Qualities of a Book Distributor- SB 3.25.21 | Rus Split | 3.12.92 | Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī Mahārājā

Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya.

Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. So since we are in the Prabhupada book distribution marathon, we are going to read a verse that also emphasizes the importance of preaching. This is a verse from the third canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam.

It's a very famous verse that describes the characteristics of a devotee, and we shall see how each of these characteristics apply to a sankirtan devotee. So, so the class has to end by 8:00, um, I'll just read the Sanskrit and then proceed straight to the word meaning. Śrīrūpāṁ sagrajatāṁ sahāgana rāguṇātāṁ vittāṁ tāṁ sajevam sadveṭāṁ savaḍhūtam parījana saitāṁ Kṛṣṇa-cetānya-devaṁ Śrī-rādhā-Kṛṣṇa-pradāṇa sahāgana-lalitā śrī-vaṣakāṇitāṁ sthaḥ jāi Śrī Kṛṣṇa-cetānya-prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita-gadāḍhasyaḥ. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So every devotee in the ISKCON society knows, as we said the other day, that December is the month of the Prabhupāda marathon. Are all the devotees present in the hall at the moment participating in the marathon? Or is there anyone who's not participating? It would be the other way, only— okay, so I can see that 99.9% of the devotees are participating. So why are we participating in the Prabhupada marathon all over the world? Because the devotees in ISKCON have one deep conviction, and that is, except for the transcendental philosophy contained in the books of Prabhupada, there's no hope for the suffering humanity. There's so many volumes of books, there's so many stores of kaniki in your country, but these books don't present an alternative to the suffering humanity. So book distribution is not an activity for making some material profit or for making somebody famous, but it is essentially the highest welfare activity because it is designed to destroy ignorance that prevails in Kali Yuga. So a sankirtan devotee must always meditate on the mission of Lord Caitanya's appearance on the planet. He appeared to reclaim the most fallen souls of Kali Yuga. So it does not matter how contaminated one may be, through the medium of preaching, the most fallen of all can be lifted. A devotee becomes a powerful preacher if he is practicing the principles of purity. And the symptoms of a sadhu that are described in the verse in the review by Lord Kapila to his mother Devahuti should be cultivated by every sankirtan devotee. If we cultivate these principles, these characteristics, these guidelines, then we will become a powerful soldier of Lord Caitanya's army. So these are the guidelines which Lord Kapila wants all of us to develop. Versus titikshava, which means tolerance. This quality of tolerance is emphasized in many places in the Bhagavatam and in the Bhagavad Gita. This is not the only verse where this quality is being stressed. So a devotee has to be tolerant, especially a sankirtan devotee has to be very, very tolerant. When you go out on sankirtan, you have to face so many difficult situations. Sometimes it's very, very cold. You have to carry the books on your back. You have to carry backpacks. You may have a vehicle that doesn't work or breaks down on the way to some— you may go to a spot where you get arrested or you get thrown out of. But a devotee has to tolerate all these so-called material inconveniences. To the devotee, material inconveniences are just another opportunity to deepen his faith in the Lord and increase his dependence on the Lord. So to struggle for Krishna, as Prabhupada often told us, it's a privilege. And to serve Krishna in difficulties is, as Prabhupada said, a burden of love. Just like a mother, when she has to bring up a young child, definitely she has to go through so many inconveniences. The child gets up in the night, passes stool, passes urine, but the mother has to clean all this dirty stuff. To the mother, it is simply a burden of love. Her attachment for the child overpowers the inconvenience of doing these dirty activities. Similarly, our attachment to the mission of sankirtan, as, as expounded by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, overpowers the so-called inconveniences that material nature may sometimes offer us. So this is external tolerance. Then there is also internal tolerance. Internal tolerance is a must Otherwise external tolerance will not manifest. Internal tolerance refers to control over the mind and the senses. Unless the mind and the senses are in control, one cannot successfully execute the Krishna conscious mission. Whether you're chanting your rounds or trying to preach to somebody or executing some activity, you must have the mind and senses in control. Now the nature of the senses is to always agitate, just like the nature of the child is always to cry and hanker, keep doing something or the other. So similarly, the mind and the senses are constantly trying to agitate the living entity to deviate from the spiritual mission. So with the assistance of superior spiritual intelligence, we tolerate the so-called disturbance of the mind and the senses are endeavoring to create. And one develops the ability to tolerate if one is chanting and hearing attentively. Chanting and hearing the Holy Name and reading and hearing the philosophy contained in Prabhupada's books. Prabhupada wanted all book distributors to regularly read these books, because the more you read, the more attached you get to the importance of distributing these books. And the more you read, the conviction