By Madhava Smullen
The Prabhupada Marathon, which runs from the beginning of December until the first week of January, is here.
Many ISKCON devotees, whether full-time monks or working professionals with families, are gearing up to do their part in distributing ISKCON Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada’s enlightening books on spiritual knowledge.
Devotees are encouraged by thinking about what a huge emphasis Prabhupada put on distributing books, and what an impact it has on so many lives.
“I’m especially pleased to hear that your distribution of our books and magazines has increased,” he wrote on December 3rd, 1971. “Go on in this way, increasing more and more. Each time someone reads some solid information about Krsna his life becomes changed in some way. These literatures are the solid ground upon which our preaching stands, so I want that they should be available to everyone, as many as possible. So please try for this.”
Lately, devotees in North America are also encouraged to see the phenomenal effects of working together – another practice Prabhupada emphasized – in increasing ISKCON’s “family business.”
According to BBT trustee and book distribution strategist Vaisesika Dasa, before 2012, book distribution in North America “had been in the doldrums.” There was a perception that book distribution’s best days were behind us.
The reason, Vaisesika feels, was that “Everyone was working alone in silos, and we didn’t have a clear goal for everybody.”
All that changed at the January 2012 North American Temple Presidents and GBCs Meeting in Dallas, Texas. There, all the leaders unanimously agreed in an amazing show of solidarity that rather than only working as individual teams all over the country, they would establish all of North America as one team, with a collective goal each year.
The goals for the first two years – 2012 and 2013 – were to increase remittance to the BBT by 20% each year. For every year after that, goals were set for further 10% increases. The BBT newsletter helped keep everyone’s eye on the prize by publishing the goal and monthly updates on the progress towards it, and sending these out to all the temples in North America.
The results were astonishing. Every year, the goals were not only reached but excelled, sometimes by considerable lengths. From a remittance of $700,000 to the BBT before 2012, book distribution in North America has tripled, going up to $2.1 million in 2016.
“Setting a clear goal is like flipping a switch,” says Vaisesika. “The light comes on, and energy flows into the system. The second after the decision was made in that 2012 meeting, I noticed everyone becoming animated and discussing, now how are we going to reach this goal?”
Many inspiring techniques have been shared and implemented to do just that. Some devotees, like the Rupanuga Vedic College Traveling Sankirtan Party, continue to find major success in the traditional touring group of celibate monks. Other devotees go door to door. Some prioritize selling full sets of Srimad-Bhagavatam and Caitanya-caritamrita and installing them in pious people’s homes, as part of the Go Matsya project. (https://www.gomatsya.com) Still others place Bhagavad-gitas in hotel and motel rooms across North America, with the Motel Gita program.
One particularly effective program for householders has been the Monthly Sankirtan Festival, first established in Vaisesika’s homebase of ISKCON Silicon Valley, California, and since spread all over North America and the world.
Held on one weekend every month, the Monthly Sankirtan Festival is a fun outing for everyone in the community, avoiding any pressure on individuals, and instead based on the principle of a lot of people each doing a little bit.
“To take the pressure off, the first time we go out, we say that we’re not going out to distribute books – we’re only going out to touch the pavement together,” says Vaisesika. “Because the hardest part of book distribution is just getting out the door. So we actually make a ritual of it – we go to the place where we’re going to meet, and we all touch the pavement together with our feet. And then we say, ‘Okay, now we’re finished. Anything after this is extra.’”
The MSF is very popular with familes – and in some places, children are leading the book distribution charge. “We have organized teams for children to also go out in a very protected and loving environment,” Vaisesika says. “They’re accompanied by specially trained chaperones who know how to help them; they take extra time for sitting down, having snacks, and playing. And it’s very profound to see how the children develop compassion and come up with their own ideas about how to help people get books. At the end, they also report their scores as kids’ teams, and they do significant amounts.”
Some of the temples that have seen the biggest gains with these kinds of techniques are Toronto, Canada and Laguna Beach, California which went from distributing 450 books a year to tens of thousands now.
Baltimore, Gainesville, Los Angeles, Chicago, and many others have seen major increases. But everyone has been contributing to the total, causing book distribution to rise an average of 19% a year for the past five years.
The 2017 goal is to increase another 10% over 2016’s total, remitting $2.3 million to the BBT. With only one month left to go, there are still a lot of books that need to be distributed to reach that goal by the end of the year. But the December marathon is often what makes all the difference – and Vaisesika reminds us that if all the devotees in North America work together as a team, and all the temples give a final push, we can do it once again.
To ensure success he advises ISKCON community leaders to continually review their group goals during the marathon; to advertise them and talk about them so that congregation members keep them in their sights.
“It is such a simple but profound principle that if you have a goal, the energy will motivate the congregation to go out and reach it,” he says.
He adds that to inspire devotees, leaders should: “Tell devotees that this is a priority; show through historical accounts such as the BBT book Our Family Business how much Prabhupada emphasized book distribution; and show them how much good it does for the world and for each individual that comes in contact with the books.”
Reading Srila Prabhupada’s books themselves will also give devotees a huge amount of inspiration. “When they read the books, they’ll have a natural impetus to distribute them,” says Vaisesika. “Because they’re so wonderful, that they naturally inspire those who read them to want to share them with others.”
Throughout the marathon, the BBT Marketing and Communications team headed by Vaisesika will be e-mailing articles and video clips out to devotees to keep them motivated and remind them of simple techniques.
ISKCON’s top leaders such as GBCs and temple presidents are encouraged to also add their voice. With everyone working together in cooperation, there is confidence that ISKCON North America can once again reach its goal.
Beyond the 2017 marathon, a goal has already been set of further 10% increases every year for the next ten years, reaching an annual remittance to the BBT of $5.2 million by 2026. If, however, goals continue to be exceeded at the rate they are currently, the remittance by 2026 will be an unprecedented $10 million.
Why is remittance to the BBT so important? Well first of all, fifty per cent of all profits from the BBT go towards building ISKCON projects around the world, such as the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium in Mayapur – so those who remit to the BBT will be supporting these.
And best of all, the more funds come in, the more the BBT will be able to print books of all kinds, including rare titles. As Srila Prabhupada said during an arrival address in Los Angeles in 1975, “My Guru Maharaja asked me that ‘If you get some money, you print books.’ Therefore I am stressing on this point. So kindly help me. This is my request. Print as many books in as many languages and distribute throughout the whole world. Then Krsna consciousness movement will automatically increase.”
So this marathon, let’s band together as a team, distribute whatever we can, add our contribution to the total and help change the world.
“As Prabhupada once said, each devotee has his or her own genius in how to distribute books,” Vaisesika paraphrases. “And he added that the master within the heart – and he pointed to his own heart – will show them how to do it. They just have to be sincere.”
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