Why Book DIstribution is so dear to Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī Mahārājā? CC Antya 3.50| Rus-Split| 30.11.92

The first day of the Prabhupada marathon for this year. Therefore, today instead of the Srimad Bhagavatam class, I'm going to read from Caitanya-caritāmṛta. It's a very nice dialogue that took place between Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Haridas Thakura, and this dialogue conveys the importance of sāmkīrtana or book distribution. And to succeed on the spiritual path, we need the mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So instead of Jaya Rādhā Mādhā, we'll do Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Daya Kola Mole. Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya. Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya. So as we said, instead of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we have taken a verse from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta for discussion today. Haridas. Haridas. Kali-kalē. Kali-kalē. Hare Rāma Nirmalaya! Hari Das Kali Kale Yavna Padaa! Gobramne Hint Sakre Mahadura Charaa! Hai das kali kale yavana padaa! Go Brahmane hint sakre mahadura charaa! Om Jyānātmānandaśya Jyānāñjanaśrākya, chaakṣerme leta nienātāsmāy śrī-gurūveṇa-maha. Śrī-cetānya-māno-vestaṁ sthapitāmyena bhūtale, soyaṁ rūpaka-dāmayām dadāti svāpadaṇḍikam. Bandeḥ ham śrī-gurū, śrī-utāpada-kam lan śrī-gurūn-vaishnava-nāśṭha. Śrī-rūpaṁ sakraja-taṁ sahāgana-raghunā tanvitam tam-sa-devaṁ. Sadve-taṁ savadhu-taṁ parijana-saītam kṛṣṇa-cetānya-devaṁ. Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa-padān-sahagana-lalitā śrī-viśakha-netam-sthā jai Śrī Kṛṣṇa-cetanya-prabhu-nidham rādhasivacchadigorbḥ hare krsṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Jaya Namo 'Hari-Nama' Ramo-Rammo-Hari-Freema. Haridas-kali-kaleya-avana-paraha gopramne-hinsakere mahā-dvra-jara. So this verse is being spoken by Caitanya Mahāprabhu himself. Caitanya Mahāprabhu is speaking this verse to the Nama-charya devotee Haridas Thakura. Caitanya Mahāprabhu had very great regard for Haridas Thakura. So every day Caitanya Mahāprabhu would come to visit Haridas Thakura. Haridas Thakura would not enter into the Jagannātha Puri Temple. Because it is an age-old tradition that if you're not born in a Hindu tradition family, you can't enter the Jagannath Puri Temple. Prabhupada was vigorously opposed to this principle. So Haridas Thakur decided that he will not try to enter the Jagannath Puri Temple, but nearby he was always chanting the holy names of the Lord 300,000 times a day. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu would every day come and visit him. So in this verse, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is displaying his anxiety for the liberation of the conditioned souls. First point Chaitanya Mahaprabhu makes, that people in Kali Yuga are bereft of Vedic culture. They are killing cows and they're killing Brahminical culture. Therefore they are called yāvanas. So this is the definition of a yāvana. A yāvana or a mleccha is one who doesn't care for the Vedic culture, which is nothing but the teachings of the Supreme Lord. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told Haridas How will these yāvanas be saved? I do not know how they will be saved. This is why I'm in great anxiety. We just sang Narottama Das Thakura's famous offering of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu Daya-korāmore. So in that, Narottama Das Thakura says, patit pavan hetu tava avatāra. You have appeared just to reclaim the fallen souls of Kali-yuga, the yāvanas and mlecchas, the most fallen. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu and the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa are in great anxiety at seeing the yāvanas rebel and stay in the material world by defying the laws of God. So when Haridas ṭhākura heard Caitanya Mahāprabhu's great anxiety, he became very, very concerned. Why? Because this is the nature of a devotee. A devotee is always anxious to relieve the anxiety of the Lord and the spiritual master. So service to the spiritual master, service to the Lord, means finding out what is that instruction which is the dearest to them. So Hridayaṣṭhākura, when he saw the anxiety of the Lord, he said, Hridayaṣkahe, Prabhu cinta na karya, yāvanena samsara dekhī dukhāna bhavya. My dear Lord, please do not be in anxiety We have a plan by which these yāvanas can be saved. And what was that plan that Haridas Thakur had? What's that plan? Huh? Haridas Thakur said, ha rāma, ha rāma, balikāye nama bahāse. By taking to the chanting of the holy names of the Lord, offenseless chanting, these yāvanas will be saved from the onslaughts of birth and death. So this book distribution marathon This book distribution program which Prabhupada started was Prabhupada's transcendental trick to get people to chant Hare Krishna. After all, the acharya's mission is to think of ways how people can go back to God. First, we have to understand the philosophy why we emphasize book distribution, why we emphasize preaching. That philosophy you can understand in this dialogue between Haridas Thakur and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. But the philosophy that we understand has to be translated into practice. Just like we understand the philosophy sense enjoyment is bad, so we must practice it and abstain from sense enjoyment. We tell people to take the chanting of the holy names of Krishna as a means of developing love of God. So we practically chant the holy names of the Lord to demonstrate to others the importance of the chanting. In other words, we preach by example. When you preach