I just called to say Hare Krsna 0 Srila Prabhupada ki jay!
Dear Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I decided that I would be brave and go to the Calcutta temple and while there distribute some books. The first person I stopped on the street, was a well dressed man, I noted he had a very nicely shaved head, and how I wished my head could be shaved like that too. I introduced myself to him and asked him if he was from Calcutta. Yes he was. I asked him what he did in Calcutta; he told me that he was a business man. I asked him if he was a good one, he said he was, but at the moment it was becoming difficult in the current global economy crises, that India was also experiencing. I explained, the reason for the crisis was greed and selfishness and the problem was that those in material existence are trying to exploit the resources of material nature for their own self satisfaction, but as they try to exploit more than they need, they get bound up in her complexities. I told him you could not fight fire with fire. He agreed with me, as I began to explain, that Krsna is the owner and proprietor of everything that be and the well wishing friend of all living entities, that when so-called civilized human society begins to understand that, then and only then will they experience peace and prosperity. He began to look at the last 5 books I had, and to my amazement he asked me how much I wanted for them, I said 85rps. He gave me the donation, I thanked him for taking the books, and told him that he should take the knowledge in the books and use it to help him. I shook his hand and told him that I was very proud of him for taking the books, the vast majority of the population in this age of Kali Yuga were becoming more and more godless. I hugged him and whispered in his ear Namo om vishnupadaye..Sri Krsna Caitanya..Hare Krsna Hare Krsna.. I thanked him very much for taking the books and that I would always remember him, and asked him to say Hare Krsna, to which he replied, Hare Krsna!
When I was on my way to Mayapur from Jaganath Puri, I arrived right in the middle of the local rush hour. if you are sick and trying to make you way through a roaring sea of human bodies, it is quite a shock to the body. I was trying to find my way to the platform that my train for Navadip. In that sea of human bodies, it was almost impossible to communicate. At last I got some positive direction, but still it was difficult. From a distance I saw some bramacarris, and asked them if they were waiting to take the train to Navadip, yes they were. They were from Slovakia. At last, I could not believe my good fortune. The local train arrived and they helped me to carry my luggage on to the train. As the train pulled out, I chanted the Narasringadev prayers, as the rest of the passengers looked on with astonishment at 3 young and 1 old saffron clad bramacarris, some of them joined in clapping. What was nice was the devotees had a mrdanga and Kartalas and had a lively kirtan and prayers to Tulasi. I asked the Slovakian devotees if they had any books, yes they did and took out a hard cover Bhagavad Gita. One devotee began showing it to a well dressed Indian gentleman sitting opposite him. I cannot remember if the Bhagavad Gita was in Hindi or Bengali as he perused through it. He gave it back to the devotee; I could see he was not interested. So I asked him to give the Bhagavad Gita to me, and handed it to some locals sitting across from were I was sitting. On both sides they all crowded around to have a look at the Bhagavad Gita. I then asked them if I could show them some thing in the book and proceeded to explain the pictures of the changing bodies, I could see this aroused their interest in the Bhagavad Gita. So I let them continue reading, and then I said to the young Bengali man who was already shown the Bhagavad Gita, I said to him, "Now you should take this book of higher knowledge which is from India, the land of Krsna." He asked me asked how much I wanted for the book, I told him he could take it for 50rps. He gave me the donation, just then the train slowed down for a stop, he got up and with great excitement began proudly waiving the Bhagavad Gita in the air. As he got up to get off at his stop, with great enthusiasm he pointed to the devotees and smiled, it was almost as though he were trying to tell everybody that he had just bought something of great value and he had, Srila Prabhupada ki jay!
Hare Krsna,
Madhumangala Das
