The Fiftieth Anniversary of the BBT

Giriraj Swami: So it is a great honor and pleasure and privilege for me to be with you all on the 50th anniversary of the BBT. To begin, I would like to speak a little about Srila Prabhupada.

Before you translate can you let me finish a sentence?

Translator: Okay, I usually do simultaneous translation but as you wish.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, simultaneous! 

Translator: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. So Srila Prabhupada’s servant, Srutakirti Prabhu said on a number of occasions, when he entered Srila Prabhupada’s room, Prabhupada would be reading one of his books: The Bhagavad-gītā As It Is or the Kṛṣṇa book. Prabhupada said, “This literature is so wonderful that if you read just this one book, Kṛṣṇa, you can become completely Krishna conscious.” Then he said, “You don’t even need to read the whole book, if you read just one chapter you can become completely Krishna conscious.” And then he said, “You don’t even have to read a whole chapter, if you read just one page you can become completely Krishna conscious.” Then he said, “You don’t even have to read one page, if you just read one line you can become completely Krishna conscious.” And finally he said, “You don’t even have to read one line, if you read just one word you can become completely Krishna conscious because these books are Krishna. In these books you get Krishna, you get Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, you get the whole paramparā.”

One moment, I had something here.

Yes, Srila Prabhupada very much emphasized the reading of his books. In Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 25.278 he wrote,

“Men become strong and stout by eating sufficient grains, but the devotee who simply eats ordinary grains but does not taste the transcendental pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa gradually becomes weak and falls down from the transcendental position. However, if one drinks but a drop of the nectar of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, his body and mind begin to bloom, and he begins to laugh, sing and dance.”

And Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport:

“All the devotees connected with the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement must read all the books that have been translated (the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā and others); otherwise, after some time, they will simply eat, sleep and fall down from their position. Thus they will miss the opportunity to attain an eternal, blissful life of transcendental pleasure.”

This reminds me of a statement that Srila Prabhupada made that, “Distributing my books will keep the devotees happy and reading my books will keep the devotees,” means keep them in Krishna consciousness. And in a talk on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.138 in Los Angeles Srila Prabhupada gave an important instruction. This is related to the pastime when Ajamila chanted the holy name of Narayana at the time of his death, and both the Yamadutas (the messengers of Yamaraja) and the Vishnudutas (the messengers of Vishnu) came. So Srila Prabhupada said, he is quoting from the verse.

“The blessed messengers of Lord Vishnu, the Vishnudutas, said: If you are actually servants of Yamaraja, you must explain to us the meaning of religious principles and the symptoms of irreligion.” The Yamadutas had challenged, “Who are you, interfering in our business? We have come to arrest him.” So the counterchallenge from the Vishnudutas was, “You said, ‘We are servants of Dharmarāja. It is his jurisdiction. This person is impious. So this is in the jurisdiction of Dharmarāja. He has to try the case and give him punishment. So you cannot interfere with us.’” Therefore the challenge was replied by the Vishnudutas, “If you are actually representatives of Dharmarāja, who tries the cases of dharma and adharma, first of all explain what is dharma and what is adharma.”

This is very nice challenge. Suppose if you say, “We are Krishna conscious persons,” one may challenge you, “First of all, explain what you know about Krishna.” That is quite natural. If you do not know about Krishna, you have no right to say that “I belong to the Krishna consciousness movement.” You have no right to say. Simply if you have tilak and kanthi [neck bead], that does not mean that you belong to the Krishna consciousness movement. You must know the philosophy. If one challenges, you must reply. If you simply mark your body with tilak and neck beads, then you are not proper servant if you do not know the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. So tilak and beads are necessary but you must know the philosophy of Krishna consciousness.

Then in a talk on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.1 on May 21st, 1975 in Melbourne Srila Prabhupada said,

“We have got Krishna, we have got spiritual master, we have got books; Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, now let us take advantage. These transcendental literatures, we have taken much pain to translate them into English so that you can understand. We have got fifty books so take advantage. It is meant for all human beings, not a particular class or nation. So take advantage of this knowledge and understand the philosophy of life, that I am eternal.”

