Selling the Bhagavad Gita on its Own Merits - Book Distribution Seminar Part 6 - Vaishasheka

How to sell a Bhagavad Gita on its own merits. Next. There is sufficient merit in our books that if you simply describe them sincerely to anyone, they will buy. We're interested in not just distributing books for the sake of distributing books, but also for our own purification.

And when we go out to distribute books, then we think of Krishna. And when we go out to distribute books on their own merits, then we must also stand up and preach. and present exactly what we've realized so that people will be inspired to take. And if we distribute something else, if we sell something else, then we'll think about how to sell that other thing. So especially for our own purification, distributing books on their own merits by preaching straightforwardly about the Bhagavad Gita is very important.

And people are very much attracted to hearing the straight philosophy. Next. Now, I'm going to give a brief summary of how we present the book, and then we're going to stand up and do it. And also, to take home, there's this handy little booklet that we'll be distributing, and it's called How to Sell the Bhagavad Gita on Its Own Merits.

And I first want to read the acknowledgement. Much of the material in this presentation I learned from His Grace Vijay Prabhu, who was a great inspiration to me and who was perhaps the most successful distributor of Bhagavad Gita as it is the world has ever known. He only distributes Bhagavad Gitas and I learned a lot from watching him in his particular presentation and adopted a lot of his practices. So one thing to know is when you have a Bhagavad Gita in your hand that the Bhagavad Gita has everything you need to present in itself so that people will become interested and want to take a Bhagavad Gita.

So the first thing that we show people when we hand them the Bhagavad Gita is the picture of the changing bodies. And the changing bodies is one of the most provocative pictures that we have. In fact, when you go to see the Rathayatra Festival, you might notice that the most popular booth is the changing bodies booth, that people walk up and they stand and they stare and they bring their family over. When I was at the Rathiatra in Montreal a couple of years ago, I was working a book table right next to the Changing Bodies booth and I saw a couple walk up across the meadow and they walked up to the booth and they hadn't intended to come to Rathiatra.

They just happened to be cutting across the parkway and they came right to the Changing Bodies to see what it was. and I could see their faces from my angle of vision and they were staring, staring, staring and then the man got this horrified look on his face and he said, let's get out of here and he grabbed his wife or girlfriend and they took off and I thought, now that's a powerful presentation it has its effect because most people don't think about their life as a continuum so when you show this picture the changing bodies picture it's a very powerful image in and of itself and then with a little bit of presentation which we'll see on the next slide I believe just passing through okay just back up once now what we say here we point to the the baby's body and then with a sweeping motion we point all the way through the continuum of bodies and we say see we start here and we end up here pointing to the the dead body. We start here, and we end up here.

Can everybody do that? Say, we start here, we end up here. Actually, if you could, someone, a couple of devotees, pass out the Bhagavad Gitas that we have here, so that you have one in your hand. You can be looking at this and just feel what it's like.

See? In order to distribute books, you've got to get books. It's one of the laws. Wow, look at all those Gitas going out.

Pretty good. So this is the first one that we're just passing through. So see, we start here, and we end up here, and we're all just passing through. You'll find this on plate five of the first set of pictures.

The next picture is the picture of the three modes of material nature. There's goodness, passion, and ignorance. And on this picture, I show people that, I say, see, here's three modes. We're all controlled by three modes. goodness, passion, and ignorance.

And goodness means wisdom, light, knowledge. Passion means always trying to get ahead and never having enough. And ignorance means that sleep, laziness, and darkness. So we point out the three modes.

See, we're all conditioned by three modes. Goodness, passion, and ignorance. Goodness brings wisdom, satisfaction, and peacefulness. Passion brings the desire to get ahead in life and the impetus to work hard and get more material stuff and ignorance brings sleep laziness intoxication and the tendency to put things off on this presentation we're just showing them the three modes of material nature and explaining them and then we i step back and say so which one affects you the most ask them a question which one affects you the most and then they usually give an answer like well i'm most in the goodness and then I'll say, yeah, you look like goodness.

Or they'll say, I'm kind of in passion and ignorance. I say, yeah, I'm kind of like that too. We're all sort of a mixture. So next slide.

We're just passing through. That's the idea of the changing bodies. And the next one, goodness, passion, ignorance. Which one affects you the most?

Very simple presentation. Next one. Next one, we show the sage. And I point out, see, here's a spiritually wise person.

A spiritually wise person shows respect to everyone because he or she sees that God's in everyone's heart. Isn't that simple? And that word respect, people like that. See, that's what a spiritual person should be.

