European Sankirtan Newsletter

Dear prabhus,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

This was such an amazing marathon that I don’t know where to begin. Many temples and countries way out did themselves. The first country sending in their scores was the Czech Republic distributing an amazing number of books. Then Hungary with 24,401 book points beating Germany by 2000 book points. Then another miracle coming in at the last minute the greatest miracle in the middle of a war the Ukraine yatra, with 17 temples headed by Kyiv, doing 25,836 points. Then under the guidance and inspiration of Janananda Maharaja, who was personally out on the street everyday, The French yatra regained their original glory with 28,068 book points overcoming all the others so far. Then for the European continent the Italian yatra was the only one to go over 30,000 book points with 31,810 beating everyone on the continent. It didn’t end there because only one temple from the UK, London Soho st., sent in their book scores in time and beat everyone with 42,347 book points.

These were the big countries with big scores but there were many smaller countries like Switzerland, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and many others doing way over their usual scores. Actually, every country and every single devotee that participated was empowered and blessed by Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada. Let’s not forget Spain that has been steadily increasing over this last year culminating with a very nice marathon.

This is a special time of the year because we are beginning a new year and it’s time to brainstorm and make new plans for increasing unlimitedly the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books. Or as Srila Prabhupada said, “Go on making your lifetime plans for distributing my books” His grace Vaisesika prabhu has encouraged us to make plans to increase by 20% the distribution every year!!!

I would like to share a couple of quotes from Srila Prabhupada that inspired me recently as I was reading. The first is from SB 6-5-18 purport “The Krsna consciousness movement is very eager to present Vedic literature in modern languages, especially Western languages such as English, French and German. The leaders of the Western world, the Americans and Europeans, have become the idols of modern civilization because the Western people are very sophisticated in temporary activities for the advancement of material civilization. A sane man, however, can see that all such grand activites, although perhaps very important for temporary life, have nothing to do with eternal life. The entire world is imitating the materialistic civilization of the West, and therefore the Krsna consciousness movement is very much interested in giving the Western people knowledge by translating the original Sanskrit Vedic literatures into Western languages.”

We can always feel the urgency and compassion in the words of Srila Prabhupada, his urgent desire to give this knowledge which can liberate people from the cycle of birth and death. This is the unique feature of Srila Prabhupada’s books his desire to preach and save the fallen souls.

The other quote from Srila Prabhupada’s books is from the CC Madhya lila chapter 19 verse 132 purport “It is certainly not good to write literature for money or reputation, but to write books and publish them for the enlightenment of the general populace is real service to the Lord. That was Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s opinion, and he specifically told his disciples to write books. He actually preferred to publish books rather than establish temples. Temple construction is meant for the general populace and neophyte devotees, but the business of advanced and empowered devotees is to write books, publish them and DISTRIBUTE them widely. According to Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakur, distributing literature is like playing on a great mrdanga. Consequently, we always request members of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness to publish as many books as possible and distribute them widely throughout the world. By thus following in the footsteps of Srila Rupa Goswami, one can become a Rupanuga devotee.” This is Srila Prabhupada’s formula for following Srila Rupa Goswami.

FLASH: I will be sending soon the information for our next monthly Sankirtan meeting.

Your servant,

Trai Das

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Sankirtan stories

Italy - Restaurant "Dal Francese", Chiampo (VI) - Caterina & Renato

I have an incredible story to tell you… last night I was still working in the restaurant it was very late, when a boy saw the book stand, he looked at them and asked me: “Who is Krishna”? I have a friend with the same name, his name is also Krishna. And this evening I am always thinking of calling my friend Krishna on the phone. Can you tell me who this Krishna is please I want to know.

Oh yes, I said…. Krishna is the supreme God. These are beautiful books that if you read them, they will change your life. In the Bhagavad Gita there is his words, and it is the oldest book in the world.” ….,So he took the Bhagavad Gita, held it close to him and went away happy! 💖Hare Krishna 🙏🪷

The other day his girlfriend came to the restaurant and told me that he is reading the Bhagavad Gita.

They too were customers and at the end of the evening they took two books.

This is the book stand at the entrance to the restaurant!

These are Maha Prasadam almond bags; we have been distributing Maha Prasadam to all customers for 2 years! We invite them to the Temple and talk about our life change.

One day a group of people came for lunch in a van, some of them took the book.

A month ago, I had a Pulman of 50 people. At the end of lunch, I offered everyone an almond of Maha PRASADAM, then a lady asked to buy some bags of almonds, then another lady came, then another and another, in the end everyone wanted to have the bags of almonds offered to Krishna. 🙏🪷

But I didn't have enough for everyone!

Now I always keep a nice display at the entrance of the restaurant.

