By ISKCON Ahmedabad
The sankirtan fields bloomed brightly in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on Vasanta Panchami, the first day of spring! Why? More than 100 devotees from ISKCON Ahmedabad joined our temple’s 4th Monthly Sankirtan Festival. What did they do? Read on to find out.
On Saturday, 9th February, HG Vaisesika Prabhu presented the philosophical significance as well as practical techniques of book distribution to the entire team at ISKCON Ahmedabad. Then, late morning on Sunday, Vasanta Panchami, the entire team got onto buses heading out to Bhadrakali – a busy shopping spot in the city for the practical session!
Reaching the venue, all the attending devotees grouped up and took a photo together touching the pavement; their goal is just to show up for book distribution together. A small kirtan party stayed back in the centre of the marketplace, whipping up an energetic melody and inviting onlookers to dance to the Holy Names.
Another small party of devotees set up a large, well-organized book stall right next to the kirtan, showing books to the onlookers and making friends with all they meet. The rest of the team, including kids, fanned out with books in hand to try distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books across the marketplace. That’s when the magic happened!
While many devotees felt initially apprehensive about distributing books to Muslims who were common in the area, soon they begun to challenge themselves to feel comfortable outside their comfort zone. Following the specific tips and techniques given by HG Vaisesika Prabhu, the devotees humbly showed Srila Prabhupada’s books to whomever they met and simply acted as instruments to the best of their ability, making book distribution fun and easy.
Soon, the impossible became possible. Taking shelter of service for service sake, the devotees transcended the oppressive mid-day heat, the noise, dust, and odours of the crowded marketplace, as well as their own assumptions and inhibitions. And before two hours could pass by, the team had together distributed 181 big books and 387 small books, collected 35,275 in Lakshmi donations, and made friends with many people whom they might have otherwise ignored.
The Monthly Sankirtan Festival is once again proving to be a valuable means for ISKCON temples to not only raise book distribution scores but also to engage their congregations in a constructive and inspiring way that clearly connects the spiritual knowledge in our books to the practical ways in which we deal with people while preaching. We are deeply grateful to HG VaisesikaPrabhu and the India Sankirtan Leaders Team for fanning our spark in such a way that we now feel unstoppable!
With this experience, our commitment to doing a fixed and regular Monthly Sankirtan Festival has become strongly cemented, and we eagerly aspire to become the best temple we can through systematically reading as well as widely distributing the precious and incomparable books that are SrilaPrabhupada’s legacy.
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