The Battle of Easter
We assembled our phalanx one block away from the Home Bush arena (Sydney's Olympic facility).
Rupa Raghunatha prabhu, Australias Bhisma of sankirtan, led the advance, because he was the most experienced and the only one who had been there before. I felt excited as I observed our little sankirtan army all ready to give up there lives for Srila Prabhupada. Some of the great worriers were; the small but dangerous Hrman Krsna prabhu, the young and enthusiastic gurukuli Madhavendra Puri prabhu, stunned in ecstasy Stambha Bhava prabhu, the silent but trancendentally violent Shatra Krit prabhu + the maharati Rupa Ragunatha prabhu and his simple side kick Amritananda prabhu.
There was a continuous trail of out-of-control sense enjoyers making there way from the train station to the carnival grounds. So we decided to have Sargent Stambha and Mad Maddy give them some purification before they even got in. While Rupa, Hriman, Shatra and I all infiltrated the enemies lines. I was wondering how on earth will we get in unnoticed with all these trolleys. At that point I realised I have no real faith in Krsna. Any real devotee knows; that with the help of Yoga Maya, Vasudeva snuck baby Krsna out of Kamsa's prison, right under the gaurd's noses and safley carried Him all the way to Vraja. So taking shelter of Krsna, with our fully loaded trolleys, we just followed the crowds in, purchased our tickets and entered the front gate, straight past all the guards. We were too obvious to be discovered. So we stashed our ammunition behind the drink machines and dove right into the nectar, distributing to the masses.
Rupa is so expert, he told us all, "Once we make it inside the grounds, go straight back out and get a stamp on your arms in case we get kicked out. With the stamp we could renter the battle field.
The battle begins……. I have never seen anything like it before in my life! Thousands of conditioned souls flooding into the Easter show grounds. The path way we were on was about 20 meters wide and it was totally full with people! So Hriman and I just went mad, it was like in the Mahbharata! Bang! please take, please give a donation, duck and weave, slash & dash Bang! please take, please help! The boxes were emptying so quickly we had to call Stambha on the outside to bring us more amunition.
After some time Madhavendra Puri purchasted a ticket and joined us because it had died down outside. Every now and then a security guard would stroll past and I would hide behind the carnival vendors. Once when I was getting more books from behind the drink machines a security guard was curiously looking at my boxes so I just pretended I knew nothing of it and I walked straight past him. Then there was one of those moments where I looked back at him and he was looking right at me. I easily played the part of an ignorant pleasure seeker while Krsna's Yoga Maya potency covered him. They didn't cause us any problems for a couple more hours.
Then Shatra Krit arrived on the scene telling us how he had been caught and escorted out of the grounds by two guards playing good cop, bad cop. Shatra was distributing with Rupa somewhere on the other side of the grounds and had returned to retrieve his books.
Not long after that Rupa had arrived because their cover had been blown on the other side. Four of us were all distributing in the same area now and the crowds were dieing down so the envious store owners could easily see our enthusiasm in taking all there customers money and giving it to Krsna. Still security would stroll by but eventually they caught on. They came to our five trolleys all lined up behind the drink machines and kindly but sternly asked us all to leave.
On the way out I was preaching to the guard giving us a Royal escort out of the grounds. He was a nice man. He explained even though he liked our mission the store owners had complained.
It was very busy outside so we all continued to distribute outside. Then one Security guard came flying over in his little gulf buggy. He said "You can't do that any where near the grounds. You must go." So we went up around the corner and waited for Stambha Bhava Prabhu to bring the car. I just couldn't help myself. I kept trying to distribute Prabhupadas books. There was some taxi drivers. I approached two drivers talking. They were Middle Eastern. I said these books will help the crazy people you pick up at night. One driver told the other to take the books. The other said "OK I'll take the Gita and Perfect Escape and I leave them in my cab for the people to read." Just after he gave a donation another security guard came running over and said "We have cameras everywhere. You must stop or I will fine you." We told him we were just waiting for the car and we will be gone soon. The guard then left. When he was out of sight I quickly ran across the road and did one more Gita to an Indian Taxi driver just as our books were being loaded in to our car. All the cab drivers were favourable to us and told us the guards had been rude to them. They also told us some good spots we could distribute. We all jumped in the sankirtan chariot and made like Krsna & Rukmini, a swift get away.
That afternoon we counted our scores. Krsna empowered us all to do an amazing day. Hrman Krsna did 49 maha big and because I got the cab drivers at the end with 2 last hard covers I just beat him with 50 maha big books! HARIBOL!!! Prabhupada is the really winner but its fun to compete. Together, Hrman Krsna and I did nearly 100 maha big and $1000 laxmi. The others all also did very well according to there individual capacity's.
What an amazing battle. Fighting for Krsna is the most exiting way to engage the fighting propensity.
All glories to guru & Krsna
seeking your blessing to remain on the front line,
Your Servant,
Uddhava dasa
