Starting a Discusion
Dear devotees and Candrasekhar prabhu, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I liked your point about giving a very straight forward presentation of yourself as a representative of ISKCON when disributing Prabhupada's books.
I did stickers and a few books nine years ago. I am indebted to the devotees who gave me the opportunities to do this service, but it was more or less explained to me that if I could get someone to buy a book or give a donation, even by tricking them somewhat and possibly disturbing them that I would benefit them in the long run and they would forget any negativity that was generated by the encounter.
Looking back, it was a technique that produced quantifiable results but was possibly not geared towards relationship building. This is something I remember you mentioning some time back with the taking of birthday dates and sending of cards when the date came. People feel indebted by that.
One definition of a devotee which Prabhupada gave I heard from Ravindra Svarup prabhu. It was that a devotee is someone who on seeing, you want to become like them. And there is another one saying that devotees should be adored as the most honest men and women. I don't have folio but they are there.
I don't go out on books these days, I serve in the temple. But I like this conference and it's inspiring to see the devotees constantly trying for internal and external reform and improvement through frank discussion and practical action. your servant, bhakta jason
