Blog
The potential for book distribution at funerals in India
Am I the first to discover the potential for book distribution at funerals in India? Diagonally across the street from my place, a few months ago a new family moved into what my (late) sociologist sister might have called lower to lower middle-class accommodations. In that time period, I noticed one of the family’s elder members becoming increasingly weak and once or twice being helped into an auto-rickshaw, obviously for a trip to the hospital. The day before yesterday, he passed away. A shamiyana (decorative tent) was erected in the street,...
read moreThe Gita reaches a man with another Gita
Mahananda Murari Prabhu was talking to people when he felt the good energy of Lucas and Manu, who passed by. He wished that he would have the opportunity to approach them later. So he was then happy when they reappeared in front of him. Wasting no time, he discovered that they are really nice. When he told them that he had seen them before, they responded, amusingly, “Really? Did we pass by you? Even though you’re so big and wearing flashy clothes, we didn’t see you!” Manu already had some other Gita, but now he...
read moreNice encounter at an outdoor table
On harinama in Porto Alegre, Manohara Saciputra Prabhu, the temple president, was called over by a lady named Cléia, to talk to her at her restaurant table. At that point in the harinama, he had run out of invitation cards and pamphlets with the temple’s new address, so Cléia asked him to write the address on paper. Manohara had just been chanting at the harinama, and he also had no books with him at the moment. She determinedly said how much she likes our books and asked him to get some. Manohara happily complied, thinking of the...
read moreWSNL for August 2023
The big news for August is that a 72-year-old devotee was the No. 1 book distributor, and this isn’t his first time. Bhrgupati Prabhu did 6,666 book points, going out to college campuses for five hours, five days a week. Yesterday, for example, he collected over $1,200 and distributed over a hundred books. Bhrgupati gets Krsna’s mercy. Now for the world. In the Large Temple category, the No. 1 temple was Mayapur, which did 129,795 book points. Pune had the biggest increase in this category, 141%, with 40,695 book points. Among the Medium...
read moreOn their way home, back to Godhead
In the first photo: These people had read about Vedic culture in a book by a French scholar, so they receptively conversed with Bhakta Gustavo and purchased a set of books. In the second photo is Carol. She felt tired due to worrying about her own and her family’s futures in this difficult world. She found hope in the message she heard from Gustavo and trusted his recommendation to read some special books. In the third photo is a man who already met devotees. From them he had bought a Gita and learned the maha-mantra. He has read part...
read moreDistribution on Radhastami
Mahananda Murari Prabhu met a friendly couple from Brasília in Curitiba. They are students of the world’s religions. He was once a Christian pastor, and at a certain point he realized that he should broaden his spiritual horizons. He began to welcome boooks from Eastern schools, as he did today, happily purchasing BBT books. Their photo is attached, and in another photo we have Neto and Emelin. They met devotees at other times and have some BBT books. Reading and trying to understand them, Neto had a realization. He said that everything...
read moreKrishna is all-attractive, which attracts people to ISKCON
After a Food for Life program in Florianópolis, Bhakta Gustavo entered the temple and noticed two women outside, standing in front of the gate, looking inside at the temple room and the altar (visible from the street sidewalk). He invited them in, and their conversation culminated in them happily acquiring a Gita. (first picture) Carla and Paulo followed daily online classes and then finally visited us. They liked it so much that from then on Carla didn’t miss any of the big recent festivals. She always brings flowers for the Deities...
read moreA great example of the power of a single book by Srila Prabhupada
In sankirtana on the streets, the devotees of the Florianópolis temple met Alessandro (first photo), a public elementary-school teacher, who took a book and visited us at a festival. He was so impressed with the experiences that he invited us to a program to present our culture to his students. A team led by Temple President Rasarnava Gauranga Prabhu was then assembled, with Bhakta Gustavo and Bhakta Enoque and Bhaktin Marília (a couple from the congregation). The programs were incredible. In three schools, hundreds of children chanted Hare...
read moreThe magic happens, if you go out on book distribution
Vinay Sri Nitai Prabhu met a girl who, though nice, was reluctant to keep the books. Suddenly a random person shouted from the distance, “Gabriela! Now is your time!” Her name is Gabriela, making the scream so providential that she was startled. Vinay said, “Well, to get a clearer signal from the universe than that, it would maybe be a slap in the face!” She smiled, agreed, and said, “Yes, I really have to buy it!” Gabriela then called a friend, and when he arrived, she had to go away for a while,...
read moreRainy-day revelation
It was such a cold, windy, rainy day in Hastings, New Zealand that I dared to stand inside a Kmart and distribute indoors. Confident that Krishna would protect me from the security, I was doing okay. An hour later a friendly mall cleaner told me that the manager was watching me through the camera the whole time, and if I didn’t leave now they would call the police. It had been a while since I hit Queens Street in Hastings, so it looked like that was where Krishna wanted me to go. It was unusually productive, and besides that I ran into...
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