Sankirtana revival in Radhadesh

[Vijaya Baladeva das]

A new sankirtan initative has started in the Benelux, in a devotee
friendly way. With no pressure and based on fun, the monthly festival
of
Sankirtan Saturday was created. It started on the weekend of Oct. 8th
and
9th. Some factors were: language barriers (the books are in Dutch,
French,
and English) and devotees feeling scared to go. Ninety percent of them
never
have done sankirtana.

Posters flooded the castle walls of Radhadesh: Sankirtana Saturday.

On Friday morning, Partha-sarathi gave the Bhagavatam class, juicy and
full
of sankirtana sanitations for the soul. He brought out the sankirtana
strength again, by holding a Friday evening sankirtana seminar.

We all caught some good rest, to be ready for the next day's
operation.
We met outside the castle. The troops arrived, one at a time. A couple
of
the youth came: Manoj and Lalita. Srila Prabhupada's mission is
gradually
changing hands. We had seventeen devotees, and a boot (trunk) full of
books.

We crossed the border into Holland and found a mall in the middle of
Maastricht, where we parked our two vans underground. We split into
teams.

Partha and I were already teamed, and we also had our books ready, so
we
almost ran off the scene. The other devotees caught up, and we all
packed
into the elevator, a bit worried that we had overloaded it. It was a
beautiful sunny day, and church bells were ringing.

Partha and I wandered around and stopped stray young people. Partha
mostly
capitalized on the stress of the material world. It's normally
difficult for
people to admit they are suffering, but it is a powerful thing.

We constantly swept through the area, checking on the other
distributors.
We made sure that they were focused and having fun. Everyone was
having a
great time, and many books were going out.

Partha stopped a cancer patient; he was in his early twenties and
seemed to
be a nice guy. He wasn't inclined to take the book, but Partha
insisted:
"Just take it as a gift." Partha kind offer touched the young man's
heart.
He now was so enthusiastic to have the book that he gave both of us a
hug.
His fate might have been sealed, but Krsna was not going to let his
life go
in vain.

The seventeen devotees distributed 264 books, and felt fired up to do
more
at the next sankirtana festival. The book distributors and the public
had a
great experience feeling the flow of Srila Prabhupada's mercy.

Your servant,
Madhavendra Puri Dasa