Power of Prayer
From Murari Gupta Dasa:
During the marathon in December at Sri Sri Radha-Gopinatha Mandir, in Mumbai, Bhaktin Radhika Mehta set a record by distributing 5900 Bhagavad Gitas in 14 days. She was among the top ten book distributors in the world during the marathon.
She says, "First, I sought the blessings of H.H. Radhanath Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada, Nrisimhadev, Panchatattva and Krishna Bhagavan. I prayed to Gopinathji, 'Please speak through me and touch and transform people's hearts.'"
She continued to describe what happened:
Before going out to distribute the books, I asked for the blessings of every Vaishnava in the temple and then the blessings of my parents. There was no 'I' involved in this endeavor. It was a joint effort — because of the blessings of everyone, I could distribute so many books.
I walked into offices and residential complexes and went door to door requesting people, regardless of their religion, to take the Bhagavad-gita.
Mostly I went to people whom I was meeting for the first time. Many responded positively. A few of them said no, but I did not give up. I returned to them after a few days, and then they took the Bhagavad-gita.
There were a few who insulted me, slamming doors in my face. In those circumstances, I would just pray for them because I felt they needed prayers the most.
I would attend Srimad-Bhagavatam class, go home, have breakfast, take the blessings of my parents and leave home. During this time my car driver had also left his services. So taking a taxi I would go to a different place each day and spend 2 to 3 hours trying to sell books. The rest of the day was spent in maintaining accounts and dealing with the logistics: arranging for transportation of books from the temple and so on.
Many interesting incidents took place. Once, I approached a man who told me that he donates money only for operations. I told him that this is the best operation he can contribute to, as this will benefit people not only in this life but the next. He immediately bought 100 Bhagavad Gitas.
Other times, after I collected whatever lakshmi I had to collect, I tried to distribute Bhagavad Gitas. But I could not sell a single one. Despondent, I came home and cried and went down on my knees to pray to Krishna Bhagavan: "Srila Prabhupada will not be happy with me today, so please help me."
I then called a few people I had met and who had promised to take Bhagavad Gitas, and then a few people called me. Over the next 2 hours, simply by phone calls, 1080 Bhagavad Gitas were sold. Krishna Bhagavan, being bhavagrahi, sees our true desire and helps us. I cried out to the Lord from the core of my heart, and He fulfilled my desire.
I remember when Radhanath Maharajji gave me a Bhagavad-gita some time ago; he held it in his hand with so much love. When I went to distribute, I held the Bhagavad-gita with a lot of love and prayed that it would change people's hearts. People actually responded positively.
My only motivation for distributing Srila Prabhupada's books was my intense desire to please Srila Prabhupada and Shrimati Radharani and to connect people to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna Bhagavan.
I am here today only because of Maharajji's love and my parents blessings. I am so happy to have received so much love from the Deities and the Vaishnavas; and it is Krishna prema that I want to give to as many people as possible and help make our devotee family bigger.
This has been the best experience of my life, and it has given me a lot of bliss.
