Hare Krishna!
Welcome to the sixth issue of "Waves of Sankirtana", the monthly newsletter of the India Sankirtana Leaders Team! November has been an active month for us all, with goals set, books packed in the godowns in every temple, and devotees planning, rehearshing, praying, to do book distribution, a most pleasing service to Srila Prabhupada! In this issue, we cover the following highlights:
1. Srila Prabhupada Speaks: "We want to serve the purpose of the Goswamis..."
2. India Sankirtana Report Card - October 2014
3. Sankirtana News: Ecstatic results from book distribution workshops in Kakinada and Bangalore (Narasimha-Giridhari Mandir)
4. Message on Book Distribution Marathon 2014 from HH Bhakti Vikas Swami
5. FAQs: Sometimes, we get late coming from book distribution and miss out on morning program. How to balance regular sadhana with book distribution?
4. Message on Book Distribution Marathon 2014 from HH Bhakti Vikas Swami
5. FAQs: Sometimes, we get late coming from book distribution and miss out on morning program. How to balance regular sadhana with book distribution?
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Srila Prabhupada Speaks
Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think we'll give you another report later on. It's successful. That's a fact. Only these are suggestions how it can be improved. We'll speak with Svarūpa Dāmodara about it. (break) ...from the devotees in France, Bhagavān's zone. In fact, it's a four-page telegram. Should I read it? It says, "Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, please accept our most humble obeisances at your lotus feet. Knowing how dear your book distribution is to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the devotees in France would like to humbly offer you the results of our week-long marathon saṅkīrtana, hoping in some way to please you." Śrīla Prabhupāda? The devotees there, they went out on book distribution for twelve hours every day. All the devotees. They went out every day for seven days in a row, for twelve hours each day. And here is the results of their distribution. This is only for this one temple in France. It says, "We have distributed 25,061 hard-cover Bhagavad-gītās in one week." Twenty-five thousand, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We usually print of a Bhāgavatam 20,000 for the whole society. They distributed 25,000 Gītās in one week in French, Bhagavad-gītās in French. He says, "...to the conditioned souls of this country in seven days. We hope that these results are the biggest in the history of your movement and that they will give you some solace. Our top distributor were Bhakta Richard..." (laughter) Somebody who isn't initiated yet. "...who distributed 1,504 big books in one week." Every day he distributed over two hundred hard-cover books. That's pretty good. (laughter) That means he did about say 240 in twelve hours. He distributed about one book every three minutes for twelve hours in a row, Śrīla Prabhupāda, every day. "Jagad-vaśī dāsa, who distributed 1,125 big books; Ariṣṭa-nāśana dāsa, 864 books; Veśa-kīrti dāsa, 851 big books; Akhileśvara dāsa 835 big books; Kṛpā-siddha dāsa, 760 big books." Then they say, "Thank you for allowing us to assist you in preaching this message of Lord Caitanya in the Western Countries. All glories to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Your humble servants, the devotees in France." Pretty big distribution. Bhagavān estimates that they collected over sixty thousand dollars in one week. It's amazing. Seems like Kṛṣṇa is giving unlimited facilities to spread His glories, Śrīla Prabhupāda.Prabhupāda: Yes. We do not want liberation. We want to serve the purpose of the Gosvāmīs, in association with pure devotees. To stop birth and death is not our purpose. Tāṅdera caraṇa-sebi-bhakta-sane bās, janame janame hoy ei abhilāṣ. [emphasis added]
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India Sankirtana Report Card - October 2014
The graph below shows Indian temples that made it to the Top 50 list for October 2014, as per the World Sankirtana Newsletter.
The chart below shows the worldwide rank of the temple as well their book points for October 2014:
All glories to the wonderful service by devotees across India! The table below lists individual book distributors for October 2014 with name, world rank, and temple affiliation.
Sankirtana News
ISKCON Gandharvika-Giridhari temple devotees complete book distribution workshop - by Krishna Mitra Nitai Dasa
On November 29, ISKCON Gandharvika-Giridhari temple (HBR Layout, Bangalore) hosted a workshop on book distribution conducted by ISLT. Topics included "4 Laws of Book Distribution", "Communication 101", and generic discussion on strategies for local leaders. After the sessions, attendees formed four groups and went out for book distribution on the streets. It was quite inspiring that the Temple President, H. G. Varada Krishna prabhu, also came along with devotees and distributed books. Devotees tried different book distribution techniques from the workshop and they enjoyed a lot. ISLT members headed by Srirama Prabhu gave good support to all the devotees during book distribution. In total, the team distributed 85 books by the blessings Their Lordships Sri Sri Gandharvika-Giridhari and Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Dev. Everyone shared their realization during the lunch. While they are fired up to reach their goal of 25000 books for this marathon, devotees are also excited to do book distribution on the last Saturday/Sunday of every month! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
India Sankirtana Leaders Team is eager to serve temples across India by hosting similar events. Please write to indiasankirtana@gmail.com for further details or call Vamsuli Dasa at 07675912269.
