(Kadamba Kanana Swami, September 2017, Cape Town, South Africa, Evening Class)
I remember going door-to-door on book distribution and it was all okay until I came to this one house. The door opened and there was a monster – a huge guy, all leather clad, looking like an enormous Hells Angel. In those days, there were many of them.
I was thinking and I started to pray to Lord Nrsimhadeva, “Oh my god, how do I get out of here quietly?” but it was too late and the guy said, “What do you want?”
I go like, (high-pitched soft voice) “Book.”
He says, “Oh, how much?”
I said, “Twenty-five.”
He gave me twenty-five, took the book and said, “Get outta here!”
It is amazing. Sometimes you cannot believe who takes a book. You cannot calculate. You sort of try to figure out who is the one, who is the devotee? You look around the crowd and see one who has a nice smile but he says, “Not interested. No, thank you.”
A man in Boston said to me when I approached, “You cannot speak to me! We have not been introduced.” (laughter) I replied, “Please allow me to introduce myself.”
There are all kinds of people – nice people, crazy people, cold people, arrogant people, destitute people… People that just say that they have no money and people that really have no money. And there are also people that have no money but seem to be so nice that you give them a book for free.
Some book distributors, young men, specialise in young girls. They target only young girls. “Hi…” Blink, blink, blink! “Hi, how are you?” Anyway, those book distributors instead of carrying books; soon they will be carrying babies (laughter). What can we say? That is going on also.
When distributing books, one has to have a sense of being an instrument of the Lord and understand that the mercy is available to all…
