Marathons in Germany
Marathon in by Sadbhuja Dasa
This was my second Prabhupada marathon in Germany, and I have my own van, which I share with two other devotees. During this Marathon I was distributing around sixty-five books a day. My senior devotee, Varaha Prabhu, put together a tour for me. One day he called and asked where I will be distributing the next day, and I told him the name of the city.
He said in an encouraging way, "Oh, that's a very good city; if You don't distribute a hundred books there, then you are in maya!"
I was really encouraged by this. The next morning I was chanting very sincerely and meditating on the possibility of distributing so many books in one day.
When we entered the city, we got into some trouble with the parking spot. Parking in the inner city was limited to a half an hour. I was fried, because this meant that I had to walk a lot to get new books. The first stack of books went out and also the second, but there was no way I would make it to one hundred if I kept going at that pace. Also, I wasted so much time walking.
When I went back to the city with the third stack, a woman came out of some bistro, running behind me and asking what kind of books I have. I told her, and she seemed quite interested. So she asked me to come with her to the bistro to show her the books. I showed her for ten minutes and told her about more books in the van, but I thought maybe I was really wasting my time here. But suddenly she said, "OK, I will take three of these, two of those, four of them, three of these, and maybe you can bring the other books for me to check out.
I was really baffled. Never have I distributed so many books at once!
I asked her why she was taking so many books. She said that she can see auras and energies, and when I passed her bistro, she saw the books and felt that they are very powerful. They have a big aura!
She told me that she is just about to open an esoteric shop next to the bistro and till now had not ordered any books because she somehow didn't find the right books yet. So all in all she took twenty-five books and some CDs, and I was in ecstasy!!
I understood that it was Krsna's arrangement where I had to park, because otherwise I wouldn't have met this lady.
At 2 PM I took a break and counted 52 books sold already, and I was really happy, but at the same time I felt restless because I knew that to reach 100 something had to happen. So I was prayed to Krishna and thought of how to give out more books.
After the break I went back to the city with a new stack, and this lady came out of her shop calling me. I thought, "Oh, no, now she changed her mind.
She said, "I'm so happy to see You again, I thought You left already, I thought about the books, and I decided I want to have more of them, since you won't come here for some time."
I couldn't believe it. So she gave me a list of twentyfive more books for her. All in all she took fifty books.
So the rest of the day I was flying from person to person and distributed in the usual manner and finally at 6 PM for the first time in my life I had distributed one hundred books. I was really grateful and realized how much mercy and inspiration senior book distributers can give to make the impossible possible.
During last year's marathon, the devotees put me down in a small city, with one hundred books. Around 2 PM, I had already distributed eighty books and everything was going well. All the time I distributed in front of some taxi drivers, and at one point they must have called the police. So the police came and asked in a rough way what I was doing. I told them about the books and that I'm a monk and that this is legal. I wanted to show them the sankirtan-pass that we made for this kind of occasion. I just showed it to him, but he furiously grabbed it and wanted to take it away from me. He treated me like a heavy criminal. I asked him if "his" village is a part of Germany and if they have their own laws.
I told him in a cool way that this pass belongs to me, and if he takes it away, this is stealing. He became more furious and kicked me inside the police car where his college was sitting. Some books fell down and I had a hard time picking them up without getting hurt. I asked him what is wrong with him, and if he could give back my posessions. He just got into the car and drove to the police station.
He told me if I keep on like this, then he will kick and hurt me, and I told him that then I will not only sue him for stealing but also for mutilation. He was really furious then. At the police station he was making a big show about the whole thing. I had to wait, and told the other policemen about the books and asked why they have such rough people in their department. After some time the policemen came out of his office, completely changed and humble. He told me that they checked the law and that it is allowed what we are doing. I was still fried with him and said that I had told him that already and also that he should learn more about law and change his attitude. He was agitated but didn't wanted it to show. He told me that they would drive me back to the place where they picked me up.
On the way the policemen asked more about the books. I explained to him that these books are not religious but beyond mundane religion and that they show how to be more calm in life (implying a connection to his mentality).
Somehow he really transformed, and when we arrived back in the city he asked how much they are. Then he bought two books, much to the amazement of his colleague and me. He started to talk about his wife; she was always interested in Indian philosophy and religion. It was really astounding.
