nama om visnu-pädäya krsna-prestäya bhütale

srimate bhaktivedänta-svämin iti nämine

 

namas te särasvate deve gaura-väni-pracärine

nirvivsesa-sünyavädi-päscätya-desa-tärine

 

My dearest Srila Prabhupäda,

 

Please accept my prostrated obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet, dust that will perpetually uplift the world through your Bhaktivedanta purports.

 

Srila Prabhupäda, at this year’s ISKCON Leadership Sanga (ILS)—which was an impressive kick-off to the 50th anniversary celebrations of your incorporating ISKCON— we learned many things about how your movement has progressed since you incorporated it in 1966, especially in terms of the increased numbers of devotees and centers that distribute throughout the world the holy names of Krsna, knowledge of Krsna’s absolute nature and transcendental pastimes in the form of your books, and, of course, Krsna’s prasäda, the remnants of food offered to Him in devotional service.

 

When you departed in 1977, there were 108 temples and other projects distributing Krsna consciousness on every continent. Now there are more than 600. Representing those centers, 1200 leaders gathered in Mayapur to attend seminars and plenary sessions to discuss how better to serve your mission. It was inspiring just to see that many leaders gathered together and to witness their sincere efforts to learn how to improve in all aspects of organizing, maintaining, and expanding your movement.

 

Finally, at the last plenary session, a survey was taken to find out how much the leaders were reading your books. Of the 1200 registered leaders, 700 attended that last plenary session. Of those 700, only 250 filled out the survey forms. Those 250 devotees had been in devotional service for an average of 19 years. The results of the survey showed that the average number of times the 250 leaders had read the Bhagavad-gitä As It Is was 4; the first Canto of Srimad-Bhägavatam 1.8; Sri Caitanya-caritämrta 0.9. I couldn’t help but wonder what those numbers would have been had all 1200 attendees filled out the forms.

 

Srila Prabhupäda, in 1974, during ISKCON San Francisco’s Ratha-yäträ festival, I was among the book distributors who were privileged to meet you in your darsana room. Your first words to us were, “Are you reading my books?” You went on to stress that you are writing your books for us to read, not just to distribute. Needless to say, that instruction, coming as it did directly from your mouth to our ears, was seared into my heart.

 

As our founder-äcärya you taught us by example how important it is to read your books. For example, later that same year, on October 1st, you wrote this to Hansadutta:

 

We read the scriptures again and again, and it is still fresh. When there is time, I go on reading my own books.

 

You obviously saw a trend, Srila Prabhupäda. As our efforts intensify to increase the numbers of books published and distributed, devotees made, and preaching centers opened, the general tendency is for our own reading of your books to decline.

 

During the forty-four years I’ve been reading your books, I’ve witnessed leaders empowered by you to spread Krisna consciousness gradually reduce their reading of your books as their management duties intensified. And I’ve even seen leaders fall away from Krsna consciousness when their reading finally stopped, thus fulfilling your own prophecy:

 

All the devotees connected with the Krsna consciousness movement must read all the books that have been translated (the Caitanya-caritämrta, Srimad-Bhägavatam, Bhagavad-gitä, and others); otherwise, after some time, they will simply eat, sleep and fall down from their position. Thus they will miss the opportunity to attain an eternal, blissful life of transcendental pleasure. (Sri Caitanya-caritämrta, Madhya-lilä 25.278, purport)

 

How important, then, are the instructions found in your purports to the successful execution of our devotional service? How essential is it that we hear submissively and sufficiently to learn how to deal with the inevitable problems that arise as we attempt to spread Krsna consciousness? The fact is that we can’t know how to think, feel, will, or act properly in Krsna consciousness without hearing and applying the merciful guidance you freely give in your Bhaktivedänta purports.

 

I propose that of all the methods we as leaders employ to solve the inevitable problems, individual and collective, that naturally arise as your movement expands, the most effective method is to systematically hear out loud to ourselves, or with others, your purports, especially to Bhagavad-gitä As It Is, Srimad-Bhägavatam, and Sri Caitanya-caritämrta.