will become stronger. So understanding the philosophy enables one to tolerate the agitation of the mind and senses. And if one is fixed at the spiritual path, then the mind and the senses are consistently engaged in service to the Lord. Then karuni kaha— karuni kaha means to be merciful. This is another important characteristic that a Vaishnava, especially a sankirtana devotee, must develop. So there are many different types of mercy, different, different concepts of mercy on this planet. If you go to countries like India, you find rich people are very fond of building hospitals or schools in memory of their parents or some ancestor's name to get some name and fame. But is this real mercy? No, because you may cure a sick man, but if you haven't cured him from the sinful tendencies then you've just enabled him to get more entangled rather than help him in any manner. And even if you educate somebody materially but you don't educate him spiritually, then as a result of the material education, he will just get more entangled in forgetting the Lord and thereby make himself liable for deep punishment. Thakur Bhakti Anand has said the material education is just like a heavy crown on one's head. When you have a heavy crown on the head, You sink faster than if you didn't have a crown. So we're not against material education, but as the Isha Upanishad says, one must cultivate spiritual and material knowledge side by side. So the highest welfare activity is to give people knowledge by which they can stop sinning and direct their loving propensity towards God. So this is the highest philanthropic activity the highest charitable activity and the highest merciful activity on this planet. So the sankirtana devotee who is engaged in distributing the mercy of the Lord contained in Prabhupāda's books, he is a true merciful character on this planet. He's manifesting his mercy by endeavoring, participating in a difficult situation to go out and preach and distribute these books. The Sankirtan devotee doesn't mind going through the hardships. Why? Because he realizes this rare human body should be used for the welfare of entire— of the entire humanity. In the Bhagavatam, it is said this body must be used for the welfare of others. So the materialist concept is use the body for my own senses, sense pleasure. The, the spiritualist concept is The body should be used for the welfare of others. Therefore, the Vaishnava devotee participates in preaching activity. So this is the real definition of mercy— give people knowledge by which they can stop sinning. Now each of us could just stand at the metro stations and the different streets and catch hold of everybody and tell him, please give up sinning and start chanting the names of God. And each of us could easily stop you know, 50, 100 people a day and give them this knowledge. But Prabhupada explained that this is not enough. You may tell them to stop sinning, you may tell them to chant Hare Krishna, the names of God, but when they leave you, in 3 minutes they'll forget everything that they've heard from you. But if you give them a book, Prabhupada said, then that book will travel with them, stay with them, and remind them again and again. As to what should be the mission of life. That book will permit Prabhupada, Lord Shri Krishna, and the great acharyas whose commentaries have been summarized, all of them an opportunity to preach, preach, preach, bombard that individual with the spiritual philosophy so that he gives up that nonsense and surrenders to the divine spiritual path. Not only will the individual who takes the book be bombarded, but also others who come in its contact will read the book and be bombarded. Even if somebody understands one word of the Bhagavatam or these scriptures significantly, he can change his whole life. So there is no doubt in those who understand the philosophy of human life that the highest charitable work, merciful activity, is to give people knowledge of God. And people are interested. It is not that everybody wants to be involved in kali, in materialistic activities. Just like yesterday, we were coming in train from Leningrad to Moscow, and, uh, there was a very nice couple in the compartment with us. So we had the opportunity to preach to them, and the devotees traveling with me also preached to them in Russian. So they ended up buying two books, and before we left, we parted in Moscow, they were already husband-wife teaching their child how to say Krishna, Krishna, Krishna. So There are millions of other families like them waiting to be approached by devotees. Because though in Kali Yuga evil practices are on the increase, still the quality of truthfulness still holds. That means that when we present the truthful message of the Lord in a truthful manner with truthful desires, then the insincere can also be inspired to the sincere path. Even if your mind is telling you not to go on sankirtan, even if your mind is trying to put so many obstacles You must, because of determination and your conviction to perform this merciful activity, participate in this activity. Surdasarvadhainam— friend of all living entities. That is a Vaishnava, exalted personality. He has no enemies at all. In the material world, everybody divides the camps into friends and enemies. He's my friend, he's my enemy. But a devotee doesn't believe in this ideology. When Pralad Maharaj was in school, his teachers were trying to train him in this art of diplomacy, dividing friends into friends, dividing society into friends and enemies. But he rejected this instruction. He said, no one is my enemy. I don't want this diplomatic knowledge. Everyone is my friend. So