Miami Book Fair

All Glories to Sri Sri Gurudeva and Sri Gauranga!  All glories to Sri Sri Radha Vinode  Bihariji!

For Srila Gurudeva’s pleasure, the South Florida Pure Bhakti Yoga sanga offers this report and the accompanying photographs of the Miami Book Fair International as our puspanjali offering, made from the depths of our hearts upon Sri Guru’s lotus feet.

We would like to give special thanks to Manjari Dasi who during her visit to our South Florida Sanga devoted time and energy to inspire the community of devotees to become more organized and enthusiastic about book distribution. It was during one of her lectures that a member suggested we should participate in the book fair and Manjari Dasi promptly fostered the appropriate environment among our members and guided us in forming a Seva team to please Srila Gurudeva’s desire to distribute his books. 

The devotees participated in the Miami International Book Fair 2009 that took place in downtown Miami, Florida, on November 13, 14, and 15.  The fair site is located adjacent to the Miami Dade College, which is attended by hundreds of thousands students from all over the world. 

Prior to the book fair participation, the devotees watched book distribution films and had the honor of a conference call with Syamarani dasi who presented  wonderful and inspiring Hari katha about book distribution at a higher level than we had previously realized.  Syamarani dasi kindly answered the devotee’s questions.

Our fair booth was decorated with beautiful flower garlands that made it unique among the 200 or more exhibitors.  Our booth faced to the east, and in the afternoon, we were graced with a cooling shade.   

In the fair booth, the devotees had a profound sense of Srila Gurudeva’s and Srila Prabhupada’s presence, as love permeated the booth and all of us.  We were also very fortunate to have Avadhuta Maharaja present with us in the booth.  Maharaja offered the devotees his support, prayers, as well as his profound experience in book distribution.  Maharaja also provided spiritual counseling to the public when requested, and assisted with the public’s questions regarding the books.  Also, the devotees experienced such love, support and camaraderie from each other.

By Srila Gurudeva’s and Sri Gauranga’s grace, the devotees were met with such a warm reception from the public that we are filled with so much enthusiasm for what is to come.  As soon as we opened on Friday morning, many sweet, young people of high school and college age were coming, very attracted to the books.

The South Florida sanga distributed about 500 books mostly in English and some in Spanish and 2,000 postcard invitations to our programs.  The books distributed ranged from Jaiva Dharma, Bhagavad Gita As It Is (1972 edition), Manah Siksa, Way of Love, Secrets of the Undiscovered Self, Essence of Bhagavad Gita, Beyond Liberation among other titles.

The public gladly signed our guest books, and we obtained close to 100 email addresses with the understanding that they would be notified about our upcoming programs. 

The booth was visited by people from diverse countries, ages, and backgrounds.  Some were very familiar with Sri Krsna, while others had never heard Sri Krsna’s name.  They were nonetheless interested to know more.  Some members of the public returned to our booth multiple times, and on multiple days, and some brought their friends.  We experienced even very young children leaving their parent’s side to come and look at the books.  When a particularly attentive young girl of 7 years was asked what attracted her to the books, was it the pictures or something else, she answered “something else.”

The devotees spoke about Krsna Consciousness to people from many different countries including Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Brazil, Guyana, Russia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia.

In addition, we were photographed by the local publication New Times as well as an on line publication for young professionals that provided us with tips on how to post our program information on their calendar of events and make it available to their audience.

We cannot wait for the next book fair opportunity, and we are ready to research and plan when and where that may be.  We are ready, willing and able to continue our guru seva, for the pleasure of our dearmost Srila Gurudeva!