My husband, Bhakta Philip and I were distributing books at a concert parking lot. It was a busy scene with a big jam band performing that night. I set up a table and immediately an extraordinarily curious man came by. He lifted the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, looked at it, and put it back. Then he took the KRSNA Book in his hands, looked at it, put it back. He did the same to all the other books I had displayed – Sri Isopanisad, On Chanting Hare Krishna and The Perfection of Yoga. We talked a little bit, and he had some questions, specifically about how to guide his two very young children in a spiritual way. I tried to be of help to him and gave him some pointers.
It seemed that he couldn’t keep his hands off of Srila Prabhupada’s books! Earlier he had already pulled out his wallet once or twice and it appeared that he really, really wanted books, but something was stopping him. I went ahead doing other things at the table and let him examine the books, go back and forth with his wallet, and vacillating.
After a while he finally asked me, “I’m sorry if this is controversial, but don’t you worry about the fact that the books from this author have been edited after 1978, after his…?” I was surprised to hear this question and cut him off, assuring that he had no reason to worry because these are the original editions, pre-1978. He loosened up in relief and continued to express his concern about the matter – it didn’t make any sense to him why such editing and changing should happen, “posthumously”. He wanted the real thing. Now that his doubts were removed, he gladly gave a donation and took a full set of Bhagavad-gita, KRSNA book and Sri Isopanisad.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
If you would like some of Srila Prabhupada’s original, authorized (pre-1978) books to bring with you in your daily life to distribute, please goto: www.KrishnaStore.com
