Friends of the BBT Newsletter – April 08

In This Issue…

• Spotlight
• News in Brief
• People Profile
• Distribution Story

Spotlight

Prabhupada’s Books—
The Ultimate Prison Escape Plan

 by Madhava Smullen

ISKCON’s Prison Ministry traces its roots all the way back to 1962, when Srila Prabhupada visited Tihar Prison in New Delhi. “If you give me the chance to speak to all the members of the Jail,” he wrote to superintendent Sri Puri, “It is quite possible for me to turn them into ideal characters.”

Yet it wasn’t until 1988 that
Candrasekhara Dasa established the official ISKCON Prison Ministry in the USA, as an outlet for householders to preach without having to leave their homes; all they had to do was write letters.

Shyama Priya Dasi, now an IPM volunteer for 17 years, was gripped by the idea of such a personal service the moment she was first introduced to it in 1990. “Chandrasekhara showed me a photo album of all the inmates he was writing to,” she says. “It was like they were family.”

But it was a family of outcasts—rejected by society and abandoned by their friends and relatives. “When inmates read Prabhupada’s books, they realize that although the material world is not what it’s cranked up to be, they’re not alone,” Shyama Priya says. “Krishna still loves them. And that makes them want to change their lives for the better.”

IPM initially sent only a few books to prisons. But when Shyama Priya noticed how often inmates requested them, she began eyeing the full case under her desk. Maybe I could send out the whole thing, she thought, afraid she was being over-zealous. It was an empty fear. Before she knew it, she had sent out thirty cases.

“Prabhupada’s books are the basis of the Prison Ministry,” says Shyama Priya. “We send out 300 Bhagavad-gitas, 200 Science of Self-Realizations, 8,000 small books, and 4,800 Back to Godhead magazines every year.”

Now approved vendors in some states such as Texas and Oregon, IPM also sends Bhagavad-gita and Nectar
of Instruction correspondence courses
to inmates who want to learn more.

And there’s no shortage of students. Although IPM does very little advertising beyond its monthly newsletter Freedom, run by ex-inmate Bhakta Jerry, Shyama Priya receives letters every week from inmates whose lives have been transformed through Prabhupada’s books.

“One woman found an old Bhagavatam in a Louisiana prison,” she says. “She’d never heard of Krishna consciousness before, but she began chanting Hare Krishna and writing to us, and finally got initiated.

When her guru visited her in prison, he told her, ‘You don’t belong here.’ She replied, ‘I tried to get pardoned by the governer, but it’s impossible.’

The very next day, she received a letter of pardon from the governor, and was released from prison that summer. She had a 90-year sentence and would have spent the rest of her life in prison.”

Even inmates who don’t have lifelong sentences end up ebbing away their existence in a cell. “Prisons don’t reform,” Shyama Priya explains. “They simply house people until they’re released,
commit the same crimes again, and are re-incarcerated. That’s a fact even officials will admit.”

Billing itself as a spiritual reform program, IPM believes its aiming at the root of the problem. “Lord Chaitanya didn’t neglect the most fallen people in society, such as Jagai and Madai—he came to liberate them,” Shyama Priya says. “If inmates get just one Bhagavad-gita, it can change their lives.”

It’s impossible to argue with the evidence. One inmate wrote IPM explaining that he used to be a heavy gambler, drinker and smoker, and that he loved playing poker. Every night he would try to get into the prison poker game, but nobody liked him, and every night he was shunned.

Finally, frustrated, he went to the library to get a book instead. He picked out a Western, opened it, and saw to his surprise that it was the Bhagavad-gita—someone had switched the covers. Furious, he began to read anyway, and before long he was gripped. By the time he’d finished the book, he had quit all his bad habits and had started chanting.

But it’s not only inmates who show appreciation for Prabhupada’s books. In 2003, Marty Mendenhall, director of Utah’s largest secure care facility for juvenile delinquents, sent a letter to the BBT that stunned everyone.

“We currently have 82 young people incarcerated,” he wrote, “And I would like each of them to have a copy of the Bhagavad-gita. I understand this is a significant number of books to call for; however these young people suffer tremendously and are in dire need of the Lord Krishna’s teachings.

If you are unable to send that many copies of the Gita, could you please send any of the writings of His Divine Grace Swami Prabhupada.”

Working solely on volunteer power and donations, IPM hopes to continue its spiritual reform movement. “We’re always looking for more qualified devotees to write letters to inmates,” Shyama Priya says.

“And of course, you can donate books through Maha-Tattva’s Sastra Dana program. If we had enough books, we could put full Srimad-Bhagavatam sets in every prison library in America.”

One day, Shyama Priya and Chandrasekhara hope, there will be a prison ministry in every state and devotees visiting prisons across the country.

But for now, they’re content with shining a light of hope through cell bars and giving inmates the ultimate chance to break free from the prison of material life—Srila Prabhupada’s books.

The Prison Ministry contact info: 419-508-2291 or via email.

News in Brief

Farsi and Arabic BBT Titles Available Online

Farsi spiritual seekers worldwide will be pleased to find that the West Pacific BBT has  recently uploaded PDF versions of the Farsi Bhagavad-gita As It Is and Sri Isopanisad to their website.

These can be found by visiting
BBT.info and clicking on “Western Pacific, South East Asia, Middle East”

The Arabic Bhagavad-gita is also available, in both PDF and audio versions

BBT Report 28% Increase in International Sales

BBT Trustees at this year’s meeting of ISKCON’s Governing Body Comission were pleased to report that the BBT’s international sales for 2007 had increased by 28% over the previous year.

