Art of Book Distribution Seminar -- Part 1: Ambassador of Good Will -- Vaishasheka das -- Dallas 2006

The Ambassador of Goodwill. This picture is of Srila Prabhupada in his room in Radha Damodar at the Radha Damodar temple, his small room there beside Radha Damodar, where he sat for many, many years, almost a decade, and wrote his Srimad Bhagavatam commentaries and began to conceive of fulfilling the order of his spiritual life. master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswatī Ṭhākura, to bring Krishna consciousness to America. And many stories from here, but meditating on Prabhupāda here, that his heart is simply filled with compassion and determination for bringing this Krishna consciousness to the world, beginning with America, which of course we all know he did. And he came as an ambassador of good will.

He didn't come to make money. Most people, they come across the ocean, or they fly here and there. Most people on the airplane today, they're going somewhere and they're making money. Most business people, I want to make money.

But Prabhupada didn't come to make money. Prabhupada came to give. He came to give. He came to give the best thing, this Krishna consciousness, the holy names, and the understanding of how to go back home back to godhead he came to give gifts unlimited gifts and he had them to give so he came as an ambassador of goodwill and that's what we are also supposed to do we are also supposed to be ambassadors of goodwill we're not going out to make money we're not going out to do anything except for give compassion and show kindness to other living beings by being perfect examples of what a spiritual person, a spiritual man or woman is supposed to be like, is supposed to act like.

So when we go out to perform Sankirtan, we should remember this, that we go out with no motive in our heart, no personal motive, only to extend the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to others. Next. Next tool. One who is not envious, but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination.

His mind and intelligence fixed on me, such a devotee of mine is very dear to me. He for whom no one has put into difficulty and who is not disturbed by anyone, who is eco-poised in happiness and distress, fear and anxiety, is very dear to me. These, of course, are beautiful verses from the Bhagavad Gita in the 12th chapter. There are others that follow that, but I've included these two in this particular presentation as a meditation for how we should feel, how we should think when we go out to preach, that we're going out to give something important, and that each person we should treat as a friend, that we should see their soul, that they're a living entity, and we're trying to do good for them.

And we shouldn't put anyone into difficulty. And we shouldn't also be disturbed as well when we go out, because there are many causes for disturbance. Actually, we should disturb ourselves though because this is required. Prabhupada could have stayed in Vrindavan but he disturbed himself to follow the order of his spiritual master.

So we should also disturb ourselves. It's not easy sometimes to get up and go out. But one devotee, Bhakta George, one of my favorite devotees I've ever met who lives in the Bay Area and loves to go on book distribution, always has a big smile on his face and he was telling me the other day that the main the hard part about going out on sanctum is just going out but once you get there there's he said once i get out then i'm happy and i feel like i'm at home next the goal people will remember and tell others about the experience they had with me therefore i must always do my best to leave each person i with a good impression. So there was a group of new devotees going out on book distribution from our temple at Hiskon Silicon Valley.

That's ISV for short. We call our Sankirtan team, Team ISV. And they were going out to one devotee named Adi Guru, very enthusiastic young man. And he wanted, He's going every weekend now to Santa Cruz area, which is an area where there's a lot of sort of modern California type people and preaching.

And before he went out, I said, so what is the goal? And he said, to distribute books. I said, no, that's secondary goal. First goal is that you leave every person with a good impression.

Whether they take a book, don't take a book. where they live there or they're walking up and down the street, they have a shop there, whatever. Do your best to be an ambassador of goodwill and meet everybody with some gift, either a smile or a piece of prashad on them or a book and go out with that mood to leave every single person with a good feeling that you're a sadhu, that you're a person who's cultivating spiritual value. and this is your goal so he wrote after he went out he wrote this very nice we have what we call and we'll talk about this later the good news action broadcast g-n-a-b nab and the good news action broadcast means as soon as you go out on sankirtan you'll see miracles will happen wonderful things will happen bring those back with you and share them with everybody we broadcast them on we have a group for the sankirtan group on on the yahoo groups so when the devotees come back they report their score how many books distributed how much prashadam they gave out not exactly how much prashadam but that they did give out prashadam and then they'll report anything that happened so adi guru when he came back he reported on his good news action broadcast that we we made good impression with many people and then the shopkeepers and he said even policemen were taking prashadam from me and they were very happy and some young children and he said and also we distributed 20 books so this is the idea that we go out with this mood that we go out to meet people and and make them feel like they've met somebody of substance of quality and that has love in their heart, that's out there to give them something.