It's not an ecclesiastical thing. It's actually that someone's actually advanced in knowledge, sees God's in everyone's heart, and shows respect to everybody. Next. This gives a summary.

The wise person respects all. He or she sees that the body is only the outward dress for the soul. And too bad our world leaders don't see it that way. Vijay always throws that in.

Next. Next, we show the horses. And you'll see the picture of the horses here. And we point out, now this one, and when you're showing these pictures, you can just turn to the next picture, next picture, and just say, now this one shows, because you're just doing a show and tell.

Now this one shows that our senses, and you can point to them, seeing, touching, smelling, hearing all these senses they're like the horses and the reins are the mind the drivers the intelligence and we're the passenger in the body and if the courses are out of control then we're in for a wild ride very simple presentation next so we say the first benefit you get from yoga is you become master of your own senses now go back one and then we just point to this yogi sitting there very compelling picture and we say turn to the next one and see this guy's got a little carried away with his yoga practice or something like he's been sitting there a little while you know people just kind of look and go wow what's that it's like yoga he's been sitting there a while huh it's a little light light humor okay next one now this one everyone can relate to in fact we noticed last night people are even getting tattoos of this on their back and such but this presentation on the right hand side we say see this is this is about karma you've heard of karma before right karma means what goes around comes around simple like that you've heard of karma before right what goes around comes around okay next now we turn from the pictures we've showed a few pictures and given just a little commentary which you can memorize in a few minutes how to present that and just practice it then we I point out the Sanskrit you'll notice on the right hand side above where it says bhagavad-gita it's in Sanskrit normally I'll just turn to one of the texts within the bhagavad-gita anywhere where there's Sanskrit and turn to the next one and point out this this book comes from the ancient Sanskrit language it's a very difficult language to master but the author of this book has unlocked all of its ancient secrets and it's in this book simple presentation like that see this is Sanskrit it's a very ancient and complex language but the author has unlocked all of his all of these secrets yes and Lila also shows in the back of the book that there's a place where you can learn how to pronounce it and spell it and they like that too nice nice addition one next one Then we turn to the back of the book after showing the Sanskrit. And on the very back, you'll see it's mentioned Thoreau, Emerson, Gandhi.

So we say, this book has been read by great thinkers throughout history. Thoreau, Emerson, Gandhi. And now, of course, you're just dropping names. But Thoreau, Emerson, Gandhi.

And then you can also mention Einstein, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., if you like. And just say a few names. see all the great thinkers throughout time have studied this book and just show them on the back that here they are and here's the the people who have read it and go ahead one in the front of the book actually at this point we turn to the university endorsements and particularly in the front I point out you'll see it says on the first page at the very bottom University of Southern california and in the next one there's georgetown university you see in your book everyone got that the endorsements raise your hand if you didn't find it you didn't find it look in the very front endorsements a critics praise bhagavad-gita very first page look at the very bottom there's university of southern california and then turn the next page at the very bottom it says Georgetown University.

There. Georgetown University of Southern California. So this is the point we bring in and say, see, these are used in major universities like Georgetown University, University of Southern California. We bring those up because they're very recognizable names.

Now we turn to the printing. And you'll notice there's a page in here that tells how many books have been printed. It's just before it says to Shilabalade Bidjibusan. See, it says previous printings and current printing.

If you don't have that, raise your hand. So, we just point out that see, our first printing we printed almost a million copies and just a couple years ago we printed another 80,000 copies to give to the nicest people that we meet. And then, this is the last part of the presentation where we say that we're doing this as a benefit to spread love for God, and we just ask for a donation. Now, I've given more complex and or a more detailed explanation of the donations, but asking for the donation at the end means simply you've come to the end of the presentation, and then you just tell them what we're doing.

We're doing this as a benefit to spread love for God. It's a very simple way to put it. And we just ask everyone for a donation. Many people will say, well, how much should I give?

And we say that after printing and shipping and handling and everything, these books cost us about eight dollars. So most people give between between 10 and 20. It's very clear and straightforward. So this is the the gist of the presentation.

But we can go through it a little bit more in detail in this booklet. And if we can pass this out also. How to Sell a Gita on Its Own Merit. Are there any questions so far?

Okay, we'll print some more. But you can double up with a partner to look at this. Now I'm going to go through a couple of the steps. The first step in offering somebody a book is to qualify them.

And the best way to qualify someone is to ask them a question. For instance, are you from Dallas? Are you from Dallas, Nityananda? Well, great, then let me show you one too.

And actually, who was it who volunteered for, who said they wanted to do some role-playing? Nityananda Ram, come on up here. Yeah, have a seat. So, if I'm meeting somebody for the first time, and I don't know who they are, if I just walk up to them and say, here, take this, they don't know who I am, they don't know what the book is, and they don't know what my intention is, and they don't feel qualified.

