770116 - Conversation B - Calcutta

Conversations by Date, 1977

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this Conversation

770116R2-CALCUTTA - January 16, 1977 - 22:44 Minutes

(Conversation on 1976 Book Scores)

Rāmeśvara: This is a very bad picture. It makes the devotee look very strange. And they have this elaborate ghee holder.

Prabhupāda: This is our men?

Rāmeśvara: Yes. This is at an ārati. You can see the donations that people have put on the tray. But it makes it look very strange, this picture, with the lighting. They have deliberately selected this.

Prabhupāda: Very big article.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. Yes. I have just been reading it.

Hari-śauri: What newspaper is that?

Rāmeśvara: It's a very small-time newspaper called the Soho Weekly News.

Prabhupāda: Bad propaganda is going on.

Gargamuni: Some good, some bad.

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are two. Any movement will have such.

Gargamuni: I have mentioned this morning about Sumati Sarvadetra, Mr. Moksa Buddhi, that he was considering becoming a devotee. So I told him you were here, so he immediately came tonight. He's waiting now.

Prabhupāda: Oh. So then bring him. That's all right.

Rāmeśvara: So I can read this and summarize it . . .

Prabhupāda: Later on.

Rāmeśvara: . . . if there is anything interesting. But this is something that's nice. (break) . . . this one first. This is the total sales.

Prabhupāda: Dekhun amader boi publishing er report paben. (See, you will get the report of our book publishing.)

Rāmeśvara: For the year 1976. It lists . . . the first section lists all the Caitanya-caritāmṛtas title by title, all seventeen volumes. So last year we sold 55,000 copies of Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Prabhupāda: All parts.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. Then it lists the Bhāgavatams. We sold 7,000 volume one, First Canto; 46,000 First Canto, volume two; 41,000 First Canto, volume three; 6,000 2.1's; 8,500 5.1's; 8,500 5.2's; 17,000 6.1's; 16,000 6.2's; 16,000 6.3's; 45,000 7.1, Prahlāda Mahārāja; 15,000 7.2; 16,000 7.3; 16,000 8.1; and 15,000 8.2. Total Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam sales in English last year, 275,000 hardbound volumes. Then Bhagavad-gītā. Macmillan edition, 5,000; then the abridged edition, paper bound, 11,000. Then the abridged edition, hardbound . . . (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Choking.

Rāmeśvara: 606,000 hardbound volumes, for a total sale of Bhagavad-gītā last year in English, not counting what was printed in India, 622,000 hardbound volumes. Then Kṛṣṇa book, hardbound: 28,000, volume one; 12,000 volume two; 12,000 volume three; making a total of Kṛṣṇa book hardbound sold of 51,000 hardbound volumes. Then Kṛṣṇa trilogies, paper bound: 17,000 volume one; 19,000 volume two; 24,000 volume three; making a total of 60,000 Kṛṣṇa trilogies. Then 6,000 Teachings of Lord Caitanya, 7,000 Nectar of Devotion, 160,000 Śrī Īśopaniṣad, 100,000 Nectar of Instruction, 253,000 Easy Journey to Other Planets . . .

Prabhupāda: This is the largest sale. (chuckling)

Rāmeśvara: . . . 487,000 Perfection of Yoga; 263,000 Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Is Authorized; 10,000 cook books, Hare Kṛṣṇa cook books; 4,000 Gopal coloring books; and just under 7,000 . . . excuse me, 7,000,000 Back to Godhead magazines. Now, the total magazines, almost 7,000,000. Total small books like Perfection of Yoga, Easy Journey is 740,000. Total medium books like Kṛṣṇa trilogy, Śrī Īśopaniṣad is 319,000. Total books like cook books, Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Is Authorized, other titles: 280,000. Then total hardbound books: 1,007,000. So the total literatures sold last year is 9,076,280 literatures. Nine million.

Prabhupāda: Eisob organize korun eikhane. (Please organize all this here.)

