The Cell Phone Blues
"Excuse me, sir."
"Yes? Sorry, I just got a call."
Cell phones!
Everyone has one, even ten-year-olds. It's unbelieveable.
Sometimes there are two or three people walking along our sacred sankirtan spots, each one talking on a phone. It is a great offense to interrupt such a person, so we usually just let them pass.
When I am speaking to someone and the phone rings, I want to grab the thing and throw it about a block away and tell the person that the book is more important, but I can't do that, which means that 99% of the time the transcendental sale is finished.
Today as I was distributing in Manchester, England, I saw so many people walking around with these obstacles to the sankirtan mission. However, this made me remember an incident in Santa Monica, California:
I saw a man coming who looked spiritually inclined, so I was going to engage him in Lord Caitanya's mission. Then his cell phone rang. But I was a little fired-up so I thought, "Let me try anyway."
As he was talking to a person on the other end, I said, "Excuse me." He politely asked his friend to hold, as he asked me what it was I wanted. I presented the Science of Self Realization to him and briefly explained the contents. Then we heard his friend on the phone trying to get his attention.
He says to his friend, "I'll be with you in a minute. Someone is selling me a book".
Then I continued. He was interested and asked nice questions, thanked me, gave a nice donation and went on his way with the mercy of Lord Gauranga. No cell-phone blues there.
Your Servant,
Vijaya Das
