Siva Ratri in Haridwar

February 5-14

By Vasanti dasi

Sri Radha-madhava and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the Hardwar temple. 

A crew of seven of us from the Gopinath Bhavan Ladies Asrama went to Haridwar to distribute books for Siva-ratri during the big Kumbha-mela there [the Kumbha-mela takes place once every 4 years]. Caru-candrika dasi, Anita dasi, Taruni dasi, Jai Sri dasi, Nandini dasi, Jayanti dasi, and myself. We got on the train in Mathura with ten boxes of Siva-tattva in Hindi and one box of Siva-tattva in English. Seven more boxes of a variety of Hindi and English books had already sent ahead by truck, arranged by Anita dasi. 

We decided to distribute books on the train, and we were a hit. Jai Sri had her flute, so she would play and a tune and get everyone’s attention. Then Anita and I would announce, “Siva-tattva, Siva-tattva” and give everyone a copy. Then we would say, “Only das rupee” (meaning ten rupees, or about twenty-two cents). About half of the people would hand us ten rupees and the other half returned the books. But everyone had held and saw the books, so they had accumulated sukrtis just for that. 

We distributed almost one box (240 Hindi Siva-tattvas), just on the way there.  While still on the train, I met a really nice man was fortunate to be one of the recipients of the Siva-tattva book, named Himanshu from Saharanpura (2 hours from Haridwar), and he invited us to his house for a program. Four of us ended up taking the bus there that Sunday. We sang bhajanas and Caru-candrika didi gave class. Many of their neighbors came as well. It was really nice and successful.

Our first day out we were so overwhelmed by so many people! And, so many interested people. It was such fun showing our Gurudeva’s picture to everyone and being his messenger to bring his writings to people’s minds and hearts. So many people would tell me Lord Siva is God or Krsna comes from Visnu. Talking to people and introducing them to real bhakti and who is really the Supreme Personality of Godhead was exciting, as the people there were interested and in Hardwar for religious reasons.

I met one Indian man who asked me where I was from. I said America, he said where, I said California, he said where in California, I said Los Angeles, he said where in Los Angeles and I was thinking how would he know? So, I said by the ocean and he said, “Santa Monica?” and I said, “How do you know Santa Monica?” and he said because I live in Northridge. I was so shocked as that is next to where I grew up. Then we talked for awhile – I told him Gurudeva will be in LA in June and that I will be in Northridge staying with friends in May. He said he is well-known at the Hindu Valley Temple. He didn’t want a book, but gave me 100 rupees. Then he showed me his card showing that he is a life member of Iskcon. I said I had a gift for him, and gave him “My Siksa-guru, Priya-Bandhu” and explained a bit about Gurudeva and Prabhupada’s relationship.  This showed me how mysterious and wonderful destiny is, as there were thousands of people walking by at the ghat and the person I stopped was him.  The thread of connection between us jiva souls appeared very prominent to me at this moment.

Taruni met a young man named Rohit, who came to our temple that night and listened to the class. He also brought a friend from Manali who invited us to come there anytime and do programs.

Taruni always had a swarm of people around her. Whenever we needed to find her, we just looked where there was a big crowd gathered.

She also made friends with all the guards (a lot of security because of Kumbha mela) so they allowed us to distribute books at the ghat. Otherwise, we would have been kicked out.

Jai Sri, Jayanti, and Nandini had gone up to Hrisikesh for a few days. They met so many interesting travelers, and one local boy named Sagar, who offered to organize a program. I decided to go and join them for the program.

I was distributing books there in Hrisikesh and I saw a devotee. I approached him and we began to talk.  Turns out he was Prabhupada’s disciple from Argentina and now living in Peru. I was overjoyed.  At first he seemed he had a bit of a wall towards me, but as we talked he warmed up. He didn’t want a book as he said he had so many books to carry. Then, I gave him a My Siksa Guru, Priya and explained Srila Grudeva’s relationship with Srila Prabhupada and he said, “I have not met Srila Narayana Maharaja yet.” I invited him for the program we would have evening, and he came with the 3 other people that he had brought to India, one being an American guy named Blake who was looking for a guru. We had a beautiful program in the garden of this Ayurvedic café and 9 people came, plus the 4 of us. And, these devotees we met will all come to Delhi after Navadvipa to meet Gurudeva.