by example, it has the greatest potency. Therefore, Caitanya Caitanya Mahāprabhu states that a devotee by his behavior must exhibit the meaning of religious principles. There are two types of devotees. One is those who are concerned about their own liberation, and the others are those who are concerned about everybody else's welfare also. Those who are interested only in their own liberation are known as bhajanānandī devotees, and those who are interested in their own plus other people's welfare are known as Goshtanandi bhaktas. So those in the disciplic succession of Caitanya Mahaprabhu are Goshtanandi devotees. In India, you'll find many people in Vrindavan who are bhajanandis. They just stay in their rooms all day and do bhajan. But the Goshtanandi, he does bhajan plus he also makes others do bhajan. So the mood of Goshtanandi was exhibited by Caitanya Mahaprabhu himself. There's a reason why Prabhupada emphasized preaching, because this was the tradition established by Caitanya Mahaprabhu. A genuine Ācārya does not concoct, but rather just repeat what he has heard from his guru. As Narottama Das ṭhākura says, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has appeared to save the fallen souls of Kali-yuga. So people even 500 years ago were beginning to get— were beginning to deviate from the spiritual path. It is now that only in 20th century Russia are people deviating from the spiritual path. That is why even when Caitanya Mahāprabhu was on the planet He was sending Nityānanda and all his associates to go house to house and preach what? Jāre dakutāye kau kṛṣṇa upadeś. Preach to everyone the glories of the Holy Name. Therefore we read in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta how so many associates of the Lord, they were constantly preaching, going house to house, even if they have to face difficulties. We should not forget that it was during an attempt by Nityānanda Prabhu to carry out the orders of Caitanya Mahāprabhu that he was attacked by Jagai and Madhai. Nityānanda Prabhu had a desire to always stay in the association of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but he understood that it is also Caitanya Mahāprabhu's desire that he go and preach. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Prabhu explains two reasons why a devotee preaches. One is to establish the importance of devotional service, and the other reason is to destroy the nonsense theories that are existing. So the devotee preaches to destroy the nonsense theories. And one of the nonsense theories that is in existence is the theory that sense enjoyment is the goal of life. So Nityānanda, during his preaching endeavor, was attacked by Jagāya and Mādhāya, but still he did not get discouraged. He was attacked, bleeding. Chaitanya Mahāprabhu wanted to kill him with the Sudarshan chakra, kill them with the Sudarshan chakra, but Nityānanda Prabhu stopped them. Nityānanda Prabhu told Caitanya Mahāprabhu, "This is symbolic of what to expect in Kali-yuga." But because Nityānanda Prabhu was compassionate and determined to save Jagai-Mādhāi by his association, by his tolerance and humility, they got so moved that they gave up their sinful activities and became devotees of the Lord. Actually, they were already, they were born in brahminical family. They were devotees at birth. But then they fell in bad association and got contaminated. Just like rainwater, when it is falling from the clouds, it is pure, but when it hits the earth, it becomes muddy. So similarly, the living entity, after he comes in contact with the material environment, he becomes contaminated. So bhakti-siddhanta Saraswati Thakur cultivating also emphasized this activity of book distribution and preaching because this was the mood of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu never instructed his associates to do book distribution because they were— no, there was no printing industry at that time. So people could just verbally go and give the message. But by the time Thakura Bhakti Vinod was on this planet, the printing industry had developed. So therefore we say that Thakura Bhakti Vinod was the first great ācārya who started global book distribution. You devotees are only doing book distribution in Moscow when it's Russia. But Thakur Bhaktinath, sitting in, uh, Orissa, he was sending books all over the world. And then Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur took that mood of Thakur Bhaktinath, and he would send his disciples out to go and do book distribution also. And it was Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur who emphasized to Prabhupāda the importance of book distribution. In fact, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur drew a picture of a mridanga. And he said, when you have money, print and distribute my books. Why? Because this is the big mridanga. Its sound can travel, uh, to unlimited lengths. And even if you have a mridanga, best mridanga, it breaks after some time. But this mridanga stays for years and years. And this mridanga has the potency of completely cleansing the material desires from the heart. Therefore Prabhupada said, not only is this activity of book printing and book distribution brihad-medhanga, but it is also brihad-kīrtana. Brihad-kīrtana! Because when you go on a harinama, there's a limit to the distance where the sound will travel. But when you distribute a book, it can go to any— it may travel 20,000 miles before somebody reads it. So Prabhupada has said again and again, which I'm sure all you devotees have heard again and again, How? If you want to please me, distribute my books. Of course, the spiritual master is pleased by even