Therefore, to ask a qualifying question when you meet somebody is giving them an opportunity to respond. And then based on whatever they say, whether it's yes, no, maybe, anything, then that qualifies them to accept the book. So, are you from Dallas? Yes.

Oh, great. Let me show you one, too. Now say no. Are you from Dallas?

No. Oh, great. Let me show you one, too. It doesn't matter if they're from Dallas or they're not from Dallas.

That's not the point. The point is, whatever they said qualified them. Like, I knock on the door. You open the door.

Hello. Is this your apartment? Yes. Great.

Let me show you one, too. Now say no. Is this your apartment? No. great, let me show you one too.

So the point is that it's not their answer, but whatever sound vibration they made qualified them to get the book. That way it's not a surprise when the book goes in their hand. So some devotees will say, I'm from San Francisco, where are you from? I'm from Dallas.

Really? Okay, let me show you one too. And it's like, oh, okay then, here we go. Let me show you one too.

Whatever they said qualifies them to take the book. next show versus give we don't say give because then people get the wrong unless you're giving unless you absolutely intend just to give them the book and there may be a circumstance when you're doing that but when we're going out with the bhagavad-gita and we're thinking and we have some ulterior motive that we want to get a donation then don't say give because it'll give people the wrong impression and then at the end when you say oh by the way we'd like to have a donation for this even if they happily give a donation somewhere subtly in their mind they'll be thinking oh i thought he said he gave it to me therefore use the word show because show means show and so we say let me show you one of these are you from dallas yes oh great let me show you one too. Now, there's two ways.

You can either let him hold the book and then hold another book out to show him. Or you can say, here, let me show you and take it back. So are you from Dallas? Yes.

Let me show you one too. Well, here, I'll show it to you really quick. Now, the psychology is that as soon as he has it in his hand and I'm showing it to them, now I'm going to show him his book because he already has a feeling that the book is his. Even though I said I'm showing it to him, but still.

Here, let me show it to you. I'm showing it to you. Okay, here, I'll just show you really quick. Now, there's another part here that is very important called trust the hand.

And you'll see about halfway down the second page, trust the hand. Okay, here, Lila. Thank you. Amla, here.

Did you see that? Could everyone see this? Okay, let me try it again. Chaitanya.

Here. Watch. Can you see that? Labungla, could you see?

Okay, here. Watch. Chaitanya. Here.

Could you see it? Okay. The hand wants to grab. That's what it does.

The eyes see. The ears hear. They listen. That's what they do.

So there's a noise. The ear, you won't think about it. your ear will just go to the back of the room all of a sudden what was that the ear just goes you don't think you go so the hand naturally when you hold out a book the hand grabs deal with the hand don't deal with them because you can't sell a book that they don't have in their hand one of the first mistakes that a beginner will make is to not trust the hand and to also not let go of the book. Are you from Dallas or out of town? Great.

Well, here, just let me show you one of these. The Bhagavad Gita. No, see, they have to take possession of the book. They have to feel that it's theirs.

Eventually, we want all the, everything must go. We want to clear out our book room. We want everyone to take a book home. So the book has to come in their hand.

So you have to practice this, hold out the book, and see if the hand will take it or not. Oftentimes, as I point out in this lengthy explanation of trust the hand oftentimes the person's thinking oh don't do it don't do it but the hand goes ah what the heck this is what i do i'm sorry i just have to grab and the hand will grab it anyway and so you have to get in that get in the habit of holding it out to people and oftentimes they'll hesitate and i'll this is more advanced move but you know hesitate a little bit the first time and it'll go like this and then the hand goes oh okay that was good. But point is, now they have it in their hands and I've taken it back and I'm going to show it to them. So I call this next section show and tell.

And that's all you're doing. Just show and tell. As the people say, run it up a flagpole and see if anybody salutes. We say, you know, put it on the altar, see if they offer obeisances.

So the thing is that you just run it by them, show them and see what happens, the show and tell. Now we saw that in the pictures here, that you go through the process are you from Dallas oh really great let me show you one too then now here I'll show you really quick see this is the changing bodies exhibit and we all start off here and we end up here and we're all just passing through and then these are the three modes of material nature we all fall into three modes goodness passion or ignorance we're all controlled by these modes goodness means wisdom knowledge light passion means go go go got to make more money you know rushing around and ignorance means like sleep and intoxication which one do you think you come under the most probably ignorance ignorance yeah i know me too now this one shows the spiritually advanced person and he or she sees everyone equally and treats everyone with respect because he or she sees that the body's like the vehicle and that God's in everyone's heart, actually.

