Live to Give—Prabhupada Marathon 2022

Giriraj Swami: Thank You for inviting me to this wonderful gathering for the sublime purpose of increasing the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books. Srila Prabhupada was so pleased when he heard the results of book distribution in what subsequently became the December marathon or the Prabhupada marathon. I was with him in Juhu when first results came from Rameshwar Prabhu in Los Angeles, and Srila Prabhupada was beside himself with transcendental happiness. My own experience with book distribution goes back to when I first joined the Boston temple. In fac,t I took up selling books to book stores, and when Srila Prabhupada got the report, he was very pleased. And he wrote and it was the first letter from him, in which he expressed his pleasure with a particular service that I had done. In December 1971, he wrote me “Go on increasing books, and go on increasing my pleasure.” So the December marathon is a special opportunity for us to focus on Srila Prabhupada’s desire that we distribute books, and thus increase his pleasure, as he wrote me in the same letter. “I am most pleased especially to hear that you are distributing many books.” And Srila Prabhupada would tell us about his spiritual master’s instruction to him, to distribute books. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta said, “When we were living in a rented house, if we could collect two hundred or three hundred rupees, we were living very nicely at Ultadanga, we were happier then. But since we have been given this marble palace in Baan Bazaar, there is friction between our men. Who will occupy this room? Who will occupy that room? Who will be the proprietor of this room? Everyone is planning in different ways. It would be better to take the marble from the walls and secure money. If I could do this, and print books, that would be better.” And Srila Prabhupada commented that he was lamenting that these men were simply after the stones and bricks of the building. He condemned, he was very, very sorry. And then as Vaisesika Prabhu mentioned at Radha-kunda, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta directly instructed Srila Prabhupada, “Āmār icchā chila kichu bai karānā.” I had a desire to print some books. If you ever get money, print books. And Srila Prabhupada took this instruction to heart. 

In Juhu, when we had difficulty getting permission to build, Srila Prabhupada said that we should just carry on with the preaching, and not worry about the land. “If necessary,” he said, “we can simply make Hare Krishna land into a bus stop. We can have many busses for distributing our literatures and those buses can go travelling and distributing books, and they can come back to Hare Krishna land—the bus stop, and the devotees can spend a few days, and become rejuvenated and get more books, and then go out again.” And when we were really, you could say, entangled with all the difficulties for getting the land, and Srila Prabhupada invited, I don’t know if invited is the right word, but he called Bhagavān dasa, who is the GBC for France, to Bombay. And Brahmananda Prabhu as Prabhupada’s secretary wrote him, “I understand that you are becoming in about a week’s time. Srila Prabhupada confirmed my suggestion that you go straight to Bombay.” In this connection, Srila Prabhupada said, “So far as I have study, there is a clique of some enemies to acquire the land, and spoil the whole scheme. So we have to save ourselves. Even with there is no sanction to build further buildings, we should maintain what we have got. We should not let anyone infringe on our rights. The book distribution program should be thoroughly organized.” And so every morning just before 6:00, I would walk up the stairs to Srila Prabhupada’s room, to accompany him on his morning walk. But when another devotee and I went on a day after Rama-ekādaśī, we were surprised to find that the doors both to his quarters on one side, and to the staff quarters on the other side were locked. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I gently knocked on both doors. After a minute or two, Prabhupada’s secretary Harikesh, opened the assistant’s door just a little and said that, Prabhupada had stayed up all night and completed his translation of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. And that at the end he had written the most beautiful glorification of his Guru Maharaja, that he was in an ecstatic mood, and he had said that we should celebrate by having a feast. And there is a lot in Srila Prabhupada’s concluding words, but he definitely speaks about his service in general of translating, and publishing books. And in his concluding words he wrote, “His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was very fond of seeing many books published to spread the Krishna consciousness movement. Therefore our society, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has been formed to execute the order of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. On this occasion therefore, I request my disciples who are determined to help me in this work, to continue their cooperation fully, so that philosophers, scholars, religionists, and people in general all over the world will benefit by reading our transcendental literatures such as Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta.”

I always think of Srila Prabhupada’s letter to me. “Go on increasing books and go on increasing my pleasure. I am most pleased especially to hear that you are distributing many books.” And I will quote a little from a conversation with Srila Prabhupada that is recorded in my book, I‘ll Build You a Temple—The Juhu Story. So for some time Prabhuvishna Prabhu was the vice president in Juhu, but he really wanted to do book distribution. And Prabhupada asked him, “What do you like better, temple management or book distribution?” and he said, “Book distribution.” Prabhupada said, “All right. Manage the temple for some time, and then you can go on book distribution. I will show you how to put the books in colleges and libraries throughout the country.” And after some time, the library party did begin, and Prabhuvishna Prabhu got the chance to go. And then Gopal Krishna Maharaja recalled, “Rameshwar was a very strong motivator of book distribution. He was one of our best saṅkīrtana generals. He started writing saṅkīrtana letters to devotees all over the movement. Prabhupada wanted the Bombay temple built, but it could be built only if we increase book distribution, because unless we increase book distribution we couldn’t send the required money to Bombay.” So the whole world went on a marathon to increase book distribution, and to generate funds so that Rameshwar could send money to Prabhupada in Bombay for the construction.

