Sankirtana Newsletter no. 4|Krishna Island, Hare Krishna Island, Govindadwipa,

Sankirtana News 4

ITS THE MARATHON!!

Yes folks its Marathon time!! The month of December is the month when book distribution increases as everyone makes an attempt to distribute Srila Prabhupadas books. It’s a time when part time distributors become full time and full time distributors become overtime! And those who can’t directly distribute books help by supporting and encouraging others who are going out.

As everyone talks about Christmas time as a time for giving, so devotees go out of their way to give the best Christmas present anyone could get, a transcendental piece of literature. As these books are non different from Krsna every time someone takes a book into their home it is like having a deity of the Lord present there. For those of us who cannot make it out for the whole month, then we can at least try to distribute some mercy on World Enlightenment Day, on the 16th December.

ISKCON wants to distribute 1 million books on this day. Devotees all over the world will be going out. So when we go out, we can go with the knowledge that we have the moral support of thousands of other devotees who are going out on this day. So don’t miss the bliss. Plug into the nectar that is contained in giving Krsna Consciousness to others — Gaura Hari Dasa

The seven habits of a highly successful book distributor

1. Cultivate your desire

A; “Where there’s a will there’s a way”

B; Associate with devotees who have a strong desire and faith in book distribution

2. Practice

A; Cultivate discipline ( from Latin Discipulus -”learner”) Definition—”Conscious control over lifestyle”

B; Practice makes perfect

C; Failure is the pillar of success

D; Emulate successful book distributors

3. Read Mindfully

A; Learn to capture and absorb what you read

B; Learn to share what you’ve absorbed during book distribution and at other times

C; Fortify yourself daily by associating With Srila Prabhupada through his books.

4. Chant with attention

A; Practice the “3 P’s”; Posture; Pronunciation; Prayer.

B; Learn to focus while chanting and you’ll get: Happiness, Determination, Detachment, Direct experience of Krsna, Knowledge, Inspiration, and Purified desire!

5.Take shelter of the Holy Names

A; Keep the vibration going throughout the day

B; Remember that we need shelter at every moment and Krsna is non different from His name.

C; Difficult things become easy when we remember the Lord and visa versa

6. Depend on Krsna for results

A; Be an instrument

B; Don’t be the doer

C; Pray to Prabhupada and Krsna for direction and help

7. Organise

A; Set Goals

B; Design a plan

C; Acquire the tools of your trade

D; Master the basics of Communication

E; Execute your plan

F; Take care of your inventory

G; Get Serious, Run it like a business

Notes from a seminar by Vaisesika Prabhu given in 2004. Visit www.distributebooks.com for more seminars online.

Prabhupada Siksa

Tribuvannath prabhu Ki Jaya!

The process of Krsna consciousness should be very vigorously propagated all over the world. Simply by seeing the deity or simply by joining in the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra, people will derive tremendous benefit. If one performs kirtana, chanting, one will be able to think of Krsna. One may think “I danced for two hours and chanted Hare Krsna. What is the meaning of this?” This is smarana, thinking of Krsna. One may even think, “ I foolishly chanted ‘Krsna, Krsna’ for two hours.” But that is also smarana.

Teachings of Queen Kunti (pp136-137)

HOW I CAME TO KRSNA CONSCIOUSNESS

It is only Srila Prabhupada and my spiritual master’s mercy that I can be an insignificant part of this perfect movement, that I can be a member of ISKCON. It is perfect, because Srila Prabhupada is perfect and ISKCON is Srila Prabhupada’s movement.

I joined in 1999 but the first time I met devotees was in 1993. One of my friends who was vegetarian suggested one lunchtime: ”Let’s go today to a new vegetarian restaurant.” We worked together in an American computer company as secretaries. The night before I partied with another colleague and her friends and was pretty sick the day we went to the new restaurant. My stomach was in a very bad condition. I never forget that moment when I entered for the first time Govinda’s restaurant in Prague. The smell of magic incense, the smiling people in interesting robes, the beautiful pictures everywhere, the loving atmosphere and THE WONDERFUL FOOD ! I remember the moment I put the first bite of prasadam into my mouth, everything changed. When I finished this fantastic exotic new foodstuff, my stomach was completely healed and I was in bliss. I didn’t know anything about prasadam and it’s bliss nor anything about philosophy. But what I wanted to do was to come every day for lunch since that amazing experience. In February 1994 I went to England for six months to study English. When I was leaving Govinda’s in Prague, devotees told me: “Don’t worry, there is Govinda’s in London. I said: “But I am going to the north to Halifax and there is nothing I am sure” I felt real separation from prasadam but there was nothing I could do at that moment. Krishna’s mercy was still limited for me. I didn’t take it all. It took me years to become completely materially and spiritually exhausted.

