Book distribution is calling. Where are you?

Doing book distribution in buses while going to office was a inspiration from H.G.Ramvilas Prabhu(He works with Infosys Pune now) . When he was in Bangalore for 2 months, he stayed with us (@ Mathura BACE) , we both used to travel together to office. He took some small books with him. And when we sit in bus, we will occupy different seats. He pushed me also to distribute the small books. We just show the books to the nearby people and ask them if they are interested to read and show the book at the same time. Many will be impelled to take the book in hand. That’s the natural tendency.

We need to carry just 3-5 small books per day, otherwise we may not carry after few days due to overload.

Then when they leave the bus or we get down at our bus stop, we ask them if they are interested to purchase, if they are we collect the proper Lakshmi for that book. It really works well, when we pray to Srila Prabhupada and do it. I was just contemplating further on it and sent to Mathurabace google groups the following calculation:

Sharing my thoughts...

Suppose I meet 2-3 people on the way to office and 2-3 people while return from office. On an average, it is 5 per new people per day.

5 * 22 working days = 110 new people (as a auspicious number keep it as 108) per month.

If all of us take this initiative seriously, say 10 of us. 10 * 108 = greater than 1000 new people per month.

Out of 1000, few may buy books say 50 small . Apart from distributing books, we can speak about Krishna, Hare Krishna maha mantra, inviting to the temple etc.

Devotees who use public transport and even company busses can try this.

We can carry may be few small books and may be 1 Bhagavad Gita. If we try this for a month and give a report of result to temple, Krishna willing, we may inspire many devotees as well to do this.

Just imagine 100 new people * 200 devotees = 20000 new people will get in touch with Krishna's devotees and Holy names.And we never know the amount of books that will get distributed. And it is a good one to one advertisement for our Jagannath mandir also. We have to clearly mention about ISKCON Sri jagannath mandir while we interact. We can send the temple address through sms also for those who are interested. We need to send the sms then and there only.

And our travel will be no more dull and boring... It will be exciting. Shall we do this?If we do this, we can also say Wherever you go our network follows

Expecting at least few will get inspired by this sharing thoughts in the larger section of devotees

In Mayapur, I heard from one of the Sannyasis, forgot the name , that we are coming across so many people every day. We never knew whether they will meet another devotee in their lifetime afterwards. So it is our duty to give Krishna to them. This statement was too inspiring for me. I find giving out books is the best way to give Krishna for people in bus.

If we don’t get a seat also, we can give the books to those who are seated; If we travel in office bus also, we are just sharing the book with our travel partner, not as a professional preacher. Shouldn’t be any problems at all.

The specialty of this service is that it doesn’t require a new infrastructure, not a dedicated time from us, not a separate gathering of people. All it requires is just to sacrifice may be our travel sleep. Simple. And those who have just touched Prabhupada’s books also get the benefit.

Recently on the way to Bangalore from my native, I distributed a Science of Self Realization book in bus by this approach. The receiver was a old man. He was saying, “Even if I don’t join the Hare Krishnas, I wanted to know what is this movement all about. That’s why I am buying”

So… “Book distribution is calling. Where are you?”

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada,
Partha prana govinda das