By Madhava Smullen
Until recently in the UK, ISKCON devotees still felt burned out from the old days of authoritarian book distribution programs, where they had been pushed to go out for three-month-long Christmas marathons.
So when Visvambhara Das was named book distribution minister for the UK in 2004, he focused on building a mood of teamwork and devotee care. The marathon was made just three weeks long, and an emphasis was put on making sure book distributors had good prasadam, warm clothes, and were appreciated with gifts and a special thank-you festival at the end of their effort
“Sweet, short, and effective is our motto,” Visvambhara says.
What’s more, no one is pushed to go on the marathon – rather, Visvambhara’s book distribution seminars inspire devotees to participate because they want to.
The result was that for this year’s Prabhupada marathon, about 55 street teams and 220 individual devotees went out on book distribution throughout the UK and Ireland, distributing a total of 138,330 books. Temple devotees went out for 8 to 10 hours a day of their own accord, while many of the book distributors were working professionals with families, giving up their evenings and weekends to dole out transcendental knowledge.
As opposed to the past, when a small number of devotees had to distribute a large number of books, this year’s marathon saw lots of devotees each doing a little bit. There was a particular focus on teamwork, with dozens of street teams each using their own individual methods.
Weekend Warriors, for example, got permission from the local Council to set up a book table on the street. This group of working familes attracted people by singing bhajans and passing out prasadam sweets and invitations to the temple, then offered them books. Children and the elderly all participated.
Gokulananda Warriors, a team of Bhaktivedanta Manor pujaris, went out on the street to distribute books. But they also kept books on the altar, presenting one to every person who came for darshan. “We want to introduce the idea that all departments in the temple can integrate book distribution into their department,” says Visvambhara.
The Mantra Lounge program, run by gurukulis such as Jahnavi Harrison, invite a trendy crowd to participate in kirtan regularly. During the marathon, they sent every person away with one of Prabhupada’s books at the end of the evening.
Clothes store Closet Krishna and café Atma Lounge set up book tables outside their establishments and distributed books to their customers.
The Clock Tower Harinama group also set up book tables, next to the clock towers in London and Leicester. From these posts, they chanted the Holy Name and distributed books.
The Fortunate People party presented people on the street with books and mantra cards, then filmed them holding up their book and chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra “for peace and happiness.” The team does this year round and has so far filmed over 10,000 people chanting.
Davesh Patel and his team headed up the Go Matsya effort, distributing full Srimad-Bhagavatam sets from door to door.
Bhava Bhakti Dasi at Soho St. temple led her group of young mentees out to distribute Prabhupada’s books together.
“All these teams inspired each other with a jolly and fun mood of transcendental competition,” Visvambhara says.
Meanwhile on Gita Jayanti, those who did not have time to go out and distribute themselves sponsored books for others to distribute.
“We give the sponsored books to smaller temples with less money,” says Visvambhara. “Some of them sell the books and use the donations to maintain their temples. Others – like Tribhangananda Das at ISKCON Nottingham – give the books away to libraries, prisons, hospices, schools, museums, and other institutions.”
Individual devotees also continue to do a large amount of book distribution, sometimes with unique methods of their own. This year, the number of book points were raised for Arabic books to create an incentive to distribute them. As a result, over six thousand Arabic books went out. The number 1 individual book distributor in the UK, Nama Sankirtan Das, succeeded largely on the strength of Arabic books.
The numbers are exciting – Bhaktivedanta Manor alone distributed £96,000 worth of books this marathon, and has done as much as £140,000 in previous years, making it probably the largest distributor of Prabhupada books outside of India (during the Christmas marathon). Soho St. and Wales are impressive runners up.
But the most exciting thing is that these books are reaching souls.
“Srila Prabhupada said there are people just waiting to receive books – and the devotees who go out and engage in sankirtan can practically realize that,” says Sutapa Das, who has been distributing books in London for 15 years. “Every book distributor meets people who were looking for spiritual life and wisdom – there are so many out there who, despite all their success and prosperity, are still looking for something deeper.”
A website, www.krishnawisdom.com, has been launched to keep in touch with those who receive books. The plan is to have regular articles, forums for asking questions, and online courses so that people can engage with devotees, particularly if they live far away from a temple.
“We have stories of many people who become connected to the temple, nama hattas and regular programs,” Sutapa says. “We even have devotees who received books on one marathon, and were full-time book distributors by the next!”
The marathon is also transformative for the book distributors themselves. “It’s an enlivening activity that reconnects us with Srila Prabhupada in a very intimate way,” says Sutapa. “Off the back of the marathon, many devotees commit to going out regularly in the following year, and some even make it their new year’s resolution!”
“It purifies everybody, and creates unity amongst all the temple departments,” Visvambhara adds. “Because book distribution is like the veins that connect all the different parts of the body – it brings life to the entire yatra!”
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