Krishna Saves the Situation
A Story from Russia

A devotee was distributing books, going from factory to factory, mine to mine. The devotees go to the changing rooms, where the workers take their showers after being underground, and they put a set of books on the table, so that when the workers change their shifts, the devotees preach and get them to sign up for sets of books.

Now the process is that first you have to get authorization from the director of the factory or mine to do it inside their company. The next problem is that they have to pay three months' salary to get a set of books. For the workers it doesn't matter much because the company already owes them 6 to 8 months' salary, and since the company has to pay, for them it's just a signature. A lot of companies haven't paid their workers for at least half a year, but you can't leave the company because then you'd have nothing. At least the company gives them something to eat and somewhere to sleep.

Some companies pay in merchandise. A tire factory, for example, will give each worker three tires at the end of the month, and then you see people at the side of the road trying to sell their three tires to get some money.

For three months' salary (nine tires) they can have a set of 15 books. If you sign up 6O people in one factory, that's 18O salaries. Now that's a lot of money, and the factory may not have that much or they may not want to give it. So at the end, you have to go to the chief accountant and somehow or other convince him to give the money or to make a transfer. Now the chief accountants are usually tough guys and the devotees have to soften them up with prasadam, little presents, and a few sweet words to talk them into agreeing to release the money.

In this particular instance, the accountant wouldn't budge an inch. He refused to give anything, and the devotee was despondent. He had worked for days to sign up these people to take sets, but all for nothing

"Oh Krishna," he thought, "what can I do?''

His last hope was to go back to the director, who had given him the authorization in the first place. He went to the director's house in the late afternoon, and when the man opened the door, the devotee could feel a very strange vibration inside. The man and his wife were crying along with all the relatives there, and the devotee asked him what had happened. The man said that his mother-in-law had just passed away two hours earlier, and that was why everyone was crying.

The devotee apologized for disturbing them, and the man asked, "Are you the monk who came with your books to my factory?''

The devotee said that it was he, and the man asked whether he could do some sort of ceremony for his departed mother-in-law. The man said that he had been an atheist all his life, but now he felt that there must be more to life and thought it would be appropriate for the devotee to help his grieving family. If there is a God, it will be good for his mother-in-law.

The devotee told the man that it would be no problem. He went into the house and lit some incense, filling the room with fragrant smoke. He started chanting all the mantras, songs and verses he knew. "Om ajnana-timirandhasya.... Samsara davanala.... dehino smin yatha dehe...."

He chanted for about 15 minutes nonstop, every sloka he knew. All of a sudden, they stopped crying and became sober. After some time, everyone was impressed. "This is amazing," they all thought.

The whole atmosphere became pure, as it does during a fire sacrifice. Everyone had stopped crying and had become happy. The devotee gave a little talk about how the mother was not dead and that she had just moved on to another place, and they all thought that the whole thing was wonderful.

Then the director said how thankful he was, and that he would like to do something for the devotee.

"You know," The devotee said, "we have this little problem with the chief accountant in your factory."

"No problem," the man said. "Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock, we'll give you the money."

And in this way, the devotee was able to deliver all of the books to the workers, and the family was satisfied.