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Clad Muslim Women take Bhagavad-gita
Bhakta Shyam's work hours are quite intense during the week, but on weekends he still joins us for book distribution. We were distributing in a city in Tamil Nadu next to the main bus stand. We put our book table there. Three Muslims wearing burqas, apparently a mother and two daughters, passed Syama, and he held up a Bhagavad-gita for them to see. They passed him, but after about five steps the mother turned around and approached him with the other two following her. She asked whether it is OK if they buy a copy of Bhagavad-gita from...
read moreTranscendental bartering
Recently, I needed to get the guru-parampara photograph framed for our home altar. Because of its peculiar shape, the photo required customized framing. I located a framing company in Perth and drove to their showroom. The clerk attending me, David, was friendly and talkative. And he recognized Srila Prabhupada and mentioned having previously seen him. I told him that he is the founder-acarya of the Hare Krishna movement. David has some interest in spirituality and had read a bit of multiple philosophies. We chatted a while, and then he had...
read moreTormented mother reconnects with Krsna
I was on traveling Sankirtan with Sevaka Vatsala Prabhu during the recent Prabhupada marathon. One morning we had planned to visit two country towns in Waikato, New Zealand, that rarely get done. Given that some driving was involved, we were hoping to get off to an early start. Unfortunately, that very morning, our gas cooker started to acting up leading to considerable delays in cooking breakfast / lunch. After dropping off Sevaka in Matamata, I was caught in two minds; should I travel on another 30 minutes to Morrinsville or jump out and...
read moreSankirtan Story By Titiksava Karunika Das
We had rented a house in Santa Cruz, CA. About 6 or 7 Brahmacaris trying to start a preaching center. I guess it was about 1981. Some of us were doing prasadam distribution and some were selling incense. I was one of the guys selling incense. I remember it was pretty tough and usually I couldn’t collect much. One day I approached a young couple and tried to distribute something. You know the line “we’re passing these out today and just asking a donation” The man said “could you use a car”? I said...
read moreFormer Hip-Hop Artist Turns No. 1 Book Distributor
Jaya Caitanya Das (left) and two happy costumers You might not have heard of Jaya Caitanya Das, the thirty-year-old who’s been the number one book distributor in the U.S. for the past two years. Even if he sold 85,000 of Prabhupada’s books this year alone. That’s because until recently, the young man was living at home with his parents in Orange County, California. Jaya Caitanya grew up in a Vaishnava Hindu family who were not ISKCON devotees but kept Krishna in the center of their lives. During his teenage years, however,...
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The Music From an Open Bhagavatam
Dec 22 in Cisco San Jose: Off late, I was not getting a chance to go into a room to read Srimad Bhagavatam. Hence I started reading little portions at the desk at work as I got the opportunities. One of my colleagues, who joined the team a week ago, saw the open Bhagavatam and asked about the book. He flipped through the pages, and next day he borrowed the book and called the temple to inquire about buying the Bhagavatam. Sri Gopal Prabhu answered. And I carried to work the set that he bought. The Bhagavatam was distributed on its own merit....
read morePrayer Worked
We changed locations twice, yet the books were not distributed. At our third location, all of us formed a circle and prayed to Lord Chaitanya: kathañcana smrte yasmin duskaram sukaram bhavet vismrte viparitam syat sri-caitanyam namami tam. After the prayer, as we turned outward, a pious couple was walking by. Parantapa, Niharika and Advaita narrated to them the glories of the Bhagavatam. Abhijeet narrated the glories of Lord Chaitanya, who read the Bhagavatam again and again. Shyamasundar Prabhu and Prameela Mataji connected in Telugu....
read moreA Blessed Butcher
Recently, my parents put in a new kitchen and stored the old one at my place, in the garage, while it was sold on TradeMe. When it sold, a man came around with his trailer to collect it. It was a large kitchen, and it took him two trips to collect everything. Each time, it took him a long time to load the trailer and tie stuff down, and, as he worked, he told me about his life: what his children were like and how he had moved to New Zealand from South Africa and eventually opened a butcher's shop. The whole time, I was wishing I knew what...
read moreIn life or Death, Take Shelter
After leaving the hospital a few weeks ago, my firm determination was to never return. It was by far, one of the most painful experiences of my life. Yet today I did. This time, to the ICU, the Intensive Care Unit, a place I cringed to think about. So many people on life support, young and old, just barely holding on. The daughter of a devotee from Pune passed away at a young age in the California Medical Center Hospital here in San Francisco. The cause of her death was organ failure. A group of devotees and I had the opportunity to be next...
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