namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

By Mahat-tattva dasa

The other day, on the way back from a five day preaching engagement at a Rainbow gathering, we stopped at a gas station. There we witnessed a most abominable thing. As we were paying the gas we noticed that in front of the cashier there was a large shelf on which they were selling worms and insects for snacks. Yep, you heard it right, worms, insects, and even scorpions. They had fried worms and crickets, spiced in varieties of ways. You could clearly see crickets’ wings and hairy legs. They had bug suckers and even insects dipped in chocolate. The advertisement for worm suckers said “Genuine Worms - Sugar Free.”

My God (Krishna)!!! What has come over these people?! They have all gone mad. Sense gratification knows no limits. For the pleasure of the tongue people are ready to go as far as you can imagine, and then even beyond that. Damn, damn, crazy materialists.

None of us could believe that people really eat that crap. We then asked the woman behind the register if people indeed eat that stuff. She said she her self tried the worms. Yuck!!!

We all looked at each others in utter disbelief. One of devotees then said, “This is Kali-yuga.”

Later, while continuing to drive back to our home temple in San Diego, I was reflecting on the whole thing. Eventually my thought process boiled down to the final realization:

Preaching Is So Important!

If one’s mind is constantly exposed to a certain information, that information will eventually penetrate one’s consciousness and make him act a certain way. The whole commercial world is based on this principle, and as we witness it daily, it is quite successful. Simply because something is being advertised, even though it may be utterly stupid or even disgusting, people will eventually believe in it or buy it ... or as in this case: EAT IT!!!

Similarly all devotees of God in this world should put hands together and powerfully advertise God consciousness, otherwise this civilization will get sidetracked so bad that even the most powerful minds will fail to imagine such abominity. Well, now that I’ve said that I look around and already can see such far out things that have become so normal that I don’t dare to write about here in fear of public scorn.

Dear Sastra Dana members, please fix your mind on this most important work of distributing Krishna conscious literature. Let us all come together and see how can we fulfill the desire of Srila Prabhupada’s that billions of his books be distributed to the public in general. Srila Prabhupada wanted us to flood the society with his books. I hope this article helps you deepen the understanding how important our mission is.

Web site: www.sastradana.com

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