My Sankirtan Story and One More Thing… By ‘Happymonk’
MY SANKIRTAN STORY and ONE MORE THING… By 'Happymonk' (Bhakta Ricardo) Los Angeles
Hare Krishna Prabhus, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
My sankirtan story: I was at TWA terminal and I see this fortysomething year old guy with his daughter (maybe about 10) and his son (around 6 or 7 years old) so I was kind of hesitant to stop them 'cause…well, parents just have this thing for being overprotective of their little possessions, especially when a sankirtana devotee approaches them at LAX.
So I said something like "Hey, you guys, I'm from LA, where are you all flying to?"
At first the father just kind of looked at me very suspiciously, like – what is this guy up to? I gave him Science of Self Realization and the little girl grabbed it from him and she asked who that was on the cover so I gave her an explanation that really wasn't so 'parampara' but then How Do You Explain The Supersoul to a Kid?
At this time the dad said "So are you selling these? Do you have any story books for kids?" I said, 'Well… mmm… yeah… actually hold on a second.' I went to my box and I grabbed Krishna Book One.
I said, 'Have you guys heard of Krishna?!'and the young ones nodded "No," and the father nodded "Yes," and then he asked, "Are you a Hare Krishna?" I said 'Yes,' and he said "Oh! How does this relate to Christianity?" I said: 'Oh, it's just more knowledge about God,'and I showed the kids the nice pictures inside the Krishna Book and the father said, "OH you don't have to show them those. They'll read it anyway. They're really good with books."
After that they wished me luck for the rest of the day and they walked away with Science of Self Realization and Krishna Book One. Cool family. Huh? Anyway, Hare Krishna. Sankirtan Jajna Ki Jai.
Oh, one more thing. Every Monday we do Food For Life in skid-row LA. Today we met this guy who had met Srila Prabhupada back in the 70's. He was hanging out talking to us while we served the rest of the people in line so we gave him a couple of books which he very ecstatically accepted. Then he said that what he liked about Prabhupada's teachings was the fact that he stressed that we should always see ourselves not as masters but as servants of the servants.
After saying that he said, "So I gotta do some service around here. Thank you guys for coming to feed us," and he started picking up all the cups and empty plates that the other people had failed to put in our trash bags. Now that's cool.
Hare Krishna.
Your Servant,
Bhakta Ric
