San Francisco
July 5, 1970

ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA WAS attending the 1970 Ratha-yātrā in San Francisco. The day was cold and windy, and about ten thousand people had joined in Lord Jagannātha’s procession through Golden Gate Park. Śrīla Prabhupāda had danced in the street with thousands of participants during the parade, addressed a large crowd in an auditorium by the beach, and looked on as his disciples had distributed a free vegetarian prasādam feast to thousands. But when a devotee arrived with a half-dozen advance copies of Volume One of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrīla Prabhupāda appeared especially pleased.

Surrounded by devotees and curious festival-goers, Śrīla Prabhupāda held one of the books, admiring the front cover, with its full-color picture of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. The volume was big, almost seven-and-a-half by ten-and-a-half inches, and its dust jacket shone, silver with large bright red letters: “KṚṢṆA.” It was a transcendental wonder in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s reverent hands.

Onlookers could barely restrain themselves from pressing in against Śrīla Prabhupāda to peer over his shoulders. And they didn’t restrain their exclamations when Prabhupāda smiled and opened the volume. He examined the illustrations, the print, the paper, and the binding. “Very nice,” he said. He fixed his attention on a page, reading. Then he looked up and announced that this greatly valuable book, Kṛṣṇa, had just arrived and that everyone should read it. Holding one book in his hand, with the other copies stacked before him, he said that anyone who so desired should come forward and buy a copy.

People began clamoring, and hands with ten-dollar bills thrust forward, while voices cried out, begging for a copy. And Prabhupāda promptly sold every book, not even keeping one for himself.

For the devotees, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s selling of the Kṛṣṇa book was the most spectacular event of the Ratha-yātrā festival. They pored over the purchased books in groups, discussing Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes and the effect they would have on the people of America.

Brahmānanda told how in 1967 Prabhupāda had given away his advance copy of Teachings of Lord Caitanya in his room at 26 Second Avenue in New York City. Just before that book had arrived, Śrīla Prabhupāda had been sitting and talking with Satyavrata, a disciple who had previously stopped coming to the temple due to petty quarreling with his Godbrothers. When the copy of Teachings of Lord Caitanya had arrived, Śrīla Prabhupāda had lovingly inspected it and had then offered it to Satyavrata as a gift.

Brahmānanda had been astounded to see Śrīla Prabhupāda give away his only copy of the book. Having helped publish the book, Brahmānanda knew how painstakingly Prabhupāda had written it and how he had anxiously waited one year for the book to finally see print. Yet once it had arrived, he had immediately given it away, and to a disciple who was not even in good standing. Satyavrata had taken the book, thanked Śrīla Prabhupāda, and left, never to be seen again.

Although Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted his disciples to be as eager to distribute Kṛṣṇa conscious literature as he was, none of them knew how to do it. Distributing a magazine and asking for a small donation was one thing – but a big, hardbound book? When the entire shipment of Teachings of Lord Caitanya had arrived in New York in April of 1967, the devotees had hired a truck, picked up the books at the dock, and unloaded them at 26 Second Avenue. They had then shipped them to ISKCON centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Montreal, and elsewhere. And there they remained.

Some devotees had tried placing ads in magazines and leaving books in bookstores on consignment. But the books didn’t sell. How to sell these big, hardbound books remained a mystery – until something significant happened, an accidental discovery.

One day in 1971, while driving back to the temple after chanting in downtown San Francisco, two brahmacārīs stopped at a local service station for gas. When the attendant came to the window for money, one of the devotees showed him a Kṛṣṇa book. The attendant seemed interested, and the two devotees began preaching the glories of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When they suggested he take the book as payment for the gas, he agreed.

Astonished at what had happened and inspired at their success, the two brahmacārīs went the next day with several Kṛṣṇa books and stood in front of a grocery store. And again it happened; this time they sold two books.

Keśava, the San Francisco temple president, phoned his G.B.C. supervisor (and brother), Karandhara, in Los Angeles to tell him what had happened. “It’s like a miracle!” Keśava exclaimed. Karandhara encouraged him to experiment further, and soon the San Francisco temple had half a dozen men going from door to door showing the books to people in their homes. When Buddhimanta began selling as many as five books in a day, the devotees in other temples, especially Los Angeles, San Diego, and Denver, wanted to follow his example. And whoever tried it and sold a book became caught up in a euphoric excitement.

The experience and testimonies of devotees selling Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books describe a special taste, distinct from the happiness young men might ordinarily experience by stumbling upon a sales technique and finding themselves on the verge of making a lot of money. The difference is that the devotees’ book distribution, being devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, produces an ecstasy that is transcendental, an ecstasy far beyond even the greatest material happiness.

Ordinary business and the business of selling Kṛṣṇa conscious literature are as different as material life from spiritual life. And anyone observing spiritual life from the material point of view will not understand it. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī has compared such empirical attempts to understand the ecstasy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness with attempts to taste honey by licking the outside of the bottle.

