Team spirit
Monthly Sankirtan Festival is a successful program to involve householder devotees in book distribution. In large cities, the commute time to the temple is a major barrier for devotees who live far from the temple to come out for sankirtan. In many cases, devotees spend 1-3 hours in the commute, leaving little time for actual book distribution. Also, for most people, cold weather, rain, wind, etc., cause major health issues. In Toronto, the team eliminated the distance barrier by creating 5 teams with geographical focus of book distribution local to the areas where devotees live. And the devotees eliminated the weather barrier by focusing on door-to-door sankirtan in high density apartment buildings.
And to create the feeling of being connected and share the buzz, a Whatsapp group was created – with practically constant updates of books distributed, photos etc., almost like the old days we hear about from the devotees of Srila Prabhupada, where one distributor fires up the others, and everybody benefits from one another's enthusiasm.
As a result, we see ecstatic updates like this all the time!
*TST (Toronto Sankirtan Team) Central*
TST Central had an incredible day at Kensington Market with the perfect combination of devotees distributing books and performing kirtan in tandem! Special thanks to Yura pr, Dhira pr and team for transforming Kensington with soul-stirring kirtan, stopping all the people in their paths! The team of over 25 devotees together, by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and with the blessings of all devotees, distributed 147 books, spreading the holy name, distributing prasad and leaving everyone with a good impression!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153521652816752.1073741847.68762 1751&type=1&l=0a710e2a6b
*TST East*
A small team of 3 covered 11 floors and knocked at 242 doors between 12 – 3:15 pm and distributed 61 books for 122 Laxmi points and some bhoga. Mainly distributed medium (BG(s), SSR, CBH) and small books (POY, BY, PQPA, CB) plus kids books, 2 KB, 1 BG(TEL). As usual, Vijay Patel Prabhu was fired up. It was nice to see him engaging one teenager in service to carry a big box from outside the building on stairs to the lobby and again another box from pavement to the lobby. Everyone knows Vijay Patel Prabhu's style that basically said "Come here, carry this, OK.' The teenagers very obediently did so. His karmic cycle is broken with spiritual activity. Hari Bol.
*TST Northeast*
Thanks to all the Vaisnavas for their continued support. Our team of 4 went out on our 2nd book distribution today, May 14th 2016. Together we were able to distribute 30, including 7 Bhagavad Gitas. We collected almost 290 Lakshmi points the by mercy of Srila Prabhupada, their Lordship Sri Gaura-Nitai and all the wonderful devotees. We are looking forward to continuing this service. Please continue to give us your blessings!!
*TST West*
TST West were obliged by Kannada Sanga (Toronto) to have our Sankirtan presence in their annual Ugadi Habba (New Tear festival) event held at Port Credit Secondary School, Mississauga on Saturday, May 07 '16 from 4.00 to 11.30 pm. With the team of 6 warriors, we met around 500 people with a sublime yet focused approach by keeping Prabhupada's goal and Vaisesika Prabhu's direction. This gave us an ecstatic response with the score summary of total 75 books being distributed that includes big books 38 and 640 Lakshmi points with 2 prospects for SB and 1 showed interest for life membership. With our so far experience in sankirtan festivals, such results are common and it will keep coming by-default as long our senses are synchronized with a common objective of spreading KC to every soul with whom we meet. We wouldn't have performed without the blessings of Vaishnavas and thanks to all. We did captured few glimpses , due to the attachment size limitation, very few are being shared herewith. *TST Northwest* On the occasion of Gaura Purnima festival, TST North West warriors headed out to distribute Srila Prabhupada books near Etobicoke. We thank Jay Trivedi Prabhu for giving us this lead about the apartments in Etobicoke.
There were new devotees who joined TST North West team during this MSF. We had very enthusiastic warriors on board like Nitya Tripta Mataji who was accompanied by her daughter Tanya. Mataji was fully fired up; she did 2 Krsna books in just 7 or 8 doors she knocked initially. Another enthusiastic mother-daughter duo was Hemanti Mataji and her daughter Krsna. Hemanti Mataji was very humble and spoke very softly to the residents and convinced them to take books. She was telling that the training from Radha Mohan prabhu and Anjaneya Prabhu was very helpful.
We also had experienced book distributor Narahari Dev Prabhu, who was giving good suggestions for effective book distribution. Yogeshwar prabhu came all the way from Milton to join our team. He has been supporting and encouraging us from beginning. With Chaitanya Mahaprabhus mercy and prayers from you, 8 devotees together distributed a total of 41 books!!
Your servant,
Mahabhagavat Dasa
