Giridhari das
Hare Krsna!
Writing from Bangalore, India.
When I was at the latest furniture and furnishing expo I had a small booth by the exit and many different people would come and see our display. One nice man, in his late 40's, came and he was really interested in our display. He was looking at our brahmanda poster and I explained about the Brahma Samhita to him. He was genuinely interested because he was asking many different questions. I explained to him about Jaiva Dharma and he really liked it. By talking to him I understood he was a Pancopasaka - one who worships 5 kinds of Deity forms as a step by step process to merge into the impersonal Brahman. He ended taking a Brahma samhita, Jaiva Dharma and Srila Gurudeva's Bhagavad gita. He read a passage from one of the books which could be interpreted in an impersonal way and he left saying, "Great! this is just what I need." I was smiling to myself thinking, "Yes, its exactly what you need but its not what you think it is. This is the real thing." By reading these books a samskara will be made and his inherent desire to serve Krsna will become manifest, whether he is cultivating impersonalism or not.
Another person who came to the booth was a Panjabi and he was boasting to me how he can see Paramatma. He said he was a follower of one Guru coming in a line from Gurunanak - the Guru of all Sikhs. He was saying that Bhagavan has no birth, no form and resides everywhere. I asked him, "If paramatma has no form how can you see him?" He said "He is everywhere and when you realize this then you can have direct experience." I replied, "Thats Ok, but in order to see the Lord you have to acknowledge his form. The learned describe in the SB three aspects of the Lord - Brahma, Paramatma and Bhagavan." He said "No, no just come see my Guru he will show you the Paramatma." "I said, I don't want to see him because he is a speculator. Scriptures describe that Sri Krsna establishes Dharma and the spiritual teachers only teach and show by example what is already there. Your teacher is establishing his own philosophy. What scripture do you refer to? He said, "All". I asked, "do you accept Bhagavad-gita?" He replied "yes." I then said in Gita Krsna says, "Avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritah: Fools neglect me when I appear in My peronal from. They dont know my transcendental nature and that I am the controller of everything - What do you say about this?" He then began to stutter and couldn't reply anything... and said he would return later. I then realized how powerful are the words of scripture received from our Srila Gurudeva. He didn't take a book but he was forced to reconsider his own position in which he falsely believed himself to have realized Paramatma.
Haribol,
Giridhari das
bv avadhoot
[b][i]Today we set up our usuall table with hot kitcheree on campus at UH that's Univ. of Houston. They also have a downtown branch or DUH. Most people who think they are their physical body 'en toto' probably graduated from DUH. Or if they didn't but still think in terms of the body, then we would still classify them as DUH.
Anyway, jokes aside, we left UH after distributing all the kitcheree to the students and a Gita to one sincere boy. The Gita is really the best seller. As far as flyers for those one or two second handouts I prefer our harinam printout from the Mahamantra book with the mahamantra in white-on-black and the other side of the flyer a picture of Nitai-Gouranga on harinam with a little write-up about the power of the holy name. You will see that almost immediately as the kirtan is going on, people who get the flyer start chanting!
Anyway, to get on with our plot here, we left campus by unplugging our amplifier cord who powers up the harmonium and tambura which have jacks that raise the volume. The amp also has a mic so that our vocals get more audible. Putting everything back in the van we head out back to the ashram. Not having sufficient gas we stop at a nearby pump. Prangovinda goes into to pay for a few gallons and is suprised to hear the teller say, 'Jaya Srila Gurudeva'. I am too until I realize Prangovinda has a T-shirt that says, 'Jaya Srila Gurudeva'. Just see the power of the printed word! Anyway, I pulled out a CD of Srila Gurudeva's Nectar of Govinda Lila being recited in English by BV Tridandi Maharaj and ask the teller to buy it. He claims to have no money, so I am frustrated that my intentions are not met. I really wanted to give it to someone.Then I notice a lady next to me which money clipped to her T-shirt which strikes me as rather odd. I exchanged a remark with her and then as she proceeded out of the store to the pump area I decide to show her the CD. She says she will take it if we drop her off at another gas-station. So after taking 8 dollars for the CD we get into the car after she gives another devotee five dollars. We reach the other station in five minutes and then she asks for ten dollars. I was a little worried until I see she has a twenty she wishes to exchange for the ten. So immediately we give her the ten and she adds another twenty to the deal.
Not bad if you can get it and if you can get it won't you tell me how.
Hari bol.