a small bit of service that one may do, but an advanced devotee always wants to know what will please him the most, and that is his activity of preaching, exemplified through the medium of book distribution. So the devotees in ISKCON are all convinced about the importance of book distribution, and at least in your country, as I've always said, the book distribution fever is quite strong. We emphasize book distribution. Why? Because it's the highest welfare activity. We emphasize book distribution because this can save people from going to hell. We emphasize book distribution. Why? Because it reveals the path of real happiness. We emphasize book distribution. Why? Because it enables us to understand what is right, what is wrong. Now Krishna is always dependent upon his devotees, just like on the Battle of Kurukshetra. Krishna could easily have killed all the soldiers and made the Pandavas victorious. But did Krishna do that? Did he do that? Da? No, he didn't do it. He wanted Arjuna to fight. He wanted Arjuna to make the effort. He said, "You become my instrument." So similarly, we all have to make the endeavor and become the instruments by which these conditioned souls can go back to God. And what was the key instruction that Krishna gave to Arjuna? Tasma sarvesu kaleśya mam manasma yudhucha. With your mind dedicated to Me, fight for Me. So with our mind focused on Krishna, we have to engage in our duties. So when we go on some kīrtan, our mind should always be focused on the instruction of the spiritual master Prabhupāda and Krishna. And if the mind is so focused, then we will gain the spiritual strength, We will maintain the enthusiasm to save the conditioned soul. Every conditioned soul that you see, you should think, if I don't give him this book now, if I don't give him Krishna consciousness now, he may never get a chance again. Why? Because anyone can die at any time. Pradhan padhyam yad vipratam na tesam. There is danger at every step. So therefore Caitanya-caritāmṛta says without discrimination we should preach. Just like the Pancha-tattva. What did the Pancha-tattva do? The Pancha-tattva, when they appeared on the planet, they broke open the seal of a box in which there was a very valuable commodity. Who knows what was that commodity in that box? Love of Godhead. Love of Godhead. That storehouse contained love of God. And the Pancha Tattvas took it out and freely distributed it to everyone. So this is exactly what Prabhupada has done. He has taken the philosophy how to develop love of God and put them in his books. And now you devotees have to distribute this philosophy to everyone. And whoever reads this, these books, what will happen? What will happen? Who knows? He'll become a devotee. He'll become free from the cycle of birth and death. He will develop love of God. And as you begin to develop love of God, your so-called love for activities of sense enjoyment will automatically diminish. So Krishna reciprocates based on our effort. Ye etamam prapadyante. All of them as they surrender to me, I reward them accordingly. So based on our endeavor, Krishna will reciprocate. And as Prabhupada said, purity is a force Based on that purity, Krishna will reciprocate. And purity is the result of execution of sadhana, especially the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. So Prabhupada has given us so many transcendental activities by which we can constantly engage the mind and senses in service to the Lord. But if the devotees are enthusiastic, if they're practicing purity, then the results are guaranteed. There is no material impediment to this sankirtan activity. Just like when Prabhupada was on the planet, some people started spreading the rumor that very soon there will be a war and people will stop buying these books and book distribution is going to come to a stop. So one devotee wrote a letter to Prabhupada and said, this is what devotees— some devotees are talking, is this true? Prabhupada said, this is nonsense! Book distribution will never stop and there'll be no impediment to our preaching activity. So through this activity of book distribution, not only are we making conditioned souls fortunate, we're giving Prabhupada and the great acharyas an opportunity to also preach. We all of you have practically seen that no material arrangement can solve the basic problems of life. Material adjustments are being made, but there is no solution. What is needed is a spiritual adjustment. But the need for spiritual adjustment will only be understood if people read the books. And they will only be able to read the books if we distribute the books. If we all sit in our temple, then how will people come to know about these books? Just like if Prabhupada would just have stayed in Vrindavan and not come to the West, would all of us have been together today? No, we would not have been together. In the old age, Prabhupada went through so many hardships. Why? Just to leave behind knowledge by which we could benefit. He personally saw on Prabhupada's last months on this planet how he was so sick. His whole body was, uh, sick, burning inside, the Ayurvedic doctor said. He could not even sit or hold the microphone. But in spite of all these difficulties, Prabhupada still went on translating these books because he was concerned about the future of humanity, because he wanted to execute the orders of his Guru Mahārāja. So the instruction of the spiritual master should be the guiding principle for one's life. And Prabhupada, the founder acharya of the Krishna Consciousness movement, has given us one instruction which nobody can compromise. And this instruction will be the guiding spirit for the next 