By Rita Gupta
“Asian-Indians own almost 65% of the total motel rooms available. Our goal is to place Bhagava-Gita As It Is in every one of those rooms,” says Milan Doshi from the Pancajanya Project. “The motel owners we already approached were very receptive. They liked the idea of placing Bhagavad-Gita As It Is in their own motels. They also gave us recommendations for their friends are relatives in the industry!” Approaching motel owners on an individual basis has proven successful.
But from April 23 — 25, the Pancajanya Project will run a booth at the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association Annual Convention. They expect between 3,000 and 4,000 visitors at the convention. The devotees plan to distribute a free Bhagava-Gita As It Is to every single visitor. This is the main platform for announcing this project to the motel owners on a national level, and for encouraging their participation.
The Pancajanya Project was started at ISKCON Silicon Valley (ISV) under the guidance and leadership of His Grace Vaisesika Prabhu. It now has active participation from devotees from Boson and Washington, DC. Many other ISKCON communities have expressed their desire to participate in this program as well.
Each book distributed at the convention will contain a label on the front cover with contact information, a color brochure highlighting comments and testimonials from influential people, and a business reply card for making comments and placing orders. Team members will travel to the convention at their own expense, and they will stay with a local devotee family or at the temple.
But what about the other expenses? “The costs associated with the convention are about $14,500. We are desperately asking for donations to cover the costs.” Milan explains that they paid $2,500 just to be allowed to set up a booth. They spent another $10,000 to purchase books to distribute to the convention visitors. Printing costs for the brochures and business reply cards was another $1,000. Other miscellaneous costs amount to $1,000.
But the greatest challenge will come after the convention. “This convention is our first major platform for announcing the Pancajanya Project. Based on our experience, we expect to receive orders for thousands of books for placement in motel rooms,” says Milan. Unfortunately, motel owners are accustomed to receiving Bibles free of charge, and so they will expect to receive Bhagavad-Gita As It Is free of charge as well. “If they have to pay for the books, very few owners will place orders.”
Why is the Pancajanya Project willing to place Bhagavad-Gita As It Is in motel rooms free of charge? “We are dedicated to this project because of the feedback we have received so far. It has been absolutely incredible to hear reports from motel owners and testimonials from guests. So many people see the book in a drawer and start reading it just out of curiosity and just because it was there. These people might not otherwise have come into contact with Krishna consciousness,” reports Milan. People take Bhagavad-Gita As It Is to the front desk when they check out and ask whether they can take the book with them. One motel owner has had so many people ask to keep Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, that he contacted the Pancajanya Project and recommended that they put a label inside the book that says “Please take this book with you.”
The project needs funding. If you would like to find out more about the Pancajanya Project, or make a tax-deductible donation, please contact Milan Doshi at milan.doshi@gmail.com. Please visit www.motelgita.org for more details.
Dilip and Milan are so empowered. There was a recent meeting of motel owners in Sacramento, California, and Dilip went up on short notice and took another 1,500 or so orders. [I may not have the facts exactly right, but it was something like that].
Most of these motel owners are Gujurati Patels with a deep respect for Bhagavad-Gita and Lord Krishna. Some are Swami Narayans and some are followers of Vallabhacarya. It is not hard to convince them to put Gitas in their rooms, and those who have tried it love the response they are getting from guests.
It is really likely that many future leading devotees of the world are going to contact Krishna for the first time through motel Gitas. There are demigods waiting to take birth on earth to participate in this sankirtan movement, and some of them will probably stay in motel rooms and read the transcendental literature in the drawers there and be enlightened by Srila Prabhupada’s commentary. Don’t doubt it.
Twenty or thirty years ago the Bhagavad-Gita was not something the average American heard much about or ever read. The attitudes have been changing and people are more open-minded now. Srila Prabhupada has already made “Hare Krishna” a household word and people are curious about who Krishna is and what he taught. They need a chance like this to read them in the room.
Just how this Motel Gita initiative will unfold over the coming years is hard to tell, but it seems that we may soon have a situation where we can place as many Gitas as we can pay for. It is only a question of proceeding intelligently and carefully.
