The Second Day of Seminars in Mayapur
Hare Krsna Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
On the second day of the 2011 book distribution seminars in Mayapur, Sadbhuja Prabhu, the president of the Leipzig (Germany) temple, spoke. He said that a scholar in Germany did a survey of religious movements around the world and found that every decade hundreds of movements begin and stop. One of the main prerequisites for a movement to last, he found, is that it has to inspire its members to do voluntary service by going out to spread the message. Movements that do this are much more likely to last than others.
In the beginning of our society, said Sadbhuja, there was much more interaction with the public by harinam and book distribution. Therefore the movement grew very quickly. Now we don't go out as much, so naturally not as many people see us and inquire about us and join us. We have to go out more with books and harinama.
Sadbhuja said that the Leipzig devotees try to follow up on the nice people they meet on book distribution. They visit them at home and invite them to the temple festivals. It's very inspiring when these efforts lead to their coming closer to Krsna consciousness and then joining. But to accomplish this we have to focus on not just distributing books but on bringing people closer to Krsna. We all know when we meet a really nice person who is superinterested, get his contact information, and stay in touch with him, he may become a devotee with a little effort.
Next Prahladananda Swami spoke. He said, "In the early days of the movement there was one person who was regularly hearing from Prabhupada. Then one time Prabhupada handed him a piece of paper with the Hare Krsna mantra written on it. The person said, 'When Prabhupada handed me that piece of paper, it was like he was handing me the whole world.' Similarly, we are distributing these books, and the people may not understand the value of the books, but we should understand their value and the value of distributing them. Book distribution is a transcendental activity; it helps us learn to always rely on Krsna."
Maharaja continued: "When I first started distributing books in 1968, we didn't have any techniques, so we would just pray to Krsna. People would come out of nowhere and give donations, and we would give them books.
"Once I was distributing in Dallas, which is a very difficult place to distribute in. On this day I didn't want to go out; my mind was giving me so much trouble because I was going out by myself. But I forced myself to go out. When I got to the spot, everyone seemed like they had come from Vaikuntha. I didn't know what had happened. It was such a pleasant experience. Not only did they look like they came from Vaikuntha, but they acted like it. Practically everyone I approached took a BTG and gave a donation. I could understand that it was a reciprocation from Krsna because I had surrendered to going out even though I didn't want to. Krsna was showing me that He was pleased by some determination despite my mind giving me so much trouble. So we have to somehow engage in this activity that is so pleasing to Krsna even though our mind may not be interested."
The next speaker was Mohan Rupa Prabhu, the president of the New Delhi temple. He said, "Srila Prabhupada said, 'Book distribution is my heart.' And because of this, book distribution is going on all over the world and is increasing. In New Delhi over 2,000 devotees participated in the marathon. The more we increase our congregation, the more we will distribute books. Most of the book distributors were women. They would go to the malls, get permission, and set up tables with Prabhupada's books on them.
"Another thing we did was conduct a Bhagavad Gita contest. We enrolled 9,000 students for the contest. They would study the first six chapters and then have to answer questions. They would pay 150 rupees to be in the contest, and at the end they would be allowed to keep their Gita. There was another contest on "The Introduction to the Bhagavad gita." Over 6,000 students participated in this contest. Some of these students read the introduction eight to ten times to win the contest. So more than 15,000 students read Prabhupada's books during the marathon and then got to keep the books. On January 1st we called all these students, and they came to the temple with their parents for prizes and certificates. This is a good way to increase the congregation and thus make more book distributors. Prabhupada said, 'Tax your brains on how to distribute more books.' So this is another way.
"There is a preaching center in New Delhi with only three devotees living there, but they have a congregation of three hundred devotees, and during the marathon they distributed 62,000 Bhagavad Gitas."
