Battlefield Bhajans Vol. VIII

Dedicated to Srila Prabhupada, will we ever understand how compassionate he is?

Our True Friend

I took sometime of preaching, a good friend had to have emergency surgery. This man is in charge of me and he is very supportive of me as a Hare Krsna devotee in Iraq. When I first came to Mosul form Talafar, he came by my room and with a huge smile asked "Where are the Boys?", referring to my Salagram and Govardhana Sila’s. Everyday when I see him he says respectfully Hare Krsna and has taken many of Srila Prabhupada’s books. So, I was very concerned when he had this surgery. I decided to cancel my preaching programs, so I can focus this time on reading sastra to him. One day, I wanted to bring Giriraja to him for darshan, and as I was reading, he would look at Giriraja and become somewhat choked up. He said " I am not a Hare Krsna, I drink, smoke, have sex as much as I can. But when I see these "Rocks" I am amazed and even though I cannot understand Who They are, when I look at Them, I feel the love They have to give."

kåñëa—sürya-sama; mäyä haya andhakära
yähäì kåñëa, tähäì nähi mäyära adhikära

Kåñëa is compared to sunshine, and mäyä is compared to darkness. Wherever there is sunshine, there cannot be darkness. As soon as one takes to Kåñëa consciousness, the darkness of illusion (the influence of the external energy) will immediately vanish. (Cc Madhya 22.31- Lord Caitanya instructs Sanatana Goswami)

I normally am out on missions for about 12 hours a day, so to stay motivated to go out and distribute books is hard to maintain. So I dragged myself out and went to my normal spots. At first no one would take a book. I started to feel sad and thought "better to sit and read, get my head straight and then try agian." As I was reading someone yelled… " Hey Partha!" stunned I turned around and a soldier approached me. I thought maybe he is the child of a devotee, but how would he know what I look like? As he got closer I could see he had some others with him. I could not remember this face. He asked if I remembered him and I apologized and said no. He laughed and said we meet in 2003 in An Nasariya, in southern Iraq. My memory started to come back but was still somewhat unclear. So he began to tell everyone how we met. We were getting ready for a convoy and I sat on my truck reading a book He was interested after seeing the cover. So I gave him an extra copy of the Bhagavad-Gita. Turns out, he was the first person I distributed a book to in Iraq! Amazing. He went on to say that he was hurt bad during that tour, and while recovering form his wounds, he read the Bhagavad-Gita. As each day went by in his recovery, he found safety in the words coming from the Lotus mouth of Lord Sri Krsna. He said that he was certain that he made it through that rough time only by reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. I didn’t know what to say, I just was in shock, but he took my box of small books and handed a few out to his friends, we exchanged email addresses and as he was walking away to his truck, I heard him saying, you guys should read these books, they will save you in the end.

Sadhana

Japa: 25 everyday and trying to develop steady rounds. I am trying to give my heart to Krsna during Japa. The Lord is allowing me to chant 64 rounds on Sunday still. I pray I matain this for the rest of my time in this body.

Health: This is an ongoing problem, I think when I finish with the Army, I will spend sometime recovering from 12 years of combat, but actually it is a blessings, not being able sleep means for time for devotional life.

Reading: I am taking my time now and trying to systematically read Srila Prabhupada’s books. I realize I need to become stronger in my preaching, I need to know the philosophy better.

Time is moving along, please pray for us, we still have time to help Srila Prabhupada spread this mission here.

your servant in Srila Prabhupada’s mission

Partha-sarathi dasa
ISKCON, Iraq