Taking a risk to get books to Palestine

A few Sundays ago, at the LA temple, I noticed that the BBT FEME books were
not on the main book table outside, which is active during the Sunday
program, being located right in front of the temple room. I asked the
devotee in charge of the table to please put them there, which he did.

About a half hour later, someone came to tell me that three brothers from
Palestine were looking at the Arabic books with a lot of interest. He
suggested that I should speak with them. I discovered their interest to be
more like overwhelming, and I invited them to the feast which they loved.
One of the brothers, who was headed back to Palestine the next day, was so
excited with everything that he said that, if it was possible, he very much
wanted to bring a small quantity of the Arabic books back home with him and
try to distribute them there.

They settled on forty books as the maximum they could fit into his suitcase
and still be hidden somehow. As they were purchasing them, they were also
discussing how (and if) he was actually going to get himself safely back
into Palestine with the books. Palestine has no airport, so he would have to
fly into Jordon, go through a potentially dangerous checkpoint into Israel,
where they always check the luggage, and then go through an even more
difficult checkpoint into Arabic-speaking Palestine, where they also always
examine the luggage.

With some serious concern but also excitement they took the books and left.

I didn't hear anything for some days. After ten days I was getting pretty
worried, and my emails to Jereis went unanswered.


The next day I got this note:

Dear Satyanarayana,

How are you? I want to let you know that I arrived home safely. It was an
easy journey, thanks to Srila Prabhupada. I have a very good news for you:
Krishna consciousness is spreading throughout the Palestinian Territories. I
distributed all the books and people are asking for more. I checked out the
Web site WWW.BBTFEME.COM <http://www.bbtfeme.com/> <http://www.bbtfeme.com/ and

saw that the other
translated books in Arabic are Sri Isopanishad, Science of Self-Realization,
and the most important book, Bhagavad-Gita As It Is. Do you have any
suggestions how I can get these books? If I want to order a hundred copies
of each of the six books on the website, how much will it cost to ship them?
I look forward to hearing from you.

Much Love,
Jeries


After getting this email, I was able to reach him on Skype. He exploded with
enthusiasm, telling me that “Krishna blinded the checkpoint officers. No one
checked anything!”

I have just shipped more Arabic books to an Israeli address they're keeping,
and hopefully they will also be able to get those back across the border and
into the hands of many more of these serious Palestinian seekers of the
truth.

Your servant,
Satyanarayana Dasa

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Comments

  • Hare Krishna! This is wonderful. How fortunate you are to get this opportunity to serve Lord Caitanya's mission in such an intimate way. My obeisances to you again and again, oh Vaishnava Thakura!

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