The build-up of the entire week approached – Siva-ratri.  We went to take bath in the Ganga early in the morning and felt so surcharged and spiritually enlivened. 

Then around 10am, we put our boxes of books on our trolleys (5 boxes) and headed out to the ghat.

We began walking from the Matha, and not long after we started walking, people began to stop us for our books. Every few minutes we would distribute books, then walk a few feet, then distribute, then walk a few feet, until finally we decided to stop and distribute. Hundreds of thousands of people were passing by. Sometimes so many people were surrounding us – it was incredible.  Even one man began to help us distribute books and was telling everyone who came by to buy a Siva-tattva book for only 10 rupees.

Jai Sri was holding a roll of posters and people asked her to see them. Once we took them out, a few people bought posters from us there on the street.

This went on for hours and then I went back to the temple to get two more boxes of books. When I returned, we decided to move down the road more and make our way to the ghat. Still, we never got to the ghat as there were so many people on the road and so much security.  

We didn’t want to return back to the temple with any books. We wanted to distribute everything we brought out. 

A group of pilgrims approached me and wanted to see what other books we had besides Siva-tattva. I showed what we had (about 4 other titles), and the one man (the leader) took 4 books and said, “set, set.” I thought, “Good idea. Let’s make sets.” Then he wanted to get 4 sets, for a discount, to which I agreed. Then, 2 more of the men wanted sets, but we didn’t have any more other Hindi titles. They started going through my box and I kept telling them that those books were only English, but still they rummaged through. They did find one big book though that Gurudeva just published – The 4 Sampradayas book. I told them that book was 100 rupees though and no discount. So two of the men got only 2 books, and one older man wanted the 4 Acarya book.  They were so happy, walking away with their sets.

It was about 8pm and Taruni, Nandini, and I were still distributing and almost all of our books were finished – only a few left. But Taruni and I could not go on. We still had one more day in Hardwar to distribute, and we knew if we kept going, we would be confined to bed the following day. So, feeling completely physically exhausted, yet completely blissful and euphoric, we headed home.  We were so hyper from the day that it was hard to fall asleep. It also felt so wonderful to be physically so exhausted for Guru and Krsna.

The last day in Haridwar we all went down to the ghat and distributed almost the rest of our books. Only one box remained (which we brought and distributed on the train). I was sitting with Jai Sri taking a break when Nandini (Jai Sri, Nandini, and Jayanti had gotten initiated only 4 months earlier) came up to us, very fluttered. We thought something was wrong. We kept asking her, “Did someone steal a book? Did some man touch you? What happened, what happened?” She just kept saying, “Oh my god, oh my god.” Finally, she told us she just had an amazing experience talking to some people – that she kept talking philosophy, and didn’t know where that knowledge was coming from. Then she realized it was from Gurudeva. She said she loves distributing books because we are able to give something so valuable. She also said it is so nice to talk to people about Krsna, and then they respond, and then we can respond back.”

All in all we distributed over 3,000 books – 2,400 Hindi Siva-tattvas and the rest mixed titles.

We are very grateful to those devotees who gave some donation towards this trip through the book sponsorship program. This eased any stress about money – as we gave many books to sadhus for half price (which is less than the cost price).

A group of us are going back for the final 2 weeks of Kumbha-mela. If anyone would like to make a donation for sponsored books, you can do so at: http://gvpbookdistribution.com/Sponsor.html

Siva-ratri book distribution in Hardwar ki jaya!

Srila Gurudeva ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Rupanuga guru-varga ki jaya!