And even if somebody scorns you, we should tolerate, like Lord Nityananda. This is our sadhana. We go out and we practice this. Of course, there are times when we have to stand up for, we have to not lose our posture, and we have to stand up for our philosophy or for our devotees, for our spiritual master, and we stand firm.

We don't lose our posture, but we do the best we can to leave everyone with a good feeling. I'll give you another story. When I was in Honolulu with my friend Saeed, when we were going out every day to distribute books on Waikiki, there was a lot of honeymooners there, and one set of honeymooners, I'll never forget this, that I met them, and I showed them a Bhagavad Gita, and I explained it to them and then i i told them that we were accepting donations to cover the printing cost and then they said we uh we really don't want the book because we're christians you never heard that before here in dallas right and and also they said and we can't donate to this because it's we don't believe in this clause and what you're doing exactly you know we have we're different faith and i was in a great mood because i was with my friend satya dave and we've been hearing and chanting at the temple and i i shook the man's hand and i looked him in the face and i said that's okay it was just an honor to meet you anyway and i want to thank you for taking your valuable time and i really meant it and those that newlywed couple walked away and about a half hour later i was standing talking to somebody else.

And I saw them standing nearby. And when I finished, I went over and I said, hi, how you doing? And they said, we changed our mind. We'd like to give a donation.

And you know, my heart melted. And I thought, this is what we're supposed to be doing out here. Really, this is how we should treat people. Everything matters.

Every single thought, word, action that you take in public people see it people notice so our approach is to go out as ambassadors of goodwill with this feeling in our heart we're going to give to people we're going to to you know take care of their souls and then they'll feel that they'll feel that and that happened to me twice while i was at waikiki people came back because i started saying it to everybody after that this is a picture of one devotee very enthusiastic from washington dc who's meeting this gentleman and you can see that you know meeting people and shaking their hand and meeting them on the street sometimes people oh this is undignified going out into public but no we're actually going out and preaching right where people live door to door shop to shop where they shop on the street where they're walking and we meet people and we befriend them and shake hands and share with them what's in our heart and and give them some prashadam give them some a book to read and allow them to donate if they'd like to to help out and participate they can donate next priorities be kind and respectful to everybody you meet don't concentrate on your personal scores or results. If you're thinking, oh, this, you know, I have to make a certain quote, I have to, I have to collect a certain amount to make a show or something like that, some kind of false ego gets involved.

Then I may think, this person owes me. He should give. Why don't you give? And in that moment, you've, you've created a, you've alienated that person.

So we should put that aside. Develop the habit of expressing sincere gratitude and thanks to people you meet, live with, or associate with. And get in this habit, because then, I mean, this is actually what association is all about, about gratitude. that we should share our gratitude with others you know when you feel deep gratitude for some devotee you go and give a gift what else can you do you just have to express yourself here's a gift i i appreciate what you're doing so much or here's some prasadam or you just want to talk to that person and express your gratitude somehow you know reveal your mind to that person and and you know what that's what we do when we go on sankirtan too it's the same thing it's not us and them these are all spirit souls we're going to meet so we do it here amongst ourselves we find managers they should catch people doing things right catch people doing so everyone should do that catch someone doing something right and then go over and express your gratitude for it and see how everything changes that's that's the real management principle it's out of gratitude and love that's what holds our whole institution together Prabhupada said this he said love and trust love and trust that's what it's all about because we're all volunteers here nobody's paying our you know salaries or something like that so what do we have something much more valuable much more valuable it's love and trust so we cultivate that here cultivate it it means go out of your way to show your gratitude to the devotees to your god brothers god sisters to your elders to the new people show give them krupa give them mercy when they're just walking in as much as you can shower it on them and then sankirtan it just means the exact same thing but going out and meeting other people and sharing that same mood of gratitude with people then here I have something so wonderful and you're part of our you're part of the spiritual world here take this please and people feel that that's what people feel whether they take don't take at the time we're going out to meet people on that level this is our movement we want to see that everyone is happy that is the Vedic vision This is human life.

Human life means parupakar. That is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mission, to do others something auspicious. That is human life. Srila Prabhupada in Denver, 1975.

So that's our mood. Next. Engage everyone appropriately and as completely as possible. We should go out armed to the teeth.

Prashadam. Why not? You know, you can buy these prashadam machines. I just saw them.

Ratna Bhushan was showing. You probably already have all this here, but I'll just say it anyway. But, you know, Ratna Bhushan was showing me these machines they have in Los Angeles for making cookies. You have those here?

Cookie machine. You know, big cookie machine. You just turn the thing on. Theirs is electric.