And then this one is the horses. The horses are like the senses, seeing, touching, smelling, the reins of the mind, the drivers, the intelligence, and we're just the passenger. You see that? So if the horses are out of control.

We're in for a wild ride. And here's a yogi. You've heard of yoga before, right? But he's been sitting there a little too long, right?

And then this one, this one's about karma. You know karma? You know what goes around and comes back around? So these come from the ancient Sanskrit language.

It's a very complex language, but the author's unlocked all of its special secrets right here in the translations, in the purports. Now, many great thinkers throughout time have studied this. Thoreau, Emerson, Gandhi, you know, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., even Einstein studied Bhagavad Gita.

And now it's used in major universities all over the world, like you've probably heard of Southern University of Southern California and Georgetown University. And so we've printed, here's the printings, we printed about a million copies the first time, and just recently in 2004 we printed another 80 000 copies to make them available to the nicest people we meet now we don't sell it it's a benefit we do to help spread love for god all over the world because it's the only thing lacking nowadays we have fast internet we have nice freeways big buildings but nobody's really happy so we do this as a benefit to spread spiritual knowledge so we just ask for a donation to cover the printing cost how much completion well they cost us after shipping, handling, and all the printing and everything, about $8. So most people get between $10 and $20.

Okay? Thank you very much. Well, that was easy. Now, this is the basic presentation.

Now, by the time, you'll notice by the time you go through and you show people the different aspects of the Bhagavad Gita and the pictures and so forth, most people start to really value it. And when you bring up $10 or $20, you know, they're willing to pay $10 or $20 for a Bhagavad Gita. And if they're not, and if, you know, they're not interested and so forth, there are, of course, as many variations on this as you can imagine, as there are types of people. So I'm giving you the generic version.

And anything that can happen will happen when you're presenting. Sometimes, you know, you'll show it to somebody and immediately they'll want to buy the Bhagavad Gita. So you just let them. And sometimes you'll go into a little bit more explanation.

But this is the very basis of the presentation. Yes, Lila. I have a quick question. Sometimes do you give another book or do you send something for giving?

His question was what happens if someone gives a donation like a 20? Do I give them another book or, you know, what's the situation? And it really kind of depends on the person. Normally my tendency is to give people more books. if they give more Lakshmi.

Then we give them more books to take home. And sometimes I just leave it at that because it's kind of nice somebody giving a nice neat $20 donation or more for a Bhagavad Gita and taking it home. Everything they need is here. But oftentimes I'll put on top of it like a higher taste cookbook or something like that.

And also here's something on vegetarian cooking and that type of thing. And then as we'll explain too, to finish the conversation, we make these mantra bookmarks and we'll ask them, do you believe in the power of prayer? Oh great, then let me teach you this ancient Sanskrit prayer and we'll hand them the card and say, here, I'll teach you the ancient Sanskrit prayer to God and I think you'll really like it. Just repeat after me once.

Hare. Hare. Krishna. Krishna.

Hare. Hare. Krishna. Krishna.

Krishna. Krishna. Krishna. Hare.

Hare. Hare. Hare. Hare.

Hare. Rama. Rama. Hare.

Hare. Rama. Rama. Rama.

Rama. Rama. Rama. Hare.

Hare. Hare. You're a natural. People are so pleased with themselves when they say the mantra, and we're pleased with them too, and it's a very pleasing situation to take the time.

Yes. presentation should go just long enough not too long and not too short if if you meet somebody who's in a hurry and i'm going to address this in a minute and you might want to look in that folder for the thing called communications 101 because i'm going to go into that and do that really quickly before we all stand up um just long enough so that uh there it's not too long and not too short if you see they're in a hurry or they're becoming impatient or something like that, you can cut to the chase. You can cut to the donation line at any time and just tell them what we're doing and why we asked for a donation. You know, you can do that right away. Sometimes people say they're in a big hurry.

And we're going to go into this on the Communications 101. For instance, how to present to somebody who is in a hurry. So I'll say that I'm in a hurry. You say that you're in a hurry when I say, are you from Dallas?

I'm in a hurry. He said he's in a hurry. I couldn't hear him, but say it really loud. Are you from Dallas?

Yeah, but I'm in a hurry. Are you in a big hurry? Yes. Well, should I show it to you really quick then?

Okay. Okay, he said okay. So, this is something we'll learn in Communications 101, and then we're going to stand up and try the Bhagavad Gita presentation. Any other questions before we move on?

Okay. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Thank you, Nityananda.

