Prabhupada’s Gita Becomes Best-Selling Book in Karnataka, India!
The state of Karnataka, of which Bangalore is the capital city, is one of the largest states in India with a population of some 50 million. The local language here is Kannada, which is one of the most wide-spread south Indian languages, with native speakers all over the world. We are pleased to report that the Kannada Bhagavad-gita As It Is (titled Bhagavadgita Yatha Rupa) has broken all sales records for
Srila Prabhupada’s Gita was translated into Kannada by a noted Kannada writer and scholar, Professor L.S. Sheshagiri Rao. Recently the ‘Vijaya Karnataka’, the largest circulated Kannada daily newspaper in the world published a report regarding Srila Prabhupada’s record breaking feat: “Gita Revolution in Kaliyuga” It’s a Book revolution! The great epic ‘Bhagavad-gita As It Is’ written by Swami Prabhupada has recorded sales of more than 10 million all over the world. The book being originally written in English by the Swami has been translated into over 50 languages like French, Hebrew etc. and has attained world wide fame. The epic has been translated into a Kannada book by Prof LS Sheshagiri Rao and has sold 250,000 copies. In Kannada the book has seen 18 printings and has crossed the 250,000 mark recently and made it into the record books as the largest sold Kannada book in the non text book category.” (Vijaya Karnataka 6/6/2002) What is interesting to note is that almost 60% of these sales have been made by the Bangalore temple in the last few years since the temple joined the IRM. To commemorate Srila Prabhupada’s record-breaking success, ISKCON Bangalore has launched a major campaign to make people aware of the glories of Srila Prabhupada’s Gita. The commemoration festival is called Gita Vaibhava. The first stage of the commemoration festival was to form a reception committee of the leading dignitaries of the state. This has met with unprecedented results, with the cream of Kannada society’s citizens agreeing to be on the reception committee. The committee spanned the entire spectrum of society ranging from scientists to film actors: Honarary Chairman of the Committee: Dr UR Anantha Murthy, Kannada writer and a Jnanapeetha Awardee (the topmost award for scholars of India)
Members of Commitee:
- Scientists
- Prof CNR Rao (Linus Pauling Researcher, President of The Jawaharlal Nehru Institute for Advanced Scientific Research)
- Prof Sadagopan, Director IIIT(B),
- Dr CS Yogananda,
- Prof KJ Rao (Linus Pauling Researcher )
- Judges and Solicitors
- Justice Somashekar, a Retd Judge and Prof. of Law
- Subramanya Jois, Senior Advocate,
- Doctors
- Dr. Deviprasad Shetty
- Dr. Sunanda Kulkarni,
- Members of the State
- Legislature
- Sri MR Seetharam
- Sri Suresh Kumar,
- Scholars, Writers and Poets
- Dr. Chidananda Murthy,
- Prof. Dodda range gowda,
- Dr Sa. Shi. Marulaiah,
- Smt HS Parvathi,
- Smt Nirupama,
- HP Vasudeva Rao
- Dr NS Anantha Rangachar
- Bureacrats
- Malleshappa, Director of Public Libraries of Karnataka.
- NL Narendra Babu, Corporator
- KR Srinivasan, Director General, Karnataka State Police
- Businessmen
- Sri Prabhakar (owner leading chain of Hotels in Bangalore)
- Dayanand Pai (Leading Builder of Bangalore)
- A. Satish & M Venkatesh( Leading Publishers)
- Mohandas Pai (Infosys foundation).
- Journalists
- Smt Sandhya Pai (Editor Taranga, a leading Kannada weekly)
- Vishweshawara Bhatt(Executive Editor, Vijaya Karnataka leading Kannada daily)
- Philanthropists and Social Service
- BNV Subramanya (President, All India Brahmins Association )
- Vidyananda Shenoy ( Exec Secy, RSS)
- BN Murthy ( Trustee, VHP) Films
- GV Iyer, Director of many award winning movies
- Jayamala, Actress
- Shivaram, Actor
The ultimate goal of the committee and the Gita Vaibhav festival is to push sales of Srila Prabhupada’s Kannada Gita past the 1 million mark! As Srila Prabhupada states:
“The more we sell books the more we advance in Krishna consciousness and more we help others to have solid information how they may take advantage of their human form of life and achieve the supreme perfection.” (SPL to Kulashekara, 20/1/72)
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I want bengali translation of iskcon books on internet.
please send me the address