Book Distribution Is the Hare Krishnas Most Important Activity
There is no doubt about it, to distribute books is our most important activity.
The temple is a place not for eating and sleeping, but as a base from which we send out our soldiers to fight with Maya.
Fight with Maya means to drop thousand and millions of books into the lap of the conditioned souls. Just like during war time the bombs are raining from the sky like anything…
England 3 August, 1973
My Dear Ramesvara,
Please accept my blessings. I am in receipt of your letter dated July 29, 1973 and I have noted the contents with great pleasure.
There is no doubt about it, to distribute books is our most important activity. The temple is a place not for eating and sleeping, but as a base from which we send out our soldiers to fight with Maya. Fight with Maya means to drop thousand and millions of books into the lap of the conditioned souls. Just like during war time the bombs are raining from the sky like anything. So you are the expert in this field.
I like also your program of sending out your best men to teach the others. That is the actual process of Krishna Consciousness. To train others. Continue this program so that in the future every devotee in our movement will know the art of distributing books. This is approved by me.
I hope this letter meets you well.
Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
About the Author
HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Founded the Hare Krishna Movement in 1966 in New York. In only 11 years he spread the movement all over the world. He wrote more than 80 books including Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Sri Isopanisad. Prabhupada's books constitute a complete library of Vedic philosophy, religion, literature and culture.
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I read bhagvat gita and frequently read Srila Prabhupada’s vani quotes,purports,etc
Recently I came to know about the book changes,,I was so upset to know ISKON is involved in it.. I am kind to rookie student in ISKON Delhi attending their session..Doing any kind of service they require. I saw matched the Gita with the changes ,, I’m so upset…
Though original pdf I could access from website but I want the exact books ..the art designed as per the instruction of Srila Prabhupada…..I also came of know about KBI ..but I can’t find them…Even they changed the hindi version of the books and label it “as it is”…. And I need the genuine hard book Bhagvatam because pdf I find trouble reading on mobile or laptops…….
And I want to see those genuine arts works,,
PLEASE REPLY because not only me there are lot more who are in mess….
Hare Krishna
Prabhupada Original books, original text, original artwork, original everything are available at:
https://krishnastore.com/books-srila-prabhupada-om-21_38.html
Hare Krishna!
Dandavat Pranam
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Recently I met Srila Prabhupada in a dream. It was very nice offering obeisances and talking with him. But he was not very happy with me as I do not distribute his books so he went away soon even though I tried to not let him go. So now I think I must distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books if I want him to be eternally associated with him.
Yes, of course, following Prabhupada means following his instructions, and his most important instruction is, “If you love me, distribute my books.”
Hare Krishna Prabhu
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Please accept my humble obeisances
Prabhu, is giving books to libraries of schools, colleges, universities etc also as good as distributing books on streets?
Giving books is not sustainable. Better to sell them. At least for something. Sell them to the libraries, sell them to the ISKCON temples.
Giving free books is very very very easy… But when you give something for free the person does not value it, and usually will not read it. So better to get them to pay something for it. It may be less than the cost, but the idea is that if they spend some of their hard-earned money on the book then they will feel obliged to read it, they have spent some money, they want to get some value for that money, to do that they have to read the book.
Also when they give a donation you will use it for purchasing more books. So in this way they are helping to print Prabhupada’s original books. That is called ajnata sukriti, unknown pious activities. They will get great spiritual benefit by donating some money to pay for the printing cost of the book.
So try to sell the books Prabhu
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In my local area which is a rural area mostly people do not understand English so they do not want to buy Srila Prabhupada’s books. Only very few can understand English. So I’m not able to distribute many books as of now. I have distributed about 20 books ever since I have taken up Krishna Consciousness but I want to distribute at least 10-20 books every day but don’t know how to do it. When I go to some nearby city then only I may be able to distribute some books or when I give them to family members, friends, relatives, etc. Hopefully I will be able to absorb myself in Krishna Consciousness soon and then Srila Prabhupada and Krishna will let me know how to distribute books.