10,000 years that ISKCON stays on the planet. And that instruction is: distribute my books. So there is no doubt that all devotees are convinced about the import— the value of the knowledge in Prabhupada's book. Now is the opportunity to make day and night one and demonstrate this. So today is the first day of the Prabhupada marathon. In ISKCON there are so many marathons, and in your country there's so many book distribution marathons also. But one marathon which is the principal book distribution marathon of the year is the Prabhupada marathon in December. This is the marathon in which even the lazy devotees want to come out and participate. Even the lazy devotees come and say, "Prabhupada Maharaj, please give me an opportunity to distribute book. I just came from India where we organized the book distribution marathon in different temples and everybody wanted to go out, everyone." But in the other months it's not so easy to get everybody out. So this is the marathon of the marathon. This is the king of marathon. Just like Prakṛṣṇa says, "Rājavidaḥ rājagoyam." This knowledge is the king of education. The entire Vedas contain education, but the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā is specifically the most important, the essence of it. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa says this is the king of knowledge. So similarly, there are many marathons, but the Prabhupāda marathon in December is the king of marathon. This— and what is the marathon? Prabhupāda explained in a lecture in Los Angeles. He said marathon means where you forget you're sleeping and eating. That means you reduce it. You make your day and night as one, and your total obsession is how to achieve our goal. Actually, December is significant from one other point. The Bhagavad Gita was spoken by Krishna to Arjuna in the month of December. The Bhagavad Gita was spoken this year. It is— when is it, Kadasi? December 6th? Yeah, okay. So this year, Gita Jayanti. Gita Jayanti is the day the Gita was spoken by Krishna to Arjuna. That is on December 6th. So December is the month where our devotees all over the world going on an all-out marathon. But December is also the month in which Krishna spoke this great philosophy to Arjuna. So the more enthusiasm we show, the greater are the results. We have seen that material impediment, material economy, has no effect on the enthusiasm of devotees. So please keep meditating on the importance of book distribution. If we were to do a survey of all the devotees present in this room, 99% would say they came to this movement because of book distribution. About 2 weeks ago, I had a very positive experience on this point. I was doing a program at a suburb in Bombay, and the local person who was very enthusiastic and the leader there— so I asked him, how did he come to Krishna consciousness? He said, in 1984 December, your, your vans from the temple had come to do book distribution. He bought the book in 1984. And for 6 years he did not open the book. It was lying in his cupboard and gathering dust. Then one day in 1990, he said, I've had this book for 6 years. Let me see what is inside. First he read one page, then few more pages, then the whole book. Then he came to the temple, then he started associating with devotees, and now he's become a fired up preacher. He's a grihastha, he does a job, but he's also preaching. So this is just one example. There are thousands of examples. We could produce a whole encyclopedia with thousands of examples on this theme. So book distribution— Prabhupada said, as long as book distribution goes on, I will never die. So we never say the Vaishnava has died. Do we ever say Vyasa Deva is dead? No, Vyasa Deva is still living and he's living in his instruction. So are all the other acharyas. So is Srila Prabhupada. So Prabhupada said, as long as book distribution goes on, I will never die. Because when you distribute these books, you give Prabhupada an entrance to preach to the conditioned soul deeply entangled in sense enjoyment. So when we devotees go out and book distribution marathons and take— do this, then we're giving Prabhupada an entry into everyone's house, everyone's heart. And therefore we should with conviction and heart participate in this marathon. I understand that almost every devotee is participating in this marathon. And even the, uh, one good thing in the marathon in your country is even the friends of Krishna who regularly come to the temple participate in these marathons. So last year the Moscow temple was number one in the worldwide marathon. So I'm sure all the devotees would want their Lordship Shri Jagannatha's team to be victorious again. But you're going to face tough competition from devotees in Leningrad and Kiev, and also devotees in other countries like Bombay and Mayapur, and also London, and I'm sure Switzerland, Germany, all those yatra, they are very fired up also. There's going to be spiritual competition amongst the various teams in ISKCON. So if you want the Shri Shri Gauranatha team to be victorious again, all the devotees will have to make an all-out effort till the end of the marathon. And if you make an all-out effort, then you may even do— then you will do better than even last year. Prabhupada used to say double it. Means if in one year you've distributed, uh, 100 books, next year you must do 200 books. So every devotee should endeavor so that he can hope to double his performance of last year. So if you flood this place with Prabhupada's books, then everybody in this country will become happy. Right now they're all unhappy, complaining, bitter. They need Krishna consciousness. Lama Lama, alai alai.