By Madhava Smullen
On behalf of BBT Marketing, Communications and Innovations Department
The Go Matsya project aims to save and preserve Vedic culture through distribution of full Srimad-Bhagavatam sets, as the Bhagavatam is the essence of all Vedic literature. Now the project has spread from the US to the UK, where it is taking off in new and exciting ways.
Launched in ISKCON Silicon Valley, California in January 2017 by BBT Trustee Vaisesika Das, Go Matsya is a kind of spiritual multi-level marketing effort.
At the first level, an “Advocate” supports the cause by simply purchasing a Srimad-Bhagavatam set and installing it in their home. A Distributor gets a Bhagavatam set for themselves but also refers friends or relatives they think will be interested. And finally, an Organizer makes other Advocates and Distributors.
The idea sparked something inside of Davesh Patel, a devotee who assists with Bhaktivedanta Manor’s sankirtan efforts, when he watched a video presentation about it.
Davesh is head of hospitality for a healthcare organization in the UK that runs fifty old-age care homes. The thought of also doing spiritual welfare work inspired him.
“I turned to my wife and asked, ‘Do you think we could start this project in the UK?” he recalls. “She said, ‘It looks like a Herculean task, but let’s give it a try.’”
With guidance from Vaisesika Das, who is Davesh’s guru, and support from Bhaktivedanta Manor, a team of six to seven devotees started Go Matsya in the UK in July 2017.
“Our first success was at the Manor’s Janmastami festival, where we set up a stall with the books in beautifully presented ribbon-wrapped gift packs,” says Davesh. “By not just distributing the books, but instead asking people to come on a mission with us to change the world and transform hearts, we enrolled 10 Advocates during the festival.”
Because their project is about preserving Vedic culture, the Go Matsya Team have mostly approached members of the Indian community so far, as they are receptive to the idea. To reach them, the team have set up a table every Sunday at the Bhaktivedanta Manor reception. They have made presentations at Hindu schools, and at sangas for various Hindu communities and sampradayas.
During the 2017 December marathon, they also started selling sets door to door, restoring the local ISKCON community’s faith in this practice – until then, Bhagavatam sets had not been sold door to door in the UK for at least twenty years.
For each new advocate, the Go Matsya team install the Srimad-Bhagavatam in their homes with a sacred welcoming ceremony, as the Bhagavatam is non-different from Krishna. Often these ceremonies are done as part of a family’s life event such as a wedding, the birth of a child, or the purchase of a new home. During each ceremony devotees perform arati to the Bhagavatam, share stories from the spiritual epic, and display a beautiful Bhagavatam picture album for the children.
“Often, friends and family at these events show interest in also getting enrolled in the program,” Davesh says. “To date, we have enrolled 102 Advocates and five Distributors.”
Of course, just having Bhagavatam sets installed in people’s homes is by itself a transcendental victory, but Go Matsya is also following up with these fortunate souls in a number of proactive ways to help them to read the books.
First, the UK team is developing a course called “Overview of Srimad-Bhagavatam,” which all Advocates will be invited to join to get inspiration for reading the Bhagavatam regularly.
Secondly, Go Matsya has been allotted its own channel on Mayapur.tv, upon which Advocates will be able to watch interactive sessions with speakers like Bhakti Rasamrita Swami, Devamrita Swami, and Vaisesika Das, who will inspire them to begin reading. The channel will be launched by the UK team but efforts are underway to make it available in the rest of the world as well.
Thirdly, the UK team is set to relaunch https://www.gomatsya.com/, with resources such as a live chat button for people with questions about the Bhagavatam. The website will also reconnect to the original “Matsya project,” started by Garuda Dasa and his team in the 1970s with funding from the BBT and the Smithsonian Institue that archived ancient manuscripts of Vaishnava acharyas and Goswamis, scanning them and thus preserving them for posterity.
New Advocates will also be connected with the local ISKCON Bhakti Vriksha group in their area. “All this is being set up so that people are not only benefitted by having the Srimad Bhagavatam in their homes, but also get enticed to read it, and to eventually become devotees,” Davesh says.
In addition, a special Go Matsya Advocate Day has been organized at Bhaktivedanta Manor on March 3rd, on which all 102 Advocates and their friends and families will be invited for kirtans, dramas, prasadam, and a presentation about the Go Matsya’s vision. The aim will be to inspire them to progress to the next step of the program, and become Distributors.
Meanwhile there are major efforts to spread the word about the Go Matsya project both in the UK and globally, to keep it growing exponentially. At 11am on March 18th, Go Matsya representatives will discuss the project on Nusound Radio at 92FM, a very popular radio station for the Gujarati community in England. They will be on air for 30 to 40 minutes, and will make their presentation in both English and Gujarati.
Also in March, senior Giriraja Maharaja disciple Vrindavana Chandra Das will appear on the Hare Krishna TV channel, which is available on Cable television in India, to talk about Go Matsya.
All this builds up to an ambitious 2018 goal for the UK Go Matsya team: they want to enroll 170 Advocates, 15 Distributors (who will each refer at least three other people to purchase Bhagavatam sets) and 5 Organizers.
Organizers, who make new Advocates and Distributors, will in this case be other ISKCON centers in England that the London Go Matsya team hope to inspire to come on board. ISKCON Leicester has already joined the effort, and others are likely to follow.
Distribution of full Sri Caitanya-caritamrita sets has also begun recently, along with the Bhagavatam sets. And team members are beginning to see success in extending the reach of Go Matsya beyond the Indian community.
“In January 1977, ISKCON’s Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada wrote in a letter, ‘I want that every respectable person has a full set of Bhagavatam and Caitanya Caritamrta in his home,’” Davesh says. “So Go Matsya is a labor of love for Srila Prabhupada, who worked tirelessly until the end of his life translating this Bhagavatam, knowing that this one literature has the potential to actually revive Krishna consciousness throughout the entire world.”
For more information, visit https://www.gomatsya.com/
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