As commented before, one especially important point about sankirtana is confidence. That’s something I would like to emphasize, even at the risk of being repetitive. When stopping people, distributing books and preaching, we need to understand that every person is an eternal servant of Krsna and that this is the most important knowledge. We need to be perfectly confident, determined, and even a little bit bold. Sometimes we may see a businessman or some professor with a big false ego and feel somewhat insecure or intimidated. However, to properly do our job as book distributors, we can’t fall into this trap; we have to be confident.

We should know who is the Supreme and what is the value of these books. If we would charge the real value of these books, not even Lord Brahma would be able to buy them. It’s priceless, it’s spiritual knowledge. “All the wealth in the three worlds cannot equal the value of one such nectarean fruit of devotional service.” (CC Adi 9.28)

HG Hari-Sauri Prabhu: When Prabhupada got Svarupa Damodara dasa — brahmacari at that time, now Bhakti Svarupa Damodara Swami — when he brought him into the fold, the ranks of the devotees, and initiated him, he told him,  “I wanted to defeat the scientists; now I am not a scientist, and I don’t know the scientific arguments,” but he said, “I am convinced I can defeat them, all of them, on the basis of the Vedas.” He had that conviction, and he knew that the Vedas are correct, it’s axiomatic, and that there is nothing in material science that can actually match it. He knew that, but he didn’t have the words, the methodology, that would convince a material scientist that, “Oh this is something worth hearing.” So he said, “Therefore, Krishna sent you along.” He is a scientist. “So you can defeat them.” So he told him, “You go out and challenge them all over the world. Challenge them and defeat them.” (Seminar on Sri Isopanisad — Mayapur, 31.01.06 at MIHET)

One could question how this relates to the qualities of a Vaishnava, since a devotee is supposed to be humble. The answer is that this confidence or boldness on sankirtana doesn’t conflict with Vaishnava humility, since when we are preaching we are not glorifying or defending our own position, but Krsna’s position as the Supreme Lord. A devotee should be very humble and meek in the temple, when dealing with other Vaishnavas (like a bengali mother, as Srila Prabhupada once said), but when he’s preaching outside he should be like a lion: ready to present the philosophy and defeat any contrary argument, ready to shatter the illusion which covers each conditioned soul. 

This is explained in the purport of Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.11.29-32, where the qualities of the Vaishnava are described: 

“(4) Satya-sara. A devotee always remembers that he is the eternal servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is omniscient, the reservoir of all pleasure and the ultimate enjoyer of all activities. By avoiding activities outside devotional service, a devotee remains fixed in the truth, does not uselessly waste time and thus becomes bold, powerful and steady”. 

As Srila Prabhupada wrote to Sukadeva dasa on 16 August 1972:

“I want that you all my advanced disciples become very bold preachers and take up this task of saving the fallen humanity from its worst condition of sinfulness. If you simply convert the leaders of your country to our philosophy, then the whole world will follow and be saved from ruin. Otherwise, they are all doomed to become animals like hogs and dogs. So you preach like that, very strongly, to especially the hippie class of men and the student class of men and convince them to give up their sinful activities and find out their real perfection of life in this Krishna Consciousness movement.”

When people see this confidence and determination, they tend to get impressed, understanding that this is something valuable, genuine. From there you can present the books in a concise and powerful way, going directly to the point. If we impress people in this way, using the strength of our message, to distribute several books to the same person and get a substantial donation will not be a problem. 

Once, I stopped a cultured man. He was polite, and showed interest in the books, but was still a little bit skeptical. He asked why I was doing this difficult service, stopping people and so on. I answered that it made me happy. He asked if I could further elaborate on that. I answered that many people are just selfish, they live only for themselves, pursuing their personal gratification, and usually they are not very happy. Others, get married, have children and dedicate their lives to serve their families. They develop a spirit of self-sacrifice, going through inconveniences for the sake of their families, and despite any inconveniences, they are usually much happier than the first group. Another class of people transcend this level of service to the family, and decide to serve the whole of humanity, becoming philanthropists. Many of them become very pious and enlightened, and some are remembered as saints. Amongst the three groups, they are the happiest.