Yes, Chaitanya. conversation the devotees behind was for the papa he was saying that despite god and the devotee you also say that we're supposed to get initiation go back to god he said yes when you buy one of the books it's like getting it's the same as getting it is getting initiation when you buy a book so in one sense when you when you repeat the mantra to their ear they're actually getting like a form of initiation yeah so actually that qualifies them to read the book and Yeah. Initiation means to start something. So when you give them a book, when you teach them the mantra, you're definitely starting them on their journey. And this is the whole point.

Thank you. So, communications 101. Next. Focus on what's most interesting to the person with whom you're communicating.

And what could that be? his or her own self that's right so the most interesting topic is is one's own self next dale carnegie remember that a man's name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language so when you're when you want to attract somebody's attention remember that talk about what's interesting to him or her and that's him or her next shukadev goswami therefore it is his own self that is the most dear to every embodied living being, and it is simply for the satisfaction of this self that the whole material creation of moving and non-moving entities exists. Next. People really want to know what's in it for me. So keep that in mind when you're presenting.

They're interested to know what they'll get out of this. Next. Become a master asker. Next.

So a question serves many purposes. That's why you should become a master asker. So a question, make a picture of a question mark in the air with your finger. And if you were to make that out of wood or something like that, what would it be?

It would be a hook, wouldn't it? So a question mark, remember a question is a hook. So as an example here, as we just did in this demonstration, the recipient says, I'm in a hurry. And if you say, no, no, no, just stop for a minute, you're forcing them.

And they'll say, no, no, I told you I'm in a hurry. However, if you use your hook, take out your hook, and they say, I'm in a hurry, and you ask a question, and you say, are you in a big hurry? They say, yes, I'm in a big hurry. Then you say, shall I show it to you really quickly then?

Now, if they say yes, they'll buy a book. Practically every single time, if they say yes, they'll buy a book. because intuitively they know what they're giving into now that you've asked the question. Shall I show it to you really quickly? If they agree, they're saying, okay, I give in.

That my thing of being really in a big hurry, it's not that important. I'm going to stop and look at it. So use a question as a hook to get a response and it will slow people down. Okay, next.

Oh, then that's good for you also. Shall I show it to you really quickly? And they say no. They say, great, have a nice day.

I'll see you next time. Thank you for bringing that up. Then you know they really are in a big hurry. And it wasn't just to get rid of you.

Okay, next. A question deflects insincere questions. You'll meet a lot of wiseacres out there when you're in public who want to ask you crazy questions or insulting questions. We know this.

Trierog used to be our bodyguard. We'd fly him in at different airports, believe it or not, to protect us when we were walking back and forth from the terminals because there are so many wiseacres out there. The wise guy says, why don't you get a job? Of course, I don't hear that much anymore, but why don't you get a job?

The answer is, why do you ask? You don't have to come to their level and answer their question because it's demeaning, it's insulting. Just answer answer their question with a question and remember there's two guys walking down the street friend a and friend b and so friend a all day long he's asking his friend these questions about the city and everything and friend b keeps answering the question with a question and after a while the friend a he becomes a little frustrated and he says you know every time i've asked you a question today you answer me the question why do you keep doing that and friend b says why do you ask. So keep that in mind, because it's a very useful tool to deflect things, and even if you just want to think about something.

Next. A question clarifies. How do you mean that? You can ask, how do you mean that?

Recipient, is this Hinduism? Well, what do you mean by Hinduism? See, this is a preaching technique, because people want to bring the conversation to their terms. Is this Hindu?

Is this one of those cult things? What's a cult? What do you mean by cult? What do you mean by Hinduism?

Ask them a question back, and then, well, I don't know what it means. Well, or you tell me what you think it means, and I'll tell you if we are one. Or you tell me what you think a Hindu is, and I'll tell you if I am one. Well, I don't really know what a Hindu is.

Great, then let me just show you this book. See, we all start off here, and we end up here. We're all just passing through. You see, so the question, you have to become a master asker. because the questions are the answer.

Next one. A question holds their interest. You, what kind of work do you do? Them, I'm a gardener.

You, are you a good one? So it keeps the conversation focused on them. We want to know how to talk about them. The question is, or the answer is to ask them questions about what they do.

So I'll ask a lot of questions to people as I'm presenting the book. What kind of work do you do? oh, really? I'm an engineer. What kind of engineer?

And really, do you like it? There are a lot of questions you can ask people, and people love to talk about themselves and what they do. So it's very important to hold their interest, to talk about them. And how do you talk about them?

By asking them a question about what they do, what they think, and these types of things. Next. Offer sincere compliments, because flattery will get you everywhere. It really, really will.