 

But doesn’t the morning program, hearing one verse a day along with one of your purports satisfy the prerequisite of constantly reading your books?

 

I submit that your strong statement to us that day in San Francisco, and the many others you made after that day to the same effect, were clearly meant to inspire us to read your books outside of the morning program as well.

 

As I write this offering, tensions among devotees in different parts of your movement have flared up, Srila Prabhupäda, as they did even in your physical presence. This can only mean that there is an ongoing and crying need for all the leaders of your movement not only to read your books themselves but also to stress the reading of your books and to read them with the devotees under their care.

 

Here is a sample of the profound guidance you give us in your books, guidance that if followed sincerely and carefully will greatly help to mitigate whatever obstacles we confront daily in the heat of our busy devotional lives.

 

It is especially mentioned here that one should be very inquisitive to hear with open ears from the authorized source of the bona fide spiritual master. How is one to receive? One should receive the transcendental message by aural reception. The word karna-randhraih means “through the holes of the ears.” The favor of the spiritual master is not received through any other part of the body but the ears.” (Bhägavatam 3.22.7, purport)

 

One should be very careful to receive the message from the spiritual master through the ears and execute it faithfully. That will make one’s life successful. (Bhägavatam 3.22.7 purport)

 

To hear and explain them is more important than reading them. One can assimilate the knowledge of the revealed scriptures only by hearing and explaining. (Bhägavatam 1.1.6, purport)

 

And you further stress how to judge whether the hearing is being done properly by measuring its effect:

 

A devotee should always see that his Vaisnava qualities increase with the advancement of his Krsna consciousness. A devotee should be blameless because any offense by the devotee is a scar on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The devotee’s duty is to be always conscious in his dealings with others, especially with another devotee of the Lord. (Bhägavatam 3.16.5, purport)

 

Herein lies the secret to improving our dealings with one another and, by the cooperative spirit that results from such amicable dealings, to solve seemingly intractable problems.

 

Over the past two years, Srila Prabhupäda, since I made the vow to hear your books systematically out loud rather than read them silently, I’ve found renewed spiritual strength and enthusiasm. And whenever devotees join me, they tell me that they relish the same phenomenon.

 

Regarding leadership, in regard to Sväyambhuva Manu, you write:

 

It is especially mentioned here, visnoh kurvato bruvatah kathäh. When he talked, he talked only of Krsna and Visnu, the Personality of Godhead…For the entire duration of his life – 4,320,000 x 71 years – Manu engaged in Krsna consciousness by chanting, hearing, talking about, and meditating upon Krsna. Therefore his life was not wasted, nor did it become stale. (Bhägavatam 3.22.35, purport)

 

Srila Prabhupäda, you came, lived among us, and showed us how not to waste valuable time, even while managing complex situations, for in all circumstances you taught us by example how to manage even the most difficult of affairs by constantly referring to examples of personalities and events chronicled in your books.

 

Like students who rise at the sound of a bell rung in the school or cultural institution to finish their morning duties and sit down to study the Vedas, everyone is sleeping in the darkness of Kali-yuga. And when they hear the call of a great äcärya, the people take to the study of the Vedas to acquire actual knowledge. (Bhägavatam 10.20.9, purport)

 

You often said that if our minds are disturbed while chanting japa, we should chant louder. Applying the same principle, I’ve found that since I made the vow to read your books out loud that my mind stays more absorbed and also finds more easily solutions as I counsel devotees.

 

Srila Prabhupäda, on this most sacred day of your appearance, in the special year of the 50th anniversary of your incorporating your ISKCON, I renew my vow to continue to read out loud your books every day, at least 41 pages, to myself and to whomever I’m with, for the rest of my life.

 

Please give me the strength to fulfill this vow and to continue to assist you in spreading Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement.

 

Your eternal son and servant,

Kesava Bhärati Däsa Goswami