Yamuna Flood

Dear All,
The Yamuna River has not been so high in over 30 years. This year she kept growing and growing until she finally flooded homes and unfortunately, after devotees watching and watching - she flooded our basement book storage room. The water came in through the drains, so that is why no one caught it in time. The Yamuna was not all the way up to our building yet - but the drains were overlookedS.

The devotees did a Titanic delve into the water and got all of the boxes out of the water. Then so many devotees helped with taking all of the books out of the boxes and packages and lying them out one by one all over the temple room, empty rooms (under the fans) and all over the building. We are still doing this and so many of the books have been saved. Some are wrinkled or have some blemishes now in the cover, and some we could not save.

We all realized that the Yamuna flooded the bookroom so we can flood the world with Srila Gurudeva's books. He has said so many times he does not want them sitting in cold storage.

So, a group of us plan to go to Delhi next week for the Commonwealth Games and to distribute as many books as possible for any donation.

We have had to incur many costs to save these books as well as the losses we have taken with the unusable books and posters.

If you would like to make a donation, we would be so grateful. You can donate through www.gvpbookdistribution.com/Sponsor.html

Aspiring for the service of Sri Guru and the Vaisnavas,
Vasanti dasi

School Program in South Africa

by Vasanti dasi






On Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010 Syamarani didi, myself, Mukunda prabhu, Anupama prabhu, Asim-Krsna prabhu and Lalita didi went to a school in a rural town outside of Johannasberg. There were about 50 kids there and they were so incredibly sweet.
First we chanted and we gave them all a Way of Love so they could follow along with the Maha-mantra. They loved the book and we told them that the books are sacred so to keep them in a special place and not on the floor, etc.

Syamarani didi gave a sweet class for them which can be viewed on my youtube page:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vasantidasi1&aq=f

We heard that one kid even became a vegetarian after the program because he said he doesn't want to eat his brothers. His mother came into the school, and told the teacher my kid won't eat meat anymore. The teacher told her alternatives and she was pacified.

Some of the kids couldn't stop staring at the Krsna pictures in the books.

We had a kirtan at the end and we all danced together. Then, I asked the kids who could chant the mantra into the microphone and they all came to the mic with such enthusiasm - some learned the maha-mantra so fast, some needed help, and some used the book.

We then gave them all sumptuous prasadam and they ate to their hearts content (we've heard some of these kids don't eat much on weekends, when they are not in school.) We also gave them take home plates for their families.

Preaching in India

Preaching in India is challenging and inspiring. Everywhere people need Srila Gurudev’s books, in the West as well as in India. In our dealings with Indians we could understand, that Gurudev’s books are extremely necessary. Most of the Indians have the conception that all paths lead to Bhagavan, but they can not clearly define who is Bhagavan. For that reason, according to their birth, samskar and liking they choose demigods for their worship. In most of the cases they think that Sri Krsna is also like a demigod, but we detected that even though they can not understand Sri Krsna’s identity still they have some kind of special respect for Him. In other cases they know that Sri Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they still have the strong desire to worship demigods as well

In Hindu temples, the Sri Sri Radha Krsna murtis are generally centred in the middle, surrounded by Sivji, Durga, Ganesh etc. It is very helpful when we make programs in Hindu temples and speak about the cause and the centre of all causes, Sri Krsna. Indian people very quickly feel if the preacher is sincere or not, so equipped with Gurudev’s powerful books and the weapon for Kali yuga, the harinam mahamantra, we try to capture their hearts. We meet those who practice Buddhism, Sikh Religion, Shivaits, Christians, demigod worshippers, the Brahmakumaris and new age movements like art of living, etc., which forces us to study our philosophy deeply to be capable in philosophical exchanges. We have learned it is very important to be respectful and careful towards other religions and habits.

Preaching in India is challenging and inspiring. Everywhere people need Srila Gurudev’s books, in the West as well as in India. In our dealings with Indians we could understand, that Gurudev’s books are extremely necessary. Most of the Indians have the conception that all paths lead to Bhagavan, but they can not clearly define who is Bhagavan. For that reason, according to their birth, samskar and liking they choose demigods for their worship. In most of the cases they think that Sri Krsna is also like a demigod, but we detected that even though they can not understand Sri Krsna’s identity still they have some kind of special respect for Him. In other cases they know that Sri Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they still have the strong desire to worship demigods as well.

In general people have appreciation and curiosity if they see us Western people speaking about Krsna, which is an advantage for us and makes book distribution easier. Many times people invite us to their houses, we perform kirtan and speak harikatha. In nearly every house Krsna is present, mostly as Balgopal. We can not expect that the people will change their lives in one day. But by slowly going their again and again they become more attracted to Krsna consciousness. A few sincere people take harinam and diksa from Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja. For this reason we are inspired to go everywhere in India and to preach this wonderful message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

In the last year we have travelled to and distributed books in Sikhim, Darjling, Jaipura, Delhi, Mathura, Haridwar, Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhara and trains along the way.

Srila Gurudev ki jaye

Savitri and Bakula d.d.