The sankirtana movement of Mahaprabhu is compared to a tree, it is meant to cover the whole world. Our acaryas represent the main branches and we ourselves are connected in the form of twigs and leaves.
Srila Prabhupada is the Lord’s Senapati Bhakta. His descent was predicted by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself.
The Lord ordered us to preach, wherever we go and to whomever we meet. This missionary spirit is one of the essential characteristics of Mahaprabhu’s movement.
Books are an effective way to affect modern people, since they offer a great deal of transcendental knowledge in a compact package. Even if one is not a very learned teacher, by convincing someone to take a book and read it, he is doing valuable service.
There are three types of gurus: diksa, siksa and vartma pradarsaka. When distributing books we take the role of the connecting guru, introducing people to Krsna consciousness. Our part is to repeat whatever little we know, and convince people to take a book and read it, allowing our previous acaryas to teach.
Most people don’t adopt Krsna Consciousness just by reading a book. However, the knowledge always has some effect on their lives. Most positive changes that we now see in the world can be attributed to the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books.
In the early days of ISKCON, there was practically no book distribution, “to go on sankirtana” meant to chant in the streets. Later, books started to be printed in increasing quantities and book distribution gradually became the main activity.
Srila Prabhupada received the order to print and distribute books from his spiritual master and was eager to impart it to his disciples. He used to emphasize that there is no difference between doing harinama and book distribution, since his books are “spoken kirtanas”.
In the beginning, devotees had difficulty in distributing big, hardcover books, but gradually new ways were discovered and distribution increased from a few books here and there to thousands of books per day. Purity and sincerity are essential factors for a book distributor, since from there comes empowerment to touch people’s hearts.
Book distribution is not only essential for the growth of our movement, but for our own spiritual lives. If we don’t regularly go out and interact with people, we tend to lose our missionary spirit and become selfish, concerned only with our own lives.
Book distribution doesn’t mean only in the street. Book distributors should be creative and attentive to find new niches and styles of book distribution. E.g.: corporate book distribution, through telephone and social networks, house to house, factories, offices, universities, busses, distribution in festivals, traffic lights, trains and metro, sets to congregational members, etc.
We need to find new ways, create systems and teach other devotees. New book distributors should be engaged according to their natural talents. Someone may have the talent to distribute a million books doing corporate distribution, but not so much talent for distributing in the street, for example.
We need to be adaptable and work in cooperation with other devotees. E.g.: some devotees go out to distribute and others cultivate contacts collected by the first group. Some may donate to subsidize books for the book distributors, others may distribute to friends and relatives, etc.
To sit with people, read to them, hear and answer their questions is an effective way to introduce people to Krsna Consciousness.
Despite the popularization of e-books and new types of media, printed books are still a powerful tool. Personal contact with devotees is often decisive to attract a person to Krsna consciousness. Our whole philosophy is based on personal interaction, it is not surprising that making new devotees is also very dependent on this.
Devotees who have special talents can do great service by preaching in new mediums, but most will do better just by talking to people and distributing books.
Social networks and other electronic means are usually good to give a little to many. Books, when effectively read, can provoke a much bigger change in a person’s life.
Books create a situation where a person has physical interaction with the Lord, and for a few hours can be fully concentrated in learning the philosophy. Each book is an installed deity of Gaura Nitai, that is worshipped by reading. Even if a person doesn’t become a devotee in this life, still he gets an eternal benefit.
The modern consumer society is a temporary trend. Books, on the other hand, are always going to be there.
The sankirtana movement is all about learning how to love Krsna selflessly and working to make others Krsna conscious. The proper mood is not to try to enjoy ourselves, but try to increase Krsna’s enjoyment by engaging more jivas in His service. “Do not try to see Krsna; act in a way that Krsna will want to see you“.
In the beginning, one may have to be a little fanatical to be able to get rid of his bad habits and bad association, but the long term goal is to reach a neutral platform, without attachment but also without aversion. In this platform, a teacher can interact with people and thus preach to them, without getting contaminated by their bad habits.
A great danger for a spiritual teacher is to get stuck in a “holier-than-thou” mentality, thinking himself better than others. One who develops this mentality will always mistreat people and commit mistakes. Ultimately, his efforts will not be very effective and he may end up doing more harm than good.
Another problem with the “holier-than-thou” mentality is that we see people as separate from the Lord, and thus we go to the material world to reach people, instead of bringing the spiritual world with us. The result is that we feel tired and drained. Book distribution becomes then an austerity that we try to avoid.
As devotees, we don’t have enemies. When teaching we don’t fight the people, but only the ignorance that covers them. We “hate the sin, not the sinner”.
To be honest and kind to people is essential for a book distributor. We should be ideal representatives of the ideals of spiritual life, so people may be touched by our example. “If you see a spark, fan it!“.
It’s normal to commit mistakes, but we should learn from them.
Lord Caitanya inaugurated the sankirtana movement to provide an easy way for us to achieve perfection. What is normally very difficult, becomes easy by His mercy. That’s a golden opportunity for us. We can easily worship Mahaprabhu by chanting and distributing Krsna consciousness to others.
Srila Prabhupada organized ISKCON as a movement to teach Krsna Consciousness. It’s something we are supposed to practice and spread. What prevents us from accepting this mission as our life and soul is our enchantment with the material energy, our attachment to that which is temporary.
If we can’t accept the mission fully, we can try to connect whatever we are doing with the mission, and thus practice karma yoga. If we can’t directly stay on the front lines, we can be part of the team by supporting others who are. We thus share the merit and reap the same result.
A mentality of spreading Krsna Consciousness gives life to any yatra. When we are efforts to reach new persons, we can easily leave behind our egoistic mentality and work together to spread the mission.
Enthusiasm is maintained when everyone is seriously chanting 16 rounds, studying, and cooperatively working to spread Krsna Consciousness.
When things become difficult, just remember: Krsna helps. When we feel completely helpless, miracles happen.
