In 1971, as a young devotee in Calcutta, Giriraja Swami approached Srila Prabhupada, “I have been trying to understand what your desire is, and two things seem to please you the most: distributing your books and building the big temple in Mayapur.” Prabhupada’s face lit up, his eyes opened wide, and he smiled, saying: “Yes, you have understood. If you all build this temple, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur will personally come and take you all back to Godhead.”
Building the TOVP was so important to Srila Prabhupada (and our acharyas) that he categorically stated, “You have understood”, and if you build this temple, “Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur will personally come and take you all back to Godhead.” And hand-in-hand with the TOVP is book distribution.
It may be unknown to many devotees, including those who actively distribute his books full or part-time, that for every book which is bought from the BBT and distributed to some fortunate conditioned soul, a percentage of that income to the BBT goes directly to temple construction as per Srila Prabhupada’s direct instruction:
“I specifically formed the BBT to invest in it exclusive rights for the printing of all literature containing my teachings, writings and lectures. In this way the collections are to be divided fifty percent for printing new books and fifty percent for construction of temples.”
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