By Madhava Smullen
For BBT Marketing, Communications and Innovations Department
Since 2012, when ISKCON North America’s leaders unanimously agreed to work as one book distribution team with a collective goal, sales of Srila Prabhupada’s books have seen a dramatic increase.
Remittance to the BBT grew 20% in 2012 and 2013, and 10% each year after that, from $700,000 in 2012 to around $2.1 million in 2016.
The 2017 marathon was yet another major success, with nearly $2 million again remitted to the BBT in North America. In the U.S. and worldwide, devotees worked closely together, implementing ingenious strategies like Motel Gita, Monthly Sankirtana Festivals, and full set sales with the Go Matsya project.
But with all this success, book distribution leaders are reminding us that it’s important not to forget the most essential building block of successful book distribution – daily sadhana, and in particular reading the very books we distribute.
“The devotees’ desire to share Krishna consciousness expands in direct proportion to the taste they themselves have received from their practice of devotional service,” writes book distribution strategist Vaisesika Das in Our Family Business. “And the more they attend to the details of their practice, the more their taste for devotional service grows.”
He adds: “To distribute books effectively one must read them and follow what they teach. Rooted firmly in daily sadhana, a devotee not only remains enthusiastic to distribute transcendental knowledge but also becomes spiritually empowered to do so.”
Srila Prabhupada himself was adamant about this daily practice. “Every day you have to read, study, and learn my books just like a lawyer learns the law books,” he told Tamal Krishna Goswami and Bhagavat Das in a June 1974 conversation. “You must know everything, chapter and verse. If you do not know, how will you preach?”
And in a 1969 letter, he wrote, “I thank you so much for having nicely appreciated the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. This book should be read by all of my students at least one chapter per day. Practically, we have tried to explain in this book all of the basic principles of Krsna consciousness. If you can simply cram Bhagavad-gita, then you will surely become a very good preacher.”
Of course, today many ISKCON book distributors may not only be busy with a variety of services, but also balancing a 9 to 5 job, children and family responsibilities. Reading the whole Bhagavad-gita may seem daunting, what to speak of absorbing the entire multi-volume Srimad-Bhagavatam and Chaitanya Charitamrita. Such a task may at times seem insurmountable.
Which is why devotees have come up with systems to break the task down into manageable bites and make it easier – and more enjoyable. One of these is the Chapter-A-Day Club (CHAD), started by Vaisesika Das in 2007 after hearing of Srila Prabhupada’s direction to read a chapter of the Bhagavad-gita every day.
CHAD is now a worldwide community of close to 1,200 members. All kinds of demographics are included. Many are local devotees at Vaisesika’s base in Silicon Valley, who have their own reading groups in the area. Some of the most enthusiastic members are children. Others are corporate men and women who are gradually taking up the Bhagavad-gita’s teachings.
People register to join CHAD at www.readchad.com, where they can also follow a suggested calendar, and can download the current chapter to read on their mobile device wherever they are.
Members read either all the English translations in a chapter, chant the Sanskrit verses, or both, which doesn’t take more than 7 – 10 minutes. Many read in the mornings as part of their daily routine — either on their own or as part of a group for support. These groups meet via conference call, and every morning they read and discuss one purport after the daily chapter.
“Even modern motivational speakers talk about the power of rituals,” says CHAD director Gandharvika Radha Dasi. “By making it a ritual to read Bhagavad-gita every day with great attention, we can deepen our spiritual and emotional connection to Krishna. This will bring true brightness and fulfillment into our lives. The best way to show our gratitude to Srila Prabhupada is to give a few moments of our valuable attention to read his books.”
So far, CHAD has been primarily used for reading the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. However, devotees are starting to use the system for Srimad-Bhagavatam and other books too.
To help measure and calculate CHAD reading, or just to use as a tool on its own, another system, the catchily monikered “Be A Sage Page by Page” was created by Vaisesika Das and his friends Keshava Bharati Das Goswami and Srivasa Pandita Das.
In January 2017, the idea was turned into an app for both Android and iOS platforms by a team of devotee software developers in Silicon Valley and North Carolina.
“If we try to start reading Prabhupada’s books without a plan, the mind rebels, saying, ‘This is too much to read, I can’t do it!’” explains Nama Smaranam Das, a developer for Cisco Systems. “But if you have a plan to read just 10 pages, or 10 verses a day, then suddenly it seems doable. That’s what Be A Sage Page by Page does.”
Wonderfully simple and utilitarian, the app allows users to select a scripture – for instance Bhagavad-gita or Srimad-Bhagavatam – from a picker wheel. Next to that, the user can select a duration of time in which they want to read the book – say, one month or two years. The app then shows us how many pages we must read a day to complete the work.
For example, the Bhagavad-gita has 868 pages, so one can read it in a month by taking in just twenty-nine pages a day. Or, one can digest the entire 18-volume Srimad-Bhagavatam in two years by reading only twenty-one pages a day. The app can also be set to send the user a reminder to read at a specific time of day. And if one is traveling and can’t carry heavy books around, there’s a link to read each book via Vedabase online.
Within the next month, Nama Smaranam says, another exciting feature is set to be added to the app. Users will be able to track their reading progress through a book with a special circular progresss bar made to look like a devotee doing parikrama around Govardhana Hill.
Many devotees have found the Be a Sage Page by Page tool highly effective, and are blissful in the myriad benefits that reading Srila Prabhupada’s books daily has brought to their lives.
ISKCON Guru and BBT editor Keshava Bharati Das Goswami, who coined the system’s pithy name with Vaisesika, says, “I’ve found this practice so effective that I’m now trying to establish reading groups to promote the idea. Thus far, four reading groups have been established and are ongoing. The idea is spreading, and I regularly receive emails from devotees who say that they have gotten new lives, meaning that their spiritual lives have re-awakened from this practice.”
Nanda Suta Das is a family man and business owner in Seattle who also serves on the GBC’s North American Executive Committee. In 2015, faced with many challenges in his business and ISKCON service, he used the Be A Sage app and read the entire 17-volume Sri Chaitanya-Charitamrita in ten months.
“Something happened inside me,” he says. “I never wanted to leave that book aside. I felt like I should just sit and read, day and night. Sometimes I did. And when I was finished, I was so excited that I read the Srimad-Bhagavatam in a year-and-a half. Now whenever I have some difficulty in life, I open up Srila Prabhupada’s books, and find answers.”
Prabhupada’s books are such a part of Nanda Suta’s life that they have become a family bonding activity, too. Every evening, he and his wife read one chapter of Bhagavatam and one verse of Bhagavad-gita together. And while on vacation with his daughters, the whole family reads together. “Doing that deepens our realization and relationship with each other,” he says. “As the saying goes, the family that prays together stays together.”
Meanwhile Sri Radhe Dasi, daughter-in-law of BBT trustee Naresvara Das, recently started reading Prabhupada’s books because she was in need of new strength and support in her life.
“Nothing comes close to the extreme happiness you experience when you read Srila Prabhupada’s words,” she says. “There are so many wonderful spiritual books out there, but nothing is as clear and as eloquently written. When I’m down they pick me up, when I’m up they make me feel grateful. I always felt so bad that I missed out on Srila Prabhupada’s personal association …. until now. Now I feel like every day Prabhupada is teaching me something new.”
Her heartfelt entreaty after this experience says it all. “Everyone, please please read Srila Prabhupada books — even just one verse a day,” she begs. “Your whole life will change. Mine did!”
To join the Chapter A Day Club (CHAD), please visit http://www.readchad.com/
Search for “Be A Sage Page By Page” on Google Play for Android or the App Store for iOS to download the Be A Sage app.
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