Manali Book Distribution Report

Posted on May 11, 2011 by admin-vasanti 3 Comments

By Taruni dasi

May 7 & 8 2011

Four boxes with transcendental books were loaded in the car and our international book distribution team was ready to start our preaching journey to Himalayas. Suddenly a white new-born calf crossed our way. Seeing how baby was happily jumping around with up-raised tale nobody could help smiling. “This is a very auspicious sign,” Vrindavana-vilasini didi said and gave us her blessings. “I think your tour will be very successful and you’ll distribute all books.”

Our journey started in a very auspicious way and nothing foreshadowed that our wheel would fall off on a busy road in Delhi. Suddenly our car tipped down to the side and made a horrible grinding sound as it ploughed up the asphalt for four meters. Everything was so surrealistic that nobody even got scared. Making our way through the solid stream of cars we moved our backpacks and boxes of books to the roadside. While Anita was trying to reach the taxi company, a curious crowd was gathering around us. People were sympathizing with our situation and taking pictures of our miserable three-wheeled car. I got inspired to use this chance and distribute some books. For what other reason would Srila Gurudeva arrange for us to be stuck here at the bus stop in Delhi? Two Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Peeyuses and two Camat-kar-Candrikas were taken immediately. The only opened box had a few Utkallika-Vallari’s on the top. After a moment’s hesitation I remembered Srila Gurudeva’s words, “All my books are for all” and grabbed a few Utkallika-Vallari’s, which also quickly found their fortunate readers.

Then I spent a long time speaking with one intelligent Muslim who said he could not relate to Vedic scriptures because he thought they were preaching polytheism while he believed God is one. Meanwhile the girls had loaded our boxes and luggage in an auto riksha and now they were calling me to go. But I could not leave that person like that. Praying for Gurudeva to give me proper words, I said that Vaishnavas, Muslims and Christians worship the same God. As The Absolute Truth is one and can’t be many! Holding a book in his hands the Muslim was thoughtfully nodding to my words while I was pulled away and seated in the auto riksha by my sisters.

Our bus to Manali was few hours late so we arranged a roadside picnic for Sri Sri Gaur-Nitai. They were offered pasta with olives, fresh vegs and pesto sauce which Kunja Kalika dasi had mixes right there in a plastic bag!

We had already realized that this trip doesn’t have good fortune on transport, and before taking our seat in our bus, we gave an anxious glance to its wheels. Everything seemed to be normal. But for some reason our ill-fated bus had been breaking every half an hour and the driver had been trying to fix it again and again. All night passed like that and finally morning time we stopped by roadside café. It was there that for the first time I inhaled a lungful of the sweet mountain air which was 25 degrees cooler that in Vrindavan and with jubilance wrapped myself with my chudder. And few hours later, when Mr Aishvini showing extreme example of Indian hospitality brought us to a hotel with a pictorial view of a mountain river we spent half of the day on the balcony looking at this beauty and breathing the freshness.

Evening time we made our first ramble to the city. We saw endless stream of newly arrived visitors from all over India flowing down the street. It reminded us Kumbha Mela in Haridvar. With the only difference that Kumbha Mela happens once in 12 years, and here one can see this picture every day.

Usually we sell on the streets small 10-20 Rupee Hindi books like hot pancakes. Big books in English are much rarer to be sold. But today we had a special luck for big serious books. “Walking with the Saint” was bought from me and “Journey from the Soul” from Sumangala. We realized that Manali is the best place for distributing big books, because the visiting tourists have enough money to spend few hundred rupees on a book.

Anita and Kunja were here last year and I was convinced their preaching made very evident influence. Each third customer recognized them and shouted Hare Krishna! I was especially moved by a meeting of Anitа and Mr. Raja which looked like a meeting between two childhood friends. Last year Mr. Raja had been coming every day to sing bhajans with them. We didn’t even notice how we distributed all books in just a few hours.