And in one of Srila Prabhupada’s last, well it became one of his last purports which he dictated in Vrindavan in his last days lying on his bed, deathbed. He said,

“We should discuss Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam daily as much as possible and then everything will be clarified for Bhāgavatam is the essence of all Vedic literature (nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalam). It was written by Vyāsadeva (mahā-muni-kṛte) when he was self-realized. Thus the more we read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the more its knowledge becomes clear. Each and every verse is transcendental.” 

So yes, read one more quotation from Srila Prabhupada in glorification of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and book distribution.

“This is the Bhagavat, there is no comparison. There is no literature throughout the universe like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. There is no comparison. There is no competition. Every word is for the good of the human society, every word, each and every word. Therefore we stress so much in the book distribution. Somehow or other, if the book goes in one hand, he will be benefited. “Oh, they have taken so much price. Let me see what is there.” If he reads one śloka, his life will be successful. If he reads one śloka, one word. This is such nice things. Therefore we are stressing so much, “Please distribute book, distribute book, distribute book.” A greater mridanga. We are chanting, playing our mridanga. It is heard within this room or little more. But this mridanga, bṛhad-mṛdaṅga will go home to home, country to country, community to community, this mridanga.” 

So now I would like to share some thought or realization about book distribution. 

Srila Prabhupada was especially empowered by Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world, and he especially emphasized book distribution. With our limited intelligence we may not understand what is the best way to spread Krishna consciousness. But Srila Prabhupada was given unlimited intelligence by Krishna. And he has given us clear direction how to spread Krishna consciousness. If we simply follow Srila Prabhupada’s instructions and result will be wonderful. Srila Prabhupada said, “My guru Maharaja told me to translate, publish, and distribute books.” And as the acharya, Srila Prabhupada set the example.

Once on an airplane I was looking at the people. Maybe by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy some feelings of compassion came and I was thinking, What can we do for these people? Then I thought beyond the people on the airplane to all the people in the world; so many people, how to give them Krishna consciousness?’ Just on one little airplane there may be three hundred passengers. How to get the message through to them? And I thought the only way is through Srila Prabhupada’s books. Then I understood why Srila Prabhupada emphasized book distribution because through his books, his message or voice could reach unlimited number of persons.

Therefore the real way to change people’s lives and reform human society is to give them the message of Krishna through Srila Prabhupada’s books. The books are so wonderful that through them Srila Prabhupada’s voice and message can be multiplied unlimitedly. A human being can speak only so much to so many persons. But through his books, Srila Prabhupada can preach to any number of persons for any amount of time and never get tired. He will just go on and on. It may take thousands or millions of foot soldiers to carry Srila Prabhupada’s books to every house and door, but Srila Prabhupada can go on speaking without limits. By Krishna’s universal form with its unlimited heads, mouths, hands, and legs Srila Prabhupada also expands in the form of his books, goes into people’s homes, and speaks to them. He stays with them all the time all over the world.

If we have to stay with one family, we might be with them from 4:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night but eventually we will get tired. But in the form of his books Srila Prabhupada can stay with any number of families, for any amount of time and never get tired. Even if someone in the house can’t sleep or wakes up in the middle of the night he can go to his shelf and Srila Prabhupada will be there to talk to him. Srila Prabhupada is always there at all times of the day and night, ready to speak to anyone who wants to hear him. So we are just aspiring to be Srila Prabhupada’s humble servants, his bearers carrying him in the form of his wonderful books to the conditioned souls back to Godhead.

So thank you for inviting me to join you on this auspicious occasion for this important discussion about reading and distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the BBT. 

So I am not sure how much time we have or what the format of the program is. From my side I am ready to stay if any of the participants have any questions or comments or reflections they would like to share. 

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Thank you very much for your presentation Maharaja. We still have fifteen minutes in order to go on with the program. We would like to ask you about whatever aspect you feel relevant according to your service towards BBT.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, as Hanuman Prabhu explained, Srila Prabhupada established two BBTs, one in America and one in India. And I was one of the original trustees of the BBT in India. And my particular service related a lot to the legal formalities of the BBT. I am getting it registered with the government and making it strong legally, submitting the accounts every year, and so on. But one thing that struck me from dealing with Srila Prabhupada in relation to his books is that he didn’t want the price of his books reduced. Sometimes devotees would suggest to Srila Prabhupada that if we lower the price we will be able to sell more books. But Srila Prabhupada replied, “If someone understands the value of the books they will pay the price.”

