I would like to share with you some incidents from today’s distribution of Life’s Final Exam at ISKCON Los Angeles.
Giriraj Swami, my guru maharaja, had graced a weekend festival at New Dvaraka, celebrating the disappearance of Srila Jagannatha dasa Babaji Maharaja on Saturday and Maha Siva-ratri on Sunday. His new book, Life’s Final Exam: Death and Dying from the Vedic Perspective, was officially launched during the Sunday festival. Aditi, Nikunja Viharini, and I had set up a book table outside the temple. Many special souls approached the book table and bought Guru Maharaja’s books, and some made especially inspiring comments:
A disciple of Srila Prabhupada said to a visitor who was curiously inspecting Watering the Seed: “First there was Planting the Seed, and now there is Watering the Seed. You should take this book! I read it—it’s a good one!”
A gentleman visiting Los Angeles from Finland was scheduled to return in three days. He was a consular officer at the Finnish Embassy in Los Angeles in the early ’70s. At first he was not sure if he would buy any of the books, but he returned after taking prasada, bought a copy of Life’s Final Exam, and requested Guru Maharaja to sign it, saying proudly that the book was going to Finland.
A Bengali lady who lives near the temple walked by the book table and gazed at the display of Life’s Final Exam. She stopped abruptly and exclaimed, “Death really is the final exam. I must read this book.” While getting an autograph for her book, she told Guru Maharaja that the front cover of the book was what had caught her attention, because her aging mother lives in an ashram in Benares, hoping to leave this world beside the Ganges River.
A young corporate law student from Ontario, Canada, was visiting the temple for the first time. He was on his way to catch a flight back to Canada, so he took a copy of Life’s Final Exam and exclaimed that now he had divine prasada to eat and a nectar book to read on his flight!
A graduate student from Brisbane, Australia, studying at the California Institute of Technology, one of the top science and engineering universities in the world, had already read Many Moons and was happy to get a copy of Watering the Seed. But tonight he was especially elated to meet the author of the two books in person.
In less than an hour, one full box of Guru Maharaja’s books were bought.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.
Your servant,
Krishna Kirtan Das
