20230308 Śrila Prabhupāda Book Distribution Awards Ceremony Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: I was a bit late, but I was listening to everyone’s talk. Now Rāmeśvara Prabhu said had millions of qualities. He translated that in Bengali as koṭi koṭi so that is ten million times ten million times ten million times! With regard to the departments, the Deity department distributed so many books was announced. Because of the presence of Jananivāsa Prabhu, by the mercy of Śrī Śrī Rādhā Mādhava, Pañca-tattva and Narasiṁhadeva, all the departments are able to carry out the preaching work. Also, another thing is that all the bundles that are being distribute in the temple room, these are being distributed because they are seeing the Deities, that is why they are being distributed. All our senior devotees like Jananivāsa and others, because they are encouraging all the devotees, therefore all this preaching is taking place. I heard that in the West the ladies are taking a leading part in distributing more books. I am thinking that with the guidance of His Holiness Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami, let there be one bus for the gṛhasthas, if anyone would like to donate a bus, you can call him. And over a period of time our number of brahmacārīs in our buses have decreased. We hope that more devotees will take part and join the saṅkīrtana buses and engage in the saṅkīrtana-yajña. I am very happy and grateful that all the different divisions, they are distributing books along with their services. Today, is the day after the appearance of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, it is the day of festival of Śrī Jagannātha Miśra. Today is our New Year of the Gaurābda, 538. Today is a very auspicious day to make a vow, to make a saṅkalpa, that whatever books we have distributed this year, that we can do much more in the following year. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura had said: prāṇa āche jāra sei hetu pracāra – anybody who has life, the cause of your life symptom is for preaching. I express my gratitude to everyone for distributing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Śrīla Prabhupāda had told me that every month I had to distribute 10,000 Mahā big books and 100,000 small books. At that time, I was the leader of the Māyāpur saṅkīrtana book distribution team. Now I think we are doing much more than that.