90 days, 35 days, 28 days, and now 15 days
Three or four years ago, I distributed a Bhagavatam set to one of my friends. She is from Pleasanton CA, but not a member of our congregation. She hesitates about coming into our congregation, because she doesn’t want me to change her. She is not enthusiastic to wear tilak and so on. But she was most enthusiastic about reading the Bhagavatam. She started reading at an amazing speed and kept me abreast of her progress. She and even her daughter finished the Bhagavatam in about three months, but that was without reading the purports. Then she...
read moreBook distribution at the Paris harinam
At the end of the harinama on October 23 in Paris, we were doing the last kirtan. An old French couple came toward me (or maybe I put myself in front of them). They happily looked at us chanting, and I tried to share with them Srila Prabhupada’s books. I told them their eyes looked young while looking at the harinama. “It’s nice and gives us enthusiasm for what you’re doing here” they said. Then, they jokingly added, “You know, we’ve been married sixty years, and now we’re closer to death!” I asked...
read moreHope for the fallen
Today we did a harinama on the waterfront in New Zealand. When we arrived, I saw a guy sitting on the bench looking at me, so I took a Bhagavad Gita and sat and talked with him. He was a big Maori man, with lots of tattoos. I asked his name, and we chatted a little, then I asked what he was up to. He said he was about to hand himself over to the police, because he had just beaten someone up, who was taken to hospital. He said that he just got out of prison, and now he was on probation. So he will have to go back. He was just calming himself...
read moreThe Gofundme book distribution campaign for Russia
So far, the GoFundMe campaign for the Moscow sankirtana vehicles is going well. Thank you, to all who donated. May Lord Krsna bless you! So far we have raised $5,669. The goal is $29,000 by mid-November, which is almost here. We need $23,331 to reach the goal. Then the vehicles they have can be repaired for the Prabhupada Marathon in Moscow. With Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance anniversary coming up, let’s take inspiration from him. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura writes: He reasons ill who tells that Vaisnavas die, When thou art...
read morePositive way to start the New Year
Wanting nothing to do with commercialized holidays and bars and superficial family, Faith (her name) decides to come check out something different (the Indian plaza) and runs into me. She points to the Gita on my book table and says, “I have that book next to me on my night table, and I read it every night.” Since she already had a Gita, I showed her the Bhagavatam set. She was super eager to take it home and start reading it. With teary eyes, she thanked me: “You are helping me end my old ways and also helping me to begin something positive...
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