The young men and women beginning to distribute books in America knew that Śrīla Prabhupāda, by giving them Kṛṣṇa consciousness, had saved them from hellish life, and they wanted to help him give Kṛṣṇa consciousness to others. And such preaching, by distributing his books, was ecstasy, spiritual ecstasy.

By mid-1971, the temples were selling hundreds of Kṛṣṇa books a week. Karandhara, Prabhupāda’s Book Fund manager, began sending saṅkīrtana newsletters to the North American temples and to Śrīla Prabhupāda. By listing the monthly results of each temple’s book distribution, the newsletters incited competition. Karandhara’s December 1971 newsletter summed up the mood of the year and urged the devotees to increase.

Recently, in an all out program to sell books, the San Francisco Temple has been averaging 20 Krishna Books per day distribution. What is their technique? Keshava Prabhu says, “Simply we make it our priority activity. All you have to do is want to do it and then try as hard as you can. Everywhere we go, we carry BTGs and Krishna books,” he says, “on street SKP, door to door, to the laundromat, to the store, everywhere.” We have been taxing our brains in so many fancy and complicated ways to try to increase sales, but as it has been experienced, nothing is more successful than simply taking the books personally in hand and going door to door with this Causeless Mercy. Just consider, how many hours a day do we spend specifically trying to distribute Śrīla Prabhupāda’s literature, which is the dearmost thing to him?

The crowning touch to end the year’s saṅkīrtana, however, came not from the newsletter but from Prabhupāda himself, who wrote to Keśava, the “king” of Kṛṣṇa book distribution,

I have been receiving so many reports about how my disciples from the San Francisco Temple cannot be surpassed by anyone in distributing my books. Sometimes they are selling as many as 70 Krishna books daily. So if this is true, then certainly when I return to the U.S. I must come and stay in your Temple. By distributing my books profusely you are giving me great encouragement to translate. And you are all helping me to fulfill the order which Guru Maharaj gave me. So I am so much grateful to you, and I am sure Krishna will bless you a million times over for doing this work.

I hope that you and all my beloved disciples in San Francisco Temple are in strong health and jolly mood.

Copies of this letter went out to every ISKCON center. Prabhupāda had always given his blessings to all the devotees, but never before could anyone recall his saying a devotee would get Kṛṣṇa’s blessings “a million times over”!

Although a letter from Prabhupāda usually instructed a specific devotee, the instruction often had universal application; and Śrīla Prabhupāda’s letters made clear his disciples’ top priority: book distribution.

I am very pleased to hear that you are increasing in your distribution of our books and magazines. This is a good sign that your preaching work is also strong. The more you increase your strength in preaching, the more you will go on selling books. I want especially that my books be distributed widely.

Prabhupāda’s ambition was to replace mundane literature with transcendental. At least in every home there should be one piece of Kṛṣṇa conscious literature, he reasoned, because if a person read only one page, his life could be turned toward perfection. “If one percent of the readers become devotees,” he wrote, “that will change the world.” Whereas mail-order advertisers were satisfied with a five-percent response, Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke of an even smaller percentage – one percent – whom he thought could become pure devotees in response to receiving a book. Lord Kṛṣṇa also confirms this in Bhagavad-gītā: “Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.” To make the world Kṛṣṇa conscious, therefore, would require that millions of pieces of transcendental literature be distributed.

Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted his disciples to understand why they should distribute his books, and he instructed them through his letters.

Who God is can be summed up in only five words – Krishna is the Supreme Controller. If you become convinced of this and preach it enthusiastically, success is assured, and you will be doing the greatest service for all living entities.

He wrote to Jayādvaita,

These books and magazines are our most important propaganda weapons to defeat the ignorance of maya’s army, and the more we produce such literature and sell them profusely all over the world, the more we shall deliver the world from the suicide course.

To Jagadīśa he wrote,

I am encouraged to see your report of books sold, because it proves that you consider it your responsibility to see that more and more people are reading our literature. Actually, this is the solid basis for our preaching work – no other movement has got such profuse authority for preaching. And if someone reads our Krishna conscious philosophy, he becomes convinced.

Prabhupāda continued to insist that all major Kṛṣṇa conscious programs be maintained, including Deity worship, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa in public, and holding outside lectures. All programs were important. But book distribution, whenever possible, should accompany the other programs. To a sannyāsī whose main program was public lecturing, Prabhupāda wrote,

Distribute books, as many as possible. If anyone hears some philosophy from us, that will help him. But if he purchases one book, that may turn his life. So selling books is the best preaching activity. Sell books, hold the kirtan in public places like schools and colleges, preach.

And in a letter to Bhagavān dāsa in France, he stressed the same thing: “What will your three minutes preaching do? But if they buy one book, it may turn their life.”