From all types of philanthropy, I told him, to give knowledge is the best, since if you give bread to a man, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to cultivate the land, you feed him for his whole life. From all types of knowledge, spiritual knowledge is the best, since it solves the real problems of life: birth, death, old age and disease, allowing one to achieve immortality and put an end to all anxiety, that comes from the identification with the body. We are distributing such knowledge in the form of these books. We are doing the best service to all humanity, and therefore we are the happiest of all. This explanation apparently had a deep effect on him. He took a small set of books and gave a generous donation. 

Another time I met a well to do man with his wife and two daughters. The lady looked interested, but the man was very skeptical. He tried to dismiss the books saying that he was not interested in organized religion because religion was responsible for most of the wars and atrocities in the history of humanity. I answered, in a composed way, that actually most of the deaths and wars were carried out by quite secular leaders, like Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tsé-Tung, and even most wars that had a religious connotation were actually instigated by unscrupulous leaders who manipulated the sentiments of the uneducated public towards their selfish goals, like in the second Iraq war, where Bush tried to present the war to the American public as a kind of crusade, painting a war that was purely economical in religious colors. 

I proceeded to point out that actually what causes wars and atrocities is ignorance, and it doesn’t have to do with any religion or particular ideology. He challenged then on why I was distributing books if I was not trying to push a particular ideology. I answered that we are distributing knowledge, that is the antidote to ignorance, and therefore he should support us, since we are combating the very thing he was objecting to. I continued telling him that this is actually the best welfare activity, since knowledge is the only solution to the true problems of the world. Not only is it vital, but it is needed by both the poor and the rich, and sometimes the rich need it even more than the poor. 

He got temporarily stunned by these arguments, so I had time to present the books to his wife, who became interested in practically all of them. The man came back arguing that he didn’t have time to read and so on. I started to make some humor, saying that he actually had his entire life ahead, up to ninety years or more, and eventually just got to the point that he had to be more positive. “Consciousness creates reality”, I said, and therefore if he would practice developing a more positive attitude to life he would improve not only his reality, but the reality of all his family and actually improve the situation of the world at large. At this point, the lady was laughing (apparently they were one of these incompatible couples, where the lady tolerates the husband, but actually deep inside resents his ways), and saying to him that he really should read one of our books. The man didn’t have any other alternative than to just open his wallet and give the amount his wife wanted to donate. 

In one sense, the book distributor needs to be polite, respectful and kind with people, but on the other hand he also needs to have a fierce side, being able to present strong arguments when challenged, not in a malicious way, to just assert his ego, but in a peaceful, concise and philosophical way, correcting people’s misconceptions when needed. As explained, the secret is to conciliate this boldness, enthusiasm and confidence with our typical Vaishnava qualities, being at the same time calm, gentle, magnanimous, kind and detached. Our boldness should come from a sincere desire to present Krsna’s message, by the realization that this is the most important knowledge, and not by ordinary influence of the mode of passion. Naturally, not everybody will appreciate, but this is also not a problem: every soul has his free will. Still, as devotees we should do our best to give them a chance of receiving transcendental knowledge. 

While we must be attentive to not cheat people or change the message, we should be intelligent enough to present it in a way that is going to be attractive, according to the mentality of the public we are preaching to. That’s actually our main job as preachers. To just present things in a silly or fanatical way is not a symptom of being faithful to the previous acaryas, but of naiveness. As Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport to SB 1.4.1: “He must have full confidence in the previous acarya, and at the same time he must realize the subject matter so nicely that he can present the matter for the particular circumstances in a suitable manner. The original purpose of the text must be maintained. No obscure meaning should be screwed out of it, yet it should be presented in an interesting manner for the understanding of the audience. This is called realization.”

The Bhagavad-gita As It Is, for example, is a very important book. One way to distribute it is to make people desirous for the book, making the point that it is a very deep and important book for very intelligent people: 

• This is not a normal book, it is the most important book in all human history. It was written 5.000 years ago and is still up-to-date. Einstein was studying the Bhagavad-Gita, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy… Gandhi had it as one of his main inspirations in life. All the great thinkers and important persons are studying this book. It has practical solutions for intelligent people. That’s why I stopped you. And this is the Bhagavad-Gita as it is, it has all the original sanskrit, translation, word by word translation, commentary, hardcover… We also have an art department, so there are also some paintings here. You should also be interested in art, right?

