European Sankirtan Newsletter

Dear prabhus,

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

Lots of good news this month. First, we want to welcome two new countries, Bosnia and Serbia and 4 new yatras Tenerife ES, Linz Aus, Pottenstein Aus and Presov Slovakia and thank them for their participation. We are very happy that they are sharing news from their Prabhudatta desh and hope to see them regularly. Let’s always be conscious of doing our part in fulfilling Lord Caitanya’s prediction that this Krsna consciousness will spread to every town and village around the world.

This month we have again received the amazing results from the Ukranian yatra and this time we include the scores from each city. Note that the first 5 cities doing very nice scores are cities we have all become familiar with as they are often in the news because of being bombarded and they are still going on distributing a good number of books. This should inspire us, wherever we are, to go on distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books despite any obstacle.

The London (Soho St.) temple is close on the heels of Sankirtan Dham Italy but still has away to go and all the other countries have their main book distribution base in one temple and those all did very well. Special mention for 3 temples that participated in a significant way in the Be a Gardener campaign for the Caitanya Caritamrta. First was the Dutch yatra with 30 sets, then Radhadesh with 15 sets and Simhacalam in Germany with 10 sets.

I want to quote some passages from Srila Prabhupada’s books that should help us enter into the right mood for distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books.

SB 4-7-53 Verse "A person with average intelligence does not think the head and other parts of the body to be seperate. Similarly, My devotee does not differentiate Visnu, the all-pervading Personality of Godhead, from any thing or any living entity".

Purport: "Whenever there is a disease in any part of the body, the whole body takes care of the ailing part. Similarly, a devotee’s oneness is manifested in His compassion for all conditioned souls. BG 5-18 says panditah sama-darsinah those who are learned see everyone’s conditional life equally. Devotees are compassionate to every conditioned soul, and therefore they are known as aparakya-buddhi. Because devotees are learned and know that every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, they preach Krsna consciousness to everyone so that everyone may be happy. If a particular part of the body is diseased, the whole attention of the body goes to that part. Similarly, devotees care for any person who is forgetful of Krsna and therefore in material consciousness. The equal vision of the devotee is that he works to get all living entities back home back to Godhead".

This can be put into practice by distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books and chanting the Holy Name. Srila Prabhupada kijaya!!

To confirm that this is the way this verse and purport from the Caitanya Caritamrta Adi lila 16-19

Verse: “In this way Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu contributed the greatest benefit to the people of East Bengal by initiating them into Harinam, the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, and making them learned scholars by educating them".

Purport: "Following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Krsna consciousness movement is distributing the Hare Krsna maha-mantra and inducing people all over the world to chant. We are giving people an immense treasury of transcendental literature, translated into all the important languages of the world, and by the grace of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu this literature is selling profusely, and people are chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra with great delight. THIS IS THE PREACHING PROCESS OF THE CAITANYA CULT (my emphasis). Since the Lord wanted this cult preached all over the world, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is acting in a humble way so that the vision of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu may be fulfiled all over the world, ESPECIALLY IN THE WESTERN COUNTRIES. (my emphasis)".

This is our mission here in Europe, Srila Prabhupada kijaya!!

Your servant,

Trai Das

Sankirtan Meeting

Saturday May 4th at 10am CET 9am UK time with Kesava Swami

Continental European Sankirtan Scores

Sankirtan Scores United Kindom

Scores By Country

Sankirtan stories

Artesina

I meet an elderly gentleman in a ski suit and we start talking. At one point he says: "I am an atheist, I only believe in science and conscience." So I take advantage of his perfect assist by showing him our book Science and Conscience! He first takes it in his hand but after a few seconds his atheistic mentality prevails and he gives it back to me. I greet him and continue on. After about five minutes I meet him again outside a bar and he asks me: "How much is that book from earlier? OK, I'll get it!"

A story from US

When our van got surrounded by twelve police cars and about thirty officers with their guns drawn!
Vraja Vihari Prabhu:
“It was the fall of 1984, and our party had been distributing books at the State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida, all day. We parked our van in a Days Inn parking lot for the night. Our party of five brahmacaris was fast asleep in the van when we heard aloud voice over a megaphone: ‘All right in there! Come out slowly with your hands raised!’ I looked out the window and was shocked to see the van surrounded by twelve police cars and about thirty officers with their guns drawn!
“We emerged from the van squinting from the bright flashlights burning our eyes. The officers began to frisk each one of us, though we were dressed only in gamshas.
“‘What are you doing here?’ the officer in charge demanded.
“‘We’re distributing love of God in the form of books” I explained.
“‘Prove it!’
“I opened the van doors, thinking perhaps this was all a dream. I reached into one of the boxes, pulled out a Bhagavad-gita, and handed it to the officer in charge. He intently inspected the book, then me, then the book again, until finally he broke the silence, declaring, ‘All glories to Srila Prabhupada!’ I was flabbergasted, as were his gun-toting subordinates and all my vanmates. At this point I was sure I was dreaming!”
“The officer in charge then cheerfully explained: ‘I used to go to the University of Florida and regularly ate the Krishna Lunch on campus. You practically put me through college. I even stayed two days at the temple!’
“Turning to his associates, he declared, ‘These are great books, and you should all buy one.’
“On his order the officers began reaching for their wallets. About 80% of them took books. We made almost $300!
“Our new friend then apologized for disrupting our sleep. He explained that earlier that night a gun store had been robbed, and the description of the getaway vehicle exactly matched our van.
“I don’t think any of us slept again that night. It was certainly a most bizarre experience we went through. But thanks to prasadam distribution, it turned into a great sankirtana success story.”
“In the summer of 1991 we went to Toronto to do book distribution. We stayed at the temple and did a marathon for almost a month in downtown Toronto on Yonge Street, a great spot for sankirtana in the summer. After the marathon we were on our way back into the US near Buffalo when we got stopped at the border by the US officials. An officer demanded to see the contents of our van. We opened the back and he started poking around inside. When he came upon a shelf that held some of the books we would use for personal reading, he pulled out a Nectar of Devotion and shouted to the other border officials, ‘Hey guys, come over here! This is the Nectar of Devotion!’ The way he said this, they must have thought he’d found the greatest treasure on earth.
“The customs agent then told us he used to go to the temple in Buffalo in 1969 and had once met Srila Prabhupada there and heard him give a lecture. He asked if he could make a donation for the Nectar of Devotion and gave us $50. He told us he often would tell his colleagues about the time he spent with the Krishnas and Srila Prabhupada.”