During this period of increasing book distribution, one of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s newly initiated sannyāsīs concocted the idea that the devotees should spend much more time studying. While visiting the New York temple, this sannyāsī openly advocated that devotees read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books five to eight hours daily. The temple was following a new schedule Śrīla Prabhupāda had set up, with devotees attending the morning program, going out all day for street chanting and book distribution, and returning in the evening for a class on Bhagavad-gītā. But now controversy arose, and an urgent phone call was placed to Śrīla Prabhupāda in Los Angeles. When Prabhupāda heard the details from his secretary, he immediately responded.

My reply is that this sankirtan or street chanting must go on; it is our most important program. Lord Chaitanya’s movement means the sankirtan movement. You may simply take two hours for chanting sixteen rounds daily, two hours for reading congregationally, and balance of time go out for sankirtan. We must do both, reading books and distributing books, but distributing books is the main propaganda. Reading in class for two hours is sufficient, and other reading can be done in spare time if one has got it. It is not that one has to be always reading. One hour a morning for Bhagavata class and one hour evening, either Bhagavad-gita or Nectar of Devotion, that is sufficient.

January 1972
“You should always think of new outlets for distributing my books,” Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to Jagadīśa. And new outlets the devotees found – shopping centers, malls, parking lots. They were meeting more people than ever before.

By entering the malls and shopping centers, the devotees plunged into the heart of American society, meeting pious and impious, rich and poor, black and white. Book-selling was still difficult, but the devotees persevered, carrying their heavy book bags and distributing the literature they knew could solve all problems.

The devotees saw the shoppers as so many walking victims of the material energy, people living for sensual and mental pleasure and therefore doomed to an inauspicious death. Any serious devotee could philosophically explain from Bhagavad-gītā the predicament of the materialist, but now they were directly witnessing this plight. And by Prabhupāda’s mercy, they were working hard to deliver the missing essence of transcendental knowledge to the bewildered souls.

Then came the discovery of traveling from town to town to sell books. Some of the brahmacārīs in Los Angeles had been feeling that by staying in the temple they were wasting time they could be using for book distribution. So they loaded a van with Kṛṣṇa books and went to areas where they could camp for a week, live a simpler life, and distribute books as many hours a day as they liked. This “traveling saṅkīrtana”produced another significant increase by creating an environment wherein the men could become fully absorbed in their work. The new program spread quickly throughout the ISKCON world, and Śrīla Prabhupāda liked it.

I am very glad to hear from you the wonderful news of traveling 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. Simply go on in this way, stopping in every village and city in England, Scotland, or if there are other places, like Ireland. Simply stop for some time, distribute books and hold Sankirtan procession, answer their questions, give some leaflets or small informations freely, distribute prasadam wherever possible, at least some small thing, and if there is some 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 people are unfriendly; there are so many places to go.

Śrīla Prabhupāda began saying that opening new centers was less important now that the traveling parties were combing the country. When he heard that the temple president in Vancouver had acquired a bus for traveling, he wrote,

I think we are becoming like a gigantic guerilla warfare movement fighting with maya. This traveling in buses is the best means to drive away maya and establish Krishna Consciousness all over the world.

Prabhupāda was glad to hear that temple presidents and zonal leaders were also going out with the traveling saṅkīrtana parties. The Vedic concept of the commander, he said, is that he must fight in the front lines, not sit behind the scenes, sheltered. Having already witnessed how some of his leading disciples had become bogged down by managing many things, he advised them all to travel and preach, distributing literature wherever they went.

Practically, this ISKCON organization is there because I have been always traveling. I never sat down in my old age, no. So you follow my example and preach widely all over the world. That is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s version.

When a devotee in California wrote Śrīla Prabhupāda for permission to give up married life and go on traveling saṅkīrtana, Prabhupāda replied that to give up family life was not necessary. Lord Caitanya had taught that being a sannyāsī or a gṛhastha did not matter as long as one fully served Kṛṣṇa. A householder could also sometimes travel and distribute books, with or without his wife.

Near the end of 1972, the BBT newsletter, now compiled by Karandhara’s assistant, Rāmeśvara, reported the ever-increasing results of book distribution.

Book Distribution continues soaring to all-time highs, as more than 25 Traveling SKP Parties roam the countryside, affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of conditioned souls! Since mid-September we have distributed over 15,000 complete KRSNA TRILOGY SETS! And since mid-August we have distributed over 9,000 SOFT BHAGAVAD GITAS and over 950 HARD BHAGAVAD GITAS! Macmillan too has completely sold out (20,000 GITAS sold commercially) and is reprinting large quantities for the Christmas rush!

Another breakthrough for book distribution came at the end of 1972. The previous year devotees had taken advantage of the Christmas season by selling the Kṛṣṇa book door to door, but no one had been aware just how significant the Christmas season could actually be.

