We were in Town Hall, Sydney, Australia. There was a big parade honoring the war veterans. Soon it died down and so did the flow on the streets. We now had several book distributors and not enough people to stop between us. Bhakta Sean wasn't feeling the vibe of the whole ordeal so we decided to go for a wonder down to Martin Place (another good sankirtana spot). I wasn't distributing many books at the time so I decided I would follow along and see if Krsna's mercy was available there. I had to push the trolley and keep up pace and this was distracting me from doing any books. I started to doubt the whole idea of walking all this distance. "Oh Krsna, Where are you taking me? What is the point of coming here?" I said within my mind, appealing to the almighty.

Sure enough, as soon as I stopped my book trolley on the wall, an Indian gentleman in a suit arrived. "What have you got there?" he asked, in a curious but very firm tone. I wasn't sure whether he was going to ridicule or if he was genuinely interested. I didn't really care at this point whether he was going to spit on me or insult me, any chance I had to distribute a book was worth the try. I showed him the books, gave him a quick talk over the subject matter, even though he seemed to know what it was. Then it came to the crunch, "we just ask for a donation" I said. He looked at me, fumbled through his wallet super casually, whimsically thrust $40 dollars towards me and took my whole stack. Before I could say anymore, he was gone. Surely Krsna arranged this whole meeting.

I was confident Krsna wasn't done yet. I bumped into another boy in Martin Place. I captured his familiarity when I found out that he was a stone mason (which is what my younger brother is training to be). I begged for some of my brother's piety as I tried to distribute a book to this boy. I wasn't sure how he was going to relate to a book on yoga, being a hands-on, working class man. I told him, "It's about how to understand the connection between the body, mind and soul." He said, "This is exactly what I have been trying to look into. What a coincidence." "There are no such things as coincidence" I replied, "If you honestly hanker for these things then the knowledge will come."

Your servant, Madhavendra Puri Dasa.

I would like to write about some recent book distribution to a couple we met at the temple. It seems that almost everyone who visits somewhere on an outing is open to taking home a souvenir. In the case of visitors to our ISKCON temples, what could be a more fitting souvenir than one of Srila Prabhupada's books? Obviously these people are interested, since they have come to the temple. So all we have to do is make the effort to meet them and offer them a book. We have just had a very positive experience of this.

One morning, just after breakfast, a young Indian couple arrived for darshan at the New Govardhana Hare Krsna temple in Murwullumbah, Australia. Anuradha Mataji, one of the senior ladies, made them a plate of prasadam, and I encouraged them to sit and eat comfortably. I asked them where they were from. They asked me about buying a book; they had seen a poster about books concerning Purushottama month, but, they said, no one was in the temple to ask. I didnÕt have any such book, but I suggested they have a look at the wide range of books we had in our van. The nice lady bought a Krsna book and was very satisfied to take the book home.

She lived in Coffs Harbour, which is on the way to Sydney, where weÕre based, so I took her number, and two weeks later, when we were driving to Sydney, decided to call her. We invited the couple to our motel room and made a nice prasadam feast. When we stopped in the town to purchase the bhoga, we took time out to distribute books and had a lot of success. I did four soft-cover Gitas, two Your Ever Well-wishers, one hard-cover Science of Self-realization, and a few small books, all in one hour. We also invited another couple who we had met on a previous occasion distributing books here. They offered to make rotis, as they were also vegetarian. After cooking, they all arrived, and we played kirtan, spoke from the Bhagavad-gita, and had a great feast. The couple took a Your Ever Well-wisher, and we all had a great night, especially our six-month-old daughter, who is very cute and a great ice-breaker.

I am very inspired by how just meeting someone coming to the temple for darshan can give us great opportunities to distribute Srila PrabhupadaÕs books and spread the movement. I hope all devotees will make sure no one leaves the temple without a book.

Your servant,

Krsna Rupa Devi Dasi, on the road in Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia (Text D:2968499) -------------------------------------------

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Hare Krsna Prabhus,

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

Whie visiting Taiwan, I asked my hostess, Krsna Bhavna Dasi, how she came to Krsna consciousness. She said that a sankirtana devotee had approached her aunt to distribute a Bhagavad-gita to her; the devotee was putting some presure on her to take it, but she was reluctant.

He didn't give up: "This is your culture (she's from India), you should learn about your own culture."

Finally she agreed to take the book and give a donation just to get out of the circumstance she was in. She didn't read it, but when her niece was visiting her home, she said she wanted to read the Bhagavad-gita.

Her aunt said, "Oh, I have one. You can read mine."

She read it and is now initiated and a book distributor in Taipei, and she encourages others to get involved. Recently, about fifteen of us went to downtown Taipei to distribute books.

This story may not be over; the book is still there in her aunt's house, waiting, tick, tick, tick...

