20030319 Talk on Book Distribution Awards

I offer my obeisances to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

Initially in India, there was one BBT. At that time, we were having difficulty to get our books to Eastern India published. Because we were like other side of India. So I went to Prabhupāda and said that we have lot of manage group and we have lot of… of course, but we are like a step-child, we are on the other side of India, we can have our own BBT, proper division. Prabhupāda, then he gave permission. Whatever will facilitate book publication, that should be done. In this way, Eastern India, which is part of the Australasian Indian division, (you know) we are sub-division at that time, we were in Bengali, Oriya, Nepali, Assamese, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam. So Prabhupāda, whenever he receives any new book, I mean… I don’t think, mostly I always been chastised by Śrīla Prabhupāda, Māyāpur management or for different things, but at any time Prabhupāda was really blissful, I think that is BBT Trustees have ever most wonderful service because that is the time Prabhupāda express extreme… joy is not the word, it is profound… profound emotions and happiness. At that time… I remember one time, there was a whole pile of books put on his table and it was a far east BBT and other BBTs, but and it all came for the Gaura Pūrṇimā festival, when Prabhupāda saw these books, tears started pouring from his eyes. He just… He said, this is his joy, there is no doubt about it, he was just so happy to see all those books. And he took one of those books and just touch it to his head, touch it to his head and he was crying.

Like Bhakti Cāru Mahārāja, and Subhag Mahārāja, they were our translators for Bengali and he gave so much mercy eventually they became a translators. So many times, we can just see… At one time, many time, even when Prabhupāda was in very sick, someone came and presented him a new book, there was always be a matter of extreme happiness when he touch those books. Because it is an order of his spiritual master, he took it as his life and soul. And we personally saw like Prabhupāda sometimes comes for two months to Māyāpur. And we just schedule, it was so amazing because (you know) he would go morning walk, come back and give class, he would answer mails, and get massage, take lunch, take little nap in the afternoon, then see people in the afternoon again, then for two or three hours in the evening, he take a little rest and get up at midnight and there he enters into a mosquito net, keep out the mosquito away, we fumigated not with any chemical, but with the frankincense smoke. It was like too mystical thing, he was there with his dicta-phone inside the mosquito net, the whole room is filled with smoke building out of the windows. And Prabhupāda would translate until the time to take his… until morning walk practically. And sometime, I was called into his room when he was translating… We were just in amazing situation, and Prabhupāda, he stressed that he was doing all these austerities to leave us these books for the next ten-thousand-years. He wanted us to (you know) publish the books, print the books, read the books – he was having (very) concerns about that. And to distribute books. So in this way, on that side I was fortune that for sometime I was also allowed to serve as a BBT trustee at a… seeing all these presentations brings me you know, flashbacks of wonderful ecstasy of planning out how to publish books in new languages and how to promote annual aspect of it, as well as its distribution. For a while, we have been in a publishing side, we were also distributing here, because we got a few people, we were very small in those days; so we were going out and bring book distribution. And Prabhupāda was so concerned also about, like if you write regular reports in those days and he would always be asking, “Well, how many books given out?” And then every year people would come in and give him the reports and then, it was quite often we heard, “Okay! Next year Double it!” And he really appreciated it. Once he said, “If I get these reports, it gives me new life! It gives me [inaudible] just by hearing the reports.” Then he gives us the goals, I remember he told me that your party have distribute 10,000 big books and 100,000 small books every month. Which was you know, seems like a lot, still have to know, somehow, we are doing more or less, it will be done. So, Prabhupāda was really taking lot of interest in the Book publication, book distribution, there was something which always keeping his hand on the pulse, and he wanted to know what was happening… I think we always remember that how dear it is to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Sometime he would even equate that how one book was a brick for Māyāpur. Right now, Tirupati temple is building a temple by book distribution, that was originally his idea for building Māyāpur was by distributing books. So now it may not be exactly what we are doing, but at least up till now all the planning was done, of course with the book distribution funding.

We know that books will make devotees, and here in Māyāpur we seen that Bhakti Puruṣottama Swami, he is organize clubs for people buying books, he organizes Bhagavad-gītā club, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam clubs, they would come over here and attend seminars on Gītā or Bhāgavatam, everybody buy the book, they also join the club, it is a free membership. Because, we want to build a congregation from the books, we want congregation to distribute books, we want to expand the whole book distribution far and wide. And we want that maximum effect from the books also [inaudible]. Now we have a situation where the temple and the congregation work together distributing more books, although, of course, our dedicated book distributors are we say are more like a pro-cathedral, but the mass number of congregation, especially in marathon they do significant contributions to the book distribution. It is started-off with BBT, book publishing, and now I am trying to help working with Vijaya and others to see that our congregation also can get the taste of that nectar. They became devotees by Prabhupāda books and let them be inspired also to distribute. So “Books are the Basis” “Preaching is the Essence” now we want to engage all the people who receive Prabhupāda Books also distribute the books. And this is a… how we can distribute more books in the future. And how we can keep Prabhupāda’s legacy alive. This is my short message. Hare Kṛṣṇa!