2005 || Navadvīpa Maṇḍala Parikramā : Address, Awards & Kīrtana || Śrī Māyāpur, India

If only one or two, at least somebody to understand the importance of Srila Prabhupada's Hope distribution mission. I was recently inspired. In fact, I think it was the second day of our GBC meetings this year. I was completely absorbed the whole day, which is something for me. It's not so easy. I'm not so much inclined to meetings. But on this particular day, the second day of our GBC meetings this year, only one subject, and that was book distribution. And it was affirmed by other GBC members with whom I spoke that some of them were saying it was the most enlivening day they've ever spent in the GBC magazines and sent me down to Providence, Rhode island to stand in the middle of the street and distribute magazines. And it was so hard. I was so bewildered. But still I knew. I knew because I came to Ka Consciousness as a result of getting Srila Prabhupada's books. I knew it was something that was pleasing to him. So I struggled. But for years I would struggle. Sometimes with tears in my eyes, I would literally cry. It was so difficult. I'd be standing there on a street corner. People would come and they would look at me. They would think, what's going on with this person standing there crying? I was not crying tears of ecstasy. Neither were there tears of compassion. I was crying because it was so difficult for me to face somebody on the street and try to convince them to take a book. But still I would attend. Sometimes I would stop or I would sit there. And I wasn't producing many results on book distribution. Sometimes the temple president, he would bring me back and give me some other engagements because it was just too difficult. Then I would say, let me try one more time. And he sent me out again. So I went like this for a couple of years, and then I was out on traveling Sankirtan. And I got this realization that if I'm going to stay in devotee, I just simply have to continue Srila Prabhupada's books. I know it's my only hope if I ever want to become, I should say, stay a devotee, become a devotee and not turn into a demon. So I was praying really hard. And all of a sudden that day I got a phone call from the temple president. And he said he wanted me to come back to the temple to cook. And I was thinking, what a stick is possible? How can you do such a thing? I have to destroy this. I have to. And the president said no. He said that you're the only you're the only Brahmin right now. We need someone to come back to the Brahmin and to cook for the. For the deities. I protested and I explained to him I won't live, I won't be able to survive. I have to do it. He said, well, you're not getting so many results. I know I'm not getting so many results, but still you don't understand, I have to do it. But the temple president forced me surrendered. So I had to go back to the temple and cook. And I found out very soon as I got back that the idea the temple president had for me was to cook about five offerings a day. So I was in the kitchen for about 10 hours. I had to cook a different breakfast, lunch, lunch for all the devotees, all the milk, sweets and daily sweets from the deities every day that I had to cook food offering. And then I would finish sometime around 4 o' clock in the afternoon. And the temple president told me, he said that after you finish cooking your duties in the kitchen, you should go out at Harina. So I was thinking, how is it possible? How can I go out in Hari Nam? And I started to think that if I'm going to go out, if I have to go out, I should go out to Distribut Srila Prabhupada's books. Forget Harinam. He brought me back here to be a cook. So I'll do my cooking. But instead of going out on Hari Nam, I'm going to go out and book distribution. So I used to go down to the kitchen every day and I would cook. After finishing cooking, I bring my. We wore karmic clothes in those days. I'd bring my karmic clothes downstairs in the basement. And then I would change after finishing cookist a couple of hours in the most difficult place to distribute books in all of Boston. It was called Harvard Square. It's where all the universities, Harvard University students and professors would go. They would all be there. And then they'd be so puffed up, so hard again, I would find myself standing on the street crying, so difficult, forcing myself to do it. And then one day, it was the most amazing experience. And I'm sure everybody who distribute books, you know about these experiences. I'm not telling you something, something new, something unknown, something that's a mystery. Of course it is a mystery. How Prabhupada give so much mercy if we simply try to do something that's pleasing to him. But I had this most wonderful taste. Like I never. It was just so profound. Bhakti Vikash Maharaj used this word several times. Profound. I was the most profound experience that as I was standing in the middle of Harvard Square, that I was feeling so blissful because I was just have an opportunity to distribute Srila Prabhupada's books. And I came back to the temple every night and it was becoming blissful every day. An experience I hadn't had for years. It was usually tears, misery. Sometimes on book distribution, I used to lie awake at night all night long. I didn't want to go to sleep because I would have to wake up in the morning and I knew it would come so fast and I'd have to go out and distribute books again. So to make it last long, I would lie awake all night, look at. Simply look at the ceiling. So that's how difficult. But then I got this taste. And then the temple president, he used to. Sometimes he see me walking through the temple in the evening and he see me, I was so blissful. And he asked me question. He says, why are you so blissful? And I didn't want to tell him what he was doing because I was supposed to be on Harinam. So I told him, it's very nice cooking for Radha Gobi Bhalava. And then after some time, he found out. We found out that actually that I was sneaking out and going out on book distribution every day. So I think it was just after about three or four, maybe four or five weeks of cooking and going out distribution. One day he called me up into the office and said, I found out why you're so blissful. And he said, all right, I've decided to put somebody else in the kitchen. Here's the keys. And he gave me the keys to the van. He gave me four devotees. He said, now get out of here. Go distribute books. That was it. I remember I was gone. I was gone the same day. We used to load so many books in the van when we leave the temple that we couldn't. There was no room to sleep in the van at night. The only way you could sleep in the van is if you had to go stop someplace and distribute enough books to leave room for yourself to get in the van and sleep at night. So we filled up the whole van and we left. We went out and we distributed books. And I stayed out for years. That was it. That was that white van that I wanted to be president of for the rest of my life. And somehow Krishna at least gave it to me for a few more years. But this is just Evidence that there is so much taste. It's our life and Prabhupada's willing to give it to anybody who just simply makes some sacrifice shows that he really wants to do something. He wants to give Prabhupada life. So Prabhupada says, if you preach and distribute my books, you'll give me life. I own it forever. So we simply meditated in that way and we tried to make some personal sacrifice for Srila Prabhupada to give him life. Then Prabhupada is ready to bestow his mercy on each and every one of us if we simply can remember that his books are so dear to him and his book distribution mission is so dear to him. And it will remain dear to him as he said that I will live forever in my books. So we should always feel that we have some hope to bring a smile to Srila Prabhupada.