Once he wrote me a letter in which he said, “If you want you can make an experiment and lower the price but I do not think that you will sell more books by lowering the price. One will understand the value of the books will pay the price.” Of course, there was a context to that statement of Srila Prabhupada’s. And in India Srila Prabhupada devised the life membership program as a means to distribute his books because in India there is a wide gulf of difference between the affluent (the wealthy people) and the ordinary people, and he wanted the higher class people to get his books. He wanted everyone to get his books, so he devised the life membership program so that the wealthier people could get his books.

The terms of the life membership program were: that the life member would pay the membership fee and they would get all of Srila Prabhupada’s books published to date, all of Srila Prabhupada’s books that would be published in the future, and a lifetime subscription to Back to Godhead magazine. And Srila Prabhupada said he devised the life membership program as a way to distribute his books. And our devotees would go to different offices to make life members and distribute books. Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Gargamuni who Srila Prabhupada nicknamed Gargamoney, he would go with some devotees to people’s offices and he would meet the proprietor of the concern to make him a life member. And meanwhile, his assistants would distribute books to the workers in the office. It was quite an all-encompassing program.

I have one especially fond memory of distributing books at the Mahā Kumbha-melā in Allahabad. Every twelve years is Kumbha-melā and every twelve Kumbha-melās, that is every 144 years, there is a Mahā Kumbha-melā. So at the Mahā- Kumbha-melā in 1977, for some reason the location of our camp was not very prominent. So Srila Prabhupada, he wanted us to turn that apparently negative situation into a positive one by going out and distributing books. And so we did. And we would go out in a group and people loved us. They came to know about the books and they would ask for them by name. And we would speak to them in Hindi and it was fantastic.

So many pious people had come for the melā and we were able to distribute thousands of books; 8000 on just the first day. And the kirtan party captivated people’s hearts. Many had come from villages or remote places and had no idea that foreigners could become devotees of Krishna. They would bow down when they saw us coming in procession looking like Lord Chaitanya saṅkīrtana party. They would lie down flat on the ground, roll in the dust, pick up the dust, put it in their mouth and they were eager to render service and buy our books. Most of them were poor, so we had one devotee carry a water pot in the front of each party and people would throw paisas into the pot or into the sannyasi’s top cloth which the sannyasis held out like an apron. And if someone gave a rupee we would give him a book. People all over the melā were talking about the Hare Krishna devotees. The books themselves became so popular and famous that people would approach us and ask, “Do you have Sugam-yatra, that is Easy Journey, or give me Janam Mrityu Se Pare – Beyond Life and Death. Can you give me Yoga Ki Purnata—Perfection of Yoga? I want Purna Prashna Purna Uttara—Perfect Questions Perfect Answers. They were asking for the books by name. 

I liked to be near the hari-nāma party and the other devotees while distributing but sometimes I was so besieged by pilgrims asking for books that I couldn’t move. It was like we were in a sea of people, and ever so often I would raise my head above the water, above the pilgrim’s heads and see the other devotees also engulfed. It was encouraging and enlivening. And in all we distributed 30,000 books. And Srila Prabhupada expressed his pleasures of our success and ordered some of the sannyasis and other leaders to stay at the melā until all the books were distributed. And by His Grace the whole effort became a tremendous success. 

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Transcendental book distribution ki jaya!

Devotee: I would like to thank Giriraj Maharaja for giving us this one these wonderful nectarean words which I am sure that has enlivened everyone, and all the devotees for their attentive listening and I pray that sound vibration will enter their hearts and sprout in the form of enthusiastic book distribution. 

Devotee: Maharaja, thank you very very much for your enlivening words and for always being available and for accepting to take part in the launching of this series of the speeches that we will have. And I want to encourage all the devotees who are seeing us to keep coming to this series of speeches. And I want to especially thank Keshava Prabhu for his translation. We hadn’t seen each other for a very long time. So thank you Maharaja for coming and for your inspirational words.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, as I mentioned it was an honor and a privilege and a pleasure. And I myself feel purified and enlivened from the discussion. 

Devotees: Giriraj Maharaja ki jaya! Hare Krishna. 

Giriraj Swami: If we are ending now, I would like that we conclude with a Vaishnava praṇāma.

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca 

patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ 

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya.

Transcendental book distribution ki jaya!