“That is real preaching work. If you sell a book to someone, that is better than your speaking to them — what will your three minutes’ preaching do? But if they read a book it may turn their life”. (Srila Prabhupada, letter to Brahmananda, 03 November 1972)

While distributing books, our role is not to preach for two hours to each person and try to convince them to shave their heads and surrender to Krsna. Not only is this impractical, but also unproductive, since we would spend the whole day talking to just a few persons.

Instead, we act as vartma pradarshaka gurus, who give each person just a small push, so they can get a book and start their spiritual lives. We keep the whole process simple, so the person can stop, hold the book, hear some glorification about it and easily take it home after giving a donation. People have short memory nowadays, even if we try to preach protractedly and some get a little inspired, chances are that they will forget everything in half an hour or less. If instead we can convince them to take a book, they will have something which they can study and remember, a permanent asset. 

HG Srutha Kirthi Prabhu: “Srila Prabhupada said that our real preaching was distributing books. “What can you say to a person in three minutes?” he asked. “But if he reads one page of a book it may turn him around.” (Srila Prabhupada Uvacha)

For the same reason, we should try to not waste time answering too many questions on sankirtana. It’s much better to answer just one or two questions in a short and conclusive way and then point the person to the right book. Our books have all the answers already, we just need to conduct each person to the book that will solve his problems, like a transcendental consultant. If we just answer all his questions, the person will feel that he already knows everything (and therefore will not want the books), and we will end up just wasting our time. 

When distributing books, we are more or less giving people “free samples” of knowledge through our mantras and talking, so they can get the taste and then take the real thing: the books. Just like when they distribute free samples of a new product in a supermarket, so that people get interested and buy the product. We need to give our sample and then, while the person is interested, conduct him to the book. He may ask for more, but we politely refuse, pointing out that if he wants more he needs to buy the full package. If we keep giving free samples until he’s satisfied, why would he want to buy?

Sometimes, we find people who are not interested in the books but want to talk about themselves, ask about our lives and so on. These are usually just a waste of time, since if a person is not interested in the books, it means he is not interested in the philosophy and in our practices in general, he just has some superficial curiosity. Sometimes we may be tempted to spend a great deal of time talking with such a person about amenities (our mind is always ready to talk about useless things, especially when there is someone listening to us), but we should keep our focus on the books and not fall into the trap. If we can use this initial interest to conduct the person to the books, then it’s good, otherwise, it’s better to just end the conversation politely, inviting the person to some local program or giving him some pamphlet or booklet. 

We should always remember that our goal is to distribute books, not just talk uselessly. Usually, the best targets for longer conversations are those who already have some books and are interested in the philosophy. Yet, even in such cases, it’s generally more effective to just give them a little more to make them interested and then invite them to the next level: visit the temple or join a bhakti vriksa group or another program, so they can become devotees.

Our time on sankirtana is Krsna’s time and should be properly utilized, just like the money in the temple. Time is a finite resource, and it needs to be invested wisely, in the persons and situations where it will be converted into the maximum amount of books distributed and result in the maximum amount of interested people.

One thing which HG Vaisesika Prabhu insists on is that we should get the “ripe fruits”, go to those who are already in a favourable situation and are already inclined to take books. We don’t need to spend half an hour with every fanatical atheist or Christian whom we meet. It’s much easier to go to people who are favorable, who can take books easily. At every moment we should try to recognize those who have a higher probability of taking books. These are the ripe fruits: the most effective persons in terms of time and effort. We should develop this kind of discernment and go first to them. When there are no such persons available, then we may try to stop whoever is around. As time goes on and we become more experienced, we will start understanding people much better and it will become easier.  

Navina Nirada Prabhu: “Pick the ripe fruits. Go for the ripe fruits. How do we know it’s a ripe fruit? By looking, by communicating, by experience, by feedback, Krsna will give it to you. Don’t run after people. If somehow he looks the other way and walks away, let him go. You need to know that there are eight billion people on the planet. Don’t run after someone who doesn’t want to talk to you. Turn around and someone else will be smiling at you. If you go after the first fellow, probably you will lose this other nice one. It’s always like that, if you are detached, sometimes even the person who already walked away starts to look back. You know why? Because Paramatma told him: “Hey, look back, there is something there for you”. But if you chase him, he will start running even faster. We have a saying: “Don’t chase the game, let the game come to you”. 

I don’t run after people. I practice what I call python yoga. Python yoga means that you find a good spot and you just stand there and whatever comes. You just deal with what comes to you. So, pick the ripe fruits, don’t waste your time and energy, because people don’t like someone running after them, tackling them or jumping on them. (Graduate Course on Book Distribution, Mayapur, 2018)

In order to take a book, a person needs to be a little bit pious, to have a bit of sukriti. That’s why programs of prasadam distribution, harinamas, etc. are so important: they purify the public, so in the future more people can take books and become devotees. The good news is that as we become more purified and talented, we will be able to convince persons who would look impossible in the beginning; a lot of times Krsna may just give the correct words from the heart. That’s another thing that shouldn’t be ignored on sankirtana: if you have some feeling or intuition, you should go for it: often that’s Krsna giving you some guidance from inside the heart, steering you to the right persons. 

Once I met a man who looked dirty, almost like a street man, with ungroomed clothes, slippers and a long beard. Usually, I would avoid such a person, but this particular time I had some feeling and stopped him. Amazingly, he turned out to be a very cultured and interested person, who in the end took three books and gave a good donation (I still don’t know why he was dressed in such a way). Another time, there was a teenage boy seated, looking poor and uneducated. I felt a similar push and went to present books to him. He took the books, but was just staring at them with an empty face while I was explaining, as if he was not understanding anything. Not a very communicative person. Then, out of the blue, he pulled out a R$ 50 bill (an uncommonly high donation for a young person) and gave it to me as a donation for the books, without speaking a word. Afterwards, he just kept reading for a long time, until he got up and left. In both cases, Krsna showed me that, despite appearances, they were the right persons to talk to.