Madri's Blog Inspired By August Assembly: Together we made a difference!

On a recent morning my husband, Nrsimhananda Prabhu told me that we need to have a maha harinam and distribute a thousand of Srila Prabhupada's books as a pre Gaura Purnima festival offering. He then set about planning towards this goal. In addition to the books he printed color glossy pamphlets that had a brief description of the glories of chanting and the addresses of our local Iskcon temples. Then he decided to add prasadam to our distribution package. After some discussion we concluded that sugar coated peanuts would be the most practical prasad to distribute. Then he motivated some devotees to join in. Within a week mantra boards were made, sponsorships secured, handbills/pamphlets printed, 1000 books picked up from our local temple, 50 eco friendly bags secured to pack everything in for the devotees.

Above is a picture of the prasadam sugar coated peanuts. these are roasted and then added to melted sugar, cooled and then packed into sealable small packets. The nuts were then dropped of at various devotees homes for packaging. 70kgs were bought and prepared. Since we hold BCEC [Bhaktivedanta College of Education and Culture] classes at different venues weekly we had our students pack all the books, prasad and handbills in the bags on Friday evening so that on Saturday morning all we had to do was distribute.

Many friends from all over johannesburg came and collectively we were able to serve with feelings of greater joy.

Between seventy to ninety devotees participated blissfully. Mothers brought children and even babies in their prams/pushchairs. The harinam lasted for three hours. Before we were half way through 1000 books were distributed. It was so ecstatic to look around and see so many devotees distributing the mercy. The kirtan was reaching higher levels of ecstasy and the book distributors were blissfully approaching anyone and everyone! By the end of the harinam in addition to 1000 of Srila Prabhupada's books in English, 3000 packets of peanut prasad, some simply wonderful sweets and laddus were distributed and 2500 handbills. All was possible by the mercy of Sri Sri Nitai Gaura-Hari, Srila Prabhupada and his sincere followers.

Above the sankirtan van is being opened. It was loaded with the fifty prepacked bags. Nrsimhananda Prabhu is seen above with the microphone in hand telling the devotees, many of whom have never been on harinam or book distribution before, how to go about with their distribution. He shared some lines they could use when approaching people.

Each bag looked like the one pictured above. Some devotees carried the bags and others helped them distribute after clearing their own bags. I must admit that the feelings of happiness in such an engagement, with such association made one feel ever more grateful to be part of Srila Prabhupada's mission.

The devotee pictured above was a great full time book distributor at one time. Now as a mother of two she brought her two young sons who together with their father ecstatically participated in the distribution.

The people were so receptive.

The weather was as is normal here, sunny with a slight breeze.

Each book is on its own journey, destined to reach some soul somewhere. Our duty is simply to vibrate the message and be an instrument in distributing it. Many homes in Africa have multiple family members so we pray that many will benefit from every single book distributed.

"So our request to the publishers and book sellers, that "Let this literature be distributed properly. People will be benefited." Because, after all, each and every human being is a spiritual being. He is not this body. That is the mistake of the present civilization." [ An excerpt from Srila Prabhupada's lectureSrimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.11 -- London, September 12, 1973]

The sankirtana movement has been introduced by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu just to dispel the illusion of maya, by which everyone in this material world thinks himself to be a product of matter and therefore to have many duties pertaining to the body. [ NAM 2b11: By Chanting the Holy Name One Becomes Enlightened]