North European BBT Trustee Brahma Muhurta Dasa gave a one-hour report highlighting the year’s significant achievements.

Most notable was India’s contribution—the country was responsible for more than 50% of all BBT sales in 2007, and reported printing more than 1.6 million Bhagavad-gitas last year.

Other highlights included first ever printings of BBT books in Mongolian, Kazakh, and Arabic, a 40% increase in Spanish books sold in South America, and an amazing 1.3 million visitors to the BBT’s website, Krishna.com, in 2007.

Brahma Muhurta’s report was followed by a two-hour discussion on the opportunities and challenges for increasing book distribution in 2008 and beyond.

Bhrgupati Dasa

Bhrigupati Dasa has spent thirty of his thirty-four years in ISKCON selling Srila Pra-bhupada’s works. He’s distributed 200,000 books, collected over $500,000, and has been the top distributor in North America four times.

At the 2005 Gaura Purnima Festival in Mayapur, he was awarded the Global Excellence Award for book distribution.

So what set Bhrigupati Dasa on his long and illustrious spiritual career? It began in 1973, the way most Krishna conscious journeys do—with one of Prabhupada’s books. On his way back home to the Bronx one evening, Bhrigupati was intercepted in the subway station by a devotee brandishing Teachings of Lord Caitanya.

From the moment he opened it, he felt so inspired that he read the book without pause—throughout his train ride, while walking to his house, while sitting propped up in bed—until he finally finished it at 2 a.m. the next morning.

The next day, determined to lay his hands on one of those “Srimad-Bhagavatams” mentioned in the book, Bhrigupati gathered his life savings of thirty-three dollars and returned to the subway station. Sure enough, another devotee approached him, handed him a rose and asked for a donation.

In one swift motion, Bhrigupati took the rose, handed over the thirty-three bucks, and asked, “How many Srimad-Bhagavatams could you give me for this?” When the devotee had finished staring in shock, he handed Bhrigupati three books and invited him to the Sunday Feast.

“I started off in a chanting party, occasionally handing out Back to Godhead magazines and small books to bystanders,” Bhrigupati says. “It wasn’t long before I had realized that I was distributing more than chanting, and moved on to full-time book distribution.”

Through the years of service that followed and the challenges that came with them—such as tackling different cultures and worldviews in Australia and England—Bhrigupati simply stuck with it, feeling Krishna working with him and helping him along the way.

He advises new book distributors to do the same. “I meditate on the Bhagavad-gita, as if I’m Arjuna and Krishna is talking to me,” he says. “It’s a personal reciprocation with Krishna, and it constantly yields miracles, without fail.”

One difficult day, for example, Bhrigupati approached a young woman who said that she wanted a book but didn’t have any money on her, so he’d have to wait until her boyfriend arrived.

“I was skeptical,” he says. “I thought the boyfriend might never turn up, and if he did, he’d probably just refuse the book.” But minutes later, a brand new Rolls Royce pulled up, and out stepped a smartly dressed Indian gentleman. Taking a Bhagavad-gita immediately, he asked Bhrigupati if he’d been to India.

When he replied, “I’ve been to all the holy places,” the man said, “So you’re a member of ISKCON then?” and pressed a crumpled piece of paper into Brighupati’s hand.

“When he’d gone, I didn’t dare open my hand yet. Instead, I kept trying to distribute books, and despite how badly the day had gone before, managed to sell two more Bhagavad-gitas to two other couples for twenty dollars each,” Bhrigupati says. “Then I finally opened my hand. There was a one-hundred-dollar bill in it.”

Bhrigupati sees book distribution as a blessing and doubts he’ll ever stop. Today, he and his wife Chandravali travel across the US in a motorhome distributing books at schools and music festivals—some, such as Banaroo, south of Nashville, Tennessee, are attended by over 100,000 young people every year.

Bhrigupati is a firm supporter of traditional book distribution but also of new innovative methods like Vaisesika Prabhu’s Smart Table program. He hopes they will help more devotees realize how simple and blissful distributing books really is.

“We could have another dozen or two full-time distributors in America, and we wouldn’t be stepping on each other’s toes,” he says. “ The opportunity is unlimited.”

The Sankirtana Mirror

by Karuna Dharini Dasi

When I first tried to distribute books I was horrible at it. I did not know what to say, and I did not even believe the sound of my own words! I was a new devotee. I was only trying because I had some push from the temple authorities. I certainly liked Bhagavad-gita, but I could not preach.  

After so many bad days I finally cracked and just sat down on a seat in the airport and cried my eyes out. There was a service man nearby and he stopped and said, “What’s the matter, Ma’m, can I help?”

I mumbled to him that I was supposed to be selling these books, but no one would buy  them. “Well, I might buy one,” he said.

I still felt like crying, but I squeaked, “But…you don’t know what it is about! There is Krishna, and this is Arjuna, and they are talking on a battlefield and this is a classic literature…”

I was so stuck on saying lines, not really trying to relate them to whomever I was talking to.
It was clear he felt sorry for me. He gave twenty dollars and took the Bhagavad-gita.

I was startled by his kindness toward me. That was one of my very first sales, and I still remember it so well because it embarrassed me so much.

After that I had to seriously consider how impersonal and proud I am and how it prevents me from really caring for people. Krishna had arranged to show me this through a non-devotee.

Sankirtana is the mirror.

Visit our website for more stories like this >>