanwhile, “up the street” in my abode of controlled insanity, just after the Christina episode, I was standing talking with Pablos when one lady in her mature years began to, what can be best described as, orbit us. She incessantly glared at the Gita in my hand while walking rings around us.
My initial reaction was to heed the plethora of alarm bells ringing in my head. “She’s too old to be interested. She’s trying to figure out what cult you’re into. She’ll tell the police. Just ignore her. Pretend she’s not there and maybe she'll go away.”
But I couldn’t ignore the tugging sensation I felt a few seconds later.
The lady had caught hold of one end of that Bhagavad Gita and was trying to dislodge it from my vice-like grip. I wasn’t going to give it up that easy.
I looked at her with my attempt of the bad-influence-dispersing-mudra mentioned in the orange puja book and asked her in not such a warm tone, “Can I help you?”
She simply asked to look at the book.
Something softened my heart – thus I let loose my grip on thatBhagavad Gita, giving Pablos and his wallet a prime opportunity to escape – which he fully exploited.
So there I was alone, waiting to be hung, drawn and quartered by an Orthodox Christian on a crusade.
But instead of grabbing her cross and condemning me to a life bereft of Olives and Feta cheese, this lady read the cover of that book and exclaimed in a pleasant shrill, “A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada! I’ve been looking for this translation of the Bhagavad Gita for years! My name is Paramahamsini Anandini Tirthini Mayini Fettuccini Swamini. I’m very pleased to meet you!”
In the mean time, as a temporarily relieved Pablos passed Tara further down the street, he couldn’t have helped but notice Christina ecstatically telling Uncle Louie (Tara) about some pastime featuring a Srimad Bhagavatam, a monk, some money, and a nice trustworthy lady she had just met.
Vaisnava Seva’s mood captures peoples’ hearts. As a gentleman named Panayotis was looking at the Srimad Bhagavatam Seva had put in his palms, she related the story of King Pariksit and his surrender to the wise words of Sukadeva Goswami.
Panayotis had read the Gita before and liked it so much that he was looking for “the second step”. “If you have something more advanced, I want it,” he had proclaimed just before being introduced to Bhagavatam.
So Vaisnava Seva explained the essence of reading this book.
nasta-prayesv abhadresu
nityam bhagavata-sevaya
bhagavaty uttama-sloke
bhaktir bhavati naisthiki
“By regular attendance in classes on the Bhagavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact.” [SB 1.2.18]
Ultimately it’s not about tricks or entertainment. And I keep telling myself it’s not about money. It’s all about the right service attitude and a good heart.
