News From Travelling Samkirtana Van!

Prahlada-Nrisimha Das writes:

Hi everybody, Hare Krishna! I was asked by Michael Prabhu to post something about my life, so here it goes:
I live in a van and distribute Srila Prabhupada’s original authorized and blessed books.
I have been doing this seva full time for 17 years.
About 8 or so years ago one very senior devotee wanted to travel and distribute books with me but he told me he needs to always have access to a Tulsi plant to chant with every day. So to make a long story short I figured it cannot hurt to bring a Tulsi with us in the van.

I have been very successfully traveling with Tulsi devi ever since, yes, all year long even when its snowing outside - I have a thermostatically controlled furnace in the van to keep us warm so she seems to do very well. And I have seen that the more books that go out the more she grows and thrives and fills in with healthy foliage.
She is like a Bhakti/book distribution barometer.

She happily tours the country on traveling sankirtana with me living on the dashboard and the base of her pot is velcrowed to the dashboard with industrial strength velcro.

Recently since the weather has been so bad (-15*F in some of the places we have been) my brilliant fiancé decided to make our new baby Tulsi devi a greenhouse because she is such a new baby sprout she is very fragile and much more sensitive to the material aspects of the environment then she is when she gets bigger.
Since we use all our money for distributing books and we had some MAJOR PROBLEMS with our sankirtana van that cost us about $4000 to fix we are not doing well at all financially. So anyway, we made a small greenhouse for her for under a dollar. We got a seltzer bottle from the grocery store, dumped out the contents, cut it in half and turned it upside down over Tulsi devi and it seems to work very nicely and she seems very very happy in it. You can see in the pictures one of my previous Tulsi's and also the one I have now in her new greenhouse.

All glories to Srimati Tulsi Devi!

I have noticed in my spiritual life a great source of inspiration living with Tulsi as a traveling sankirtana Partner.

As Prabhupada has said:

"The process of chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra with a vow before the Tulsi plant has such great spiritual potency that simply by doing this one can become spiritually strong."
(Cc. Antya 3.100)

"by chanting sixteen rounds of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra on beads every day and offering respect to the Tulsi plant. This is not at all difficult for anyone, and the process of chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra with a vow before the Tulsi plant has such great spiritual potency that simply by doing this one can become spiritually strong. Therefore we request the members of the Hare Krsna movement to follow Haridasa Thakura's example rigidly. Chanting sixteen rounds does not take much time, nor is offering respects to the Tulsi plant difficult. The process has immense spiritual potency. One should not miss this opportunity."
(Cc. Antya 3.100)

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