They can make 10,000 cookies in one day. Of course, you have to have the ovens too. But this big thing, you just put the dough in the top, and it comes out the molds and cookies all day long. Take them off for them to the Lord.

Get some recipe that just knocks people's socks off. And then get a nice packaging machine so you can package them up with the logo of the Kalachandjis or whatever logo, whatever identity you have here, and a way they can get in touch with you and find out who did this to them when they taste that prashada. and you go out and you give out millions, millions of pieces of prasadam. That's how devotees back in the 70s, they won over New York City, right? What was it, Mark?

Luglu. Luglu. They were putting subways. Everyone had luglus.

Policemen would come over and go, hey, hey, hey, what's with the Hare Krishna thing? You know, give me one of those. You know, luglus. so and you know in uh in laguardia airport it was hard getting a permit there but because every time we went to get to the permit office we took two gigantic cheesecakes that were offered to rata govinda they always kind of winked at us when they come by the permit guy all right hari krishna you guys are okay you know if you want to know how to convert somebody to christian consciousness is just distribute prashada. You go to the bank teller, you know, one day, here's your cookie.

You come back the next week, here's your cookie. Next week, here's your cookie. Pretty soon he goes, who are you? You know?

Well, here's who I am. Here's the book. That's, you're in. Prashada.

So, this is what we're about. It's giving out prashada. Prashada means mercy. you get prashad you got everything because prashada means all your misery goes away when you get prashada and your mind becomes clear and happy and your intelligence becomes fixed that's powerful stuff so give prashada now especially to people you see regularly if you're going to a place where you know there's people watching you and there's always somebody watching you. Give them prasadam.

Every single time you see them, give them prasadam. Go in the shop. If you're working somewhere, if you're working anywhere, give people regularly prasadam. And after a while, everyone will become your friend.

Next thing, offer kind words. Words go a long way. You know, harsh words, it says in the Bhagavatam. Krishna says in the Bhagavatam that the hardest thing for anyone to tolerate are harsh, unkind words spoken by ignorant people and the opposite is true also kind words spoken from someone with a genuinely soft heart are the most soothing and appreciated in the world so we have our words we can take those out and offer those to people when we go out offer kind words introduce all the books people everyone our goal to to help people become krishna conscious we have to make a culture of showing people how to keep and respect these books in their homes, even if they're not reading all of them immediately.

It should be part of the culture. So, you know, we started a program in Denver and then we did Washington, D.C. and other places where during the Sunday feast, we'd have the speaker there and then we'd have a whole set of books like this. And the whole lecture is about the books, about the set of books, and that you, you know, you take the books home, and you put them in your house, and it's as if God has entered your house. Not as if, it's exactly, because this is the incarnation in this.

The Lord has appeared in the Bhagavatam. He's come, and now if he enters into the house people are different you know we want to we want to present all the books and so this should be part of the culture when someone comes to Krishna consciousness they need to know what's the next step next step next step they have to have a roadmap right and so one of those steps is to have a full set of Prabhupada's books in their house and it's not just the money it's really some people I've seen you know to make that that choice that I'm going to take and maintain these books in the house they really have to think about it sometimes because it means accepting something and moving other things out of the way so we should offer all the books to help people you know increase their christian conscience we presented i was going to tell you in the at the sunday feast it really worked well we did it in denver and we said you get the full set of books the devotees will bring it to your house with a plate of maha prasadam and three people came forward that night and bought sets.

And that was for $350 each for a set of Bhagavatams. And then when I asked them afterwards, the thing they really liked was the plate of Mahaprasadam. And that the devotee was coming to their house. It's something personal.

And it's not a commodity. We're in a service business. We want to present the full package on every level. And everything's tied together.

When we go out to meet people on Sankirtan, Then we, of course, bring them back here and hook them in to the next step and see how you live this and live it in your home. And one of those steps is to have a full set of Prabhupada's books. So after Denver, then we expanded and we said, okay, you get a full set of books tonight at the Sunday feast, full set of Bhagavatams, and you'll get a $50 discount. You'll get a free one-year subscription to Back to Godhead magazine. and you will get an installation.

What's an installation? We'll bring the books to your home and we'll install them in your house. And so we go to the house and we have a huge puja for the books, a big garland that goes around all the Bhagavatams. We offer a feast to the books.