everybody should be our friend. And therefore, the Vaishnava devotee, the sankirtan devotee He wants to give this knowledge of God to everyone without discrimination. He does not discriminate. He doesn't say, oh, I don't like how this person looks, I'm not going to approach him with a book. Just like the clouds pour water without discrimination, whether it's an ocean, a fertile soil, or a mountaintop, the devotee preaches without discrimination. The Vaishnava devotee is the true friend of everyone. Therefore, he does not wish to harm even an ant. Brahman, the body, jad baharat— when he was carrying King Rahugana, he would, before placing his feet on the ground, watch that at least to make sure that for the next 3 feet there was no entity on the ground, on the earth. So the panchata— in the Chaitanya-caritamrita, it is explained how when Lord Chaitanya appeared with his associate, the panchatatva, they broke open the seal of love of God. And freely distributed this knowledge of love of God. So Prabhupada did a similar operation. He presented— he, he compressed a vast, vast Vedic knowledge in his Bhaktirandha Purposa, and he gave all of us the instruction, now go out and freely distribute these books for everyone's benefit. So the devotees, because they're friends of everyone, they want to enlighten everyone with the spiritual wisdom. And the conviction must always be there that this is the only means by which they can be saved. Ajātā śatravā— inimical to none. This is a little similar to what we've just discussed, that because a devotee is inimical to none, he's friendly to everyone. Śanta means peaceful. So presently we are not peaceful. If I was to do a survey with all of you and ask you to write, all of you, peaceful confidentially, most of you would say, no, no, no, I'm not peaceful. So why is it that you've taken to Krishna consciousness, the most sublime philosophy, and still you're not peaceful? Because of the conflict in the mind, the conflict between pursuing material goals and spiritual instructions. You have spiritual instructions: give up nonsense, give up nonsense, take to the spiritual path. Every day you hear from the spiritual master, from the sadhu, from the shastra, give up Maya, give up Maya, give up Maya. But the desire to be enjoying Maya is also there. We're trying to get rid of it, but we are not determined enough to throw it all out in one stroke. We'll give up 10% and keep 90%, then a little later again give up 10% and keep 80%. Therefore the mind is not peaceful. But the moment you become single-pointed I'm here to practice Krishna consciousness and everything else is going to be rejected, you'll become peaceful. So Sankirtan devotee is shanta, peaceful, because he is convinced about the importance of book distribution. And because he participates in this very important mission of saving humanity, he has to constantly meditate on how to realize success in this. He becomes peaceful. So the path to santha, peacefulness, is to become single-pointed in presenting Krishna consciousness and practicing Krishna consciousness. We should remind ourselves Rupa Gosvāmī's instruction: Kāmadhīnam katiṇnapalita dhūrṇī-deṣa. I've been trying to satisfy my senses since time immemorial, but there is no satisfaction. So why misuse the rare human body for something that even the animals are realizing? Those people who say that you can have sense enjoyment and one day you'll get frustrated and then you can come to spiritual life are fools, fluffers. Just like the Rajneesh people say, have unlimited sense enjoyment, one day you'll get tired and then you can be truly renunciate. You can't drink poison and hope that one day you'll become healthy. Can you drink Russian poison and hope you'll become healthy? So we don't follow the path of the blind, we follow the path of the enlightened. So shanta You'll be peaceful if you just meditate on the mission and the instructions that Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya have given us. And Prabhupada's instruction is participate in book distribution. So participate in this endeavor and you see how your mind will become peaceful. Sadhva sadhu bhushanah. Sadhva abides by scriptures. So sankirtana is an activity that is also according to the scriptures because In the Bhagavad-gītā, 18th chapter, also Krishna says, of all types of devotees, the dearest devotee is one who preaches my glories. So one who endeavors to preach the glories of the Lord is very dear to the Lord. Then Lord Caitanya also emphasized this, and he said, this is also in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So this activity of preaching, sāṁkīrtana, is 100% endorsed in the scriptures. The Bhagavad-gītā was spoken 5,000 years ago on this earthly planet, but the knowledge is over 2 million years old. So even 2 million years ago, the Lord told Vivasvan that the dearmost devotee is one who's always preaching my glories. So preaching as the principal activity of the devotee has been emphasized since times immemorial. It is not a concoction, it is historical. So these are some of the characteristics that, uh, devotee should cultivate. And these characteristics are very applicable even to a sankirtan devotee. And if we cultivate these qualities, then you will become a powerful preacher for the Lord. And don't forget that the opportunity to present Krishna consciousness is presented only to the most fortunate souls. So those who are participating on this, in this Prabhupada marathon, are actually the most fortunate souls on this planet. Lord will be eternally indebted to them. Prabhupada and spiritual master will also be eternally indebted to them.