Kamala dasi From England
Today I met a lovely lady called Kamini with her very beautiful
daughter and grand daughter…She took 1 Bhajana Rahasya and was very
happy to tell me a story from when she was young. She told that when
she got pregnant with her daughter she was going to have an abortion
but on the way she met up with the Hare Krsna’s they were singing and
dancing and she was very attracted she stopped to listen and when they
stopped singing they spoke about guess what! abortion …..it really
affected her so she phoned her boyfriend and told him to she had
changed her mind ok he said lets get married they did and named her
daughter shivalochanie.. They are still together… nice huh and she was
happy to tell me …
I was distributing books outside Selfridges in London. This is a big
department store selling designer stuff. I was outside the window where
there was a sign.. "I shop therefore i am "… ahem any way i’d given a
few books there when i saw a little old lady crossing the street. I
don’t know why I was attracted to her she was basically just an old bag
lady (i.e. a homeless person) but i went over and offered her a book she
looked and said "aah Hare Krsna" i said yes.. she asked if i wanted a
piece of card board she had 2 pieces of what looked like blood stained
cardboard with her i said how about 20 pence? she took a pound out of a
camera film pot! she looked up and told me many things like how people
don’t know that Govinda, Gopal is actually the original Lord i said yes
He is then she said much stuff about how i should be careful lof the
muslims because they will try and convert people by force and there
will be a great war and after the golden age will come and we need
some nice devotees like you to be here to do the work of God i just
listened she had very blue eyes. She told me that the muslims will kill
the hindus for worshipping statues but that they don’t realize that
they are also turning every day to worship in the East mecca and that
they should turn towards there own heart. I agreed i liked her and
wanted that she chanted Hare Krsna i asked Do you some times chant Hare
Krsna maha mantra? She told me that she didn’t like repetition i
laughed and then we said goodbye..Kamala Dasi 01.07
I
met world famous magician Aladin in the rush hour on Oxford street. I
said " This book is for the sweetest person today it explains how your
real nature is that of pure love and how you can connect with that. He
took it looked at the book and he said "I believe you"
He told many things how he was an actor an artist a famous economist.
All these things however did’t mean much to him after he was helping
junkies who were jacking up on the streets in New York…and.. he was
world famous magician Aladin "check my web site"
I spoke about Gurudeva and Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He told me he could go
out and make a million $ but this conversation was more valuable than
money..
i asked for a donation ahem … he gave 50p kamala dasi 01.07
Today
I was in Marylebone High street in the freezing cold. We were like 2
little pigeons trying to get warm in the winter sun. I met an artist he
had come to London for the day to be shocked by the art world. He told
me some people are hard to shock but many people are easily shocked.
The latest shocking art was a picture of Maira Hindley known child
murderer by hand prints of children uurrr! and he had been working on a
picture of people in a line up ready to be killed from the
concentration camps. mmmmmm very nice..
i told him the shocking thing
in this world is that the soul has taken the material body to be the
self,and that maybe he wasn’t shocked so much because the wise don’t
lament for the living or the dead, actually he agreed, I gave him a
book it was Rays of Hope i told him if the art world had the sukriti to
receive this book there would be a revolution. He took one he gave
£7.50 .
kamala dasi
Sita dasi From Brazil
One
day I was in the city distributing books… it was very hard people were
not stopping for some reason and I was getting a bit frustrated but then
one man came direct to me took the book looked at it and he was so
happy because he was studying the vedas and he liked Krsna, he was
quite amazed that he had found something like this in the middle of all
that madness and actually he was quite aware of spiritual things…after
some days he came to our temple on Sri Balaram’s appearance day,
actually he was quite a character, when we were performing arati having
a massive kirtan he sat down closed his eyes and started to meditate
while we where jumping and dancing . We liked him, actually I need to
call him and get him to come again because he was very happy when he
left. Sita
Doyamayi dasi from Germany
I went out with some headache and little enthusiasm locally and stayed for only short time.
No one wanted to give any donation. after a while, one lady gave
something and I gave her our Rays of Hope. she: do you really want to
give this to me? I’m so much interested in this things!" and walked
off.
Later I became bored and started to criticize a smoking family in front of me, but when they passed, the older daughter gave something and took the "Secrets of the Undiscovered Self" and started to read the cover interested. I was amazed, to see, how outward "sinfulness" has nothing to do with sukrti. Later another woman came and asked me if she can join and live in the temple, in the evening she visited us and asked Manju many things.
Surati dasi from France
One
Monday, I went to Camden town to distribute books. There I met one new
devotee who had come for the first time to our temple the day before,
for the sunday program. That day, Ashram Maharaja was in our temple and
gave a very nice class.
Anyway, this devotee seemed really happy to meet me. We talked a pretty long time, and he said something that really stayed in my mind since then. He said:” you know i have been going to ISKCON temple every week for so may years, but I never even thought of taking initiation…But after only one evening at your place, I want to come to Germany to meet your Gurudeva, and perhaps get initiated…” :)…Jay Gurudeva!!!!