This way we make the person feel important. “Yes, I’m such an important person and this is an important book, I should have this book!”. If you can give this impression, he will take the Bhagavad-gita easily. Naturally, this same idea can be applied to any of our books, but it works especially well for the Bhagavad-Gita, which is such an impressive and eminent book. 

Everyone in the material world thinks that he is great, therefore when you glorify them a little bit they tend to relax, their mind and false ego get pleased. After this, it’s much easier to connect the soul with Krsna by presenting the books. Some may think that people nowadays are not interested in spiritual knowledge and so on, but actually there was never a time in recent history when people were interested: it’s the devotees purity and determination that makes things happen. In the 1970s it was harder than nowadays and still, devotees were distributing so many books. For those who are devoted, Krsna gives the knowledge from inside the heart. 

Another point is dedication. Dedication means that when we are doing some particular service, we must do it in the best possible way. Not only should we put all our energy there, but also continuously try to improve. In preaching, this means to see what mood or qualities are more effective in our service of explaining the philosophy and attracting conditioned souls to Krsna’s service. 

Everyone has some kind of self-image which is basically a byproduct of false ego. When we preach, though, we should try to abandon it and show the qualities which are going to be more useful in our preaching service. A particular lady may be very shy, for example, but when she goes to distribute books, she needs to temporarily leave this behind and show boldness and confidence in the books that she is carrying. 

“There is no comparison. There is no literature throughout the universe like Srimad-Bhagavatam. There is no comparison. There is no competition. Every word is for the good of the human society. Every word, each and every word”. (Srila Prabhupada, lecture on SB 1.16.8 — 05 January 1974)

HG Bhakta dasa: He asked: what is humility? And Srila Prabhupada said: “Humility is to act boldly for Krsna”. We get the idea that humility is to be very meek and quiet, or submissive, but no, Prabhupada didn’t say it. He said: “Be bold for Krsna”. (Memories of Srila Prabhupada, part 12)

We should always understand that we have the highest knowledge. Our books contain knowledge that can solve all the problems, bring one all the way up to Goloka. Any other bona fide spiritual knowledge that may exist in the world is just a fraction of what we have. The Christians or Muslims may have two per cent, the Buddhists one per cent and so on, but we have 100%. Just like if someone has twenty thousand dollars and another ten thousand dollars. If you have one million dollars, it already includes the twenty thousand and the ten thousand.

Apart from confidence, we need empowerment to be able to cause an impression in the people we are preaching to. Shakti comes from Krsna. To manifest potency, we have to be connected to the source of the potency. Just like a light bulb. No light bulb has light by itself: when they are on the shelf at the supermarket they are all dark. The light comes when you connect it to the light socket and turn on the interrupter. It’s from contact with the electrical current that the light comes. Similarly, our light comes from contact with Krsna, through the medium of disciplic succession. When we are connected with Krsna we have so much shakti, but when disconnected, we have none. That’s why Srila Prabhupada would always insist that book distributors should have a very serious spiritual practice, follow the principles strictly and always study his books. Without spiritual practice, we fade. 

Krsna is the Supreme Controller, therefore He is the one Who chooses when and how much He wants to empower us. So many lifetimes we spent trying to enjoy this world, turning our backs to Him, therefore He may want to wait and test us a little bit, to be sure about our sincerity. We need to prove ourselves by continuing. 

“This, our book distribution, is the most important task in our society. Therefore I am giving so much stress and I am working so hard on this. Because this is my life and soul according to the order of my Guru Maharaja. And by his grace it is to some extent successful. And I took it seriously. I take it seriously still now. That is my life and soul. I never tried in India to construct big temples or even in your country we didn’t. I never tried. But I was selling personally books. That is the history.” (Srila Prabhupada, Room Conversation, 31 December 1976)

Another point is about questions that we are not able to answer. In one sense, as book distributors, we should try to not waste much time answering questions (best is to convince the person to take a book, that has the answers to all questions). However, at the same time, we should be able to give convincing answers to any person who asks or challenges us. We are representing Srila Prabhupada’s movement, so if we can’t answer some question and end up appearing foolish, fanatical fellows, then Srila Prabhupada’s movement looks bad. The idea is to know the philosophy well enough to give correct and convincing answers in a quick and efficient way, so that the person gets his answer (or gets defeated in his challenge), and at the same time we don’t waste our precious time of book distribution. 

