We heard that you used to manage sankirtan book distribution parties of mathajis. How was that possible?

Yes, retrospectively I wonder: How was that possible?

Sometime in 1976, me, the twenty two years old sankirtan brahmacary, passionately roaming the streets of Germany with Srila Prabhupada’s books in my hands, constantly prosecuted by the German police, enthused by the opposition we had to face while being the first "Hare Krsna’s" in Germany, members of the "most dangerous terroristic sect" as defined by the media… I noticed once, while distributing in the city of Freiburg, a confused mathaji standing in front of a shopping house window, obviously subdued by her senses and her mind.

The number of mathajis going on sankirtan at that time equaled the number of brahmacaries, which meant at least four vans of girls were going out on distribution weekly. The training was strict, even during the Sunday Feast there was practically no contact between the brahmacaries and brahmacarinis, who were managed by Himavati devi dasi, the wife of Hamsadutta das, our GBC. He was practically the only grhasta in the whole yatra.

Himavati indeed trained the mathajis well, their discipline and strictness in following the principles often superseded the one of the brahmacaries. As matter of fact, even us, the young brahmacaries, feared Himavati more as her husband. Her presence commanded instantly discipline and total absence of any sensuality between the opposite sexes. She was like a very strict mother to us. Her fear-provoking appearance was well compensated with the most amazing prasadam being cooked by her. The size of her gigantic feasts alone made us every Sunday almost to leave our bodies due to overeating.

Seeing the helpless conditions of the struggling sankirtan heroin, I shouted behind her back: “Sankirtan ki jaya!” and instantly turned to the next conditioned soul in order introduce her to Srila Prabhupada’s books. The mathaji responded instantly. . she disappeared. Few minutes later I saw her standing in front of me with her eyes pointed to the ground. She said with low voice: “We, (the whole mathaji party), did hardly distribute anything this week, we are so spaced out. Could we join the lecture tomorrow morning?” I said simply “yes”, gave her the address of the hotel where we were staying that night and kept on distributing. Coming in the evening back to the van and meeting the other brahmacaries, I informed them that next morning we will have a short visit in our hotel room, a group of mathajis who will simply join our morning lecture only. The response I got was explosive. “What? What have you done? Women in our room? With their long hair? (As if hotel rooms don’t have hair on the floor:-)” I was surprised by my own naivety and ensured my brahmacary friends that this will be only for one hour of the lecture and will never happen again.

And so next morning, right on time, group of mathajis simply entered our room, silently sit down in the corner and listened to the lecture. They left instantly after the lecture, just asking where we will distribute that day.

Sure enough, I saw suddenly the same mathajis standing in front of me in the shopping street: “Can we come for one lecture more?” “OK”, I responded, “but that’s it.” And so we had one visit more that week.

One has to understand that the spirit of book distribution was in these days so high that it didn’t take the brahmacaries in my party even one day to forget this incident and absorb them totally in sankirtan.

But there was one person who didn’t forget.

Arriving on Saturday night in the temple, I was asked to come to the temple president’s office. I walked in and he looked at me seriously. “Sit down”, he said. “I heard that you met this week a sankirtan party with mathajis”. “Oh no”, I thought; “Now I am in trouble”. “It’s OK, it’s OK", he responded, seeing my instant uneasiness. He relaxed and continued: “Listen, you probably know… we have debts”. (This "we-have-debts-mantra" was transmitted to me in all the years I went on sankirtan:-) And then our commander in chief revealed his plan. "You see, all the mathaji parties are presently in maya. So why don’t you just pile them up in their vans behind your car and let them simply come to your lecture every morning. Nothing else is required."

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing." But I got almost killed by my godbrothers last week! :-) When I allowed the mathajis to come to the hotel!" "That’s OK, don’t worry", was the answer. "You just pick up one brahmacary as your body guard and keep on going". It was hard to be separated from my old sankirtan party. In response I selected the most fanatical brahmacary I could find, a devotee who was known that as soon a mathaji came close, he pulled his Caitanya Caritamrta out and started to read out loudly. (No need to worry, he also got married later on:-)

And so, Monday morning I left with my car the temple parking lot, being instantly followed by four vans full of our sankirtan heroines. We started to distribute as usually. I remembered the additional instruction of our GBC I got on the way: "If you deal with them like women, they will respond like women. If you deal with them like they were men, they will respond like men". (Once I argued mildly with him regarding this service: "I feel the whole week like the carrot hanging in front of a donkey to motivate him to run faster. " His response was short and pragmatic: "That’s OK. Just make sure that the carrot doesn’t get eaten :-)"

And so, simply aiming for maximum books being distributed, this little army attacked the German shopping streets. Seeing what these girls were able to do on the street while serving Srila Prabhupada’s book distribution, I started to understand better why He took such a risk and accommodated females and males in the frame of His mission so closely together. These German girls were indeed fierce fighters once they got into book distribution. They kept higher standards of cleanliness in their vans as the brahmacaries and considering the immense conditioning they had to face regarding their bodies they worked incredibly hard.

