bookdistribution in Bangladesh

[Vijaya Baladeva das]

At the end of November we held an an istha ghosthi with the department
leaders of our Swamibag temple in Dhaka/Bangladesh to prepare for the
upcoming Prabhupada marathon. I appealed to everyone assembled to make
some
little extra endeavor for the marathon to distribute Prabhupada's
books more
widely, and we decided to read for a few minutes every morning after
mangal
artik from the wonderful book "The Nectar of Book Distribution" in
order to
help our devotees to cultivate Sankirtan consciousness.

I myself had promised to our two traveling Sankirtan parties to
accompany
them for some days. It would be nice for me to get out there and help
to
distribute some books, and I might be able to give some little
inspiration
to the devotees, demonstrating with my personal example that book
distribution is indeed a very important service which is so pleasing
to
Srila Prabhupada.

We spent one week traveling from town to town, distributing Bhagavad
Gita's.

In every place we could find congregational devotees or 'Krsna's
friends'
who eagerly welcomed us to stay overnight in their homes.
Lilakanta Krsna Prabhu who is usually cooking for me had agreed to
come
along, ensuring that I would get my regular light and simple prasad
without
chili. Since book distribution is not firmly established throughout
Bangladesh,
the devotees of other yatra's don't mind us coming to their area to
distribute.
Infact they are even willing to take us to their congregational
members and
favorable people and introduce us, and we were selling lots of BG's to
them.
And at the same time they are learning the art of distributing books.

Fortunately Krsna was so kind to speak Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna during
the
Prabhupada marathon - this year Gita Jayanti falls on the 17th of
December!

I simply can't take this to be a coincidence! Surely Krsna would have
known
already five thousand years ago that He would have to request Srila
Prabhupada
to take birth in this world to spread the knowledge of BG all over the
world,
and He would have known that the Western world would be Christian at
this time,
and Prabhupada would establish the book marathon during the month of
December
to use the Xmas madness to distribute more books.
So maybe therefore Krsna chose to speak BG during the time of December
- so
it would help the devotees in the Eastern world to distribute lots of
books
for the Prabhupada marathon....! And in this part of the world Gita
Jayanti is
indeed an excellent line for book distribution. We try to inspire
people to not
only buy one BG, but many in order to distribute them to friends,
neighbors,
collegues and customers. In this way they can get Krsna's and
Prabhupada's
mercy during this month of Gita Jayanti - by engaging in book
distribution
themselves. And it really works! Many people bought five or ten books,
and one
cloth merchant even agreed to buy 108 BG's - the "lucky number"!
In great jubilation we carried the boxes of BG's into his house,
performed
artik to one book, and afterwards I signed it with "Always chant Hare
Krishna and be happy"! Everybody was very joyful and fully satisfied.

Some evenings the devotees had arranged little programs for us, which
were
centered around book distribution. We would start with tulasi puja and
Gaur
artik kirtan, then I would give a little speech about the importance
of
Srila Prabhupada's books, finally requesting everyone to come forward
to buy
some BG's and offering to sign the book with blessings.
Some programs we sold fourty BG's within one hour!

The devotees had arranged for ten thousand BG's thinking this would be
enough for the Bangladeshi yatra for the whole marathon. But after two
weeks
these ten thousand books were already distributed - not only by our
Swamibag
devotees, but also by other yatras, who eagerly followed our example.
So more BG's had to be ordered from Mayapur. After three weeks our
traveling
Sankirtan devotees had distributed more than four thousand BG's - an
average of
more than two hundred per day....! And of course they also distributed
smaller
books and sets of SB and CC.

And of course all the Swamibag departments also are distributing lots
of
books - the exact scores are not even recorded. Our temple property
is
decorated with nice posters promoting book distribution - downloaded
from
Vaisnavaseva Prabhu's desiretree website. It helps to cultivate
Sankirtan
consciousness.

Who would have ever thought that Bangladesh, being a Muslim country is
one
of the best places for book distribution on this planet....!


Your servant, Devaki dd