Blog
A pleasant surprise
Badarayana Das: “Once, a nice woman and her friend walked up to me at Rockefeller Center in New York with deliberate intention. I had been doing sankirtana there for many years, after legalizing it with much ordeal. She said to me, ‘If you could be anything or anyone in your next lifetime who or what would you be?’ I was struck by the depth of the question and I answered in kind. I then inquired, ‘Why do you ask?’ She replied, ‘Because one year ago at this exact same spot you asked me the exact same question!’ I immediately recalled how I was...
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Working while doing their real work
I just heard an amazing story from the book distributors of ISKCON of Silicon Valley. A few devotees there work remotely; they don’t have to go to the office. So, what do they do? This is going to shock you. They are so fired up that they bring their work laptop with them on book distribution, and set it up on the side of their book table. They’ll log in, do a little work on the computer, and then when they see someone coming they’ll show them the books. And these devotees do huge! One devotee did 60 Srimad Bhagavatam sets...
read moreMaking the unfortunate fortunate
There is a “tradition” in Slovenia that on the first day of highschool the older students paint the freshmans with F all over the face, hands, T-shirts, pants and so on. F comes from the Slovenian translation of pheasant. Some freshmen take it as a joke and paint themselves to “be cool” but some are quite disturbed by it. So we decided to go in a city with many highschools, found a strategic location and target mostly the freshmen. So we were distributing quite some books to young people and tried to transform what was...
read moreA GITA USED, A GITA ABUSED
Due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, many people are called to join the war effort, including devotees. One such Russian devotee brought a *Bhagavad-gita* with him when he was called. While in his barracks, he was able to share Krsna consciousness with another soldier and was inspired to give him his *Gita.* As it turns out, after that gifted soldier went to the front line, he was shot by an enemy sniper and fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Fortunately, the medics were able to treat and stabilize him. Grateful he was still...
read moreAN AGREEABLE ATHEIST
I was distributing books in downtown Mountain View, a mile from the ISV temple, when a man came to my table. I showed him the *Bhagavad-gita*, but he said, “Sorry, not interested, I’m an atheist.” “Well,” I said, “if you’re intelligent, you’re not an atheist.” “Oh, how is that?” “There’s billions of things you don’t know, right?” “True.” “So one of the billions of things you don’t know is whether God exists or not.”...
read moreREADY FOR KRSNA
A lady came near my table. She seemed shy at first, but when I was done speaking with someone else, she walked up and took three Russian books. Her name was Camilla, she was from Russia, and although she spoke perfect English, she naturally preferred her native Russian. When she asked about the best way to meditate, I told her mantra meditation. She took books and beads and was on her way to catch a flight back to her home in Florida. In case she had any questions, I gave her Dvijamani Prabhu’s phone number. Camilla said she would start...
read moreSUCCESS ON THE ITALIAN RIVIERA
RAPALLO, Italy—I rang an office bell, and a boy opened the door. I offered him a book on karma, but he said he wasn’t the owner, so I asked him to show the book to the owner and let me know what he said. In a situation like this, the person rarely takes a book, but I tried anyway. While I was waiting, I began to reciting the *Gita* verse starting *sarvasya caham hrdi sannivistho*, praying that the Lord in the person’s heart would inspire him. After a while the boy returned without the book but with a donation for it!...
read moreIt takes a village to raise a child
I had been cultivating Casey for a few weeks. I met him at an outreach event at Mission Bay, New Zealand. He was very appreciative of the spiritual atmosphere created by the kirtan and the questions he asked seemed indicative of a sincere soul searching for spiritual connection and knowledge. I asked him how he ended up here and he told me about 5 years ago while in Manila, Philippines, his hometown, he felt inspired to go to a local temple. It turned out to be an ISKCON temple and he met a monk outside and gave a donation for a Path of...
read moreA Holistic Connection
One afternoon in Cuneo, Italy, I met a boy in a holistic center who greeted me, but I was busy talking to other people and I couldn’t give him proper attention. The afternoon continued, and I finished my distribution in the town. It was already evening and time to leave for my apartment. As I’m about to leave, loading the trolley of books into my car, I see the same boy also get into his car and leave, passing right in front of me. So, I stop him and we start talking. He explains to me that he is taking courses on the...
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