By Vijaya dasa
Not too far away is the Prabhupada Marathon. Years ago it was a time when devotees all over the would prepare themselves to go out of their way to do what is so pleasing to Srila Prabhupada, distributing books. Still there are hundreds of devotees that are gearing up for the Marathon and will work enthusiastically to distribute as many as they can.
But for most devotees it’s a nostalgic part of their life, the good old days. We all, both young and old devotees, know how valuable Prabhupada’s books are. They are still changing peoples lives and they will continue doing so for thousands of years. On that note I want to beg all the devotees on PAMHO to do some book distribution during this Prabhupada Marathon. There are approximately 4000 devotees on PAMHO. If all 4000 devotees could distribute 30 books during the month of December that would be 120,000 books distributed for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada! That’s a book a day, the month of December is the marathon for most temples. Thirty books is not much, but if a large number of devotees do it it becomes a big number.
December 15th is World Enlightenment day, it’s a Saturday so that could be the day you could go out and do all 30 books. Or if you find it to be too difficult, then give them away to people you know, or donate them to a sankirtan devotee to give to others.
I was inspired to write this after reading a statement by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Adi Lila Ch 9 text 36, “Therefore I order every man within this universe to accept this Krsna consciousness movement and distribute it everywhere.” Then in verse 39 He said,”Distribute this Krsna consciousness movement all over the world. Let people eat these fruits and ultimately become free from old age and death.”
This is the desire of Lord Caitanya and all the great Acaryas, so let’s cooperate to make this a grand Prabhupada Marathon.
Your servant, Vijaya dasa
sa Mahatma sa durlabha ha– a great soul like Vijaya Prabhu is rare to find , thanks for remining us all of our duty to Srila Prabhupada– he has given us so many gifts in the form of devotional service- the holy name, the temples, his books, the holy dhama- it seems at least 30 books is just a small token to show appriciation…Srila Prabhupada often asked that devotees Please distribute his books, one of my favorite quotes is from SB 7.9.44
”
The members of the Krsna consciousness movement are not at all interested in so-called meditation in the Himalayas or the forest, where one will only make a show of meditation, nor are they interested in opening many schools for yoga and meditation in the cities. Rather, every member of the Krsna consciousness movement is interested in going door to door to try to convince people about the teachings of Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ As It Is, the teachings of Lord Caitanya. That is the purpose of the Hare Krsna movement. The members of the Krsna consciousness movement must be fully convinced that without Krsna one cannot be happy. Thus the Krsna conscious person avoids all kinds of pseudo spiritualists, transcendentalists, meditators, monists, philosophers and philanthropists”
Brhad Mrdanga ki jaya-
your huble servant
Payonidhi das
“
Thanks Vijaya Prabhu for your notice. I am one of those who feel the nostalgia of the good old days of self-less dedication of Srila Prabhupada’s books distribution.
One thing that perhaps you can help us is to give us contacts were we could order books. Many temples don’t have accounts with the BBT, so we are left wondering where we could order books from, at decent prices.
Your servant,
Yugala Kishor dasa (Gainesville, FL)
I just spoke to the BBT staff in the USA and they said, “Anyone that wants books can purchase them directly from the BBT at temple cost but it has to be at least a case of books.”
your srevant,
VIjaya dasa
not to mention a financial boon for the distributing temple.