HERO

By Anita dasi

At 3 am I woke up with so much pain in my ankle. The afternoon before I managed to ring the bell at the Manu temple, but I took quite a digger. In the middle of the night everything always seems bleak. I was thinking, how can I distribute books when I can’t even manage the 50 stairs into town from our guest house? Maybe I should get an x-ray. If it’s bad, should we call off the trip and go back to Vrndavan? So many grim thoughts, but then some inspiration came. Our god-brother Jitendriya prabhu is a healer trained in a variety of arts like massage, ayurveda and reiki. I waited until a semi decent hour and called him. Mid morning I hobbled to his place. After half an hour of torture . . . ah I mean treatment I had so much more mobility and again felt optimistic. I rested for the day, he gave another treatment in the evening and surprisingly today my ankle was back to 80% and we were able to go again for book distribution. It’s so nice to feel that Srila Gurudeva was taking care and that even in a little place like Vashishsta that a god-brother was there to help.


Hero of the day – Jitendriya prabhu

Today we went to the Hadimba temple. Hadimba was married to Bhima, when the Pandavas where in hiding, after Bhima killed her man-eating brother.


Hadimba temple

We set our mat with books near the temple and began signing bhajans. A small crowd gathered to watch us, but we also caught the attention of the temple authorities. They told us we could not sell anything there and needed to move to the mela grounds just outside the entrance. We joined the menagerie of booths with everything from bungee trampoline jumping, to custom painted key chains, to yak rides.



So we adjusted; one or two of would stay with the books on the mat and the others would approach people.



People are completely bombarded by hawkers approaching them with all kinds of stuff like saffron, sun glasses, and hot pink cotton candy, so sometimes they would even ignore you when you asked them if they wanted a book. At first it’s a blow to the ego to be completely blanked by people, but after 20 or so misses I would find someone sincerely happy to get the book. That experience erased the others and helps me to keep perspective. Its not that I am another hawker, but I am an agent of Srila Gurudeva, waiting for those souls who while journeying in this world have the good fortune to come in contact with one of these books.

NETWORKING

Manali book distribution report - May 25, 2010
By Anita dasi

For ekadasi we again invited all the devotees to get together for bhajans at the Rama Temple. We took turns singing bhajans. Various visitors to the temple would stop and join us for a few songs, or pick up the free Hindi or English pamphlets with a simple introduction to the maha-mantra and addresses for the temples in India. A few stayed for a long time, singing along with the Hindi song books. One Bengali man was so enthusiastic to sing with us, and wanted his seven year old son to get some inspiration for bhajans.



In the afternoon we went to Dylans coffee shop in old Manali. Not to have a coffee on ekadasi but to meet the proprietor Raj. Jaya Sri dasi and Nanadini dasi stayed in the ladies ashram in Gopinatha bhavan this last winter after taking initiation during Kartika. Some years before they both visited India as travelers and spent some time in Manali and made a connection with Raj who has a very open and caring mood. He is spiritual but not sectarian, and feels his service to God is to make all people feel accepted and affection. We chatted for a while, and when we left him a few Hindi and English books he said with a grateful smile, “thank you, and I will share these, because many who come here are seekers.”

From Dylans we wandered up the winding road towards the Manu temple stopping to offer books to shopkeepers and those on the road. Its always a surprise to see that sometimes those with the least money most readily take the books. One man selling cherries in plastic cups on the side of the road took a Bhakti Tattava Viveka. By the time we returned he was halfway through the book, and he asked us to see the other books we have. He carefully selected a Camatkar-chandirka.

We went for darshan at the Manu temple. Manu is the father of mankind and first heard this science of the relationship with the Supreme from Vivasvan, the sun god who heard it from the Lord. Of course over of time this knowledge became lost, and Sri Krsna had to give the instructions again to Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra.



On stairway out of the temple there was a bell hanging over the stairs. It was up quite high and I couldn’t reach it on the way in, so fooling around I tried to jump up and ring it. I made a terrible landing.



TO BE CONTINUED
Tune in tomorrow to find out what happened and the fate of the book distribution trip . . .

SUKRITI

All night the wind battered the trees. In the morning it was cloudy and raining. My sunburned forearms and hands were relieved. Some people get a farmers tan, I am working a beauty of a cartel-player tan.



Around 10:30 am the rain stopped and we were able to go to our spot. Though its not our spot any more – on the first day the temple committee told us it was temple property and we could not sell things there. We explained that it was not for profit only guru seva and preaching. We asked if we could just come for 3 more days and the gentleman consented.



