Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 22, 1974 and have noted the contents. The book distribution should not be curtailed. You can first have a little chanting, then book distribution; but book distribution is also chanting. (More...) Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your Sankirtana newsletters No. 23 & 24. These statistics are very nice. I like very much to receive the report of my book sales. I think it also gives encouragement to the devotees who distribute the books. Here at Mayapur my guru maharaj was printing one paper. It was selling for only a few paise. Sometimes whenever one brahmacari would go to Navadvipa and sell even a few copies, I would see my guru maharaj become very much pleased. Even if the brahmacari was not a very important member, my guru maharaj would become very, very pleased with him. Please accept my humble obeisances. There have been two letters from GBC men to Srila Prabhupada regarding street chanting and book distribution, and there seems to be some discussion about the two. The reason book distribution is greater than chanting is because the effect is wider. A purchased book goes into a person's home and will be read by others, whereas street kirtana only benefits those in the vicinity who hear. Two cases are cited. In Portugal one boy, who is only 11 years old, has become a devotee. He offers prasadam and is translating Bhagavad-gita As It Is into Portuguese with the help of his mother. He got several of our books at a bookstore in Lisbon and has asked his father who is just now coming to USA to get him all available Srimad-Bhagavatams. Prabhupada remarks that our books went there to Portugal but we did not, but still he has become a devotee. Then in Tokyo airport Prabhupada tells how one Japanese youth approached Srila Prabhupada and asked if he could speak with Srila Prabhupada. When Prabhupada said yes, the boy asked, "Where do you get all the knowledge that is in your books?" So by comparative study book selling is more important. (More...) Srila Prabhupada also pointed out that is the West sometimes the street chanting is considered as a farce. Also in India. At first street chanting was tried but was met with mostly derogatory reaction. Therefore there is mostly Life Membership preaching in India, which is of course book distribution. (More...) So it is a good thing that you have distributed books to the son and daughter of the President. Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/?g=4657 Previous: [none] Next: [none]
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