So he's a book distributor from there. Okay, so this is one of the book distributors from that temple, his name. So they distributed. They did 32,578 points. So just to give you an idea of the point system, one point is one book. Okay, so they did 32,578 points. So that's also. One point also is equal to like 10 small books. I believe that's one point or three medium.

And.

The Gita, the Bhagavad Gita is one and a half points for last year. This year it'll be two points. So let's give you an idea of the points. I'm not going to name off all the books because it'll be too much until we get to the top five distributors and I'll name the books. So the number one small temple in the world is Mumbai Mira Road. Is anybody here from Mira Road, Mumbai? Okay, we'll have to find. Just put that. Anyway, they did 57,975 points. So the number one medium temple in the world is Karuna Bhavan, Scotland. Anybody here from Karuna Bhavan? They're usually pretty absorbed in book distributions. They never come to Mayapur. They're absorbed. So they did 93 points. Incredible. The number one large temple in the world is Mayapur. And they did 316,735 points. And the prize will go to Jaya Patakaswamy. So now you get one. There's another one coming to me. So the number three distributor amongst the disciples of RLA Prabhupda is mother Nidra from Denver. She's Been distributing books for 32 years steadily. Very nice devotees. He must be about 54 years old now. And she did 4,224 points. She's also absorbed in book distribution along with the next one, Next two. All these devotees are still distributing Prabhupada's books in America. Next number two is mother Moha Nassini from New Orleans. Does anybody here know her? That's here. Yeah, please. She's from New Taliban. But she distributes in New Orleans, I believe. Yes, she's from New Taliban. Oh, here's a garland for you as well. Number one, last year as well, he did 17,352 points. If you watch Brigo Bunny distributed books, you're just amazed about how it's possible. He looks like he's like 16 or 17 years old. He's 54 I believe. Now he's got unlimited energy. Okay, so now amongst the bhaktas. So he did 9,718 points. Is he here?

He's here. He's here.

Oh, very good. New Delhi is coming up with some very fired up bhaktas. And the number one one bhakta in the world for the past two years is Bhakta Philip. Unfortunately he's not here. He did 16,863 points. He's not here. So you can just. He left it. So this devotee that's receiving the awards is Achuta Priya. Achilla. I'm sorry. See, too many people. Achilla. He's the secretary minister for all of Russia. It is 97,687. Mahabhai. 16,307 big books and 187,105 other books. And they did 195,273 points. Okay, number three, doing 14,035 Baja biggest 108,063 big books and 277,524 other books. And they did 198,093 book points. And this is Karuna Bhavan, which means Bhagavad Gita pretty much, isn't it? 9207 Big books also. Not only is that Bhagavad Gita, but That's also the RMAD Bhagavatam sets 95,284 other books with 225,952 points. Mumbai Juhu. Okay, here comes a representative from Mumbai Juhu. 1826 Mahabig. 29,176 Big Books. 325,188 Other Books with 316,735 points. Mayapora Dao and the person who will be receiving those awards is Sachi Kumar Prabhu who is the Sanger town leader for Mayapur. For how many years? For how many years? For how many years have you been the Sangertown Leader here? Sachikumar? 15 years. He's been the Sangertan leader here. He was one of the pioneer traveling Sankirtan leaders in India as well. Maha Big 264 Big Books. 909 other books with 18,450 to 56 points. Bharadwaj S. Prabhu from Mayapur distributing 10,026. Maha Big 1745 Big Books. 42,000 other books with 24,743 points. Maru Sundar Prabhu from Delhi. Is he here? Other books with 25,027 points. Pavitra Krishna Prabhu from Mayapur. I have to tell you something about.

This.

Experience he had last year. From the beginning of last year he decided he was going to go on a marathon for the year for the RLA Prabhupda 108th appearance. So his vow was to do 18,108 Mahabik books and he did it. And two years previous to that as well. He only distributes Mahabig. He did 20,783 Mahabe books with 31,174 points. Krishna Balaram Bamu from Russia. This is Madhava's flute. This is the latest book of Hari Sari. He's actually he's collecting Madhava's flutes now. He's got a whole collection.

Sh.

Kissing Sa.

All year.

They do Satai Slow.

Palato.

Saul, we have Sam.

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