20230220 International Saṅkīrtana Book Distribution Awards Address

The following is an International Saṅkīrtana Book Distribution Awards address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on february 20th,2023 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: So we heard a very nice class from Vijaya dāsa on book distribution. And it was filled with many examples of saṅkīrtana pastimes. He said that if many people distribute even a few books, it becomes a lot. That is why I am speaking also in Bengali, that I want everybody to distribute some books. Thank you very much!

We heard how Kṛṣṇa is the Doer. So we can pray to Kṛṣṇa, to please empower us to carry out His will. I think every temple has Nitāi-Gaura, or Lord Caitanya. Here we have the Pañca-tattva and Nitāi-Gaura are there. So, Lord Caitanya wants everybody to become happy. In the big kīrtana up to the Chand Kazi, there were a group of atheists who were rejecting “I hate this! I hate this!” But when they saw Lord Caitanya dancing and crying in ecstasy, then their hearts melted. They raised their hands and started chanting Haribol! Haribol!

During the pandemic we could not go out, so we started to distribute books online. We are still doing that. Many people are taking books. This way Kamalāpati Prabhu and His Holiness Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Mahārāja have been distributing a lot of books. Sometimes other people like to donate for some things. We get some donations for cows, for the TOVP. But at the recent program that I went to in Medinipur, His Holiness Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Mahārāja, he used my presence and said, “Buy a set of Caitanya-caritāmṛta and Mahārāja will bless it.” How can I bless Caitanya-caritāmṛta? I am blessed by the Caitanya-caritāmṛta! How many Caitanya-caritāmṛtas were distributed? (53 sets) Of course, few Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam sets were distributed also – 18 sets. Like this, Mahārāja, he is always, always thinking about how to distribute books!

I like to hear the saṅkīrtana pastimes. I think that these are all the modern-day pastimes of Lord Caitanya. In Los Angeles, a saṅkīrtana devotee asked, what they can do for me? I said, “Tell me one story a day of saṅkīrtana book distribution.” Since two years I could not travel and so they owe me a lot of days! Kamalāpati told me some, we heard some nectar from Vijaya Prabhu. Actually, by book distribution we also made a Muslim devotee. He was named Bhakta Mohammad. We were doing a parikramā in Vidyānagara. Like 5,000 local people were chit chatting. We wanted them to be quiet. I just said, “Bhakta Mohammad will now speak!” There was silence! Now after initiation, he got the name Mahā Caitanya dāsa.

Here distribution is a bit different than other places.I will tell you one pastime. This devotee from Los Angeles, who owes me a story a day, she told me how she was at the gas station, and she gave out a book. They call it petrol pump here. Anyway, he got the book and was reading the book. A car drove up and out of the window they shot him, and he was dead on the spot, holding up the book! It turned out that he was a drug dealer. But he bought Śrīla Prabhupāda’s book, he was reading it and he died. What do you think of that Vijaya? (Vijaya Prabhu! – Amazing! Amazing!) So this is Lord Caitanya’s mercy!

In Kolkata, at the Howrah train station, someone was distributing books. And a train employee, a government worker, he bought the book. Indians know how government karmacārīs work very casually. He sat there and read the whole book. I think in Western countries they don’t have the time, they are running here and there, but here he sat and read the whole book. Now he said, “I am convinced, I am convinced, I believe! What can I do?” “You can join the temple”, they said. He said, I have a wife, four kids and a paraplegic sister. I have cows, should I bring all that to the temple? What will the president think? I have to think about this. He said, “I believe, I believe, what can I do?” The devotee said, “Buy some more books.” “Okay, I will buy all the books. I believe, I believe, what can I do?” The devotees said, “Be a life member!” He asked, “How much is that?” He told, the price. He said, “I have a small salary, can I pay it over a few months?” Anyway, you get the idea. For book distribution, I realized that we had to do something, so I started the Nāmahaṭṭa.

So we want people, as Vijaya Prabhu said, to be happy and they should practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They can stay in their house, come to temple, read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and practice bhakti-yoga. This is our business, to distribute books. Hare Kṛṣṇa!