In 1999 I was finished. I was facing death loosing all my weight and completely frustrated with material world. My last official job was in the bank. Till the end of my life I will never understand how I ended up there with no numbers in my brain. Nevertheless it was enough for me. I didn't want anymore experience in the money making world. At that time I could finish this job and do what I wanted to do as I was financially supported otherwise. So I joined the “Club of spiritual literature and nutritional health”. It was exactly what I wanted! I was interested in yoga, Buddhism, hatta yoga, Christianity, Zen Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism… My head was pretty mixed up. I hated television. I wanted just everything “natural” and if possible to merge into the Brahman one day and become nothing. I still was not completely sure about that, so I continued to study different so called literature. After I spent a few months in the “Spiritual club” I saw it as another disappointment in my life. I realised that here it is exactly the same as in business money making world. Everybody wanted to be the best one on the top of the horizon exactly as in the Citibank, and other places I worked. One day they came to introduce UFO, one day AURA, one day Lila game, one day Natural health institute. It was just all too much for me. I could see that everybody just wants prestige and money or just to be the God. My boss was a mayavadi completely trying to enjoy herself and her strange partner (some Alien) in the cheating world of impersonalism. She wanted me to be fully engaged in her “spiritual” business and wanted me to come every evening for class especially after I said that I won’t come for any other evening lecture anymore. One evening I reserved in my calendar. The Hare Krishna’s were supposed to come to demonstrate cooking and philosophy. This was all I wanted to experience that time. I already knew their ecstatic food so there was nothing to loose only gain I thought. At that time I stopped reading any kind of crazy literature. I didn’t know what to do and in which way to go. There was one guest coming to our library. He was not devotee but studied philosophy at university. He told me that I should read Bhagavad-Gita, that it would be the best for me. So I borrowed in our library Bhagavad-Gita. But it was a tiny book full of cheap poetry missing the whole point of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-Gita which Krsna spoke Himself. Still I read it through, as I didn’t know that this was not the right Bhagavad-Gita. I also didn’t know what to eat at that time. I wanted to be a vegetarian, but I lost all my weight with improper diet. I was pretty disgusted. Every night there was a different lecture on different topic. People were telling me to eat at least fish.

Three nights before devotees came I had these three dreams, matajis in saris I never saw before. They were telling me repeatedly that this is the Prasadam is the best food for me. It was amazing, devotees came and saved me. It was Trilokatma Prabhu and Allalanath Prabhu who came to show us how to prepare prasadam and explained briefly Vaisnava philosophy. I remember that I was thinking “ How would I be able to offer my food like them with all the proper mantras?” I bought the last Czech copy of Adiraja’s cook book and became the happiest creature in the world.

The next day I went to Govinda’s again and became complete vegetarian. Devotees preached to me, invited me to their farm for a big wedding ceremony. I was so impressed and sure that these were the people who I was looking for, and who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

They invited me to summer camp as well. I saw so many happy children there. I was interested in child psychology before and wanted to study it. And when I was at the summer camp I saw so many happy children together. On top of all these wonderful experiences I first heard my spiritual master. He gave class there and I was listening carefully. In the end I cried I couldn’t stop. Then I told my new devotees friends: “I went to this terrible school for so many years and nobody was able to tell me all that this great personality told me in two hours”. He answered all my questions and left complete peace in my heart. I asked H.H. Danavir Goswami how many rounds should I chant every day. He replied: “16”. He said, that there is no time to waste at any moment in this material world, we should use every moment in Krishna consciousness. Then at the end smiling mercifully he said, that of course if we are in the beginning we can start with less rounds and gradually increase till we reach 16 rounds every day. But never decrease from our every day amount of rounds.

