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<\/p>\n By Madhava Smullen<\/i><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Traveling around the world, expert book distributor and Sankirtana strategist Vaisesika Das has guided many ISKCON temples to multiplying their book distribution several times over. The biggest Hare Krishna community in the Western World, New Raman Reti in Alachua, Florida is the latest to be set on the path of success in ISKCON\u2019s \u201cfamily business.\u201d<\/p>\n Before giving his seminar Vaisesika met with New Raman Reti\u2019s temple board, saying that Alachua had great potential and could become a \u201cbook distribution empire.\u201d First, however, he emphasized the importance of setting goals, and had temple president Mukhya Dasi and the other members of the board sign a commitment to double their book distribution next year.<\/p>\n Following this, Vaisesika\u2019s first ever Sankirtana Seminar in Alachua, held from December 1st<\/sup> to 3rd<\/sup>, drew nearly 150 devotees from eight years old to seventy-five, including congregation members and new devotees from Gainesville\u2019s Krishna House.<\/p>\n Vaisesika began the seminar on Friday with a presentation entitled \u201cGoodwill Ambassadors.\u201d \u201cEach one of you,\u201d he told the audience, \u201cIs a Goodwill Ambassador representing the Embassy of the Spiritual World to the community at large.\u201d<\/p>\n Explaining why we distribute books, he said that books are like containers of idea seeds, which float out and take root when the books are opened, embedding themselves in the public consciousness.<\/p>\n Vaisesika also presented his Four Ironclad Laws of Book Distribution. The first is \u201cGood Sadhana\u201d \u2013 devotees must first have the conviction that the knowledge in Prabhupada\u2019s books is essential, before they can distribute it to others. \u201cThen, when we go out, we are distributing the overflow of our own devotional practice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The second law is simply \u201cGet Books\u201d \u2013 you can\u2019t sell books you don\u2019t have. The third is the \u201cThe More You Show, the More You Sell.\u201dAnd the fourth is \u201cGet Organized.\u201d Vaisesika urged devotees to become very organized and treat book distribution like, as Srila Prabhupada called it, \u201cour family business.\u201d Treating it like a hobby, he suggested, won\u2019t get us very far.<\/p>\n The second day of the Sankirtana Seminar focused on practical techniques. Vaisesika emphasized that devotees should distribute Prabhupada\u2019s books on their own merit. <\/p>\n The Bhagavad-gita, for instance, contains all the sales material we need. Devotees, Vaisesika said, could show people the testimonials from the great thinkers of our time \u2013 Emerson, Thoreau, Gandhi \u2013 on the back cover, the praise from distinguished academics on the inside, and the pictures of changing bodies and the sage with equal vision to explain the book\u2019s message.<\/p>\n He also advised asking questions to engage people. \u201cBecome a master asker,\u201d he said. \u201cAsk questions, and you lead the conversation.\u201d <\/p>\n Devotees should not \u201csell\u201d the book, Vaisesika advised, but instead ask for a donation, saying, \u201cWe don\u2019t need the money, but it\u2019s an ancient tradition that when you receive some spiritual knowledge, you give something in exchange for it \u2013 then you become connected to the whole chain of teachers who are bringing this knowledge to us.\u201d People often relate to this presentation.<\/p>\n Finally, if a person is clearly deeply attracted to the book, but doesn\u2019t have the money, Vaisesika directed devotees to give it to them. \u201cDon\u2019t switch it out for a smaller, cheaper book either,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they\u2019re interested in the Bhagavad-gita, give them the Bhagavad-gita.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaisesika also led a training session, with devotees taking turns role-playing as the book distributor and passerby to practice the techniques they had learned.<\/p>\n Eighty-five devotees, including the children and elderly members, then went out for Alachua\u2019s first ever Monthly Sankirtan Festival to distribute books out in the real world for two hours. The MSF, a group community event which operates on the principle of \u201ceverybody each doing a little bit,\u201d has had massive success in Vaisesika\u2019s homebase of ISKCON Silicon Valley, California and other centres around the world. <\/p>\n Vaisesika pointed out that although this was Alachua\u2019s first, it was also one of the biggest MSF of all time anywhere. He then cultivated a fun and no-pressure mood, telling everyone, \u201cRemember, we are just going out to touch the pavement. Once we touch the pavement, we are done for the day \u2013 because the most difficult part of book distribution is getting out the door. Everything after that is a bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n Eight teams of around nine devotees then headed out to distribute books door to door in various apartments near Santa Fe College, as well as store to store in the Thornebrook Village strip mall. They were guided by team leaders who were experienced book distributors, while Vaisesika also spent time with each team.