Then later on when Srila Prabhupada was in Vrindavan, he wanted a Will to be created. And when we had finished discussing the Will, Rameshwar informed Prabhupada about the developments in the distribution of his books. “I just received a telegram from America about the book selling,” he said. “It is from our main warehouse in Los Angeles. They report that there has been increase this month over last month. For Back to Godhead the increase has been 70 percent.” And Prabhupada responded “Mmmhh,” Then Rameshwar continued, “For small books like Perfection of Yoga it has increased 45 percent. For medium books like Krishna Trilogy and Īśopaniṣad, it has increased 45 percent, and for the hard bound books like Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it has doubled; a 200 percent increase.” And Srila Prabhupada responded, “This is very good.” And I added, “That means triple, because a 100 percent increase is double, so 200 percent means triple.” And Prabhupada said, “Very good.” And Rameshwar said, “Everyone is now wearing these ‘Double It’ buttons. The whole movement is simply thinking of doubling book distribution.” And then Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes. This is our real mission—yare dekho tare kaho krishna upadesha, whomever you meet, give him the message of Krishna. That is all. This is the opportunity of speaking the words given by Krishna. Krishna daye tvayena Vyasa, or Krishna are the same. That is all right. No more talking.” 

Maybe I will just add one more little incident. This is from 1976, when we went with Srila Prabhupada to a place called Wardha, which is near Nagpur in the center of India. And he said that when he sees his disciples are enthusiastic to distribute his books, his own enthusiasm increases. I was struck by Srila Prabhupada’s statements, because he seemed to have boundless enthusiasm. But he actually said that, “When I see my disciples enthusiastic to distribute my books, it makes me more enthusiastic.” So there is no doubt that this is an activity that pleases Srila Prabhupada and enlivens him, and I am sure that in his spiritual presence he is pleased, beaming and smiling as if he were here, in his physical form by our efforts to distribute his books. And everyone who plays a part in the efforts also counts as part of the team. Srila Prabhupada gave the example that in the Indian railways they have the slogan; ‘Keep the Wheels Turning.’ So he visited the administrative offices at the railways, and there was the same slogan; ‘Keep the Wheels Turning’ so he was thinking what is the connection? Somebody here in the office behind the desk keeping accounts, what does he have to do with ‘keeping the wheels turning.’ But the whole effort is meant to culminate in one point—keeping the wheels turning; keeping the trains going, moving people from one place to another.” So he said that in the same way, all of our efforts are meant to keep the books going out. So whatever service we have is ultimately meant to contribute to the ultimate goal of distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books. 

So I am so pleased to have been invited by Vaisesika Prabhu for this most auspicious gathering for this most wonderful purpose of discussing how to increase the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books, in the sacred month of December, and I will remain here to listen to what others have to say. And I am also available if called upon to speak more, but I am very, very grateful for this opportunity and also to all of you who are working so sincerely, and intelligently to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books. Hare Krishna.

[READING]

So I became more inclined to go for some preaching activity. I asked Prabhupada if I could get more into book distribution. He said, ‘What do you like better—temple management or book distribution?’ And I said, ‘Book distribution, Srila Prabhupada.’ And he said, ‘All right. Manage the temple for some time, and then you can go on book distribution. I’ll show you how to put the books in colleges and libraries throughout the country.’ I had never imagined that kind of book distribution. The library party hadn’t started in India, but it was like Prabhupada could see what was going to happen, and he said, ‘You stay and manage for now, and you’ll get the chance.’ And after some time the library party did begin and I got the chance to go, and we actually traveled all over India and put his books in the universities and libraries.”

“If necessary,” Prabhupada said, “we can simply make Hare Krishna Land into a bus stop. We can have many buses for distributing our literature, and those buses can go traveling and distributing books, and they can come back to Hare Krishna Land, the bus stop, and the devotees can spend a few days and become rejuvenated and get more books and then go out again.”

Prabhupada decided to try Bhagavān, who was the GBC for France. “I understand that you will be coming in about a week’s time,” Brahmananda wrote him. “Srila Prabhupada confirmed my suggestion that you go straight to Bombay. In this connection Srila Prabhupada said the following: ‘So far as I have studied, there is a clique of some enemies to acquire the land and spoil the whole scheme. So we have to save ourselves. Even if there is no sanction to build further buildings, we should maintain what we have got. We should not let anyone infringe on our rights. The book distribution program must be thoroughly organized.’”

COMMENT

Well, the whole experience has been very inspiring. The devotees who are going out and distributing books, and the devotees who are collecting donations to support the book distribution, and I am really touched and moved by the devotees’ dedication and service. And I am reminded of a small incident that took place when we were in Gorakhpur with Srila Prabhupada, on the occasion of his Guru Maharaja’s appearance day. We did have a program at mid-day, but Srila Prabhupada wanted us to invite the local people, many of whom were associated with the Gītā Press, for the program in the evening, because they could attend in the evening. And then after the program, there was a feast, and we were all taking prasāda down stairs, outdoors on a sort of verandah. And then Srila Prabhupada’s servant Nandakumar dasa came down, and he reported that Srila Prabhupada has said two things: one; that the feast was so good he couldn’t control his senses, and two; that “My Guru Maharaja is very pleased with all of you.” And that was the point I wanted to make here, now. I think that our Guru Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada, is very pleased with all of you, and his Guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura is very pleased with all of you. And when they are pleased automatically we are also pleased.