And also, there is the question of how to pay for them. At present, it does not seem that the motel owners can be convinced to donate the $125 – $450 to stock a typical 50 – 180 room motel. The first step is to just convince them to allow the Gitas into their motels/hotels. Some have concerns about potential Christian backlash or what their franchisors might think. [Most of these motels have a franchisee-franchisor relationship with a company like Best Western, Quality Inn, etc.]
Maybe later as they see the effect these books are having and as we develop relationships with them, Krishna will inspire them to pay for the books, but in the mean time Krishna has to inspire a lot of other people to pay for the book.
Therefore, please all devotees bless this project with your good wishes and support. You will be hearing more about it in weeks and months to come.
Hare Krishna!
This is indeed a great way to preach. A couple of suggestions:
1. Suggest to Motel owners that fear a christian backlash that perhaps they can place a bible along with the Gita. May be also link them up with a bible distributor to get the free bibles.
2. Instead of or in addition to the “Please take this book with you if you are interested in the subject matter”, I would place a very conspicuous stamp on the first page of the book pointing to www.vedabase.net/bg where they can view it online. These days most people are online, they could also look at the other books at vedabase and it doesn’t cost the project. Also, if they are taking the book with them, may be the message can ask them to donate the book to the library if they do not want to keep it. Or ask them to leave a nominal $5 donation in place of the Gita. Otherwise I am afraid conservative christians could simply carry them out of the motel to trash them.
3. As for motel owners making a donation, I would still mention to them, AFTER the Gita is in the rooms of course, that they have the option of donating the whole or a portion or none of the cost. Basically addressing the cost issue with them after the fact.
Hare Krishna!
Hare Krishna
This is Great. When we tried this in Dallas, atleast with the congregation motel owners there was not much enthusiasm. The primary concern was (is) that business would go down if it is found that we are promoting another religion.
There were 2 suggestion that came out of this discussion
1. To put books like “Science of Self Realization” or “Higher Taste” or “Perfection of Yoga”, books which may not be associated with a particular religion
2. To put Shastra Daan boxes (I think they are called “Smart boxes” now) at the motels.
But hopefully if this works out and a standard is set, then this could definitely encourage and spawn interest in just getting the Gitas out.
Your servant
Rasaraj das
Very happy to hear of this initiative by His Grace Vaisesika Prabhu — the great field commander of book distribution :-)
If costs are a concern, perhaps this anecdote from our experience in Govinda’s may be useful.
When I was managing the Laguna Beach Govinda’s I placed small baskets on each table with 1-page brochures on KC topics such as Karma, Reinacarnation, etc. as well as several small books such as Beyond Birth and Death, Coming Back, Reservoir of Pleasure, etc. On the cover of each book there was a sticker that read “Please feel free to take this book with our compliments. Or if you prefer we would be happy to accept any donation you might care to make.”
Many, many books went out simply because they were convenient and the guests didn’t have to get involved with anybody. This experience teaches us that many people want to find out more, but are perhaps afraid to ask. The book basket made it easy for them. And it was not uncommon that guests offered some donation. When they asked what was an appropriate amount we told them what the book cost, and let them decide what to give. Typically they would always give much more because those small books were so inexpensive.
I think that Vyekkirala’s idea of providing the link to Vedabase.net is very good. People who look at our books will want to know where to get more information. Let’s make it easy for them to find the right information.
May Sri Krishna bestow His blessings upon your efforts to preach His message far and wide!
Your servant,
Dhanesvara Das
In preparation for this week’s AAHOA trade show and convention, some devotees have gotten the www.MotelGita.org website up and running.
The website is a work in progress and I hope we can get more photographs at the convention to add, and we can refine it over time.
Please drop by www.motelgita.org and send in some feedback. We would love to hear from devotees and we hope to start seeing a lot of web traffic as we publicize these activities to over 3,000 motel owners this week.
I think it was Harry Dexter White, the American economist, who, after returning from a visit to the USSR, said “I have seen the future, and it works.”
[He probably didn’t see the manipulated famine in the Ukraine, the persecution of kulaks, or the first big purges that began perhaps later. I don’t know much about what he saw and why he said it, but I would like to borrow his saying in this very different context.]
Bhaktin Rita will probably write another article reporting on the D.C. AAHOA convention, but I can happily say that the future that *really* works includes a great united effort to place and keep Bhagavad-Gita As It Is in most of the hotel/motel rooms in North America.
