When it rains it Pours
The Panihati Festival was in Atlanta was great. Devotees from all over the world converged on New Panihati Dham for the festival due to HH Jayapataka Swami being present. It was his first time traveling outside india since his stroke. Many senior disciples of Srila Prabhupada were present. Excitement was in the air. I was talking about book distribution with some senior disciples of Srila Prabhupada, they told stories of the seventies and how they distributed books in the airport. The stories were amazing and despite leaving the next day for Chicago, I went out on book distribution. The sky looked black, and the wind started to kick up, but I thought, it will hold off.
I walked from the temple to the Little Five Points, an alternative area. As soon as I arrived, the sky opened up and started pouring. It was raining so hard that I was getting wetter from the up splash of the rain rather than the rain itself. Within minutes, I was completely drenched head to toe. I took some shelter under a tree wearing just a dhoti, and T-shirt. I attempted to stop a few people, but no one was interested. One man said you must be crazy, do you see the weather? They only wanted shelter form the rain. I was thinking, if only they knew what shelter they could find in Srila Prabhupada's books. I stood out in the rain for what seemed like forever. I was soaking wet, all my clothing was wet, my back pack was soaked, but amazingly enough the books were dry. Out of nowhere a man with tattoos, a southern accent and a funny small hat from a bar called out, "Hey man, what are you doing in the rain. go home."
I just ignored him, but he persisted and called me over. I went in to his bar and he just stared at me.
He said, "Why are you risking getting sick for this? Why put yourself through that, through the rain, through the cold. What is making this so special."
I thought for a second and remembered a quote on the Srila Prabhupada quotes conference. I said, "Srila Prabhupada said, why do we distribute these books?" Because we want to see our spiritual master smile.' This rain is nothing compared to the rain of mercy coming from God in the form of these books that give us direction out of this ocean of material existence."
The man looked taken back. He turned to the patrons of the bar (who at this point were listening to us) and said did you hear this guy? Everyone remained silent. It felt erie, like in a dream when your standing before your class in school only wearing your undergarments. He said, "What you said touched the heart." The man then turned to the crowd and said, "Why don't you all help him by taking a book so he can go and get dry." Slowly, one by one people started to approach me and take a book out of my bag and give me a donation. Within minutes, the bag was completely empty. I recalled the events in my mind as I walked back to the temple. It seemed so surreal. Lord Caitanya is very kind.
Each day is a new way of developing attachment to Krsna's lotus feet. I can only beg to keep going on the path of devotional service and never deviate. I ask all the blessings of the vaisnava's.
Yours in the Service of Srila Prabhupada,
Partha Sarathi Dasa vanacari
