Get the 20% for Bhaktivinoda Thakur

Bhaktivinoda Thakur

By Raxit Jariwalla

Dear Devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Here is a summary of the final results from the Bhaktivinoda Thakur MSF that were offered during his disappearance day celebration held at the ISV temple on Tuesday, June 19th.

It was Bhaktivinoda Thakur who said:

Jive doya, Krishna-nam-sarva-dharma-sar

“The showing of compassion to all fallen souls by distributing Krsna nama is the essence of all religious principles”

He revived the Sankirtan mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu to spread the Holy Name and envisioned a marketplace for distributing it that would do the highest good to all living beings in this world.

In 1896, in a pioneering spirit, he sent the transcendental teachings of Sri Caitanya beyond the tiny borders of India to the West in the form of a small booklet you had written in Sanskrit and translated into English called ‘Caitanya Mahaprabhu, His Life and Precepts’ This bold step would turn out to be very inspiring to future book distributors.

ISV devotees have been greatly inspired by his example and have organized a Monthly Sankirtan Festival (MSF) in your name each year. This year a MSF was organized at ISV to distribute transcendental books to spiritually benefit conditioned souls with the aim of increasing book distribution by 20%.

Goals

The goals for this MSF were:

To launch ‘Get the 20% Campaign’
To distribute at least 8,008 books
To collect at least $9,000 in Laxmi points
To distribute books during at least one event
To launch ISKCON Sankirtan Academy (ISA) with the First Sankirtan Orientation Session (SOS)
To sing at least one new BVT song

Highlights

We are to report that all these goals have been met.

To accomplish these goals, the first Sankirtan Orientation Session was launched by HG Vaisesika Prabhu, with an online presentation on book distribution and how to distribute a Bhagavad Gita. Subsequently, ISV devotees, held two Hari nama Sankirtan performances in Palo Alto and participated in massive book distribution all across the Bay Area and beyond over a period of 6 weeks.

They went out door-to-door through several apartment complexes in different cities, visited stores, community centers and corporate workplaces, traveled to festival sites, university campuses, and nearby cities (including Foster City, Dublin and towns around the Sacramento region) and also distributed books in distant places such as New York, London, Korea and India.

The MotelGita team (lead by Mayapur Vihari Prabhu and associates) distributed over 1800 Bhagavad Gitas for placement in motels, with participation of devotees from the Laguna Beach temple and from different states in the US. Books were also distributed books via smart boxes placed at various Bay Area establishments by members of the Smart Box team.

The ISV Sunday school kids (directed by Kameshvari dd, Sukheshvari dd and associates) went out on Kids Sankirtan with a goal of doing 15% of ISV books goal i.e. 1202 books. Their efforts resulted in distribution of 1612 books, with a collection of $2286 in Laxmi points.

This MSF saw the enthusiastic distribution by Team ISV members of many Srimad Bhagavatam and Caitanya Caritamrta sets accompanied by installation ceremonies of few sets in homes of those who had received them. This was a major highlight of this MSF as was evident from the reports and the news action broadcasts about devotees who had come forward and enthusiastically participated in distribution of these sets.

Summary of Scores

Here’s a summary of the final results from book distribution.

In all,

More than 115 devotees participated in the book distribution effort
Participating devotees distributed 11,610 books* (including 17 SB sets and 8 CC sets), surpassing the books goal of 8,008 books
Devotees collected $17,936 dollars in Laxmi points (including donations for ISV Books and the MotelGita program)

*includes 2016 books distributed by Bhumi devi-dasi

Acknowledgements

On behalf of Team ISV, we express our thanks to all teams and team leaders who participated in the MSF book distribution (with special thanks to Shraddha devi-dasi and Manish Prabhu who went out every weekend), to all donors for their generous contribution, and to the Sankirtan leaders (Malini devi-dasi and Sri Krishna Purushottama Prabhu) for their organization and planning. Without the hard work of all these devotees (including college-preaching team members), these results would not have been possible.

Our special thanks go to HG Vaisesika Prabhu whose enthusiasm and inspiration were instrumental in achieving the goals.

Bhaktivinoda Thakur MSF ki Jaya!

Yours in service,

Raxit Jariwalla

Author: admin

Share This Post On