I do not know the official scores, but Milan and Dilip, Rohini Nandana, Bhaktin Rita, Vaisesika, Lokadhyaksa and I probably signed up confirmed orders for about 15,000 softback Gitas, with leads for another 10,000 or so “likely” future orders.
But probably more important than the orders we actually took was the publicity we got and the contacts we made that will gradually influence more and more owners in this largely Hindu, Gujurati industry to proudly place one of Prabhupada’s books in their rooms along with Gideons Bible.
One realization I would like to share is that we should not think we are “using” these motel owners to conduct the preaching we want to do. This is a great opportunity to build relationships with them (many are already ISKCON life members but our relationships cen be better cultivated.)
Rohini Nandana and I were discussing that by engaging them in Srila Prabhupada’s book distribution in this favorable way, they will themselves increase their own realizations and eventually become more and more affiliated with ISKCON and Gaudiya Vaisnavism.
We were asking them for donations and some were donating part of the costs of the books (we were running a “special” deal that anyone who contributed $2.00 per book would get their books immediately, at below cost and free shipping). But I have no doubt that as they start keeping the books in the rooms and get positive feedback from their guests and become fond of this service, many who did not donate will also begin reading Srila Prabhupada’s commentary, chanting japa, and donating more and more in the future.
This effort will require a lot of good, friendly follow up and service to our motel-owner “partners” who are helping Prabhupada’s mission in this way.
Having a booth there at the trade show really gave us a presence.
Unfortunately we were not able to get the organizers to give permission for Vaisesika to make a presentation on the main stage, but there were serious discussions of allowing it and my impression is we can do so at a future national convention if we request it early enough.
This is something we have to do now, vigorously, because (among other things) if we do not do it some other group may begin putting some other version of Bhagavad-Gita with perhaps a Mayavadi commentary in these rooms.
Some of the owners I talked to said that they had already thought about putting Gitas in the rooms, and have been in touch with other missions headed by different yogis and swamis.
One objection that some owners had was that guests might mistreat the Gitas and take them cheaply. One nice man (a franchise seller) quoted how Krishna warns not to preach Bhagavad-Gita to the nondevoted or the envious. I read to him Srila Prabhupada’s purport (several verses later) about how an innocent person may be cleansed of sins and become eligible to truly hear Bhagavad-Gita by attending an “open class” given to the public.
I told the story several times about how Ramanujacarya gave his mantra to everyone in spite of the warning that he could go to hell. One who has truly been liberated by the message of the Gita will present it liberally to others in a nonoffensive way to give them a chance to appreciate it. One of Krishna’s most important glories is how He reclaims the fallen, conditioned souls, and the great devotees like Srila Prabhupada are always serving Him in that mission.
At any rate, *we* should have no doubt that Srila Prabhupada, who knows the true purpose of the Gita and intimately knows Krishna’s will, desires us to distribute it widely even at the risk that some people might disrespect it, tear it up, put in on the floor, drip hamburger blood on it, etc. This was already going on in the airports, and it never phased Srila Prabhupada’s enthusiasm to distribute it more and more.
Another concern of franchisees has been whether it will be acceptable to their franchisors, but our experience so far has been that virtually all franchisors have not objected or deducted any points upon inspecting properties where the Gitas are already in the rooms.
[One exception has been Mariott (but not Mariott Courtyard) whose Mormon ownership may make it a tougher nut to crack.]
There are regional conventions throughout the year and then a big annual AAHOA national convention (next year’s is Chicago). We should be represented at each convention and at least at the annual conventions.
There are also different Gujurati meetings which we should attend. Nearly all Patels in the U.S. have at some time or another been in the motel business, and have friends and relatives in the industry. They should all become book distributors in this way, and be drawn more and more into serving Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya.
Our presence at these meetings is only a fraction of the whole enterprise. We need to stay in touch with our hotel-owner “preaching partners” and keep them restocked with books, responding to their needs, interests and concerns. This could be full or part-time service for hundreds if not thousands of devotees.
Maybe in some places and at some times there may be some Christian fundamentalist backlash. Some owners were telling me their “Bible Belt” clientele would be mobilized against them. Some told of racists who will not stay in an Indian-owned motel.
