Pravin Wakle Prabhu and his team of young Youth Forum devotees at ISKCON Chowpatty very enthusiastically distribute books after work. Pravin works at a software firm in Lower Parel. After work he and his devotee friends put up stalls at either D-mart or at some spiritual event happening around the Thane / New Mumbai area.
Here’s one of the heart-warming experiences he told us about.
On a Sunday we were in Juinagar distributing books near a pandal put up on the occasion of a major spiritual discourse by some well-known organization. The distribution went nicely, so around 3o’clock in the afternoon, as the program concluded, we were getting ready to leave. Just then two girls about twelve and fifteen years old happened to pass by our stall. I thought they might be interested, so I asked them, “Please look over this ‘Krsna’ book. See the color pictures? This is the best storybook, so please buy a copy.” However, since they weren’t carrying a single penny, the girls went away.
But the story doesn’t end there. Ten minutes later the twelve-year-old returned to the book table with her mother. The lady looked quite uninterested in buying the “Krsna” book, but just for her daughter’s sake she cursorily looked through it. Finally she scolded her daughter and left, dragging the girl along by the hand. The girl seemed as nervous as we were.
By now the event had been over for fifteen minutes, so we decided to leave. As we began to load our books into the van, we suddenly heard a voice: “Please give me one ‘Krsna’ book.” We looked up and to our utter surprise saw the girl, but this time her hand was full of 1- 2- and 5-rupee coins. Somehow all of it came to 140 rupees, enough, by Krishna’s grace, for a “Krsna” book. We were struck with wonder. The girl had a piggybank and had emptied it just so she could buy her “Krsna” book!
For the determined, there can be no impediment to devotional service.
Sankirtan-yajna ki jaya!
Comments