The Never Ending Book Buyer
The day was looking to be a typical day on sankirtana it seemed. All of a sudden I heard my sankirtana partner, Uddhava Prabhu, having an animated discussion. He laughed out loud all of a sudden. It was hard to tell from his laugh if he was jubilant or upset. The man left his company and walked down my way. I wasn't sure how to react but he approached me.
He engaged me in conversation and started to tell me all about different words in Sanskrit. I wasn't sure if any of it was bona fide but he seemed to be very favorable to the Bhagavad Gita and to the Vedic point of view. After a lot of information he seemed to be sensitive to my desire to continue sankirtana and left.
Later the same day the same man approached Uddhava and I. He had his wife this time. He was still intrigued to tell us so many things but not so interested in purchasing the book. His wife was interested in one of our cook books we had displayed above our book boxes and we engaged him in the service of purchasing the book.
The day was breezing by when all of a sudden the man approached me again. Does your Gita have the picture with the 5 horses?” he asked. I almost didn't catch what he meant but then I realized and flipped to the center to show him the picture. He wanted the book on this basis of it's inclussion of this picture. While he was looking for his wallet he told me, "Some faith or sect had stolen this same example but removed the 'blue horse' (tongue)." I was shocked that such a perversion had come about knowing well that the tongue is the most important to control of all these five senses.
Uddhava arrived back on the scene. He had not realised I was in the middle of a transaction and possibly presumed I was spending to much time talking with this man, as I can be bewildered by such talkative people. Uddhava desiring action and thinking based on the man's propensities decided to take a step at selling him a book. He showed him Searching for Vedic India, by Devamritta Swami, to fufil the man's depthy searching of the Vedas. Uddhava was persistent and I was worried the man might be hesitant to take my Gita now that another book had been presented but I had no way of openly telling Uddhava the situation. In the end the man took both books. I asked him his name. "Like Arjuna" He said. "But I am not an Aryan, so, "Juna."
Two weeks later.
We stepped out of the car straight onto the street. I was just adjusting my sight to the street scene. The first people I saw were an old couple, holding hands. They were walking with another Chinese gentleman. It was Juna! We were instantly blessed. Juna introduced us to his friend, who he had given the Gita we sold him. The man was a jnani, a scholar, similar to Juna. His name was John. Juna very quickly asked me for a Gita, seeing as he gave his to his friend. I quickly pulled out the Gita and Juna gave me a $20 donation.
Uddhava talked with Juna while I talked to John. John told me how he had studied the bible in five different languages and found they were shockingly concocted. After studying all the religious texts and being prompted to look into the Vedic version he concluded all other scriptures were just perverted concoctions of the Vedas. He was favourable and had already been a regular at Crossways, Hare Krsna restaurant in Melbourne.
Your Servant, .
Madhavendra Puri Dasa.
