When we distribute books, the idea is to distribute knowledge, to teach people about spiritual life, to help them become devotees. We try to create an opening, a situation where one can receive transcendental knowledge, so this knowledge can create some change in his life. Still, not so many people become devotees just because they read one of our books. Usually, after reading a book one becomes a little interested or somewhat convinced and then looks for more. After that, he meets another devotee who explains the philosophy to him, attends a program, takes prasadam and so on, until he comes to the point where he wants to join.
A lot of times, before coming to this point of taking a book and reading it, a person has many preliminary encounters: he hears the maha-mantra here and there, sees devotees chanting in the street, takes prasadam at the Govinda’s restaurant, etc. Such experiences purify him to some extent and elevate him to the point where he takes a book and wants to read it.
The knowledge contained in the book, combined with all the previous sukrit he accumulated in the previous stages allows him to get a taste for Krsna Consciousness, which leads him to seek further contact with devotees. He may then visit a temple or home program and hear a little more about Krsna Consciousness, up to the point he decides to start practicing. By studying more deeply, he matures, straightening his resolve, up to the point of becoming a pure devotee and going back to Godhead.
We can see that Srila Prabhupada’s books are involved in the most important steps of this natural evolution. Without his books, it’s difficult to inspire new people to adopt spiritual life seriously, and without his books, it’s very difficult for one to advance to the higher stages of spiritual life. Without Srila Prabhupada’s books, we may make members, but it will be very difficult to make serious devotees who will want to dedicate their lives to Krsna.
Yet, there are more things to be done so everything can work. Many different talents are necessary, and thus there is space for everybody because there is much to do. We have to put-up a combined effort to be successful in spreading Krsna Consciousness. It’s like in war: it’s not only the air force, not only the navy, not only the army; it’s the three forces combined that win the battles. Similarly, when we combine harinamas, book distribution, prasadam distribution, festivals, etc. the result is amplified and it becomes easy to make devotees. In a broader sense, it doesn’t matter so much which of these activities we are doing: we just need to be a part of the combined effort and share the merits. Someone goes out to distribute books, another one stays to cook, others clean the temple, someone else cultivates the contacts brought by the book distributors, someone visits interested people, others organize harinamas, prasadam distribution, restaurants, nama-hattas, bhakti-vriksas, programs in schools, prisons, etc. When we do all of this in a combined way, then we can start making new devotees on an industrial scale, creating a kind of back-to-godhead-machine.
More than just making new devotees, this joint effort creates a very nice spiritual atmosphere within the community, that makes everyone feel happy and spiritually nourished. It creates a Vaikuntha atmosphere, where even the ones that are not so spiritually strong can go with the flow and also start performing amazing deeds, just by association.
New devotees who come to such an environment will also become attracted very easily, because they will see the practical application of the philosophy that they are reading about in the books. If we offer a dull and tamasic atmosphere in the temple, full of rancor and politics, people who read the books will think that we have a pipe-dream philosophy that looks good on paper but doesn’t work in reality. And they will just go away, to look somewhere else.
To cooperate with other devotees may not be easy, but that’s the way for us to advance in spiritual life. Srila Prabhupada once said that for one who desires a comfortable life in Krsna consciousness, advancement is very slow. In his purport to SB 2.9.24 he explains this point in detail:
“In executing penance, one must be determined to return home, back to Godhead, and must decide to undergo all types of tribulations for that end. Even for material prosperity and name and fame one has to undergo severe types of penances, otherwise no one can become an important figure in this material world. Why, then, should there not be severe types of penances for the perfection of devotional service? An easygoing life and attainment of perfection in transcendental realization cannot go together. The Lord is more clever than any living entity; therefore He wants to see how painstaking the devotee is in devotional service. The order is received from the Lord, either directly or through the bona fide spiritual master, and to execute that order, however painstaking, is the severe type of penance. One who follows the principle rigidly is sure to achieve success in attaining the Lord’s mercy.”
The spiritual master is sacrificing his life to spread Krsna consciousness, therefore when a disciple makes a similar effort to assist him in his mission, he becomes very pleased and showers his mercy upon him. In other eras, yogis would endure severe penances to purify themselves and attain self-realization. Nowadays, the penance is simply to spread Krsna consciousness and to cooperate with other devotees, making some coordinated effort. Not only the process is much easier, but the benefit is much greater. If we can just sacrifice this short life to please Lord Caitanya and spread His message, we can obtain the most valuable gift.