Good Character Saves a Soul

[Vijaya Baladeva das]

While speaking earlier this week with a boy who's recently taken up
bhakti-yoga, I realized how important purity and Vaisnava character
are
for distributing Srila Prabhupada's books and inspiring people to take
up devotional service.

The boy was named Anchal. He had recently come to New Zealand from
India, supposedly to further his studies but actually to meet his
guru.
He related to me how four months after his arrival here he had met a
brahmacari distributing books on the street in Auckland. He had
thought
to himself, "If this person is really spiritual, a lover of God, then
even if I provoke him he will surely be very patient and display his
saintly character." Anchal described how he had tried to provoke the
devotee this way and that way, but the devotee remained very patient
with him and never lost his cool. Anchal was so impressed with the
brahmacari that he thought, "I've never met anyone so wonderful in my
life!" This despite the fact that Anchal is from India, the land of
spiritual culture. Soon thereafter Anchal met Devamrta Swami, and
during
their first meeting he accepted him as his guru. Anchal is now
chanting
16 rounds.

Good character is the most important factor in distributing Krsna
consciousness -- more than our joking ability, our hairstyle, the spot
we're given to distribute in, some new sankirtan lines, etc. We don't
know the future of those we meet on Sankirtan, and so we should always
display the highest Vaisnava behavior, even if someone tries to
provoke us.