I couldn’t believe what I saw.

The very same arrogant German Mercedes-drivers I avoided were left behind with piles of books in their hands, still smiling as if in some state of trance.

Just one story:

The same girl who asked me if her party can possibly join our lecture on the road, met once a truly fat German while he was climbing out of his big car. This girl, being very small in size, was called by us later "the submarine". As she almost invisibly scouted the shopping street in search for new conditioned souls, she suddenly surfaced in front of a man who got constantly overpowered by her sweet smile and her big blinking eyes. Before he realized what is happening to him, turning red like a tomato, he had already Srila Prabhupada’s books in his hands. His mind and his senses completely paralyzed, he pulled out his money bag so he can pay. To my great shock our heroin took the bag out of his hands and started to research its content. Bill after bill she emptied it out thoroughly in front of the smiling a blushing man. Still smiling sweetly, she gave him the empty bag back. As if gasping for his life the man said: "But I still need some money for tanking the car!"The mathaji smiled even more sweetly, gently pet his huge belly with her hand and said: "Walking is healthy". The man agreed and still laughing received another pile of Srila Prabhupada’s books. Then our heroin disappeared again in the crowd.

I told her later that this could have been easily classified as a robbery and should never be repeated again. She looked annoyed at me, amazed about my innocence, and said: "But the guy liked it". Actually yes, the man liked it. If this would be done by a brahmacary he would surely call the police.

Coming back to the temple with the same four vans traveling behind my car was not easy. Every Saturday we had a roaring kirtan in the temple hall, sometimes it lasted until early morning hours, leaving us no time to go to sleep. Seeing the fifteen mathajis jumping sky high in total ecstasy in the back of the temple room, the brahmacaries looked at me with sheepish smiles: "Well done, Manidhara Prabhu, well done!"(As matter of fact the mathajis did superseded the brahmacaries regarding the sankirtan results in these days).

I felt humiliated and went to the temple president. "That was it!" I exclaimed. He looked at me and completely free of any emotions said: "We still have debts. One week more."

And so , accompanied by my brahmacary fanatic friend, I left next Monday again, followed by four cars as my shadow.

Two weeks grew into one month and this one month a year became a routine for fifteen years. Looking back, I can safely say that there was not one single incident where I would have some private conversation with any of these girls, neither some sexually motivated exchange took place. So strong was the discipline amongst those sankirtan devotees. From today’s point of view the description of these days seem to be like from another age.

Even I had later on to face the issue of getting married, it wasn’t done because of some particular incident, neither were my eyes and my mind fixed on some of these sankirtan heroines. I was counseled by senior godbrothers and none of them did point out some danger of fall down to me. But they made me aware of my varna-conditioning and its following consequences. As matter of fact, our GBC told me, "Somebody MUST manage these girls. Finally only a grhasta can do it. This is for you the only reason to get married. "And so, after long struggle I accepted this ashrama and the wife which was sent to me by her spiritual master in a mood of arranged marriage.

Of course, bringing male and female together is always a cause of problem. As Srila Prabhupada commented in one single sentence: "The relation between man and women is very complicated".

But it might be today totally forgotten that Srila Prabhupada took this risk while seeing the preaching potential in grhasta ashrama as well. Nothing like this was done before, it’s truly revolutionary. The ungratefulness He had to face for taking such a risk from His disciples and those who claim to be His followers, but simultaneously dare to abuse this merciful arrangement of His Divine Grace in form of divorce and illicit sexual affairs was shocking to Srila Prabhupada for sure. I personally believe that He couldn’t anticipate how animalistic we, the Westerners, can be.

Of course, all these sankirtan heroines one way or another got married later on, often with questionable result. But meeting some of them many years later, I never heard one of them remembering these days of sankirtan ecstasy as being detrimental to their lives. While pushing the trolleys with their children, or being devastated by their unchaste husbands, (as occasionally husbands get devastated by their unchaste wives), or being totally disillusioned by ISKCON leadership, they told me the same thing: "These were the best days of my life".

Even I doubt that such an arrangement can be ever repeated, I don’t regret one minute I was part of such sankirtan ecstasy. Seeing these girls doing altogether 6-8000 books a week, (I had to often return in middle of the week to the temple to reload the cars again), I had the honor to share Srila Prabhupada’s blessings upon them. In these days every new book of Srila Prabhupada arriving was like a festival on its own. With distance of time I feel more and more immense admiration for Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual power with which He endowed us to such a degree that we forgot that man and women mingle in this world for purpose of sex life only.