Slovenia

The cashier at the petrol station

It was the last week of the marathon. I was really tired and not very enthusiastic but somehow, I got myself out the door and into the car. The day before I ignored to tank the car, so I had to thank on the way to the sankirtan location. I finally managed to figure out what would be a good place for the day and found a petrol station on the way. So, I just stop in the petrol station in this village, tank and go to pay. And I am thinking: "Should I take some Bhagavad Gita with me?" The whole marathon we were focusing on Bhagavad Gita. And I am like "No, not really needed". So, the cashier comes, I tell him the tax code (something with Krishna). And then he says "Oh, you are a Hare Krishna?" I was like "Not hard to tell since I am wearing these bedsheets". So, he says "Do you have Bhagavad Gita with you". And I'm like "Yes, I have a few" Meaning I had 2 boxes. So, then he told me whenever he goes to Ljubljana, he looks for the devotees and always buys a few Gitas and gives to his friends. So, he also got 2 from me (he was really low on money). I found it interesting how Krishna arranged for me to go to that petrol station which was not really some place I would have gone normally just to meet this young man.

Finding true love

I was in this smaller city in Slovenia during the marathon. In the evening everyone in the city comes to see "the lights" so there were some people there. At some point, I stopped this group. Usually I am quite bad with groups. So I offer them some books and we talk and I tell them I am originally from Romania. And the gentleman is very happy because he went to Romania for business and found "the love of his life" there. So he calls for his Romanian wife also and we chat a bit in Romanian (which he was actually fluent in) and they get some books and give a good donation. I didn't tell them but I actually thought that now he can really find his true love in the Bhagavad Gita.

Also related I met these 2 girls from Venice. And they told me they are from Venice. And I found it funny that everyone is going to Venice to find true love, but they could find true love in the Bhagavad Gita which they got in Ljubljana.

Belgium - Radhadesh

When we were on the Christmas market there was a man with a stand, who was selling sausages. There was meat literally on all sides. I just extended my hand with the book package, which had one of Srila Prabhupada's books inside. I said, "this is a present for you". And the man just looked at me with big eyes and said, "this is a gift, for me?" He was so surprised as everyday people just came to take things from him.

He was very touched and started to ask many things about where we live and what do we do. He introduced himself and said that his sister was in India before, so he knows some things about the culture there. I said if he likes he can give some donation, but he said he doesn't have anything that I would want (pointing at the sausages).

Then he started to ask more questions about Radhadesh and what we do there - I explained that we have manny nice projects, like restaurant, a college and also a cow stable where we care for cows very nicely.

At that point he said "ok, I will give you donation for the cows" and he took 5 Eur and said, "please give this directly for your cow project".

He was the kindest person I met that day and was so open about all we do. I am sure he will read Srila Prabhupada's book and also share it with others. This taught me to never judge people's circumstances as they might be hiding very beautiful qualities within.

By Mangala Candrika Devi dasi

Portugal

I met this huge, very muscular guy in a bus in Lisbon. I started to ask him about his tattoos. On the back of his head wrote "JIU-JITSU" He said that he was a Jiu-jitsu (martial art) teacher. Sri Krishna inspired me to present Bhagavad Gita: Look, in the first verse there's the word "yuyutsava" from which the word jiu-jitsu comes.

Short story: a boxer told his trainer that he wants to fight the champion of the world. His trainer brought him in front of a mirror and said: if you want to defeat him, you first need to defeat the person in the mirror. This book explains how to defeat your greatest enemy, your own mind. It's the favourite book of Mohammed Ali.

He took the Bhagavad Gita, gave me a donation and immediately started to read. I asked him "what is the secret to become a Jiu-jitsu master?"

"Discipline ", he replied.

Was trying to distribute books at the train station Paço de Arcos in the outskirts of Lisbon. Our dear Mataji Murti, disciple of Srila Prabhupada invited us to lunch prasadam, and that gave me inspiration to try to do my best in book distribution. I know only a few words in Portuguese language, but Sri Krishna kindly helps me to communicate.

One lady, over 50 years of age, came out of the train. I gave her an invitation card saying:"Hi, my name is Nitai, I'm from the Bhakti centre..."

"Do you know Krishna?" She asked.

"Yes! This is a book about Krishna! How do you know about Him?!", I was stunned.

"When I was a child, my friends told me about Krishna." She added "You are right to worship Krishna, because Krishna loves cows."

She took the Bhagavad Gita, gave me a donation and her eyes filled with tears. She stood silent, holding the Bhagavad Gita as a greatest treasure and said "thank you SO much for this book "

I am still deeply touched by her reaction.

Thank you so much dear Srila Prabhupada!