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*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 have to get the books
first 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. Their fans
will surely follow in their footsteps as did some of Kosai’s fans that
blissful evening on the Promenade!