Book Distribution done by 500 devotees during the annual Kartik Yatra with His Holiness Romapada Swami at Purushottam Kshetra Sri Jagannath Puri Dham from October 26th to Nov 4th 2018.
This year Maharaja expressed his desire that all yatra participants should engage in Book Distribution and that made this yatra even more special. Special slots were scheduled for Book Distribution, 15 groups each consisting of 30 devotees were formed for logistic purposes and devotees from four continents, speaking different languages, went out together to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s Transcendental Books.
The fortunate recipients of Books ranged from Police officers, dham visitors, store managers, shopkeepers, hotel staff, auto-rickshaw drivers and vendors to beggars. Devotees were joyous to see that some local people who seem like labourers and illiterate are able to converse in English. Despite knowing English and Hindi, most of the townies asked specially for Oriya Books and when they received one they expressed great joy.
Most of the devotees from China do not know any of the three languages – English, Hindi or Oriya. Despite language barrier they distributed more than 100 Books altogether. Although both the Chinese devotees and the people to whom they were talking were not able to understand each other’s languages, when people accepted the Books and gave donation their faces were filled with bliss. Special thanks to HG Vaisesika Prabhu to suggest the strategy to print Mantra cards in English, Hindi and Oriya with a tag line at the bottom that reads ‘Please take the Books and give donation from your heart’. The card strategy was a game-changer. It removed the fear of language barrier. With cards it was more of heart-to-heart communication than verbal communication. Many people who could not accept a book were very happy to receive a Mantra Card in their own language.
Total 1250 Books were distributed. 268 Bhagavad-Gita As It Is in English, Hindi and Oriya were kept in all the rooms of six hotels for visitors to read during their stay in the holy dham. Book Distribution not only filled the hearts of devotees with bliss, it also gave an exclusive opportunity to devotees from various parts of the world to interact with each other, developing relationship with one another, serving Srila Prabhupada together and pleasing Guru and Krishna !
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