In the past, sometimes book distributors would somehow develop an elitist mentality, giving others the message that book distribution was the best service, that everybody else was in maya, etc. This was not just offensive, but also counterproductive, since it created conflicts and alienated devotees who are not book distributors, but could also assist in different capacities if properly cultivated. Fortunately, this is not so common nowadays, but the same idea may reappear on occasion due to the influence of the material modes.
There are different priorities in different situations. For example, in the early 1970s, when book distribution was starting there were very few devotees and Srila Prabhupada wanted to spread the movement quickly. At that time there were only a few hundred devotees, and in this situation Srila Prabhupada’s strategy was to make book distribution the topmost priority, to just distribute the biggest possible amount of books, as quickly as possible, even in places where devotees would not go back again. There was a big sense of urgency, to bring the message to the people. This effort gave fruits: so many people started coming because of the books, and Krsna Consciousness started to spread around the world.
“There is no doubt about it, to distribute books is our most important activity. The temple is a place not for eating and sleeping, but as a base from which we send out our soldiers to fight with maya. Fight with maya means to drop thousand and millions of books into the lap of the conditioned souls. Just like during war time the Bombs are raining from the sky like anything”. (Srila Prabhupada, letter to Ramesvara, 03 August 1973)
Of course, nowadays we still have space for this pioneer flavor. There are still so many cities that don’t have temples, don’t have devotees, where nobody ever heard about Krsna consciousness, so there is still a lot of space and need for this very intensive program of book distribution. A small party or even one devotee alone can go to such places for a few days, distribute as many books as possible and then go to the next city. Even one devotee doing this alone can create a lot of change in these places. However, when we come to a point when there are already devotees in a city, the goals change a little bit. Then it’s not just about doing bombing-raids anymore, it’s time to start an invasion.
Book distribution by itself is just like a bombing-raid: we throw a lot of bombs, creating a lot of destruction in the enemy’s territory, but we don’t really take the place, we just bombard, preparing the field. Eventually, we need to actually invade: to fight street by street and finally take the city. When we get to this point, then we can’t just continue only distributing books: we should combine further distribution of books with the cultivation of the persons who are receiving the books. Even in the front lines, we should create some balance between book distribution and cultivation, doing these two things side by side.
From this point, our concern is not just to give books, but to also take contacts, know more about people, make friends, invite them to some program, etc. We want people to really read the books, and return with questions. The goal becomes to complete the cycle, cultivating interested people so they can come closer to Krsna Consciousness.
Outside the front lines, the change is even more dramatic. Since there will be now a number of devotees, there is the necessity of inspiring and organizing them, creating a cooperative effort to increase the broadcasting exponentially. The goal changes from simply distributing a large number of books to also making devotees.