In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, our preaching in ISKCON was mainly centered around temples and book distribution. New devotees would be encouraged to live in the temples and once inside, they would go through an intensive daily program, including the morning programs, classes and different services during the day. With such full-time spiritual practice and association with senior preachers, it would be quite natural for such devotees to also start going on book distribution after a few months, weeks or even days after joining the temple. To start would not really be a problem, since they would just need to imitate what everyone else was doing.
Nowadays, our preaching is more based on bhakti-vriksa, nama-hatta and different types of bridge-preaching programs. These programs are very nice to attract new people and make devotees, because they offer a very familiar atmosphere, much less intimidating for newcomers than the classical temple atmosphere. On the other hand, the “preaching flow” of the earlier days is frequently absent, and therefore the learning curve for someone wanting to start on book distribution may be steep. If you want to do book distribution, but are having a hard time to start, here are a few points that may help:
1- Instead of going straight out on book distribution, it’s easier to start by going regularly on harinamas, where you can get used to presenting yourself as a devotee. There is no difference between book distribution and public chanting, therefore by going on harinamas you will already be doing sankirtana. Little by little you can then start to distribute books during the harinama until you start to feel comfortable to also distribute in other situations.
2- An easy way to start book distribution is to buy a few books and start to give them away to people who you interact with, starting with your own friends, and then going on to people who you meet in stores and markets while doing things, people who you meet in the subway, etc. From there you can start learning the art of starting a conversation with a stranger and presenting them a book. You can start with some generic questions to initiate a conversation, speak some small things about yourself and start asking some small questions about what the person likes, his opinions, etc. When you see an opening, you can show the book, saying that you are reading it and heartily sharing how nice it is. You can read something interesting from the book, and if he gets interested you can offer it to him as a present. If you do this every time you go out, you will end up distributing quite a number of books. To just give books away is generally a little bit less effective (for the reasons we are going to analyse in the next topic), but it’s a good way to start.
3- Devotees who dedicate themselves to book distribution usually live from the donations that they receive from the books. To live by distributing knowledge and accepting donations is a very brahminical occupation, but it is not for everybody. Most devotees nowadays already have a job and a stable financial situation, therefore when they want to distribute books, the goal is simply to preach, not to raise funds. If that’s your case, book distribution becomes much simpler, since you can just present the books with an honest intent of giving something. You can just explain why these books are important, and how much they can teach and help a person to solve his real problems.
Even if one doesn’t need the money, to ask donations is a good way to select who is really interested in the book and who is not, and thus make our distribution more effective. If we just give books away, most people are going to accept out of politeness, but the ones who are not genuinely interested may just throw the book away somewhere. Another problem is that, if done extensively, such distribution can cause a negative effect on the public, who will see our books as something valueless, and thus become less inclined to read. We can see that many Christian groups distribute their literature for free, and that’s generally the result. By making a person give something for the book (even if a small amount) we dramatically reduce this problem, since a person who doesn’t see value in a book will not be inclined to give any money for it. With the exception of interested people who genuinely don’t have any money, or people who you are already cultivating, it’s generally not recommendable to give books for free. You can even explain this point to people if they ask why you are asking money for the books.
4- Instead of distributing books in the street, you can try to distribute in apartment blocks, visiting on days when most people are at home, like on Sundays. While it’s possible to also distribute a lot of books in apartments, the main potential of this type of book distribution is on cultivation. When a person opens the door, you can present yourself as a member of the Vedic center, smile and make a few questions to start a conversation. At some point, you can start presenting the books, explaining that they have solutions for modern problems, that they teach about spirituality in a scientific and logical way, etc. You can show some passages from the books, show the illustrations and so on. At some point, you can give the idea that if he likes he can take the books he is interested in and give a donation that will go to the local center.
If you have the means, you can give complimentary books to person’s who show genuine interest, even the ones who can’t give a donation. My experience is that every time you give a free book to a genuinely interested person who can’t pay for it, Krsna sends the laksmi later through some other person. In general, it’s easier to find people who want to donate money than sincere souls who are looking for spiritual knowledge.
You should take notes about what apartments you visited, to who you talked, if he is favorable or not, take note of some special interests, which book he took and other information that may be relevant. The idea is to visit the same buildings periodically, visiting again the persons who showed interest, bringing them some prasadam, giving them new books and so on. In other words, your main goal should be to make friendship and to cultivate. The amount of books distributed in this case is secondary.
5– As explained, in one sense we should be careful about giving free books, because if someone is not interested, he will just perceive the free book as something valueless and just throw it somewhere. On the other hand, there are many cases of interested persons who, for some unfortunate coincidence, really don’t have any money on them at the time. In such cases, a free book can turn someone’s life to Krsna consciousness.
One time, I met a young lady in a small city. She greeted me with “Hare Krsna!”, so I asked from where she knew devotees. She told me that not long ago she was in a very degraded condition, using drugs, spending most of her time in the street and and so on. Somehow, a devotee came to her and offered a Science of Self-Realization. She was interested, but she didn’t have any money. The devotee was compassionate and gave her the book, so she started reading. After finishing, she became very interested, but she could not find the devotee again, so she started calling the temples listed in the last page and ended making a 20 hour bus trip to visit a temple in another state. She ended up staying for a few weeks and then came back briefly to her native city to say goodbye to her mother and grab a few things (that’s when I met her) and go back to the temple, this time for longer. She was so grateful for getting the book that changed her life. Soon, she started distributing books herself and became a determined book distributor, sometimes distributing 80 books in a day. Last time I heard, she was already distributing for five years.