Why?

Because they've helped reclaim the lost children of the Lord. So here's an opportunity for all of us to help reclaim the lost children of the Lord. We should do that and be happy and make others happy. Hare Krishna. Param vijayate Sri Krishna samkirtanam. I can take on only one question if it is related to samkirtan. Tolkā samkirtan, huh? Well, I'm not going to say that you should invite the police to beat you so that you can be inspired to distribute more books in the future. Anyway, try and preach the police. You can ask your samkirtan leader what to do in such situation, but don't intentionally invite trouble.

Hare Krishna. I'm not giving the Bhagavatam class. The Bhagavatam class is going to be given by His Grace Sriram Prabhu. I'm just addressing the devotees on few points which I feel are essential to be brought to everyone's attention. And after I finish speaking for a few minutes, then Sriram Prabhu will start the class. So as all of you know, this is the month of the Prabhupada marathon. Today is the 14th day. That means 13 days of this marathon are over and only 18 more days are left. In talking to the devotees over the past, uh, 2 weeks, I observed that some devotees were completely into the marathon, some were half-hearted into it, and some were quarter, uh, some were about 25% into it, and very few didn't even know that the marathon has started. So we just want to remind everyone that the marathon is in full gear, and we've emphasized many times the importance of book distribution as a medium to make yourself happy and make others happy. Yesterday we observed the disappearance day of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. It was Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur who pushed his disciples into book distribution and specifically instructed Prabhupada to also, uh, when he gets the opportunity, to translate and distribute books. So you understand, the Moscow Temple has a goal of 200,000 big books for the marathon. Of course, there are many Maharatis in this temple who always come up with outstanding performances, but all of you should become a part of the winning team. So if all of you go out in the marathon and do some book distribution, at the end of the marathon you can all say, see, We won the marathon because I went out. But if you don't go out, you won't be able to say that. So make an effort. Some of you may be spiders and some of you may be Hanumans. So, uh, just like Lord Ram had to fight Ravan, we are in a society where virtually everybody has the Ravan type of mentality. So we have to help Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada in reclaiming the conditioned souls by helping their effort, just like Hanuman and the spider helped Lord Rama cross over the Indian Ocean. So every devotee can play a role in distributing Prabhupada's books. Please just make the effort, and Krishna, who is residing within the heart, will give you the intelligence and determination to do the job. The other point I want to encourage the devotees is just to concentrate on Krishna conscious activities and to avoid any type of prajalpa. In the material world, we all have a tendency to take part in prajalpa. Before coming to Krishna consciousness, we only had one business— prajalpa.

So even after we come to Krishna consciousness, the old habit remains.

So we have to make an effort to stick to our business of chanting, reading, and seeing how we can push on Lord Caitanya's movement. Once an astrologer in Mayapur said the following about Prabhupada. He said that he, Swamiji, will build a house in which the whole world can live. So Prabhupada has built that house, that is the ISKCON institution and the ISKCON branches all over the world. So devotees, anybody who's interested in following the spiritual practices, is encouraged to stay in these houses and execute devotional service. Prabhupada wanted us all to work together. Prabhupada said, your love for me will be shown how you, how you all cooperate with each other. So all devotees should please work together. It does not matter whose disciple one may be, we all members of Prabhupada's family. So devotees should not have the feeling that, that we are trying, that we should not work together just because we are initiated by different gurus. We all— we should all always work together, keeping Lord Caitanya's mission in the forefront. Undue criticism should also be avoided. And if you all have some genuine points, you can always say it in a proper manner, but undue criticism and prajalpa should be avoided. And, uh, I also wanted to let the devotees know that we did have— as many of you know, we did have a meeting of the Soviet GBCs in Sweden recently. But the, the resolutions need a little, uh, are going to be discussed again. So after the Mayapur meetings, they will be presented to you. This is just for your information because some of you were asking, so we can say this publicly. So working together, pushing on Krishna consciousness, distributing Prabhupada's books, performing harinama, participating in prasad distribution programs. These are the major activities that Prabhupada gave us, and we should all enthusiastically help expand these activities. And please work together. Hare Krishna. So I, I know how anxious all of you are waiting, actually waiting to hear the Bhagavatam class, so I, I won't obstruct that much longer. One last word: please make an effort, because unless all of you make an effort this temple will not realize the goal of 200,000 big books. Hare Krishna.

Hare Guru. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Hare.