<\/p>\n The encouraging atmosphere, expert techniques and lack of pressure yielded inspirational results. One devotee who felt too shy to distribute went along just to accompany his wife, but ended up distributing a hardback Bhagavad-gita for the first time ever.<\/p>\n A new bhakta from the Krishna House, who also had never gone on book distribution before, distributed three Bhagavad-gitas and felt so enlivened that he now wants to go out regularly.<\/p>\n New Raman Reti\u2019s head pujari, who had never been able to distribute big books, was thrilled that she distributed four hardbound Gitas and can\u2019t wait to do more.<\/p>\n After the Sankirtan Festival, while honoring first-class prasadam together \u2013 an essential part of every MSF \u2013 devotees shared realizations. \u201cI\u2019ve been very focused on my own devotional life,\u201d said one new devotee. \u201cBut now I realize the importance of showing compassion to others.\u201d<\/p>\n Another talked about the experience of gaining strength and reassurance from the association of the big group of devotees.<\/p>\n ISKCON Alachua already has a core group of around a dozen devotees committed to book distribution, as well as many financial supporters. But with the inspiration and skill gained from Vaisesika\u2019s seminar, a clear goal to double book distribution, and an extremely supportive president in Mukhya Dasi, the sky\u2019s the limit in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cDevotees are already buying books from me and keeping them in their cars to distribute,\u201d says Sri Vrindavana Dasi, a committed book distributor and head of the newly formed Team ISKCON Alachua. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have set our next Monthly Sankirtan Festival for January 6th<\/sup> and will continue holding them on the first Saturday of every month. Many devotees have already said, \u201cCount me in!\u201d And on top of that, devotees in Jacksonville and Orlando who have been inspired by hearing the Seminar online, are offering their homes as bases so that we can hold MSFs in bigger cities too.\u201d<\/p>\n Team ISKCON Alachua also plan to increase Srimad-Bhagavatam full set distribution and place more \u201cSmart Boxes,\u201d which passively sell books through the honor system.<\/p>\n Vaisesika Das is on hand as a consultant via email and phone, to keep Alachua devotees encouraged and focused on their new journey. \u201cHe has already invested his time in us, and he wants to see us succeed,\u201d says Sri Vrindavana.<\/p>\n For her part, Sri Vrindavana is excited about the future. \u201cEach one of us is connected to this movement because of Prabhupada\u2019s books,\u201d she says. \u201cEither we got one personally, or our parent or grandparent did \u2013 and that\u2019s why we\u2019re here. Now it\u2019s time to pay it forward. So let\u2019s go out and share Krishna consciousness with others \u2013 and let\u2019s make it fun!\u201d<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n The Sankirtana Seminar was livestreamed on Vaisesika\u2019s Facebook page, and is still available for viewing at<\/i> fb.co\/vaisesika.dasa <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The encouraging atmosphere, expert techniques and lack of pressure yielded inspirational results. One devotee who felt too shy to distribute went along just to accompany his wife, but ended up distributing a hardback Bhagavad-gita for the first time ever. A new bhakta from the Krishna House, who also had never gone on book distribution before, distributed three Bhagavad-gitas and felt so enlivened that he now wants to go out regularly. New Raman Reti\u2019s head pujari, who had never been able to distribute big books, was thrilled that she distributed four hardbound Gitas and can\u2019t wait to do more. After the Sankirtan Festival, while honoring first-class prasadam together \u2013 an essential part of every MSF \u2013 devotees shared realizations. \u201cI\u2019ve been very focused on my own devotional life,\u201d said one new devotee. \u201cBut now I realize the importance of showing compassion to others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54452,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54450\/revisions\/54452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hare](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-uuNuJ3U7GdM\/WjzymNT2hoI\/AAAAAAAAhDo\/CrixY3_1_ycz7ZEIJ-qOY6EelkWh_HfVQCHMYCw\/s0\/2017-12-22_12-55-04.jpg\")
By Madhava Smullen<\/strong><\/p>\n