If we can’t answer someone’s question on sankirtana, we can get his contact. We can say: “Sorry, I’m new. I don’t know the answer to this question; but I will ask my seniors and call you to give the answer”. Then it becomes a form of cultivation. We call the person, give him the answer, he may then have further questions and so on. This gives us the opportunity to preach and start a friendship. That’s what devotees were doing in the Gaudiya Matha at the times of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura: whenever they could not answer a question when preaching, they’d take note of the question, ask some senior and on the next day go back and give the answer. This would go on until the person got convinced. Their idea was that Krsna conscious philosophy is the most advanced, and our preachers should be able to answer any question and defeat any bogus idea that people may bring to them. Of course, this demands a level of expertise which comes only after years of practice. However, we should do our best to accelerate our learning process as much as possible by studying the philosophy, discussing amongst ourselves and posing intelligent questions to our seniors in order to learn the answers from them.

Another problem that we may have on sankirtana is to be mechanical, just stopping one person after the other, speaking the same thing, as if in a production line of a factory, without feeling. This comes from a subtle contamination of impersonalism. It can be counteracted by a deeper personal realization, the understanding that every soul is part and parcel of Krsna, and that everyone is an individual, a personality with particular tastes, preferences, and so on. Even if we are just repeating the same mantra, every interaction should be unique, since every soul is a different personality. We can practice this by being honestly concerned and compassionate about every person. The way to achieve that is by developing humility and love for Krsna. Only someone who loves Krsna can love everyone. 

Sometimes we may have a hard time on book distribution, staying for half an hour, one hour, two hours or even more without distributing a single book. In situations like this the mind becomes disturbed, we get angry, or feel morose, etc. We should understand that all these emotions are just creations of the mind and they all come from material attachment. Material platform means that we become happy when we get something desirable and get morose or gloomy when we don’t. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gita Krsna explains that we have the right to perform our duty, but not to enjoy the fruits. It means that we have the right to stay and do our duty of presenting transcendental knowledge to conditioned souls and thus advance, but the result is not up to us, but up to Krsna: it may come or not come, according to His desire. Still, my personal experience is that when we stay and insist, we end up eventually being able to distribute all our books. It may take time, but sooner or later the right persons start to appear. Sometimes real miracles happen, you may distribute your last hundred books in the final hour, for example.

One time, for example, there was a program arranged for the evening. I was doing my best to distribute all books before the specified time, but it was not being enough. Despite all my effort, five minutes before the time I had to stop, there were still about 35 books left. In normal circumstances, it’s simply impossible to distribute 35 books in five minutes. However, as Srila Prabhupada used to say, impossible is a word in the fool’s dictionary. When I was about to give up, I stopped a funny chubby lady who started to repeat very loudly, in a very funny way things connected to my mantra “Yes! Who doesn’t have problems with stress nowadays? I have stress! I need some yoga! My husband needs too!”. It was such a peculiar situation that a small crowd started to gather, and I naturally started to hand books to them, trying to include everyone in the conversation. When the funny lady started to scream: “I’m going to take! I’m going to take! How much does it cost? Only a donation?? Is 20 ok for two books??” everyone started to take out money and give for the books. I was left without a single book, with still one minute to spare. It was a miracle!

Usually, when things are not going well, it means that Krsna is trying to teach us something, to give us a test which will qualify us to a higher stage of devotional service. When we start going regularly on book distribution, we start to face many of such tests in succession. A determined devotee is able to pass the tests and thus progress quickly, while another who frequently goes back when things don’t go as he planned, tends to repeatedly fail on the same tests and therefore not advance so quickly.

Finally, our results on book distribution tend to be strongly related to our mental state and to our spiritual potency. Experienced book distributors tend to be very stable in their consciousness, therefore their results tend to be very stable also. Often such devotees establish a quota for themselves and are able to distribute the same amount of books day after day. 

New devotees, on the other hand, tend to be more unstable, sometimes very euphoric, other times morose, mental or even angry, and thus the results also tend to vary wildly. The solution is to keep the focus on our devotional practices and to keep going out to distribute books, creating a routine. The best process to control the mind is to combine good sadhana and regular service, in a very disciplined way.