The cold, crisp 27th day of December dawned as the sankirtan team of ISKCON Silicon Valley was feeling grateful to Krsna for giving it one final opportunity to distribute Srila Prabhupada's books during the marathon.
The team members were already feeling confidence after an energizing conference call with sankirtan leaders the night before. And today they were bringing along their lucky charm, the Kids Sankirtan team, for the first time. As the team loaded books in cars, their faces lit up in anticipation of meeting the fortunate souls that the Bhagavad-gita & Srimad Bhagavatam would chose to associate with from that day onwards.
With cars packed to the brim and with a prayer to Sri Sri Radha Madana-mohan, Sri Sri Laxmi-Narasimhadev, and Sriman Mahaprabhu, the team went to two book distribution spots, in Fremont and at Union Square in the heart of San Francisco.
Despite the extreme cold and high winds, Union Square was chock-a-block with people. For a book distributor, this was like a kid going to a toy shop, with many options, or souls to distribute books to.
In situations like this, time can stand still as soon as the Brihad Mridanga starts playing and people are being drawn toward the transcendental sound, like bees to a jar of honey. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “The transcendental sound of the holy name will automatically evoke dormant love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
The initial skeptical inquisition turns into joyous dancing to the beats of mridanga and kartals. Soon the whole square reverberates: HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA, HARE HARE, HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE. In this blissed-out moment, all that is left to be done is to place a book in someone's hands.
The books flew thick and fast, and people opened their mellowed hearts to give generous donations. In three hours, the Gita had found 123 deserving souls.
Things at the Fremont residential community were dramatically different. Due to the cold weather, people had settled into the comfort of their homes. Our sankirtan team had no option but to knock on every door and show the books.
Braving the cold winds, this dedicated team started walking down the pavement.
Suddenly a door is flung open, and a lady comes out shouting. Startled, we abruptly halt, but our leader waves at her to gauge the situation. Surprisingly, she waves back and shouts louder that she is calling her cat, Cleopatra.
The leader immediately headed toward the house, and the rest of the devotees followed suit. After the initial greetings and small talk, she shared some tidbits. She pratices Bikram Yoga and lately had some realizations due to her steady sadhana.
The discussion turns to jivatma & Paramatma, and we show her a copy of Bhagavad Gita. It turns out she knew about the Gita and always wanted a bona fide copy but didn't know where to get one. As said in shastras: If the desire in your heart is pure, Krsna shows the way. She accepted the book and surprised us by saying that she is a Muslim with a Pakistani heritage.
Her mother now joins the conversation and mentions, “This world is a covering, and the souls have to rise above it and love God.”
We felt ecstatic to see the spiritual advancment made by this family. She also said that her husband had visited Himalayas and lived with ascetics. The discussion gravitated to Srimad Bhagvatam and its relevance. To our utter amazement she gladly agreed to take a Bhagavatam set.
If you look deeper into this situation, the door opened for the cat, but it had really opened to welcome Srimad Bhagvatam. Indeed, once the Bhagvatam decides to reach its destined home, nothing can stop it and anyone can become a reason for it, even a humble cat.
This experience set the team off on a good note, and they were able to distribute two more Bhagavatam sets that evening. The teams were constantly sharing updates and highlights with each other over WhatsApp to encourage one another.
At the end of the day, everyone felt that the lucky charms indeed proved lucky, and because of them “No book was left behind.”
By the expert guidance of H.G Vaisesika Prabhu and the blessings of Srila Prabhupada, here is the Team ISV 2014 total results:
1) Total remittance to BBT for 2014: $148,100
2) Total sets in 2014: 429
- 328 Bhagavatam sets
- 101 CC sets
These are the distributed sets and does not include the sponsored sets.
3) Maha Big books in 2014: 31,000
We offered our marathon results to Srila Prabhupada. Here is the our offering video:
http://youtu.be/ViAglOGZzmc
Your humble servant,
Sri Krishna Purusottama Dasa,
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