Srila Prabhupada’s Mercy – Better than Any GPS
by Bhakta Hemant & Bhaktin Aditi Earlier this year, ISKCON Pretoria (South Africa) launched the Sastra Dana library initiative. Our aim was to place sponsored Medium Sets of Srila Prabhupada's books consisting of the Bhagavad-gita, Krsna Book, The Science of Self-Realization, and ten to fifteen small books – in the forty-odd community libraries in Pretoria. By the causeless mercy of Srila Prabhupada, we received more sponsorships than libraries. What was most enlivening in this whole experience was to see devotees...
read moreA gradual process….
Dear devotees, The following story shows how sankirtan devotees (knowingly or unknowingly) can be instrumental in bringing someone to the lotus feet of Krsna's representative. Beginning of 2009: Billy, a 24-year-old English traveler, comes across a male devotee distributing books in Sydney. Billy rejects the book (for now). August 4, 2010: Billy arrives in Auckland, New Zealand. Wednesday, August 11, Billy's 7th day in Auckland: I had been on Queen Street, Auckland's busiest, for three hours. I had managed to distribute only one...
read moreA Stroke of Good Fortune
A few years ago my wife Krsna Rupa and I met an Indian gentleman named Gyan who was interested in the Srimad bhagavatam set. We went to his house to show him the books, did kirtan and gave him some prasadam. He ended up getting $1600 worth of books; the S.B set, Caitanya Caritamrta, Lilamrta, Hari Sauris books etc. We would go and visit occasionally, do a program and he would gradually pay for the books. But one day I lost his phone number. So we drove around to his house only to find it vacated. I had no forwarding address so I thought I...
read moreVoodoo Priest Gets the Mercy
In the evening, after a blissful day of book distribution in New Orleans's French Quarter, Raya Nitai Prabhu, Bhakta Steve and I were preparing to go on harinam. After we blew a conchshell to signify the beginning of harinam, a tall skinny man with a goatee, French beret, and long hair walked through a black gate from a dimly lit ally and approached us. He asked, " Are you Hare Krishnas?" We replied, "Yes." He smiled and said, "That's wonderful! Tonight is the anniverssary of our head priest's passing...
read moreKindness Conquers the Heart
I was on my first day of book distribution with HG Navina Nirada Prabhu. We headed down to our local spot, Byron Bay. We did a harinam, sought the blessings of the ocean and then purified ourselves with some Prasadam. Now that we felt sufficiently purified we were ready to engage in the sankirtana yajna of book distribution. I stopped one young woman. She seemed very interested in the concept of Krsna consciousness but didn't seem totally inclined to take for some mysterious reason. She held onto the book for the whole time we talked and...
read more