And actually promoted him to Saraswati Thakur, gave the prescription for how to preach. He said that you flatter and flatter and flatter and you fall down at the person's feet and you say you're the most educated, the most advanced person I've ever met. And then when they say, yes, now you've understood, you're very intelligent because you've understood who I really am. Then you can preach to the person.

So this flattery is very powerful. And so just you can use it in the form of a question as well. Oftentimes people will say, why don't you give this to someone else? And I say I would, but I'm supposed to give them to the most intelligent people I meet.

But I used to think that flattery, of course, was there was a limit and that I shouldn't go over a certain line using flattery, but I've found over the years that there is no limit. That people can absorb as much as you can, as much as you care to dish out, people will absorb. And even if they know that you're being obsequious and they'll, you know, they'll sort of laugh and go like, I know what you're doing. Here's a donation.

But it works because people live for that. They dress in the morning thinking, what are people going to think? In fact, we have some of these little tags we're going to pass out. And as many of these tags we have here, if you could pass them out at random.

There's not enough to go around, but that's by design because not everyone needs to have one. We're going to switch off. But it says on this tag, make me feel important. Now, wear the tag on your lapel, please, for now.

And I want you to imagine from now on, whenever you meet somebody, that they're wearing this tag. And when you want to know what to say to somebody or how to treat somebody, just read the sign that they're wearing on their lapel that says, make me feel important, because that's what people, how people want to be treated. Okay? So everyone have a tag now that needs one okay so turn to the person everyone around the person with a tag turn to them really quick and just make them feel important i can see dharma is doing a great job huh oh okay yes perfect oh this is excellent she was wearing what a pretty jacket and you know that And what else?

Anybody, any other specifics? You look good today. Pretty jacket. You look good today.

It makes you feel important, doesn't it? So this is how you keep someone's attention. You see this badge that they're wearing, make me feel important when you meet them. And this is the key to communication.

You notice something about them. Nice hat, nice hairdo, nice jacket, shoes, anything. Of course, Bhagavad Gita always points out that you can notice clothing items, but when you notice how nice their hair is because it's actually connected to the body, then they really like you for it. But anything you can imagine to point out, use your imagination to make somebody feel important, that this is the key to actually communicating well with somebody and having them warm up to you.

So the Communications 101 is simple but profound. and maybe it goes to the first slide. I'm sorry. Sorry about that. Just to review.

What's stuck in your mind? Anything? Yes. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Anybody else? Anything stuck in your mind? Yes. There's no limit to the flattery.

Continuous asking. Yes. Become a master asker. Madhavendra?

The question is a hook. Yes. Amla, you were going to say? anyone else yes trust the hand yes very good get in the habit of putting the book in their hand okay and what's the next yeah just brush through it really quick one last look focus on what's most important the person next next what's in it for me become a master asker question is a hook Questions deflect insincere questions. Why do you ask?

Question clarifies. What do you mean by that? Next one. Question holds their interest.

Offer sincere compliments. Flattery will get you everywhere. Next. That's it.

Very simple. And go, go, go. And go, go, go. Okay, now, if we can move these chairs out of the way, I know we can, and then what we're going to do is we're going to line up and partner off, and we're going to go through this exercise of presenting a Bhagavad Gita to a partner.

Okay, so everyone on this side... Stage one is to stop someone and put the book in their hand or get their attention, qualify them, put the book in their hand. Stage two, show and tell. Stage three, ask for a donation.

Got that? Hey, you from Dallas? No. Great, you get one too.

Show. Bhagavad Gita. We're showing everybody these books today. Sorry.

And I'd like to show you the changing bodies picture. This is where you start off, and you end up here. We're just passing through. And this is a picture describing the three modes in material nature.

Everyone is dominated by three modes of nature. There's a mode of goodness, which is like knowledge, wisdom, light. And there's a mode of passion, which is basically you've got to get things done no matter what. Go, go, go.

Sounds like me. Mode of ignorance is just sleep, laziness, intoxication. And so we're all dominated by a mixture of these three modes. Which one do you think you're most dominated by?

I was thinking passionate, actually, but when you said laziness, it kind of felt like me. All right. And this next picture is showing how a spiritual minded person, he respects everyone, he respects all of the entities, because as you see it's God, God's in everyone's heart. And here we have, this picture is showing, basically it's an analogy showing the situation of the soul within the body.

We're actually like on a chariot, it's compared to like a chariot, your senses are your horses, your senses are guiding you, taking you places, like your horses, your mind is your rein, Mind is controlling the senses. Your intelligence is the driver. And so if we don't have a strong driver, we're in for a heavy ride. Horses are just going anywhere.