Another time, in a small city, I stopped an intelligent boy. He was interested, but didn’t have any money, so I gave him a small booklet that had the history of Mrgari the hunter. Later in the same day, he came back to me telling that the book had a profound impact on him, and that he was ready to “break his bow” (like Narada ordered the hunter in the book) and become a renunciant. I was not very impressed with his instant renunciation, so I gave him a “Journey of Self-Discovery” and told him to read it and came back the next day if he was still interested. Indeed, he came back, with different questions from the book. I took some time to answer and gave him another assignment, and he started to come back every day with additional questions. Later he really went to live in the temple.
A third interesting incident: Once I spoke with a hippie boy who was selling crafts in the street. He was very interested in the Bhagavad-Gita, but had just a few coins. I ended up just giving him the book, since he promised to study it. Later I found that this boy had become a very sincere brahmachari and was going to get initiated.
This is not the end of the story: Two years later, in another episode, I meta grandma in another small city. After I showed her some books she exclaimed that she just came back from a temple. Her daughter had become a devotee one year before and was living in the temple since. Now she got married (“with a nice boy”, in her words), so the mother spent a week in the temple, helping with arrangements for the marriage. She said that she was actually a Christian, but she was happy with her daughter and grateful to Krsna consciousness, for saving her daughter from some bad habits that she was cultivating before. Later, I found out that actually the daughter took books from me a year before, in the same city, and later got married to the same boy who I mentioned before! Last time I saw them they were visiting Mayapur, still happily married and in Krsna consciousness.
6- It’s essential to associate with senior preachers as much as possible, hearing from them and observing the way they distribute books and preach. You can go on book distribution with them and observe how they are doing. By doing that, you can learn new things and get some of their shakti. For someone who is starting, this is even more important. If you can simply start to help a senior book distributor, going with him, carrying his books, staying with him and observing, very quickly you will also want to start distributing, without the need for any separate endeavour. That’s actually the easiest way to become a strong book distributor: by associating with the ones who are already strong and fixed in their service. As Krsna explains in Bg 4.34, the proper process for obtaining knowledge is by approaching seniors, rendering them some service, observing and presenting questions. Because they know the truth, such realized souls can impart knowledge and faith unto us.
7- As I explained previously, the main reason new devotees have huge variations in their book distribution scores, distributing well on some days and not distributing anything on others, is because their minds are unstable. If you seriously want to become a stable book distributor, the first step is to create a sadhana, fixing a time where you can distribute books, and going at the same time every day, six days a week, no matter what. By going every day at the same time, our book distribution will evolve little by little from the capricious stage to the regulated stage. Our minds will start to become more stable and the books will start to go out in a more regular fashion. Even if you can distribute for only half an hour a day, still by going regularly you are going to make progress, and from there you can start to, little by little, go for longer periods of time.
8- A good practice is to combine the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books with the distribution of some small periodical, that can be published by the devotees of the yatra, combining some articles and quotes from Srila Prabhupada with articles from senior devotees and some new writings, with the idea of introducing people to spiritual life and attracting them to the local programs. This periodical can be printed with donations from local devotees and distributed alongside with the books or given by itself to interested people. New devotees who are starting on book distribution can start by just distributing the periodical (which is much easier, since they don’t need to collect donations for it) and from there start with the books. The periodical, in this case, will have the role of “breaking the ice”, offering some introduction to the philosophy, or to our work and practices, offering some point of connection and some preliminary information, so the public can get attracted to the books. The important point is that the periodical should be distributed only to interested or favourable people who we meet. To just give it away randomly, like a pamphlet, gives very little result.
In the beginning of our movement, the Back to Godhead magazine had this introductory role, offering a bridge to the books, and working as a practice arena for devotees to write articles explaining the philosophy in simple and modern ways. Unfortunately, the Back to Godhead is now discontinued in most countries (or became a small publication for devotees) and therefore the chain became weakened.
Concluding, you can add to this list any other ideas that you may have. Any possibility to distribute a few books and reach a few new persons is worth a try. As Srila Prabhupada used to say, we should tax our brains on how to spread this movement. The main thing is to develop and maintain a preaching mood. From there, Krsna will help us from both inside and outside. As He explains in the Bhagavad-Gita:
“To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.
To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.” (Bg 10.10-11)
As Srila Prabhupada points out in his purport, if someone is sincerely trying to work for Krsna and seeking proper association, even if he doesn’t have the necessary knowledge, Krsna is going to guide him from within:
“A person may have a bona fide spiritual master and may be attached to a spiritual organization, but if he is still not intelligent enough to make progress, then Krsna from within gives him instructions so that he may ultimately come to Him without difficulty. The qualification is that a person always engage himself in Krsna consciousness and with love and devotion render all kinds of services. He should perform some sort of work for Krsna, and that work should be with love. If a devotee is not intelligent enough to make progress on the path of self-realization but is sincere and devoted to the activities of devotional service, the Lord gives him a chance to make progress and ultimately attain to Him.” (Bg 10.10 purport)