We have a kirtan to the books. And then we have a lecture, a short talk about what the books are. and then we pass around the first canto and everyone in the group and see they bring all their friends everyone in the group reads one paragraph what did he say the books are our deities there it is the books are our deities prophet said it and so you know five people came forward that night and they took sets and then from those five there was 17 more from the installation because they brought their friends and at the installation we offered them the same thing and now like in san jose um when people come and they say well what's one what's the next step and so you have to have the installation get the full set of books that's when you're serious you get the whole thing rompat marge he picked this up he's been going around doing lots of sets when he gives sunday feast lecture then he presents the full books and i was telling him and i've told other sannyasis too because you know they get invited a lot to people's homes that when people ask you, will you come to my house to take prasadam, say yes under one condition because I have a certain standard.

Oh sure, whatever it is. I only go to homes where there's a full set of Prabhupada's books. This is the kind of standard. Okay, introduce all the books.

Teach the Maha Mantra. Take a little time to teach people the mantra. After we sell a book or don't sell a book, usually when we sell one because people want to hang around a little for a few more minutes, but we'll say, do you believe in the power of prayer? And 99% of the people because we're blessed to live here in America where people actually believe in God for the most part they say, yes I do, and then they say well let me teach you this ancient prayer and we hand them a card with the Mahamantra and say, please repeat after me Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare and then you know people are happy they've got something to take home they got a book a piece of prasadam they learn how to do the mantra and so many people they say it so nicely and you know it's nice as you're out there all day and you're you're teaching the mantra and you're hearing people say it all day long you sit down the next morning in japa and you go Hare Krishna, you know, that the names go bouncing off the corridors of your heart and mind because you're out there distributing it and making sure they got it in their pocket before they go home.

Lord Niyananda comes out, you want to chant japa, you know, okay, he'll open the door for you now. It's mercy. It comes down to us through this distribution process. So take time to teach people the mantra and everyone will be blessed.

The whole universe gets blessed by the holy name. Avoid the envious. This is part of our process. People are envious.

When you go to pick fruits in your mango grove, what kind of groves do you have here? Pecans. When you go to pick pecans in the pecan grove, which pecans do you pick first? Montevender?

Okay, you know. The biggest and the ripest, the low-hanging fruits, they're going, pick me first, because they're hanging there. And when you grab them, they practically fall off in your hand, right? When they're ripe, when they're ripe.

So when something's ripe, it's ripe. And when it's not ripe, it's not ripe. So don't pick it. Leave it alone.

Let it ripen. You know, give it a, you know, a wink and a nod and leave it alone. Let it go. You know, this is our process.

This is an authorized process. We go out and we collect the fortunates, the people who are out there. They're ripe and they're ready in some way. to to engage in christian consciousness and the other people we let them go here's the thing i do when i meet people who i say i'm a born-again christian because oftentimes those type of people if i push a little more than i engage then it's you know push back and forth so what i say when we were in alachua we met a lot of born-again christians it's in the bible belt as is dallas i'm sure and we'd meet people coming out of hitchcock's the grocery store there and i'd show of bhagavad-gita and i begin to explain it and they and and they'd say i'm a born-again christian and i say we need more people like you in the world because there's people of faith like you that are keeping the world afloat thank you very much and they're stunned and they hand the book back and they walk away and you know we're friends and they don't call the manager of the store and say get these people out of here you know this is this is how we should treat people when we meet somebody who's uh you know in some position where they're not able to to uh accept krishna conscious of course then it depends also on you know your inspiration of course these are all sort of pat answers and things and these are things that i've developed you know through working on sanctum but you'll have your own genius like vijay he was going door to door in australia and he met a guy who came to the door and said uh buddy i'm a satanist i'm not interested in your book and vijay said well don't be foolish you should know your competition very well shouldn't you he said you know you're right about that how much is so it's not that uh you know we have to simply avoid every single situation there may be a you know an opportunity to engage someone anyway but the basic principle is there to look for the people who are favorable and the people are envious just leave them with a nice word and leave the atmosphere clean no residue okay invite and follow up with favorite favorable people and this means to have some system to bring people in and engage them further when you meet nice people.

Very important. So this is, of course, the verse from the Shri Madhavam Ishvaretharadineshu Balisheshu Dusatchita. An intermediate, second-class devotee called Madhyamadikari offers his love to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is a sincere friend to all the devotees of the Lord, shows mercy to ignorant people who are innocent, and disregards those who are envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Just to back up what I said with Shastra.

Next. We are in the service business it's not that we're selling a commodity and once it's sold we just walk away but we're looking that this is the first step how to cultivate people and bring them in so our motto actually as a our motto i you know we adopted this motto in in uh isv always better service and i saw it on the back of a truck on my way to bagua tom class one day because there was this truck and they said always better service said that's our motto too always better service because you can always make you can this is the spiritual world you know in personalist they think the god is void and there's no god and that to to say that god is something specific is to limit him but actually it's the opposite the more specific the more subtle and specific you become in understanding God, that he's a person, that he has certain ways to be served.

