Sankirtan Stories – Who Is This Young Man?

While I was visiting Nepal recently I found out about this incident:

A few years ago, while distributing books in Kathmandu, Nepal, a devotee approached a young man in his mid teens named Suvarna and tried to convince him to take a book. Suvarna wasn’t interested. But the book distributor was new at it and became forceful, demanding that Suvarna take a book.

“This book saved me, and it can save you, too! Now please take it and give a donation.”

Suvarna relented, took the book and three others, and gave a donation, thinking, “These people are poor; let me help them.” Then he went to visit a relative in another city. When he became bored, he remembered the books and thought, “I bought them. I might as well read them.” While reading, he found the books to be exactly what he was looking for.

That same day he went back to Kathmandu to look for the devotees. He couldn’t find them. Every day for three months he went back to the place where he had met them, hoping he would see them again. Then one day he saw two devotees and rushed over to them, expressing how happy he was to see devotees again. They had a book table, so he took some books and started distributing them to the passersby. The devotees were trying to talk to him, but he would just distribute books and give the devotees the laxmi. He did this for three days. They were very surprised to see his enthusiasm and invited him to their center. Soon he moved in. Suvarna’s parents were upset at first, but when they met Patri Prabhu, who oversees the preaching in Kathmandu, they were satisfied that their son was in good hands.