How to Give Books for Free When They Don’t Have a Donation to Give
Hare Krsna,
I'm sure you've all read the recent story I sent about a mended relationship. A young man was upset because he was given books as though they were free and then experienced them being taken back when he didn't make a donation. For years I've been saying to devotees, "Don't make it appear that the books are free and then ask for a donation, and if a donation is not given, take the book back."
It still happens, as the incident in that story shows. It was an exchange with a student, a young man, not someone from the previous generation, when it was a common affair to make the books appear free and then ask for a donation.
This is a reminder: Please don't make it appear that the book is free and then ask for a donation and, if the donation is not given, take it back. As you may know, in the past we had a bad reputation for this. We've cleaned it up quite a bit. Our motto is, "Everyone walks away with a good impression. Even if he doesn't take a book, at least have him walk away with a smile."
If one has no donation to give, you can give him a link where he can read the book for free, it's: www.vedabase.com — keep it on slips of paper. Whenever someone doesn't have a donation, I give them a paper with this site on it. Most of Prabhupada's books are on this site, so this little paper you give them with this link can be the ticket back to Krsna.
Your servant,
Vijaya dasa
www.iskconbookdistribution.com