After summer camp I began service in new Govinda’s in the centre of Prague and after another year I served in Hare Krishna bakery next to the restaurant. After another year I went to Navajyada Nrsimha Ksetra farm. I spent all together about 8 months there travelling to Czech and back for some time. Then after a lot of purification, Krishna allowed me to travel to Ireland and serve Radha-Govinda for a little while. I hope I will be able to serve Them more and much better.

I am not real sankirtan devotee but I like to try hard for Krsna. Sankirtan is not hard for me if I chant my rounds early in the morning and read Srila Prabhupada’s books long enough. Then everything is nectar. Unfortunately it still doesn’t happen so often, but I am getting better in my sadhana thanks to my husband’s help and my spiritual master’s mercy. When I was in Germany, devotee matajis took me once for travelling sankirtan around Germany and Austria. It was great! I remember I suffered on the streets of Munich, Vienna and other big and busy towns. Other girls were distributing easily there. Then we went to Strasburg – W.A. Mozart’s town. A very quiet and artistic town. I distributed the most books I ever did during this time travelling there and the other matajis struggled there with their distribution. I enjoyed the peaceful mood of the town. So my book distribution is like that, but I still try and would like to please Srila Prabhupada with at least the minimum I manage sometimes. – Satya Dasi

Sankirtana Scores

For the pleasure of Sri Sri Radha Govinda, Sri Sri Radha Madhava, Nitai Sacinandana, Srila Prabhupada and the vaisnavas here are the scores for the months of September and October 2006

GOVINDADVIPA

Maha Big Big Medium small

SEPT: 31 435 123 1589

OCT: 32 646 72 1536

——————————————————————

Total 64 1081 195 3124

ISKCON BELFAST

Maha Big Big Medium Small

SEPT: 0 9 0 101

OCT: 1 18 0 93

—————————————————————

Total 1 27 0 194

ISKCON DUBLIN

Mahabig Big Medium Small

SEPT: 1 10 29 40

OCT: 1 0 38 0

————————————————————

Total 2 10 67 40

Total amount of books distributed in Ireland for the 2 month period September-October

Maha big big medium small full sets

67 1118 262 3360 13

Grand total 4807 pieces of literature !!!

Bhaktisidhanta Sarasvati Thakura Maharaj Prabhupada

"Here in this world there are thousands of newspapers and magazines reporting the stale repetitious happenings of this limited space. So for reporting the news of the ultimate spiritual realm, concerning the eternal, ever-fresh Supreme Personality of Godhead, we could publish a newspaper at every second, what to speak of daily"

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur

NEW BOOK ROOM

As Book distribution increases throughout the country it has become necessary to increase our storage facility for Srila Prabhupadas Books here at Govindadvipa. At present when books are ordered they are stored in a small shed on Geaglum. The shed has a leaky roof and all books have to be covered with tarpolin so they don’t get damaged. Due to the size it is only possible to fit 6 pallets of books inside comfortably. At present it is completely full. We have 4000 hardback Bhagavad-Gita, 1500 hardback volumes of Srimad Bhagavatam, 800 hardback Science of Self-realisation, 1000 hardback Krsna Books, and 5000 small paperback books. Within a few days there will be another 15000 paperback books coming and space is very limited.

So our plan is to build a bigger and better storage facility on Geaglum. Prahlada Maharaja Prabhu has already agreed to build the larger book room which will be at least 3 times the size of our present shed. It should be large enough to hold at least 20 pallets of books. It will have two large double doors and a concrete ramp leading directly from the road to the book room thus enabling easy loading of books when they arrive off the truck. The books can be wheeled from the truck on the pallet directly in to the book room. The cost to build this new and much needed facility will be £1200. Already we have had donations from Praghosa Prabhu and Bhakta Derek Prabhu, and Prahlada Maharaja Prabhu has agreed to do all the building work. So we just need to raise funds for the actual building materials. Thank you to Bh Derek, Prahlada Maharaja, Ananda Maya, and Balesvari for helping to load all the above mentioned books from the lorry into the present book room in preparation for the upcoming December marathon. Srila Prabhupada Ki Jaya!!!

CONTACT DETAILS

By Post: Sri Rupa Dasa, Inis Rath, Geaglum, Derrylin, Co. Fermanagh, N. Ireland BT92 9GN.

By Email: bbt@krishnaisland.com