Buddhimanta prabhuOnly a few days before Buddhimanta's arrival, Caru had received a tape in the mail from a leading book distributor in America, Tripurari. Tripurari described a new technique that was revolutionising literature distribution in North America. Before hearing the tape, Caru had subscribed to the standard method of book distribution in Australia: a devotee would stand on the street, hold a Back to Godhead magazine or small paperback book in a vertical position and would only hand it to a person if they actually came up and asked for it. The devotee would ask for a donation, then the book or magazine would be handed over. Tripurari described the new method: the distributor would hand someone a book or magazine, then ask for a contribution after the person already had it in his or her hand. Once they had the literature in their hand, he said, they would develop an immediate sense of possessiveness and would rather keep it and give a donation than give it back. Caru tried the technique and it worked! But the new idea hadn't gone beyond Caru.When Madhudvisa Swami returned to Australia after accompanying Srila Prabhupada to Auckland, he heard the latest news: the sleeping giant had awoken! Buddhimanta had gone into the book storage shed in the backyard, seen colossal stacks of boxes, and made a firm vow. "All these books will be distributed in three months!"How was it possible? Devotees had sometimes pondered the ceiling-high stacks of paperback Nectar of Devotion, hard-bound Krsna books and Teachings of Lord Caitanya that had started arriving in the latter half of 1972.A few boxes had been opened. Some devotees had taken personal copies to read; others had cut out pictures and stuck them upon the walls. A leaking roof had caused rain damage for a few other boxes, and the rest had stayed, gathering dust. The temple leaders had wondered -- what were they going to do with all these books? When they heard that Buddhimanta had the answer, they listened to his story with interest.Buddhimanta explained that a similar scenario had existed in America not too long before. What to do with all the books had seemed a mystery till one day a couple of devotees had made an accidental discovery. After chanting in downtown San Francisco, they had pulled up at a service station for petrol. When the attendant had asked for payment, the devotees had shown him a Krsna book. After describing the glories of the book, the man had agreed to accept the book as payment for the petrol. Inspired by their success, devotees, including Buddhimanta, had tried to sell the hardcover books on the street and door-to-door, and had found that people were indeed interested to take them. Soon Buddhimanta was selling five books a day, and the news spread throughout the West Coast of America.Since then, book distribution in America had increased in great strides. Within months, temples in America were selling hundreds of Krsna books a week.Srila Prabhupada heard the news with great delight and had written Kesava, the "king" of Krsna book distribution:By distributing my books profusely, you are giving me great encouragement to translate. And you are all helping me to fulfil the order which guru maharaja gave me. So I am so much grateful to you, and I am sure Krishna will bless you a million times over for doing this work.Copies of this letter had gone out to all ISKCON temples, including Sydney. On the advice of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Mohanananda had ordered books, and they had arrived -- in their thousands. But the leaders in Australia, intrigued as they were, could not figure out what to do with them.When Kesava, himself an old friend of Madhudvisa, had written to him suggesting that Buddhimanta come to Australia to train the devotees how to distribute books, Madhudvisa agreed. And now Buddhimanta was saying that in three months the bookshed would be empty! Devotees could scarcely conceive of the idea, but it seemed more than an empty challenge. Buddhimanta had been regularly selling hardcover books on the streets of Sydney for a couple of weeks now, and some devotees had been going out with him, scrutinising his techniques.Buddhimanta was a unique individual. A fair-skinned brahmacari, he towered well over 180cm tall. Although humble and often thoughtful in the temple, on the street he was loud, gregarious and utterly confident. There his demeanour was intense. He would stare people right in the eyes, not shifting his glance. Yet with his smiles, he would literally disarm people with his warmth and enthusiasm.Buddhimanta told the devotees that he had gotten his original experience of distributing literature as a youth in San Francisco. He had sold The Berkeley Barb, an avant-garde newspaper and had developed his unique style. That "style" coupled with Buddhimanta's unquenchable zest and enthusiasm to serve the order of his spiritual master was infectious. Soon a close core of trainees began distributing five, then 10 hardcover books each on the streets of Sydney every day.- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu
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