Preaching by Moonlike Devotees

Danavira: I’m in charge of the New Bhakta program in Los Angeles, and yesterday one boy called up the temple, and he was seventeen years old, and he said, “Five years ago, when I was coming out of a store, I received this Back to Godhead magazine. So I took it home — I was twelve years old — and I began reading it. I read six pages, but my mother, she was a strict Baptist, and she took it away; I couldn’t read it. I never saw devotees again until this time.” He called up. Yesterday he came and joined the temple and became your disciple. [Prabhupada chuckles]

Devotees: Jaya.

Ramesvara: Just by reading one word of your books.

Prabhupada: What is that word?

Ramesvara: Any word. [laughter] “Surrender to Krsna!” [break] … making almost ten devotees, new men, every month. And they’re all coming from your books, from reading your books — every one of them.

Prabhupada: Therefore I am insisting, “Spread books.”

Danavira: Srila Prabhupada, there was one boy who just joined a few months ago, and he had been reading your books, and he came to join the temple. He had graduated from college and he’s been to law school, and we found out
after some time that his father, his name was Dr. Royal McClain, he was a very, very big preacher in the South, and he had his own television program.

Ramesvara: Christian. His father was the biggest Christian preacher in the South. He had his own TV show. Very big preacher, very strict Christian, and his son joined our movement. So the father calls up the son, “How could you
desert our religion and join this Krsna movement?” So… [laughter]

Danavira: He explained how he was actually feeling real love of God now for the first time in his life.

Ramesvara: He convinced his father that he should stay in our movement.

Tamala Krsna: Recently, in New York, my parents came to visit me. You know they… Actually, they didn’t come to see me, they came to the restaurant, but I happened to be there. [Prabhupada laughs] So, ah, they related a very
unusual incident that one of their friends is a lawyer in New York. So they were having dinner with him the other day, and he mentioned that recently he had gone to Las Vegas for a vacation. In Las Vegas there are many gambling
casinos. So when he was about to depart on the plane, one of his friends gave him a five dollar bill and told him that “In order that your gambling should be fortunate, the first good person you see there, you give this five dollar bill to him, and it will automatically bring you good luck.” So the man went to Las Vegas, and when he got out at the airport, one of our devotees approached him. And this gentleman happens to be a lawyer who’s fighting against us to keep us out of the New York airport. He’s representing the airline company. So he didn’t know it was one of our
devotees because they were in the regular clothes, civilian clothes. So our devotee said, “Please, we’re doing good work, educating people, you kindly give a donation.” So the man thought: “Well, my friend gave me this,” he gave him five dollars, and naturally, the devotee gave him a book. So the man didn’t look at it, but he went into the taxi, the lawyer, and then when he looked he realized [laughter] he was supporting the enemy. And another incident they related is that they go on vacation to South America. So they were in the Amazon, in the jungle, in the Amazon…

Hrdayananda: Oh, I heard this when I…

Tamala Krsna: …and they, right in the middle of the jungle, suddenly the devotees were there. [laughter] Hrdayananda’s men were there preaching, and they said they could not imagine that they were in this most unusual place, no one was around, but suddenly Hare Krsna devotees appeared. [laughter]

Hrdayananda: They told me they met Tamala Krsna’s mother.

Tamala Krsna: Yes.

Radha-vallabha: If he gets a book in an unusual place, they always say, “You people are everywhere.”

Ramesvara: When we tell the public that we only have maybe ten thousand devotees, they are very surprised that there are so few Hare Krsna devotees, because they see us everywhere.

Pusta Krsna: Therefore we’re the most enthusiastic missionaries in the world.

Prabhupada: …say that all the ten thousand devotees, each of them is a moon, not a star.

(Morning Walk – June 5, 1976, Los Angeles)