POWER OF A BOOK

"Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light." — Vera Nazarian

Here is a simple yet powerful story which shows the world "the power of a book". This is a real life story of two boys named Richie and Willy which happened during the 1970's, in the city of California. One day while walking on the streets of California, Richie bumped across the Hare Krishna devotees and one of the devotees convinced him to buy a magazine that they were selling. He bought it reluctantly more for his friend, Willly than himself because he knew that Willy was more spiritual then he was. He bought the magazine and ran to the house of Willy to give him that magazine. But on that day, Willy had locked himself in his room and was meditating and praying to God that his true path in life be revealed; little did he know that his prayer was going to be answered on this day in a very unusual way. Richie was knocking the door and telling Willy, "Open the door, I have got something for you." But Willy, because he was following a vow of silence, he didn't open the door - he didn't want to be disturbed. Finally, Richie left the magazine outside and yelled to him saying, "I am leaving this magazine outside the door which I bought from the Hare Krishna devotees. I am sure you will like it" and he left.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

After Richie left, Willy slowly opened the door and he got hold of that magazine. On that magazine, on the cover page was the picture of Lord Chaitanya dancing with his associates. The title read "Back to Godhead - Godhead is light, nescience is darkness. Where there is light, there is no darkness." He flipped the magazine and in the inner cover was a picture of a guru, it was a painting and he was mesmerized by this picture. For a long time he kept staring at it. He felt a strong sense of conviction saying to him "This is your teacher". This was A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, the Founder Acharya of ISKCON. As he read the magazine, every question he had - What is death? Why do we die? Who is God? How to know God? was answered perfectly and clearly. God had actually answered his prayers through this magazine. God's ways of answering sincere prayers are amazing, isn't it.

One particular article in this magazine captivated him like none. The title of the article was, "Liberation for the cave dwellers". The article mentioned that people who live in material consciousness and are not exposed to the spiritual world are just like a cave dweller who has never gone out of his cave and never seen the rays of the sun. What is the possibility that such a cave dweller can understand the sun? Only if someone from outside the cave comes in his cave and explains to him the magnificence of the sun and probably shows him a ray of light. Willy could immediately connect to this article. He understood that he was this cave dweller and the room of his was the cave. And this magazine was like the ray of light and a particular devotee had come to his life through his friend, to deliver him this magazine. This magazine had come to help him see "the light".

HERO DISCOVERED

As he read the entire magazine from cover to cover, Willy was completely convinced that this was his true path and very soon he joined ISKCON and now almost 50 years later, he is one of the most influential, powerful leaders of ISKCON who has been distributing similar spiritual books on the streets around the world and helping people find their light - helping the cave dwellers of this world find their transformation. This young boy is now famous as Vaisesika Das, one of the foremost book distributors of ISKCON. Just imagine, if that devotee on that particular day in the year 1970 hadn't gone out on the streets of California and hadn't distributed that magazine, we wouldn't be having Vaisesika Das with us in ISKCON, now.

As they say - "On every book, on every magazine, there is a name of a person written. We just need to find out who it is." And who knows there might be a very great soul waiting, like Vaisesika Das to be found out by all of us. And, what other better book to give someone other than the message of the Gita. This book has transformed the life of unlimited individuals throughout centuries and it has great potential to bring about the light in the life of anyone who comes in touch with it. So let us be instruments of this light, let us be an agent of change, an agent of transformation and take this as an opportunity to give this message to others.

"Give a Gita and Save a Life."

- Achyut Gopal Das