Srila Prabhupada's challenge: devotee-preachers surpass yogis

[Vijaya Baladeva das]

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 1, 1973, and
I am
very glad to hear from you the wonderful news of travelling party in
England. I think the people of that place are becoming more and more
inclined for this Krishna Consciousness movement, they are inviting
you to
stay at their houses, they are taking books, becoming sometimes
devotees --
all of these are very encouraging signs to me. If you simply go on in
this
way, stopping in every village and city of England-Scotland, or if
there are
other places like Ireland, simply stop for some time, distribute books
and
hold Sankirtana procession, answer their questions, give some leaflets
or
small informations freely, distribute prasadam wherever possible, at
least
some small thing, and if there is genuine interest being shown, then
request
the townspeople to arrange some engagements for speaking in their
schools,
or in someone's home, or a hall, like that. In this way remain always
without anxiety for destination and comfortable situations, always
relying
only on the mercy of Krishna for your plan, just go on preaching His
message
and selling His books, wherever there is interest. We shall not waste
time
if there is no interest or if the people are unfriendly, there are so
many
places to go. But I understand from your letter that practically
everyone is
taking some interest. That means you are presenting the thing in a
very nice
manner, they can detect that here are some persons who are actually
sincere
and nice, let me hear them, let me purchase one book. So I can
understand
that it is not an easy matter to travel extensively over long periods
of
time without proper food, rest, and sometimes it must be very cold
there
also, and still, because you are getting so much enjoyment, spiritual
enjoyment, from it, it seems like play to you. That is advanced stage
of
spiritual life, never attained by even the greatest yogis and so-
called
jyanis. But let any man see our devotees working so hard for Krishna,
then
let anyone say that they are not better than any millions of so-called
yogis
and transcendentalists, that is my challenge! Because you are rightly
understanding through your personal realization this philosophy of
Krishna
Consciousness, therefore in such a short time you have surpassed all
the
stages of yoga processes to come to the highest point of surrendering
to
Krishna. That I can very much appreciate, thank you very much for
helping me
in this way.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Prabhavisnu -- Bombay 3 January, 1973