Yes. You have to go to the place where you can distribute the books, that is the place where people can read English. And places where you can find young intelligent people, like university students, etc, should be good.
really appreciate your zeal Aman. Though it is very old message but just wanted to add that Srila Prabhupada books are available in almost every language of the world. We can make Prabhupad’s book accible in a medium people can like.
I know this but I only want to spend my energy on distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books which are only in English. Translation is not his even though there’s a lot of benefit in reading it too. Anyway, I’m not able to distribute the books that I have. Hopefully someday the 30-40 books that I have will be distributed.
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
How many books does one need to distribute to get enough of Srila Prabhupada’s mercy to become a pure devotee? When I think of the number of devotees in ISKCON who have fallen down even though earlier they did a lot of devotional services, including distributing many books daily, my mind becomes agitated. How will I survive the attack of maya if those big, big devotees fell down.
Hare Krishna Aman
In the material world it is a constant war with maya. This is her kingdom. So whenever we try a bit more seriously to become Krishna conscious maya trys harder to distract us. So we have to expect there will be many difficulties and obstacles, if we really surrender to Srila Prabhupada and serve him. Devotees who surrender to Srila Prabhupada and serve him never really fall away from Krishna consciousness. Their consciousness may be covered for some time but their original Krishna consciousness will become uncovered again when they get the opportunity of associating with devotees.
The real problem is ISKCON has destroyed the original purpose of the society. It was supposed to be a world-wide society of the disciples of Srila Prabhupada who would live together and practice pure devotional service. That no longer exists. So because we do not have the opportunity to live in the association of like minded devotees that makes it difficult. Together we become strong and separated we are not so strong. Srila Prabhupada gives the example of a bundle of sticks. Together a bundle of sticks is very strong and you can’t break it. But if you take the sticks out one by one then they are easy to break.
So that is the situation we are in now. But you can know it for certain that the benefits we get from devotional service are to our eternal credit, we will never loose them.
As far as becoming a pure devotee, that is up to us, if we actually surrender to Srila Prabhupada and follow all his instructions sincerely then we will become pure devotees right away. But we don’t want to do that. So it may take some time, but that time it is in our hands, how soon we are prepared to actually surrender, then we will become pure devotees.
But hardly anyone wants to surrender, that is why a pure devotee is so rarely found.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
Is gifting a book considered as book distribution?
Because presently I am not distributing books. I am just gifting them as I can.
I gifted 3 Beyond Birth and Death, 1 Perfection of Yoga, 1 In search of Liberation-to some of the senior college students of my hostel( I presented the Books as a farewell gift to them).
I gifted a Science of Self Realization and a Bhagavad-gita to my parents. I requested my father to read it. He is reading the Science of Self Realization presently ( although he is finding the English a bit difficult to understand) and he will start reading the Bhagavad-gita soon.
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Yes. Gifting Prabhupada’s books to friends and family members and encouraging them to read them is most certainly book distribution. So keep on distributing books somehow or other, as much as you can. And make sure you are reading Prabhupada’s books also yourself, at least 1-2 hours every day.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thankyou very much for your reply Prabhu.
Pure knowledge + Genuine knowledge + Truth + Honesty + Mercy – Maya – personal sence graftification + loving lord + everything to remember to love krsña = prabhupada books!
my mathematics is weak, please correct if mistaken or left anything!
where can i find more letters like this, of srila prabhupada ???
Hare Krishna
You can find everything at http://www.PrabhupadaBooks.com, you just have to search for it.
Yes, i got the pdf downloads of prabhupada’s letters. I just got them yesterday, it was amazing actually because they are divided into volumes and we can get sooo many in a single one, biggest advantage is that it’s for free free freee !!! I got 1st and 2nd both volumes, till now I have read 5-6 letters of prabhupada and truly after reading such a small no of letters, i got it that now i am starting to discover a very very great and genius kind of side of him, its just feeling simply new and great after digesting some of those .
publishing free PDFs is the great way of book distribution, very smart!!!!