Arabic Perfection of Yoga Stuns Syrian Actor

By Shastra-krit das

Friday evening 7 pm, Santa Monica Promenade

Harinam was going on full-swing and I was approaching people with books who were standing near the chanting.

I approached this friendly-looking man in his late 30’s. I put the Gita in his hand and told him that I’m showing books on mediation to all the nice people on the Promenade this evening.

He was polite and calm and with a smile asked if the book I’m trying to give him is in my language (he could tell I’m from Indian background, so he probably meant Hindi). I said no, originally it was written in Sanskrit but now it’s been translated by this great master, word for word into English. I showed him the photo of Srila Prabhupada from the back cover.

After I explained a bit about the Gita, i could tell he was very attracted. He told me he loves Gandhi, Indian food, culture, Bollywood etc. Many Arabic-speakers who have taken Arabic books from me have said the same thing about loving Indian culture.

Then he says “Oh well if this book is in your language or English it’s the same to me” (meaning he can’t understand either). I asked him what he means because his English is very good, and he said “just so-so”.

Paramatma then gave me intelligence that he speaks Arabic. I always carry a Gita and a few small Arabic books in my hand, but I had just finished distributing the last Arabic book that I was holding to another nice gentleman from Saudi Arabia. So I asked him “Can you read Arabic”? he replied with a smile “Of course i can that’s my language”.

So i reached into my book box and pulled out a Perfection of Yoga in Arabic and handed it to him. His eyes went wide and he was in a total shock that I had a book on ancient yoga teachings of India in his own beloved Arabic.

What i have observed is that these Middle Eastern people are very attached to their birth language, and they respect it and are very proud of it. They text in Arabic on their smartphones, and have their phone key pads in Arabic. So they are really amazed and actually deeply grateful to see that we have translated our books into their own Arabic for them. I mean no one ever gives them anything in Arabic! So they can’t believe it, and I wind up selling up to a few dozen of the Arabic books each and every day. It’s so easy and fun to do that I think I am getting kind of addicted to this very special gift of bliss.

Everyone should be tasting this!

So it was with excitement and enthusiasm that he read the title of the cover, “Kamala Yoga” (Perfection of Yoga), opened the book and read a paragraph really fast out loud, read the back of the book and then asked how much do you want for the book. So i thought I will just give him this Arabic Perfection of Yoga since he said he can’t read English, but by now he insisted on keeping the Gita as well. He pulled out a wad of money and gave me a $20, and just then I noticed someone was standing close by with a video camera recording us.

So we thanked each other profusely and he started walking away. As he was leaving, so many Middle Eastern men and women were taking photos of him and talking selfies with him. So I thought to myself what’s going on here? So i approached him again, and he acknowledged me and came towards me from the midst of all these fans.

I asked him “Are you famous”? He says “Yes I’m an actor and director from Syria and my name is Kosai Khauli, please pray for me.” I later discovered that he is one of the most highly-acclaimed and loved actors in the Middle Eastern world.

I humbly requested, “Can I please take a photo of you holding the books that you just got from me?”

He replied, “Oh now you want me to pose with your books? Well now that it’s commercial you’ll have to pay me, at least give my money back” and then he broke out laughing and then we both had a hearty laugh. We took a photo together of him holding the historical Srila Prabhupada’s book in Arabic.

Through the hard work and strong desire of Satyanarayana Prabhu and the BBT Far East/Middle East, we now have these beautiful Prabhupada books in Arabic. They can be seen at www.bbtfeme.com , and for the reasons I described above they are actually really fun and easy to distribute. But although this is true, as Vaisesika Prabhu says we first have to have the books and only then we will be able to distribute them. So I think everyone should taste this bliss and stock up on these special books asap! And I beg all the vaishnavas to pray that Kosai reads them fully and helps us to distribute them amongst the other Arabic-speaking celebrities. The fans will surely follow in their footsteps as did some of Kosai’s fans that blissful evening on the Promenade!