Of course, we do not blame the faint-hearted owners who let concerns like this dissuade them from stocking the books. However, the mood in today’s U.S. is one of more openness, tolerance, communication, and against such bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
We should be prepared to respond correctly in the event that there is a boycott or protest by misguided or demonic persons. If such conflict unfortunately arises, the publicity we get will be favorable and will attract more supporters and readers.
One owner objected, if we put Bhagavad-Gitas, someone will put Korans. I said, “They should. Why not? And Buddhist literature should also be available if someone wants to supply it.”
The comfort and privacy of a hotel room is a perfect place to indulge one’s curiosity about varieties of religious expression and expose one’s self to books that one may not ordinary buy or check out from the library. Americans know the Bible but want to explore other traditions.
By contacting Srila Prabhupada’s books while traveling for business or pleasure, millions of hotel guests will have an opportunity to be changed by Lord Caitanya’s mercy. As Srila Prabhupada said, even if they read one verse, or one line, or even if they just touch the book, their whole life may be changed.
Motel Gita distribution kijaya!!
Unlimited credit goes to Dilip Patel and Milan Doshi, the great pioneers of this Motel Gita distribution. Theyhave dedicated a tremendous amount of energy, time and hard-earned money to make this a success, and now it is beginning to truly pay off.
They are shy and humble and do not want me to say anything but I have to say it. They are giving such a wonderful example of how to follow through on an inspiration and make it a reality.
Also, Rohini Nandana Prabhu has been doing Motel Gita distribution on the east coast, especially in the Boston area, before learning of the California-based efforts. Clearly, Paramatma is inspiring devotees to take advantage of this opportunity for preaching at this point in history.
Under the expert leadership of Vaisesika Prabhu — whose broad spiritual intelligence and infectious enthusiasm has made his name synonomous with dynamic, creative book distribution — a national organization is gradually being built to bring about this revolutionary preaching enterprise. It is a beautiful thing to behold.
Vaish often says that the ISV in ISKCON Silicon Valley stands for “individual, spontaneous and voluntary.” It is wonderful to see how he manages devotional enterprises, by encouraging, inspiring and guiding the voluntary efforts of devotees like Dilip and Milan.
This is ecstatic news…my obaisences to Vaisesika Prabhu and those devotees engaged in this way.My suggestion is not only to have a Bhagavad Gita for each motel and hotel, but for each room- just like there is a Bible in most rooms in most hotels
Regarding Vedabase.net I have put it on a Jagannatha Sticker and with great response, those who can not afford a book at least get a change to go home and read Srila Prabhupadas books online in this way every single person we meet can get an opportunity to read Srila Prabhuapdas books.. I also suggested it in a muslim country I visited where devotees are limited in being abel to distribute books directly…Vedabase.net is a powerful weapon against maya -we shoul use it
Yes, Payonidhi Prabhu, the idea is to have the owners provide a Gita in each room so that all guests can read the Bhagavad-Gita at their leisure and benefit.
Already there have been glowing testimonials from guests who first contacted Bhagavad-Gita in the hotel room.
At the convention we gave a “sample” Gita to each owner for free, with some advertising materials inserted and a sticker requesting them to contact us to place copies in each of their rooms. We also included “business reply” postage prepaid order forms, business cards, and brochures explaining the project.
We even passed out free “ganga jal” packaged Ganjes water at our booth.
The whole idea is to make the owners aware of the Project and interest them in participating. Many are interested in participating. We received confirmed orders for thousands of books, and received many requests for follow-up discussions.
In addition, we have increased awareness of the Project among many owners who may gradually become interested, even if they did not take the books or even express interest at this time. As they see others doing it happily and successfully, they will eventually come around.
There needs to be well-organized follow up, and of course fund-raising to pay for the books. We have taken a number of confirmed orders which we will fill when we can afford it, so now it is very urgent that devotees who appreciate this wonderful service opportunity send in donations.
There will also be a need for face-to-face contact with owners in different areas to take new orders and to service the accounts of Motel owners who have decided to stock the books. There is plenty of opportunity for devotees who may want to participate in book distribution in this way.
Many will find it easier than stopping strangers on the street and getting donations from them: You will be calling on and servicing the accounts of motel owners who already like Krishna and want to help glorify him.
To find out how to donate or otherwise participate, please visit www.MotelGita.org. The website is a work in progress but it is currently functioning and contains all contact information and instructions for donating on line.