Tilak and Book Distribution
Dear devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to book distribution, which “is the essence of ISKCON” (letter by Srila Prabhupada to Tamal Krsna Goswami.)
I wrote the following paper after the December marathon which I did in the LA airport. I showed it to my spiritual master, His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami, and he wrote the following note about it:
To all my disciples and friends,
Please accept my best wishes. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Candrasekhar Acarya dasa, who is my secretary now, went out distributing books for 3 weeks during the Christmas marathon in the Los Angeles airport. Based on some of his realizations, he wrote the following article which was sent out to the Book distribution conference. I was very impressed with this article and I think that all the devotees can benefit from it. Therefore I am posting it in this conference. Please read this article carefully and seriously consider the points he is making.
I hope this meets you well,
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,
Bhakti Caru Swami
TILAK AND BOOK DISTRIBUTION
I did the last marathon in the LA airport dressed in a nice suit and with a clean shaved head, sikha, and nice Tilak on my forehead. I feel that because of this, I did the best quality book distribution I have ever done before.
Here are some relevant quotes from Srila Prabhupada in this regard:
“The next point is that you should dress just like perfect American gentlemen, but the sikha and tilak MUST BE VERY PROMINENT. Coat, pants, necktie, and everything, Brahmacari and Grhasthas, they can put on, because you are not Sannyasi. In the temple, you can dress as brahmacari, but in order not to become ridiculous in the eyes of others, outside you should dress just like a very nice perfect aristocratic American. So there is no objection. But we MUST HAVE ALWAYS our tilak and sikha and there is NO COMPROMISE for this purpose.”
REF. Letter to: Brahmananda – Seattle 6 October, 1968
“Jyotirmayi: No, no. He’s saying why are we dressing like that, like Indians?
Prabhupäda: I have not said that you dress like that. You like, you do it. Did I say that you do it?”
“Outside the Temple they may wear American gentleman’s dress, with Tilaka, flag*, and beads. It is not required to wear dhotis, as this society does not understand, so outside the Temple a dress suit is more socially acceptable. If they so desire, for ceremony, they can dress in dhotis for Kirtana.”
REF. Letter to: Balai — San Francisco 12 March, 1968 *”flag” refers to Sikha
“I have no objection if members of the Society dress like nice American gentlemen; but IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES a devotee CANNOT avoid tilak, flag on head, & beads on neck. These are ESSENTIAL features of a Vaisnava.”
REF. Letter to: Brahmananda — Calcutta 14 October, 1967
“Ramesvara: No. I’m just saying that it is a little difficult if they wear their dhoti.
Prabhupada: No, dhoti, I don’t say. You have nice coat-pant. I don’t say that you have to… I never said that. You have adopted it. (laughs) I never said that “You put on dhoti.”
“I never objected to any of my students dressing like nice American gentleman, clean shaved; those who are my disciples MUST have flag, TILAK & beads on neck WITHOUT FAIL.”
REF. Letter to: Kirtanananda — Calcutta 16 October, 1967
“The next important points are as follows: (1) One should decorate the body with Tilak, which is the sign of the Vaisnavas. (The idea is that as soon as a person sees these marks on the body of the Vaisnavas, he will immediately remember Krsna. Lord Caitanya said that a Vaisnava is he who, when seen, reminds on of Krsna. Therefore, it is ESSENTIAL that a Vaisnava mark his body with Tilak to remind others of Krsna.)” Nectar of Devotion, p.54
Dear devotees, most book distributors in the Western world do not wear Tilak nowadays. Yet Srila Prabhupada calls the act of wearing Tilak an “essential feature of a Vaisnava.” He says that devotees should have Tilak on “without fail.” He says we should wear it “in all circumstances.” “There is no compromise” for this purpose. It appears clear to me that “In all circumstances” includes the circumstance of book distribution and preaching.
Over the last 20 years, front line preachers have made big mistakes that cost our society very dearly. We are suffering the reactions to these mistakes in terms of terrible public opinion and weak individual Krsna consciousness. Lying about our identity as well as about the contents of the books, cheating, changing-up, being too pushy with the people, tricking, burning people out, etc, occured often and still goes on today when book distributors approach people in public. An innocent question comes up: would these things have happened in the same proportion, if not at all, if book distributors had been instructed by their authorities that they should wear TILAK at all times because Srila Prabhupada wanted it so?
When one wears Tilak in public, one cannot avoid being truthful. With Tilak, we are much more self conscious and aware that we are representatives of the Vaisnava tradition. Indeed, when we approach people with Tilak on, they know that we are Hare Krsnas’, or at least they know that we represent something religious. Then, whatever we say to them will be accepted as straightforward because from the beginning of our transaction with the people who agree to stop and listen to us, it is disctinct and clear that we are Hare Krsnas’. We may even then tell them “any damm thing”(as Srila Prabhupada said) in order for them to buy the books (the end justifies the means), but because we have Tilak on, there is no way they can say afterwards that we tricked them or cheated them. In other words, with Tilak, we are UPFRONT and non-duplicious by our very appearance and presence.
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