KRISHNA REALLY CARES
Saturday evening I was having a rough time on sankirtana. Though books were going out, the pace was slow. One might think that Mayapur would be an easy place to sell Srila Prabhupada’s books. Then one needs to try it and see how it goes. I started wondering if the Supreme Personality of Godhead cared about my efforts to distribute His message.
I knew that the people who purchased Srila Prabhupada’s books from me were benefiting. They were receiving Srila Prabhupada’s association. What I wasn’t sure of was if there was any other benefit. I have heard that Krishna and the acharyas were pleased with a devotee even if they were not distributing any books, or next to none. Does Krishna really care about my efforts?
Then the Lord personally intervened. Bengali Krishna Consciousness The Matchless Gift (Anupam Upahara) comes from the BBT in packages of ten. When I go out on sankirtana, I like to sell the whole package. On this occasion eight people had bought the Matchless Gift, along with a couple of English and Hindi books. A severe thunderstorm was on its way. In Mayapur when it rains it pours. I wanted to sell the last two books before the inundation.
A well dressed couple from Kolkata were coming down Bhaktisiddhanta road, and the man was kind enough to stop. His wife kept going. She turned around and saw that her husband had pulled out his wallet and was going to give me 50 rupees for the book. She was inimical and ordered him not to buy Prabhupada’s book. She told him, lagbe na, “you don’t need this.”
She tore the book from her husband’s hand and insisted I take it back. At this point I realized that all this was way beyond my control, and Krishna, situated in her husband’s heart, was going to have to take over. Her husband was undeterred. He paid me and took the book back. Then his wife lightened up and they both recited the Hare Krishna maha-mantra from the card I always give at the end of a transaction.
One more book left in the stack. The wind was blowing hard, as is usually the case before a major downpour in Mayapur. A short man from Assam stopped and looked over The Matchless Gift for a while. He looked at the front and the picture of Srila Prabhupada on the back. He read the table of contents and flipped through the pages. Usually, people who do this sort of dillydallying are just killing time.
Drops of rain started to fall on the road. Time was running out. Then, to my surprise the gentleman reached for his laksmi, paid, and nicely chanted Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. I jumped on the local 108 bus just in time to avoid the Govardhan-Hill-level storm.
Krishna showed me that He really cares for the sankirtana devotees. When the going gets tough, we just need to pray to the Lord, “Krishna, I am fully dependent on you to make this book distribution happen. Please help me.”
Ys
Mishra Bhagavan Dasa