So one of the benefits of yoga is that it teaches us how to get spiritual strength. It gives us intelligence that we actually can do what we want to do instead of being controlled by our senses. This is a yogi. Looks like he's been sitting there for too long.

Take a deep breath. And this is karma. You've heard of karma before? No.

Karma is what goes around, comes around. This book has been written in Sanskrit language. It's a very ancient language. And the authors very kindly unlock the ancient secrets out of this book.

It's written in a very simple language that everyone can understand. It's given word for word so everyone can understand. And this is used by colleges and universities throughout the world. You've heard of University of Southern California?

Yes. You ever heard of Georgetown University? No. Okay.

And we've been used throughout the world. And we just, in our previous printing, we printed almost a million copies. We just printed 80,000 copies for, to distribute to all the intelligent people in Dallas. This book has been read by many great thinkers.

You've heard of Einstein? Yes. Albert Einstein read this book. Henry David Thoreau.

Albuson Gandhi has read this book. And so now we're giving it to you. You can take it with you. We're showing.

We just ask a donation. How much do people give? The printing costs us about $8. And so most people, the last person just gave $20.

So most people give from $10 or $20. Are you from Dallas? Yes. Great.

Let me show you one too. Oh, thank you. This is the Bhagavad Gita. It's an ancient Bhagavad Gita.

Let me show you real quick. Let's see. This is a good one. Oh, this is nice here.

See, this is the Changing Bodies exhibit. We all start here and we end here. You see? Just passing through.

Yeah, just passing through. This is the three modes of material nature, goodness, passion, and ignorance. Goodness being light, and passion being work hard, go, go, go, and ignorance being intoxication and darkness. Which one do you think it might be?

I think it's more like ignorance. Yeah, me too. I know what that is. Let's see.

This one is the self-realized soul. He sees God in every individual, so he treats everyone with respect. Oh, that's great. That's nice. this here is an interesting one this shows the senses and the mind and the intelligence and and the passenger here as the senses are the seeing and smell and hearing and whatnot the mind connects to the intelligence and uh well we're the passenger right you see if the senses are out of control we're in for a ride yeah you see one of the great great benefits of yoga is once the senses and the mind come into control we can actually live more peacefully Great benefits of yoga.

You see this guy? He's been doing it for a long time. He's been at it for some time. What else?

Oh, this here is, this shows the god of karma. What goes around comes around. For every action, there's a reaction. So, ancient Sanskrit language, as you see here, it's most, the oldest language in the world.

The author here, he's taken the Sanskrit language and broken it down for us and explained it very nicely. So much so that The greatest thinkers of the world, Gandhi and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, they've all read this. Wow. It's very nice.

It's studied in the greatest, the nicest universities. As you see, you've heard of University of Southern California? Yeah. Georgetown University.

Right. Previously, we printed almost a million copies. Wow. Yeah.

Recently, 80,000 we printed more to give to the most intelligent individuals that we can count on. Thank you. We do this as a benefit to spread spirituality throughout the world. All we ask is a small donation to help with the printing cost.

After printing and shipping and handling, it's about $8 for the book. So most people give between $10 and $20. You can do the best you can. Here's $100.

Very nice. Cut. University of Southern California uses this book. Georgetown University uses this book.

So, this book is well-respected in intelligent circles. If you go right here in the front, you can see we've almost printed a million copies of this book. And just in 2004, we have printed 80,000 more to give to intelligent people like yourself. And then there's all these other languages that it's printed in, too.

Wow, that's really fun. There's a lot in this book, isn't there? This is a lot. But this is Srila Prabhupada.

He is the author of this book, and he unlocked all this knowledge for us. When it's all said and done, the book costs us $8 after printing, shipping, handling, all that. And we're just asking for a donation to cover the cost of printing. And most people give a little bit more to help us out.

Oh, that's great. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Excuse me, sir. Nice to meet you. Are you from Dallas? Yeah.

Oh, great. Well, here, check this out. We'll show you one, too. It's spiritual knowledge from India.

You ever read much on Eastern thought before? No. Great. Well, here, let me show you.

This is where the philosophy begins. It's changing bodies. I'll show you here. We're changing bodies.

We start here, and we end here. Pretty simple. Yeah. Reincarnation.

You've heard of that before, right? Mm-hmm. Cool. Well, this talks about material nature.

There's three modes of material nature. Goodness, passion, and ignorance. Goodness is qualified by enlightenment and knowledge, peace and happiness, things like that. Passion is trying to enjoy material facilities more and more and more, but never becoming satisfied in the general mood of our country.