The poetry of the Bhagavatam, it's very fine and choice, uttama shloka, the Lord is glorified with selected prayers. The more specific we are, the more refined our service, the better it is. And just like if I come in this room and I sit down here at the microphone and I can only grunt and grown, how long are you going to hang around? I mean, from the very beginning, if I just came in here and I said, I mean, how much can you get from that?

But if I come in and I have some vocabulary and, you know, I'm gesticulating or whatever, then there's, you're getting more. It's more interesting. It actually becomes more, it becomes infinite when it becomes more refined. So similarly, the spiritual world is like that the more we refine our service the more we're thinking how to make it better then that can go on unlimitedly it goes on forever being refined and refined and refined so this is wonderful it's a great occupation it's eternal always better service here's a couple of nice devotees look at this weekend warrior team out in front of the hitchcock's grocery store in alachua florida people said it couldn't be done say let's do sankirtan in alachua there's no spots there's nowhere to do sankirtan in alachua there's no devotees to go out we can't do sankirtan here but you know what they're doing sankirtan in alachua they're going out they're getting spots right now as we speak chaitanya Adidasis there in Alachua, and she's phoning up.

Now, see, talking about always better service and how more we're finding it. The more she starts calling places, the more she realizes the potential. There's the Winn-Dixies. There's the Publix.

Now we thought there was only one Hitchcocks, and Hitchcocks loves us. You know why? Because, well, because all the devotees shop there. They have a special aisle there just for the devotees.

Anybody here from Alachua? But you've been there. You know Hitchcock. Yeah, they love us.

And not only that, Brahmaputra, you know, kept Walmart away from Alachua and they would have ruined these guys. So they love us. They say, sure, you can work outside our store. So we only we thought there was only one Hitchcock's.

But guess what? One little, you know, gander at the yellow pages. There's more Hitchcock's. And you don't know that until you go out and try to do always better service.

ABS, always better service. You you look, where's the more spots? Where can we do more of this? It's right there.

And here's the proof. And look at him smile. You don't get a smile like that from anything else except for being on Sankirtan. Passing out cookies.

See that little bowl there with the sign? It says cookies on it. They're giving out cookies. They have a nice book rack.

And, you know, they're in ecstasy. Okay, next. Practice parallel service. Parallel service, the example is man sitting in the restaurant and the waiter walks by and he says uh excuse me waiter um can you bring me a glass of water or no no it's even better than that he says can you tell me what time it is and he says sorry that's not my station can't help you you see what i'm saying so parallel service means that all the devotees they look around and they see what's going on and and they all try try to work together even if it's not your station you're not your service think for the good of the community what you can do next is everything counts even or especially little things follow up with people make people feel special treat people with respect and be empathetic empathize with people this is a classic way to deal with objections it's feel felt found everyone say feel felt found I know how you feel that's how I felt but here's what I found so any objection you can really you know empathize with people by using feel felt found use it in your personal relationships you'll see how nice it is because you're empathizing with people but this is a mood to go out when we're preaching we're going out to do book distribution to empathize with people's problems, and then present a solution to help them.

So this means ambassador of goodwill. And is there anything else, or is that it? Haribo! There's my friend Satya Dave, who never liked to distribute books.

He's been around since 1970. He joined in Japan. He's the one on the right there with the hat, by the way. Out in the rain in San Francisco.

It's raining, and he's out there with an umbrella under a, that's a goodwill thing, and he has a little table behind him, and he's out there selling Bhagavad Gitas, because he's swept up in the Sankirtan festival. And this nice young man was a very happy recipient of Bhagavad Gita. Isn't it nice to see pictures of Sankirtan? Is there anything else?

Haribo! Shri Shri Gurnithai. Those are my deities in my house. And devotees, every week we have a program in our house.

Kesha Bhardimarsh comes and mercifully stays with us sometimes for a couple weeks. Every week, every Friday, we have a program. Devotees come over, and they love to be together. They want to come together and just hear a chant, and chant Hare Krishna, and then share their realizations, and take prasad, and go home happy.

And this is all the mercy of Sri Sri Gauri Thay. And so this is why we're all here. It's to develop these loving relationships and then to go out and give it to other people as ambassadors of goodwill. So I thought that that would be a good way to start the seminar is to talk about this, the always better service and about the ambassador of goodwill and this idea.

Om Tat Sat Hare Krishna.