Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
For the last four or five years we have distributed books to the crowd
at the annual Tuska ("Pain") Open-Air Metal Festival in the center
of Helsinki. The festival runs from Friday through Sunday during the
first weekend of July.
Compared to some other rock festivals, the crowd at this one is a little
less intoxicated. They mainly go there because of the music. Actually,
the fact that they're a bit drunk makes them more open to being
approached. This festival is really quite a good field for preaching.
The Christians had their "Finland for Jesus" bus there, trying to save
the fallen souls. But their tactics just drew ridicule from the "metal
heads," who continued to flaunt their upside-down crosses and various
provocative anti-Christian T-shirts. Our approach was different. We
distributed there in devotional clothing, avoiding Christian-style
warnings about imminent damnation and the need to be saved. We just
presented our literature and engaged in small talk about the bands and
how the weekend was going.
Sankirtana Prabhu, the sankirtan leader of the Czech Republic, was
visiting Finland, and after our Sunday feast we went to the festival
together. Some people sitting near the entrance immediately showed
interest in the books. They were two ladies accompanied by a young man
and a professional drunkard. The two ladies had pretty authentic
metal-festival outfits -- blood stains painted all over their bodies,
etc. But they were positive and without needing too much convincing
surrendered to purchasing a small book.
Many attendees had doubts about us. They regarded us as Hindus and thus
thought that we worshiped many gods in a hodgepodge way, without much
philosophy. I did my best to explain that we are not just ritualistic
followers but have a clear and deep philosophy.
It was fun to discuss philosophy with all those wild-looking characters,
many of whom had read some of our books. Some were favorable, some not,
but for the most part they were more philosophical than the average
person on the street. Many had read books on various other philosophies
-- Taoism, Buddhism, shamanism and some were followers of the
teachings of Anton LaVey (hedonistic Satanism).
It was very nice distributing with His Grace Sankirtan Prabhu. He did
about ten books in less than two hours. It was good that I stayed until
the end of the festival, since around that time two young men took five
books, and, as on Saturday, the total for Sunday was some fifteen books
also.
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Lord Nityananda's special mercy and
transcendental special jokes ki jaya!