Suicide
Panca Pandava Prabhu, a member of the Sri Sri Radha Gopinath Mandir traveling sankirtana bus party, had a nice experience recently. He recalls:
We were distributing books in a factory when we heard that there was a separate wing where about 50 ladies worked. We requested the manger to make an announcement about our book table in that wing. He did so and the result was that a hefty looking female walked in asking for the books. "Please send other ladies working in your wing," we requested her.
"No one else will come," she said. "I am the supervisor and I announced to them. They do not seem to be interested."
I could see that she was not very enthusiastic about the books. "If someone is not enthusiastic about something, how can she convince others about it," I thought. "Please let me go and make the announcement," I requested the manager. He agreed and led me. "I want to tell you something," he said. "Just three days back a lady working in that wing committed suicide. Everyone is very saddened by that. Please observe a two minute silence after your talk to honor that worker."
I agreed. He gathered all the workers together and I spoke for about ten minutes about the value of the books. Then I said, "We all know that a dear colleague of yours committed suicide three days back. We are all sad. But please try to think of why she had to take such a step. It was because she thought that there was no solution to her problem. She had no hope. She had no knowledge of any solution and so she killed herself. What is the guarantee that you will never be in that position? What will you do then? " I paused. "Knowledge is like money. The more knowledge a person has more money he gets. For instance you have a sweeper in your factory; he will have only basic education and may get a salary of Rs.2500/-. Then you have clerk who might be a graduate and therefore a salary of Rs5000/-. Then you have an engineer who is paid Rs30,000/- or more. The more knowledge you have about life the more is your ability to solve the problems. Who can be more knowledgeable than the Supreme Lord Krsna?
This knowledge is in this Bhagavad-gita. Bhagavad-gita says that there is hope for all problems in life. You read these books and then you will get the knowledge and help from God Himself.
"Now we will pray for your friend. I was asked to observe silence for her, but we Vaishnavas observe silence by chanting the names of God. All of you please follow me."
Then I asked all of them raise their hands and loudly chant the Hare Krishna maha mantra three times. In the end thirty out of fifty women took the full set of Srila Prabhupada's books.
Your Servent
Murari Gupta Das