It was a good spot, but I guess there are souls destined to get books somewhere else. We hear so much about sukriti in books and classes, but its amazing to see how it unfolds. For example one elderly lady came and gave us 10 rupees. We tried to give her a book, but she is from this region and does not even read Hindi. Karuna-mayi dasi ran after her to give her a small poster. She refused saying she was Buddhist. I suspect on account of that small donation she will not be Buddhist for long.


Pujari from Rama temple

When we packed up after the morning we went up to the Rama temple to thank the Pujari for letting us have the program the day before. We had a package of several books tied with ribbon to give him as a gift. He held the books to his chest and said, “I will read them again and again from my heart.”

SHAKTI

Manali book distribution report May 23, 2010
By Anita dasi

We sat down in our spot, arranged the books and began bhajans. One fellow with rosy mountain cheeks squatted down grinning and swaying with the bhajans. We had a Hindi song book so he so he followed along. He sang with us the full set of morning bhajans, when I would glance at him between songs he became happier and happier until he was beaming. He stayed with us the whole morning chanting and clanging the cartels.



Around two we began to pack up and to go back for lunch; we explained to him that it was the appearance day of Jahanva devi and Sita devi and we were going to have a small program at 5. He lives down in Manali but decided to stay and wait for the program.

The afternoon was very busy. I am quite lazy when it comes to preparing to speak; I guess I hope if I ignore it it will go away. But there was no more avoiding it. I decided to focus on Sita devi because the program was at a Rama temple and the temple of Vashista Rsi was just down stairs. While searching through old harikatha lectures I found one nice pastime that I had heard before but never realized it was Vashista Rsi. I was was able to weave it into the class in an attempt to emphasize the importance of sadhu sanga.

“Visvamitra Muni and Vasista Muni once had an argument about which was more powerful and important: tapasya or bhakti. They asked Anantadeva, and Anantadeva replied to Visvamitra, ‘Take the burden of one of my hoods. Take one universe on your head.’ Visvamitra gave fifty thousand years worth of the results of his tapasya. Anantadeva then placed the universal planets on his head, and the planets immediately pushed his head down. Vasista then gave one minute's result of his sadhu-sanga, and he was immediately able to hold the universe on his head” – from a class on Aug 23 2001 in India



Our god-brother Jitendriya prabhu sponsored halava, but we only had one small pot that Jagat-mohini didi loaned us. He arranged that we could use the temple kitchen, but it was 4:30 and the man with the keys was missing. He finally came and opened the door. Karuna-mayi dasi quickly got to work.



There are about seven or eight devotees from different sangas staying here in Vashishta who came, our friend from the morning and several temple visitors sat down and joined us for some of the bhajans or class. Kunja Kalika dasi lead very sweetly Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Bhavarnave Po’de Mora.


ogo sri jahnava devi! E dase karuna
koro’ aji nija-gune, ghucao jantrana

“Oh most revered Sri Jahnava-devi! Please show mercy to this servant today by virtue of your own good qualities, and kindly relieve all his afflictions.”

At the end we distributed prashadam to those who came to the program and also visitors to the temple. It is so inspiring to be at a 5,000 year old Rama temple remembering the pastimes and mercy of these divine incarnations.

Tourists and Locals

Manali Book Distribution Report – May 22, 2010
By Anita dasi



“Did you see my snaps from my trip to Vashishta?” says any member of the digital camera age.


“The spectacular snow covered peaks,


the unique architecture of the traditional slate covered temple,



and the Hare Krsna’s singing bhajans.”

All the “snaps” we are in each day is worth it. It peaks people’s interest and makes it easy to start a conversation. The crowd here is generally more wealthy, and we have had good luck distributing bigger books and four or five books to one family.



But I remember most the local woman in her woolen dress who silently sat down behind us while we were signing Vraja-jana-mana-sukhakari. With a tear in eye she said, “gita” reaching for the Hindi song book. I winced telling her the price, thinking it would be too much for her. But from the folds of her embroidered wool suit she pulled out her purse and gave the fifty rupees.

Pinky and Spidey

Book Distribution report - Manali, India - May 21, 2010
By Anita dasi

I am pretty much a homebody. In Vrndavan people are generally shocked if they come to my room and I am not there. Now that we have settled in Vashisht, I find I don’t really want to go outside this sweet mountain village nestled on the hill above Manali. I thought for book distribution we would have to venture down the hill, but it turns out that the Vashisht Rsi temple, the Sita Rama temple and hot springs draw everyone up the hill. There is a steady flow of visitors all morning and afternoon.

