Hare Krsna,You must be really wondering.....whats this Best Sankirtan Letter Ever. Yes i am talking of the most wonderful Sankirtan Letter ever written in our movement. During the time of Prabhupada esp in 1970's Book Distribution took a mammoth surge which was, is and will be unprecedented in the Vaishnava history. Imagine how much pride all our Acaryas must have felt that time especially Srila Bhakti Siddanta Sarswati Thakur seeing his dearmost disciple conquering every nook and corner of the planet through his books. No doubt his chest must have swelled with pride for Prabhupada.... as he saw him fulfilling the innermost desire of the most magnanimous avataar Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. What i am going to share here is the most wonderful letter ever written to Srila Prabhupada by one of his pure servants about how his disciples were trying their best to please him. Afterall what everyone ever wanted at that time was that gentle transcendental smile of His Divine Grace. That was considered and still is the perfection of their lives. I warn devotees that once they finish reading this they will definitely desire to go out and distribute Srila Prabhupada's mercy in the form of his books. So Happy Reading.................. :-)Hansadüta prabhu read out an ecstatic report by Uttamasloka däsa, the president of the Chicago temple, although it was not directly addressed to Srila Prabhupäda. It described the efforts of the devotees in the recent record-breaking, Thanksgiving-day book-distribution competition. Out of 5,000 books sold by the three temples, Chicago, assisted by nine Rädhä-Dämodara traveling sankirtana party brahmacäris, sold over 2,000. The letter was written to Rämeçvara prabhu and sent on. Hansadüta read it out loud as Prabhupäda listened, eyes sometimes wide with amazement and appreciation at the incredible effort and risk his disciples are taking to distribute his books throughout this world of darkness:"We took the challenge seriously—not that we were puffed up and over confident of victory—for we knew that anything could happen by Lord Caitanya's mercy. Then the first crew left—16 men and women—they were distributing by about 6:30 a.m. Later a small party went out by about 10:00 a.m. with more books and prasadam, and later on in the day several others came out. Altogether there were about 25 devotees at the airport throughout the day. Sripati and I sort of floated about helping in different ways, like you did. There were the 17 regular distributors plus Tripurari Swami and a couple of weekend regulars and a few more new comers."In the first hour and half most of the distributors had done 15 to 25 books, so by the time we got out (about 11:00 a.m.) they had already done about 300-400 books! The mornings are always good. Things were quiet; not too many announcements and no break ups or hassles. We all met together for lunch at 1:00 p.m. and took a preliminary count: over 750 books—we were close to breaking the world's record half way through the day. By 1:00 p.m. Manusuta dasa had already done 100!!!!!! Praghosa däsa 80!!!! and Tripurari Swami 70!!!!! Our hairs began to stand on end a little as we speculated about the potential results and everyone was back distributing by 1:30 p.m."Basically we distribute in two terminals... there is a corridor about 25ft. wide that the people funnel through after coming from the 'fingers'... All of the passengers come through there on their way to the baggage claim and also on their way to a flight.... We found out from the paper next morning that over 220,000 people came through the airport that day!!!!"At about 4:00 p.m.... a demon worker of the airlines came up to one devotee and punched him in the face; the men were stunned. Then he went up to another devotee and punched him in the face! The men and karmis began to congregate. Tripurari Swami came running to see what was happening; the demon punched him in the face!!! All of the devotees immediately jumped on the demon and began beating the stool out of him!!!!!!! There was a huge crowd all around and the devotees were shouting for the police to stop this man. There was blood on his face and on the ground. Praghosa's punch had drawn blood and there were drops of blood on Praghosa's clothes and drops of perspiration on his face: he was feeling very blissful!!"Prabhupäda was listening with rapt attention to the whole description, occasionally raising his eyebrows in surprise and shaking his head and smiling in appreciation. He was aglow with obvious pride at the determination of his disciples to sell his books despite all obstacles, and he listened to the entire report, blow by blow."While we listened to this incident and took prasadam, a demon who had found three books ripped them up and threw them in our midst. Unaffected, a little tired, but undaunted in their determination, the devotees went back to distribute. Meanwhile a huge blizzard began and traffic started jamming both on the roads and in the air.. At 10:30 p.m. I got a report from Sripati: over 1700 books—we might break 2,000!!!! This is incredible!! Who can imagine the mercy of Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu? All but four of the men were coming back at 11:30 p.m.—Manusuta w/191; Praghosa w/153; Tripurari Swami w/135 and Ranganatha w/120.... The first crew returned in the blizzard by 2:00 a.m. and the four others left about 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. Everyone struggled to get up for mangala arati (the four latecomers didn't even go to sleep) and after an ecstatic kirtana I ran around to get the final scores... On Thursday we fasted from breakfast and chanted and slept till noon arati when we had a big arati kirtana and after a nice feast!!!!"Thank you for inspiring us to compete for the mercy of the Spiritual Master. If it weren't for you we wouldn't know what to do. All glories to Srila Prabhupäda!Your servant, Uttamasloka dasa."Another page carried the totals for each distributor. Two men did over 400 between them: Manusuta set a new individual world's record with 210 books, Praghosa was just behind with 200. Another seven, Tripuräri Swami, Ranganätha, Romapäda, Buddhimanta, and Preraka prabhus, including two women, „aòbhuja and Jagaddhatri däsis, broke the one-hundred—book mark. The grand total was 2,042 hardbound books.At the bottom of the list Uttamasloka added a note to Rämesvara: "My humble suggestion and request is that you read this letter and all of its contents to the assembled devotees of New Dvaraka Dhama. Even though it is irregularly composed and full of mistakes and errors, it is still very transcendentally pleasing and will be relished by all."At the top of the letter Rämesvara had written in large clear capital letters,"THE MOST ECSTATIC SKP NEWSLETTER OF ALL TIME! SHOULD BE READ ALOUD TO ALL OF THE ASSEMBLED DEVOTEES!"When Hansadüta finished, Srila Prabhupäda had a huge smile on his face, clearly pleased and obviously enjoying transcendental ecstasy. He dictated his reply, not to Rämesvara but to Uttamasloka. "Please accept my blessings. I read your sankirtana newsletter with great relish. Europe and America are in great danger, this Hare Krsna movement is enveloping them. The sankirtana devotees are very, very dear to Krsna. Because they are doing the field work of book distribution, Krsna has immediately recognized them as true servants. Just like during the war time, a farm boy or ordinary clerk who goes out to fight for his country on the front, immediately becomes a national hero for his sincere effort. So Krsna immediately recognizes a preacher of Krsna consciousness who takes all risks to deliver his message.Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as i did and are ready for some action now........- Jai PrabhupadaSrila Prabhupada Trancendental Book Distribution Ki Jai !!!!December 9th, 1975 Sri Vrndavan Dham
Comments
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!!!
Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful letter with us.