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ISLT trains ISKCON Kakinada youth in book distribution during Ratha Yatra 2014 - by Vamsuli Dasa
ISKCON
Kakinada, a temple in coastal Andhra Pradesh, had their annual Ratha Yatra this
November. Fourteen new bhaktas from the local university (JNTU) in Kakinada who
have been attending college outreach programs from the temple were eager to try
book distribution and volunteer for the big event. ISLT members, Srirama Dasa
and Vamsuli Dasa, encouraged and briefly trained the young and enthusiastic
devotees for book distribution. At the beginning of the event, HH Sukadeva
Goswami maharaja spoke to the crowds and encouraged them to get these spiritual
books as well as a chance to pull Lord Jagannath’s Chariot and bring Him closer
to their hearts and homes. The team started out with packets of small books
(two for INR 50) and were quickly dispatching the packets with great bliss. They
would run back to the cart where the books were being put into packets, asking
for more. The people in Kakinada are generally pious and we observed as men and women at several
homes facing the street welcomed Lord Jagannath with joined palms and
a reverential mood. We approached the people on the streets and distributed
medium books such as the wonderful Teachings of Queen Kunti. Srirama prabhu distributed books to a cobbler, who very much appreciated them. In total, the team
distributed nearly INR 8000 worth of books that evening, including hard bound
copies of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is and the Krishna book.
In the coming year, we look
forwards to seeing the blossoming of sankirtana teams in Kakinada and every
town and village around there. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
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Message on Book Distribution Marathon 2014 from HH Bhakti Vikas Swami
To listen to hundreds of inspiring and energizing lectures on book distribution, please go to the link: Book Distribution Lectures by Devotees around the World
Courtesy: ISKCON Desire Tree website
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Sankirtana FAQ
We all come across many questions about book distribution, both practical and philosophical. In this section, we highlight common, important, and relevant questions and outline some possible answers, with support from shastras and sadhus.
Question: Sometimes, due to coming late from book distribution, we miss out on mangal arati or chanting in the morning.
Answer: The first law of book distribution is to have strict, sincere, and serious sadhana. What we do on the field (distributing books) and how we do it is a reflection of our relationship with the Holy Names, and vice versa. We can give only as much Krishna consciousness to others as we have filled up our hearts, our minds, and our time with. However, this is the one month in which all devotees aim to give! Therefore, if we have a regular practice of reading an hour of Srimad Bhagavatam, we should check if it is still possible to continue to do that and reach the goals we set for ourselves during the marathon, and adjust our schedule accordingly. While it may be an acceptable excuse if we miss out mangal arati on one day because of a long journey back to home from a book distribution spot, we can (and certainly should) plan our general schedule of book distribution by assertively saying "yes" or "no" such that we can balance our sadhana goals with our marathon goals.
On the field, sometimes, we pray to Krishna and Srila Prabhupada intensely when nobody takes a book from our hands that day! We take shelter of Srila Prabhupada's words when we have to convince a 'devil's advocate' on the street. We DEPEND on Krishna when we go out for book distribution! Book distribution is itself HIGH SADHANA! This is one activity that expressly pleases Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. We should remember devotees such as those of the famous Radha Damodara Traveling Sankirtana Party in USA had previously distributed books and did regular preaching while living out of a van. We can take inspiration from the numerous stalwart examples we have in ISKCON and do more sadhana and more book distribution this month.
THIS JUST IN!!! HH Giriraja Swami, a dear disciple of Srila Prabhupada just addressed this very question in a wonderful article. Read more here. (1:00 p.m., 9 December 2014, Vamsuli Dasa)
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Tell us what you think!
- Report your book distribution scores,
- Share your experiences, realizations, and stories,
- Ask (or answer) a question (FAQ) on book distribution,
- Suggest a book distributor who could share valuable insights,
- Give ideas for how to make this newsletter better and sweeter,
- Get involved with ISLT strategy and help develop this newsletter,
- Extend your support and encouragement with comments or letters.
For
your convenience, we have also included a contact form on the right
hand side bar of this page. Thank you very much for reading this month's
newsletter!
Param Vijayate Sri Krishna Sankirtanam!
Your servants,
Sri Rama Dasa
Krishna Mitra Nitai Dasa
Vamsuli Dasa
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