Manjukesi dasi from Holland
One time in oxfortstreet I showed The Way Of Love to one boy, he said he didn’t understand me because he was french. I asked him to say Hare Krsna! "what?" I showed him Syamarani didi’s pictures in the book. He said very happy: Oh Hare Krsna!! he was really attracted by the paintings and took the book.
One day we (the gangamatas) stayed out very late because it was a very hard day and we wanted to finish our books. No one took them and I was thinking: "I really hope I’m here suffering for a good reason. and yes, my last book was for one very nice girl, I didn’t really expect her to be interested. when I told her: "this book is about the soul and our eternal loving relationship with the Lord", she said that she didn’t really know in which religion she believes.
I told her that all religions worship the same God, like there is one moon and some sees it when its full moon and the other when its half moon. its the same moon so we should not fight amongst each other. She became really happy and said: yeah that's true!! what religion is this and where is your temple? I gave her our address….
I stopped one very nice young girl from portugal. from the beginning she told me she didn’t have any money, but she looked very interested so I gave her the book and told her its about the soul and if she already know about these things. she knows the maha mantra and this was her 2nd Hare Krsna book. the first one she got from a man who also gave it her for free because she was crying when she spook with him. i invited her for our youth programs and she gave me her phone number to contact her. I’m gonna phone her tonight…
Just after that I met an other girl. I didn’t stop her actually, she came to me. she was very interested and told me she is vegetarian almost her whole life. she asked about our temple and what we’re doing etc. at the end she gave me 10 pounds. I was really surprised but she said she really supports what we’re doing. I told her about our youth program and she said she studies in east london (that's where we live) and that she will come. she was very happy to meet us and when she left she embraced me!!!
Last week in Camden Town there was one lady who already has a few Hare Krsna books. She also took our books (ching ching ) she said that every time she sees Hare Krsna's there are different books. She has the cookbook because she is vegetarian. she was very nice. I invited her for our sunday program… she said its a bit far for her but she will try to come and asked if she could bring her 9 year old son ("of course!!!!") I told her we can also do a program in her house. she liked that idea and gave me her phone number.
Phulara dasi from Germany
Today we went to Oxford street - maybe the busiest place in the world (for me).
I’m always happy to see someone already stopping, like waiting in front of a shop.
There was one boy - from some distance I showed him the book and he
tried to ignore me and then when I came to him the first thing he said
was: "I’m not interested, thank you."
I said: "But this book is sooo special, really you will like it - ."
Him: "But I’m not much of a reader." and I told: "No problem, just look
at this picture (Krishna in His tribhanga lalit-form, blue, playing a
flute…), I’m sure you like art….isn’t it beautiful !?!"
Seeing this, he took the book of me, his mood changed and he told that ‘Yes’ this was quite his style and he asked for the price. —-KRSNA means ‘all attractive’!!!!! Also the most inspiring was to see that while he kept waiting for his girlfriend he sat next to our place and there he actually read "The Way of Love" for the next 20min. Gaura premanande! phullara dasi
Vasanti dasi from Vrndavana
Syamarani didi and I fly almost every two weeks and we always meet many nice people, but today was a very special day. The man sitting next to us on our flight from Ireland to London was named Chris, and his wife's name was Sharon. Chris was wearing a necklace that looked like neck-beads, so we said, "Hare Krsna" to him. He looked at us and said hello and we asked if he was a devotee. He said he wasn't, but he has a leaning towards it. We therefore gave him a Way of Love.
We were chanting our rounds on the flight and he asked if we were praying. His questions were very sincere and he had faith in the answers that we told him. He then asked us if we wanted an apple. We said no, that we had our own fruit and then asked him if he wanted an orange. Syamarani didi explained to him that the orange was special because we performed a special ceremony in which we offered it to Krsna, and hence it is now prasadam, the Lords mercy. He said, "Nice one," and eagerly took the orange and immediately shared it with his wife.
We then told him about the hari-katha mailing list and asked if he would like to give his email and receive the lectures of Srila Narayana Maharaja. He said, "Yes", and gave his email address.
Then, when the plane landed and we arrived in the London Heathrow airport, I met a nice Polish man who worked there named Alec. He asked me what was on my forehead and I explained that it was tilak. He said, "It looks very nice." I then gave him a Way of Love and also received his email for the hari-katha mailing list. We talked for a few minutes and he said he feels he is wasting his life just working and making money.
The photos and reports of the Gangamatas courtesy http://gangamatas.com/