My friend Basu Ghosh Prabhu and his wife Ananti Devi Dasi were staying with their son Vamana at Frisco in the vicinity of Radha Kalachandji Dhama Texas 🐄 They live in an overpriced gated community where solicitation is strictly prohibited and has the security of a chinese gulag. 🧱
We were taking prasadam together and I noticed out the window that a lot of Indian people were about. I suggested we do some door dee door sankirtan. Vamana was afraid that we would be popped and it would come back to him as a tenant.
I assured him that security would not make a big deal of us as long as we didn't disturb people too much. Then I went to Kalachandji's and asked Yoga Maya Devi Dasi who runs the BBT book room to sell me something from each Indian language that she had.
She came up with hardback Bhagavad Gitas and Krishna books in Hindi. Telagu, Gujarati, and Tamil. 📚 We started out with the books and met Michael from Greece who was in his car coming from somewhere. Michael had heard of the Beatles and I told him about our temple in Athens. He paid $10 on my square swiper thing and chanted the Hare Krishna maha mantra splendidly.
In another car was Hayden and his wife. They were all American and liked the pictures in the Easy Journey to Other Planets, gave a donation and recited the Hare Krishna maha very well together.
So two people have bought Srila Prabhupada's books from us and we had not even knocked on a door. When we did knock Jim opened and immediately bought a big Bhagavad Gita.
The next door was a lady from Harayana province who wanted something to read for her two daughters and bought the Hindi Krishna book. Having spent years as the president of ISKCON Baroda, Basu Ghos is fluent in Hindi and knows a lot of other Indian languages. This helped distribute the books.
A family from Hyderabad invited us into their home although we came in the middle of their lunch. I complimented the man's bright blue dhoti and they took the Telugu Bhagavad Gita and placed the book on their altar. They look forward to visiting Sri Sri Radha Kalachandji's mandir.
The next two Puerto were a man from Argentina and another from Mexico. I speak okay Mexican and they both got Karma la Justicia Infalible, then chanted Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Ananti Devi Dasi said that she knew some Gujarati friends in building 3 As we were heading there, the security guard Captain Katherine drives up in a golf cart and asked if we were soliciting.🐕 Wearing saris, dhoti and tilak we were not hard to spot. I was able to honestly say that were just going to a friend's.
The gujaratis were not home. Meanwhile tattooed Paul was on his back porch and took an Easy Journey to Other Planets, attracted to the art work.
By now security had us figured out and were hot on the trail, like back in the day. 👮♀️
I knocked on another door and a man from Chicago took the book inside with a thank you and shut the door before I could say anything. 🤷♂️The book was distributed and inside. I remembered how Srikara Prabhu became a devotee after stealing a Bhagavad Gita from a sankirtan devotee. Some devotees never ask for laxmi when distributing books.
The next door a tall african man who had heard of Stevie Wonder and liked the idea of an antimatter spirit soul said "wait " and took the Easy Journey to Other Planets inside. 🗿He came back and gave us $40, paying for his and the snatched one. 💰
Knowing that it's best to quit while ahead, we were heading back to Vamana's but couldn't resist two Indian men who were outside moving stuff into a truck. 🚛 One was named Balaji and they were from Tirupati. Balaji told us about his many visits to the Balaji temple, his namesake. He took the Tamil Krishna Book and chanted Hare Krishna maha mantra like they had done so for years. ☸
Captain Katherine came right up, a little perturbed that we had gotten past her. She escorted us to Vamana's like a presidential motorcade. We had gone through the entire place already. 🤠
Mishra Bhagavan Dasa
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