There was another interesting story of how someone came to receive Krsna's mercy. Mr. Jo had heard something about the Bhagavad-gita and wanted to read it but couldn't find it in Taipei. He was cleaning his house and wanted to get rid of a number of books that he was no longer interested in. In Taipei, the libraries have a program by which if someone donates books they can take books that the library doesn't want. So he went to the library to donate his books, and the librarian then gave him a choice of books to take. As he was looking through them he saw the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. He was so happy to see it and told the librarian, "This is the only one I want." Now he has been a devotee for the past ten years; he's 65 and is a retired government worker. So now he has more time for Krsna.

Your servant, Vijaya das (Text D:2962288) -------------------------------------------

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SB 4.28.51 purport

After the death of Maharaja Pandu, his wives settled that one should remain and the other should go. Madri would perish with her husband in the fire, and Kunti would remain to take charge of the five Pandava children. Even as late as 1936 we saw a devoted wife voluntarily enter the fire of her husband. This indicates that a devotee's wife must be prepared to act in such a way. Similarly, a devoted disciple of the spiritual master would rather die with the spiritual master than fail to execute the spiritual master's mission. As the Supreme Personality of Godhead comes down upon this earth to reestablish the principles of religion, so His representative, the spiritual master, also comes to reestablish religious principles. It is the duty of the disciples to take charge of the mission of the spiritual master and execute it properly. Otherwise the disciple should decide to die along with the spiritual master. In other words, to execute the will of the spiritual master, the disciple should be prepared to lay down his life and abandon all personal considerations.

We went to an event called "food not bombs" today. There a gentleman came and stood behind our table. He looked kind of scruffy, not sure if he was homeless or hippie, but had that kind of look. He picked up a Higher Taste from our book box and started distributing to another person, saying "this is a great book and you should take it". We asked him who he was.

He said: "I met your master when he first landed in Boston"

We said: "really."

He said: "Yes. some where in Southie a big boat landed. (Commonwealth pier is in south boston, also known as southie. that's where Srila Prabhupada jaladuta docked). He was standing and looking at the ocean. He asked me to come with him. I told him, that I cannot. I have my own thing going. He looked tired and was wearing some strange robe. And some years later, I picked up this book (HT), it had a different cover back then and I have been a vegetarian since"

He did seem genuine. I did not see any reason he would make up a random story like this. We did invite him to come to the temple and such and told him about Prabhupada arrival festival we have every year in September.

I still cannot believe that we met someone who met Srila Prabhupada when he first landed in Boston. I am still in ecstasy thinking about it.

ys, - Nitin (Text D:2910018) -------------------------------------------

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Once I was distributing books in Melbourne with Dhruva prabhu. We decided to go to Geelong just an hour and a half south of Melbourne. Dhruva prabhu went the day before and I was due to meet him the next day. I got caught up doing things and although wanting to get out early did not reach Geelong till 3pm. Anyway I thought the day was lost as I would get to where Dhruva was with no result. Just prior to this I had been experimenting with wholesaling books to alternative book shops with some success (selling them $200- 300 worth of books). So Krsna inspired me to see if there was an alternative book shop in Geelong. I found one such shop and showed the manager the main books I had. He asked me to show him everything I had. So I got all different books from the van plus CD,s. He ended up taking at least 2 of everything which included all of Srila Prabhupadas' books, art books, childrens books, cookbooks , books from Srila Prabhupadas' disciples and CD's. It came to $2000 worth! When I finally found Dhruva telling him of the book shop at 5pm he was amazed at Lord Krsnas' inconceivable energy. The shop owner took $1000 worth of books another time and has been taking books ever since but not in such large quantities . So he is also doing wonderful service selling Srila Prabhupadas' books to many varieties of people.He and his shop assistants really like prasadam so I take them Sri Sri Radha Vallabhas' maha prasadam when ever I visit. So I would encourage all book distributors to look for alternative book shops in whatever town you are at.

Your servant, Rupa Raghunatha das, Sydney Australia

I had a nice experience in Columbus Ohiio at Ohio State University. It was the 7th day I'd worked the school and I usually don't work the same place that long so I was getting a little ready to move on.

I was approaching people and not many were taking, but I continued and then all of a sudden I handed the book to this wonderful soul and he practically exploded in jubilation. He said, "Woa! This is incredible!"

He started going off about how he was amazed that this was happening and how cool he thought it was, how he had been looking for a Bhagavad Gita and was just starting to become interested in spirituality. His voice and body were overflowing with excitement and enthusiasm and as I gave him an invitation to the temple he said he would definitely go. It was so cool how the mood changed from frustrating to exhilarating in one moment.

>From then on it was as if I was just watching myself interact with the living entities like a marionette in the hands of some transcendental puppet master. It became entertaining to see what kind of episode would play out before me from moment to moment as I continued in wonder enchanted by what was going on.

Especially at colleges it seems like I meet someone every day who has a similar reaction as this person and every time it inspires me so much to continue. Hoping this inspires some others as well.

Your servant, Madhukari Dasa