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. 

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krsna discusses many different subjects. He starts with sankhya-yoga, the empirical knowledge that “I’m not this body”, the difference between spirit and matter. He also explains about Himself, God, and how we can get closer to Him while executing our prescribed duties. That’s karma-yoga. 

Karma-yoga means to remain in our material occupations and fulfill our duties, but to offer the fruits of our activities to Krsna, dovetailing our activities with Krsna Consciousness. For example, we have to eat. We hear that we should eat only prasadam, and strictly speaking, prasadam is when you cook for the deity, for the pleasure of the Lord, with elevated standards. At the same time, we can’t eat only in the temple, we also need to eat at home. So, what should we do? If one still doesn’t have this mentality of cooking solely for the pleasure of the Lord, then he can cook what he wants to cook, following the proper standards, but before eating, offer to the Lord. In other words, even if one is not yet on a pure platform, at least he can offer the fruits to the Lord, following the guidance of superior authorities. That’s one example of karma-yoga: It may not be pure devotion yet, but it’s a good start. 

Karma-yoga is already done without expectation: one just offers the fruits to the Lord, without expecting any material recompense in return. In contrast with demigod worship, which is normally conducted as a kind of business, in karma-yoga we are already on the level of just wanting to please Krsna. That’s why Srila Prabhupada doesn’t make much distinction between karma-yoga and bhakti-yoga in his purports, translating both as “devotional service”. In one sense there is no difference: they are just different steps in the same stairway.

The word “sankirtana” means, literally, “kirtana together”. Our whole process is based on cooperation and association, much different from the process followed by impersonalists and mystic yogis, which is based on solitary meditation and self-advancement. As devotees, we are the best example of the saying “united we stand, divided we fall”.

“I am the only gardener. How many places can I go? How many fruits can I pick and distribute? (Cc. Adi 9.34)

Purport: Here Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu indicates that the distribution of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra should be performed by combined forces. Although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He laments, “How can I act alone? How can I alone pick the fruit and distribute it all over the world?” This indicates that all classes of devotees should combine to distribute the Hare Krsna maha-mantra without consideration of the time, place or situation.

In the very early days of ISKCON, there was almost no book distribution. There was only Srila Prabhupada, personally selling the few copies of the first canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam that he brought from India. In October 1966, he obtained two second-hand mimeograph machines, which allowed devotees to print the first Back to Godhead magazines in the west, as described in the Lilamrta:

“Downstairs, the printing of the first issue had been going on for hours. Raya Rama had typed the stencils, and during the printing he had stood nervously over the machine, examining the printing quality of each page, stroking his beard, and murmuring, “Hmmmmm.” Now it was time to collate and staple each magazine. The stencils had lasted for one hundred copies, and one hundred copies of each of the twenty-eight pages and the front and back covers were now lined up along two of the unvarnished benches Raphael had made that summer. A few devotees collated and stapled the magazine in an assembly line, walking along the stacks of pages, taking one page under another until they reached the end of the bench and gave the assembled stack of pages to Gargamuni, who stood brushing his long hair out of his eyes, stapling each magazine with the stapler and staples Brahmananda had brought from his Board of Education office. Even Hayagriva, who usually didn’t volunteer for menial duties, was there, walking down the line, collating.” (Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta, vol.2, ch. 21)

Lord Caitanya thought, “My name is Visvambhara, ‘one who maintains the entire universe.’ Its meaning will be actualized if I can fill the whole universe with love of Godhead.” Thinking in this way, He accepted the duty of a planter and began to grow a garden in Navadvipa. Thus the Lord brought the desire tree of devotional service to this earth and became its gardener. He sowed the seed and sprinkled upon it the water of His will. (Cc. Adi 9.7-9)

Lord Caitanya thus addressed the multifarious varieties of branches and subbranches of the tree of devotional service: “Since the tree of devotional service is transcendental, every one of its parts can perform the action of all the others. Although a tree is supposed to be immovable, this tree nevertheless moves. All the parts of this tree are spiritually cognizant, and thus as they grow they spread all over the world”. (Cc. Adi 9.31-33)

In the Sri Caitanya Caritamrta (Adi-lila, chapter 9), it is described how the sankirtana movement descended from the spiritual realm. When manifested in this world, the sankirtana movement grows like a tree that emanates from Lord Caitanya personally. This tree has many branches connected to the main associates of the Lord, and from them grow various sub-branches that correspond to the main acaryas of our sampradaya. One of the biggest of such branches relates to Srila Prabhupada who created ISKCON and connected all of us in the form of numerous twigs and leaves.