Rāmeśvara: It was on December 22, 1972 that we accidentally discovered the Christmas marathon in Los Angeles. Of course, we noticed a great increase in the number of people going into the stores, and the stores were staying open sometimes until midnight. I was standing in front of a Burbank Zody’s. We were having an intense competition with prizes in Los Angeles, and it was building up to a feverish pitch.

So after distributing madly all day long, I had collected about $350 and had distributed 650 magazines. It was about ten o’clock at night. I was convinced this was the new world’s record in ISKCON and that nobody was possibly going to beat me this day. Even though the store was open until twelve, business had started slowing off; and I was thinking, “Maybe I should go back. Undoubtedly everyone is back already. No one has ever stayed out past eight o’clock. They’ll all be waiting up for me. I shouldn’t keep them waiting up.” So in this way my mind was convincing me to go back.

By eleven o’clock the store was completely dead. I got in the car and started driving back. On the way back I passed another Zody’s, called Hollywood Zody’s, on Sunset and Western. I was torn whether to stop or not, because that store was crowded and was going to be open until midnight. But I decided, “No, I’ll go back, because the other devotees will be waiting up to see how many books I distributed.” So I just kept driving.

I finally arrived at the temple at about ten minutes to twelve, and I burst into the saṅkīrtana room. But the only person there was the secretary, Madhukaṇṭha. I said, “Oh, no. Everyone went to bed?” He said, “No, nobody is back yet.” I was the first one back! That was the discovery of the first Christmas marathon. It was completely unplanned. No one had ever instructed anyone to stay out that late. We just did it spontaneously.

Finally, at about one-thirty in the morning, all the devotees had returned, and we were all sitting around looking at the saṅkīrtana map. We couldn’t sleep, we were so excited to go out. We were thinking, “Where can we find plenty of conditioned souls to distribute books to?” Our noise and raucous laughter was like a drunken party, and it woke up Karandhara, who was sleeping in his office in the next room. He came stumbling in, wiping the sleep from his eyes, but when he saw us and saw what was going on, he burst out laughing and sent us all to bed, saying, “Get ready for tomorrow.” So in this way we performed the three-day marathon – December 22, 23, and 24.

No one had ever distributed as many books before in the history of our movement. A big day had been considered to be somewhere between twenty-five and forty books. But we were distributing between five thousand and six thousand pieces of literature a day for a three-day period. One temple had distributed almost eighteen thousand pieces of literature in just three days.

At this time Śrīla Prabhupāda was in Bombay, where his attempt to secure the land in Juhu had become entangling. The landlord was now refusing to sell the property and was trying to evict the devotees, even though Śrīla Prabhupāda had already installed Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities on the land. Although these matters were causing Śrīla Prabhupāda anxiety, he continued his usual daily duties: taking his morning walk, lecturing in the evening from The Nectar of Devotion, corresponding with and receiving news from his centers around the world, even organizing a Bombay paṇḍāl festival for January.

When Prabhupāda received news of the book distribution in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the United States, he was very pleased and amazed. Although involved with many affairs from throughout the world, he put them aside and relished the overwhelming victory of book distribution in America. Immediately he called in his personal secretary and dictated letters.

My dear Ramesvar,
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 27, 1972, and with great happiness I have read your figures of amount of books sold during three-day period, December 22–24, 1972. It is scarcely believable that more than 17,000 books could have been sold by one temple in three days! That indicates to me that people are at last becoming little serious about this Krishna Consciousness movement in your country. Otherwise, why they should buy our books? But they can see that our boys and girls, devotees, are so much sincere and serious to distribute the message of Krishna Consciousness, they are at once struck, by seeing them, and therefore they appreciate and purchase. This is unique in the world. So I am so much pleased upon all of the boys and girls in Los Angeles and all over the world who are understanding and appreciating this unique quality of our transcendental literature, and voluntarily they are going out to distribute despite all circumstances of difficulty. By this effort alone they are assured to go back to home, back to Godhead.

The same day Prabhupāda dictated a letter to Karandhara.

I could never have thought it was possible to distribute so many of our literatures. Therefore I can understand it is simply Krishna’s blessing us for your sincerely working on His behalf. Actually, that is the secret of my success, not that personally I have done anything wonderful, but that because those who are helping me are sincere. They have done the work. That is the reason for our success all over the world where others have failed. A little sincerity is very difficult thing in this age of hypocrisy and bluff, but I am so fortunate that Krishna has sent me all of you nice boys and girls who are sincerely working. Please convey to all of them my deepest appreciation.

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s letters acknowledging the Christmas marathon and assuring the devotees that they would go back to Godhead sent the book distribution movement flying into the new year with great momentum. Devotees continued to find new ways and places to distribute books. New records were constantly topping the old, and the devotees were making still higher projections for the future.