And then mode of ignorance is when people are very tired and sleepy, depressed even. It's mode of ignorance. Which mode of nature do you qualify? I'm sleepy.

You're sleepy? Yeah. Yeah, me too. Okay.

So moving on. here we have this is the advanced soul advanced to spiritual self-realized soul and he sees that within every body there's a spirit soul living there also the supreme soul is there god is there so thus he respects all living equal all living entities equally loves everyone equally right so he sees god in everyone yeah he sees god in all living beings unless he loves it would be nice if all of our leaders could see things like that huh right be less fighting okay and this is about karma you've heard of karma right yeah what goes around comes around pretty simple and the sanskrit this book was originally written in sanskrit you can see it here transliteration or word for word it teaches you how to read sanskrit in the back of the book if you want to learn how to read sanskrit and i could show you but for time's sake we'll skip ahead right then and uh yeah oh yeah our spiritual master he's the one that unlocked all the secrets of sanskrit throne emerson used to read this book in gandhi you've heard of gandhi right yeah yeah thin guy great guy great guy gandhi my good friend gandhi different professors have read it georgetown university this uh dr s shukla and then and you may have heard of the university of southern california yeah football football that's right and we uh now the next thing is that he goes to is printing previously we printed almost a million copies and recently we printed 80,000 copies so we can distribute them to all the nice people like you. So we print all these books ourselves.

We're doing this as a benefit. We're trying to spread love of God throughout the world so people like the sage in the book can become more peaceful and happy. The cool thing is we don't sell them. We print them ourselves.

We get donations. So after printing them and the distribution of shipping them and everything it costs about $8. So most people give like $10 or $20. Anyhow, Vaisesika, he deserves all the praise.

Vaisesika Das Prabhu, all glories. He's a very empowered spirit. His presentation is amazing. So many things that come to mind, but how to present a Bhagavad Gita, he actually gives it to you step by step.

And then the role playing, it actually gives you the tools, it gives you the practice to go out there so that when you do go there, you have the game plan, you have the idea of what you're going to do. it's to be seen still if I can do it I feel much more confident, yeah I feel much more confident than when we started I haven't been out doing any books yet but I think I could I think I could with the help of Krishna and Vaisheshika who's his instructions that's that I get it's nice, you know, it shows you the principles of Krishna consciousness and it really teaches you that you should should regulate the mind by chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Well, yeah, he explains how to sell a book pretty nicely.

Like, I'm a telemarketer, and we use a script to sell our product. So I was one, and there's a script in this How to Sell a Gita. There's like, you know, rebuttals. So if they say, I'm not interested, there's something you can say back to them. you know it's basically you just to be a telemarketer or a book distributor you just got to be confident i guess and uh you got to be you kind of have a you have to have an authoritative voice at least that's what um that's what i would i was taught in my uh telemarketing class you have to be in control of the uh conversation or they'll be controlling you so you feel confident now you could go out on the street hi i hope so i could try Krishna's incarnation this world is through his books and through the books is the only way we could spread Krishna consciousness Haribol Hare Krishna my name is Chaitanya Chandra Das from Dallas Texas to me Vaisesika's coming was like a this whole presentation has been a revitalization of solid purpose of the mission of Prabhupada to distribute his books and spread Krishna consciousness, which we've been missing here for some period, it seems, on a certain level at least.

And now this is revitalizing the mood of distributing Krishna, getting out of Krishna's way and allowing us to go out and give people Krishna in a nice way. So I think from this whole experience that the consciousness is going to turn around in a very nice way and people are going to become enlivened and happy from distributing Prabhupada's books. Congratulations everyone for graduating from the How to Sell a Bhagavad Gita on its own merits. Did everyone have a good time?

Okay, this is a guaranteed program so remember, double your money back If you're not able to sell a Bhagavad Gita, this requires practice. These are just some general ideas, but these practices that we've taught you today have been passed down from one book distributor to another. They're definitely potent and effective, so if you'll just practice them, and you do it in your own words, in your own time, with your own style, you'll be very, very successful, and you will sell Bhagavad Gitas. We will see how the weather is going after the feast this afternoon to see if we'll be able to mobilize today, and if not, then we'll plan on mobilizing tomorrow and getting out.

And we will also have a presentation tomorrow morning to wrap up the seminar, and that's at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. The Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Book Distributors. that sort of ties everything together. Okay? Gokri Manandi Hari Hari Bhav.

Transcendent Bhakti Sri Kee Jai. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Kee Jai. Srila Prabhupada Kee Jai. Gokri Manandi Hari Hari Bhav.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.