Dear Friends
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to book distribution.
Thank you for taking advantage of the auspicious month of Kartik. As you may know, ISKCON is a branch of the Caitanya tree and is therefore history in the making.
So Srila Prabhupada’s Book Marathon will also become an auspicious time when people can get more benefit from engaging in this particular type of devotion. Just as offering a lamp in Kartik brings unlimited benefit, distributing a book or buying a book will bring even more benefit. Because when people read a book, they become convinced about spiritual practice and then they too will offer lamps during Kartik…so it all starts with book distribution. Therefore book distribution is even more powerful than offering a lamp to Lord Damodar during Kartik.
I came across a letter that Srila Narottam Das Thakur wrote to his spiritual master, Srila Jiva Goswami. It was written on palm leaves in the year ending on Gaura Purnima of Shaka 1501 (AD 1579). Srila Narottam Das Thakur, Srila Srinvas Acharya and Srila Shyamananda Pundit formed the first book distribution party in the history of the world. In his letter he is reporting their book distribution scores:
Srinivas Acharya
• Bhagavatam with Vaishnava Toshani – 6
• Jnanadas’s songs – 23
• Govinda Dasa’s songs – 19
• Narottam Dasa’s Prarthana – 11
• Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu – 1
• Chaitanya Bhagavata – 22
• Lochan Dasa’s Chaitanya Mangal – 6
• Hari bhakti-vilasa – 1
• Murari Gupta’s kardaca – 1
Narottam Das Thakur
• Bhagavatam – 2
• Jnanadas’s songs – 21
• Prarthana – 56
• Chaitanya Bhagavata – 45
• Chaitanya-candramrita – 5
• Vasu Ghosh’s Gauranga-padavalis – 34
Shyamananda Pundit
• Bhagavatam – 4
• Jnanadas’s songs – 10
• Govinda Dasa’s songs – 11
• Other songs – 34
• Narottam Dasa’s Prarthana – 16
• Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu – 5
• Ujjvala-nilamani – 1
• Chaitanya Bhagavata – 25
• Chaitanya-chandramrita – 15
• Vasu Ghosh’s Gauranga-padavalis – 14
Narottama Das Thakur concludes his letter with an emotional comment:
“Until we are able to develop another type of technology to print the books, due to the difficulty involved in creating books by hand (which is being neglected), most of our book distribution programme will be postponed. We are sure that one day some magnanimous person will come and will develop the movement of ecstatic love of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, distributing books all over the world. Until then, what will we — persons who are poor, bereft and abominable — do?”
(Source www.iskconbookdistribution.com)
It will also be inspiring if book scores are regularly mentioned and emphasised at programs and the various means of communication to the devotees.
Hare Krishna.
Your servant,
Vibhu Caitanya Das
