Question: We see that in previous years, in Prabhupada’s times, there were so many Srila Prabhupada disciples and we distributed books in millions all over the world. During the last few years although the book distribution is on the rise once again, why was there such a drop in Srila Prabhupada’s books distribution?

Jayapataka Swami: Interesting. Tell me why? I don’t know the statistics. See, how much was the drop or not. So you seem to be knowing the exact statistics. I don’t know. But thanks to people like Vaisesika prabhu and others, book distribution is on the increase now. We are trying to help from the Congregational Development Ministry to get our congregation to also distribute books. Our society now is much different than it was in the 70s. In the 70s, 90% of the devotees lived in the temple and 10% were congregation maximum. Now 99% are congregation and 1% live in the temple. So unless the congregation also distributes, naturally the demography is different now. So we are trying to encourage that everyone should distribute books. Whether to parents, to neighbors, to family members, carry a book in your purse, in your pocket, give out to everyone. In Mayapur we are trying to announce which we were doing here, so we are trying to announce, and I told the shopkeepers in Mayapur that they should buy some books from BBT. When people buy a saree or something then give a book as a gift! I remember I went to Kolkata and sold to one saree merchant, ten thousand Bhagavad-gitas! And everyone that bought a wedding saree he gave them a Bhagavad-gita. And in Delhi one of the disciples of HH Gopal Krsna Maharaj, he goes to the government offices and he gets the different factory owners, government officials to buy huge quantities of books to give out to the workers. So now we have to see different ways how to distribute books. I asked Delhi what is your secret? Because most years they were on top. He said that I have 2,750 book distributors! We have 60 brahmacharis and 2500 congregational members and each of them distributes books. So he goes two months ahead of the marathon. He gets everybody to pledge how many books to distribute in the marathon. And they get each namahatta, each BV, each person, one elder person, he took a commitment to distribute 5,000 Bhagavad-gitas! So we are not worried why book distribution decreased. How we make it increase? How do we enthuse people to distribute the books, how do we enthuse people to read the books! Hare Krsna!
08-NOVEMBER-2019 BHAKTIVEDANTA MANOR, ENGLAND