This is our “spot” between the Vashisht Rsi temple on the left and the Siva Temple on the right.

We set up a mat with books in front of the entrance to the temples.We sing bhajans and maha-mantra, depending upon our mood and what the crowd is calling for. Some people watch, but some join in. We meet people from all over India and also the world.

Pinky and Spidey in his Spider Man suit

In the afternoon the local kids were all out of school and hanging around. We gave those who were old enough to read a flier with the maha-mantra, and got them to sing along. They especially loved as we would chant the mantra faster and faster until they jumbled up into laughter. One girl named Pinky was especially interested in us. She chanted, watched and sat with us. After she caught on to our program of book distribution she asked for a few books to try herself. She had amazing luck with an element of the crowd we often overlook – the kids. She distributed two or three books to a group of girls who looked about 11 or 12 from Agra. I think by the end of the night she had distributed seven or eight books. She invited us to her simple home where we met her mother and brothers. The book we had given her was already up on the small family altar.

Auspicious Beginning

by Anita dasi

Aksaya Tritiya is an auspicious day to begin something. We didn’t exactly leave on this day, but we did make the rounds to many deities in Vrndavan on Chandan-yatra and offered prayers that we could be instruments of Srila Gurudeva and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu on our three week long book distribution trip.

On Chandan-yatra the deities in Vrndavan are covered with the cooling sandalwood paste. This is Sri Gopinatha from Gopinatha Bhavan.


Some felt the deities at Imlitala temple had the best chandan-yatra decoration with Krsna’s flower chudder.

I think they reciprocated by sending some expert last minute advice. We left the next morning first to Delhi in a shared taxi with Rasanda prabhu. He was on his way to his preaching trip in Australia and New Zealand. He offered many wonderful pointers about how to preach in India, the importance of using stories to illustrate points, the need to be ready to back up your points with shastra, how Hindi kirtan is a must in North India. He had Kunja dasi get out the mrdanga and start singing, and told us its a very good technique to pause while leading a bhajan and explain the meaning. He asked us if we could tell the history of the song Bhajahu re mana. I knew enough to make a fool of myself. He sighed and said we have lots to learn, but we are babies and we just have to start somewhere.

In Delhi, we were dropped in Connaught Place where the bus to Manali leaves from. Well, actually the bus left from the other side of the road. By the time we crossed the road with our (you have to hum the tune to the Twelve Days of Christmas):

Five boxes of books
Four Takura-ji
Three rollies
Two computer bags
One mrdanga

we were drenched in our own sweat – its around 45 degree Celsius or over 110 Fahrenheit these days in Vrndavan and Delhi. Is it a coincidence that we chose this time of year to distribute books in the hill stations of the Himalayas? Well I never claimed to be doing pure bhakti. But we did figure we could be of more use distributing books to the hoards escaping the heat rather than sweltering in Vrndavan. Its hard to believe we were so hot when now I am sitting in a wool sweater, socks, hat and chudder sipping tea.

After a night writhing in a bus seat we reached Manali around 9 am. It was pouring rain. We transferred all our luggage (remember the song) to under a tarp. Then we hired a car to take us the few kilometers to Vashist. This is the where Lord Rama’s guru Vashist Rsi had his ashram. Our god-sister Jagat-mohini didi helped us immensely by arranging a room here. Originally the idea to come to Manli came in February when we were distributing books for Siva Ratri. Someone in our group distributed some books to a nice man named Syam and his friend. They came and visited the temple later that evening. When we were talking to him he invited us to come to Manali. We had been in touch every week or two since then planning our visit. But the last 10 days I could not reach him. Perhaps he lost this phone, perhaps business called him away and he did not want to rescind the invitation, we may never know. Anyway, Krsna can be quite crooked in His arrangements and we are here now.

Yesterday, between the pouring rain and exhaustion from the overnight bus journey we mostly rested. Around 5 Karuna-mayi dasi went out to get some supplies. She has very little experience distributing books and was nervous if she would be able to do it. She came back from the shop and said, “I need some books, the shop keeper wants some.” We sent her off with 5 books, a variety of Hindi and English. We all giggled when she came home with none. She had been so nervous, and here she was the first one to distribute books, five at that, and without even trying. It was a sweet reminder that we are just instruments.