Gargamuni: It's only English.

Rāmeśvara: This is just English.

Prabhupāda: Echara. (Except this.) . . . French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese. Amader Bharat-varse te . . . esob to Bhart-varser jinish, sakaler hate ek ek khana boi debar janye yodi organize koren apni ya can ami dite raji achi. Yodi baire yekhane tara Hindu o na, Indian o noy tara yodi eto nite pare, India te kato potency ache. (In India . . . these are the things of India. If you organize distribution of books to each and everyone, then I agree to pay whatever you want. If in the foreign countries, where people are not even Hindu or Indian, if they can accept this much then in India there will be a great potency.)

Indian guest: Niscayi. (Of course.)

Prabhupāda: Niyeche, sob university niyeche, sob library nicche, standing order diyeche. Er onek kichu karbar ache. Ei literature er through diye beshi pracar hoy. Bhalo lok yodi porbe bujhte parbe ye kato valuable jinish . . . (indistinct Bengali) . . . (They have taken, every university has taken, all libraries are taking—they are giving standing orders. This has many things to do. More preaching can be done through this literature. If an intelligent person reads this, then he will understand how valuable it is . . .)

Indian guest: Amader to ekhane kato guli jinis korte hobe, seta hocche, amader ye regional language royeche . . . (indistinct) . . . Englisher iye ta kom . . . (indistinct Bengali) . . . (We have to do some preparation here, that is we have regional language . . . (indistinct) . . . English is less . . .)

Prabhupāda: Na ei khane kichu lok prayi English pore. (Some people here sometimes read English.)

Indian guest: Hya, kichu kichu lok English porbe, sei educative loker . . . (Yes some people will read English, but those educated people . . .)

Prabhupāda: Seram kom ache. (Those are less in number.)

Indian guest: . . . khub kom. (less in number.)

Prabhupāda: Na amra Hindi te korechi sob. Ei amra kumbha mela te amra estimate korechi ek lakh literature bikr hoyeche, antata. Daily aat hajar, dash hajar, baro hajar sob bikr hoye yacche. Ei sob organize korar khub ache, ei janye apni bhalo jayga can debo. Ya apni can debo eisob organize korte parben? (We did everything in Hindi. In the Kumbha mela we have sold at least 1 lakh literature estimate. Daily 8,000, 10,000, 12,000 are being sold. We wish to organize all these, for this if you want a good place we will provide it. Whatever you want we will give, but can you organize this?) We want. Okhane to amra daily pac-chay lakh taka becchi, ami cacchi ye antata mase pac lakh taka bikr hok. Daily asambhab, asambhab noy hoteo pare sambhab. (There we are selling 5 to 6 lakhs rupees daily, but I want to sell 5 lakhs at least in a month. Daily it is impossible, it may be possible.)

Indian guest: Sambhab hobe, organize system hole sambhab hobe. (It is possible by an organized system.)

Prabhupāda: Hya. To eisob organize korbar janye lok cai. (Yes. So we want some people to organize this.)

Indian guest: Thik ache. (Alright.)

Prabhupāda: Amra raji achi, ye lok korbe take sob subidhe kore dite pari. Kaj onek karbar ache. E amader sentimental noy. (We agree to give him all comforts, who will do this?) Transcendental meditation. Cokh buje-buje yabe, keu kichu bujhte parbe na dube dube jal khao. Osob na, ya amader science . . . ta na hole ki eto boka lok Europe, Americay? Tara bujhte parche ye substance. Sentimental noy. Ye ekta poka diye yeno, sona kore debo . . . (They won't get anything. They close their eyes and say: "This is not like this, the science of ours is . . ." Otherwise they are all fools in Europe and America. They understand the substance. They are not sentimental, that I am turning an insect into gold . . .)

Indian guest: Sentimental to amader deshe beshi sob, sentimental hoya suru kore . . . (People of our country are sentimental, they start to be sentimental . . .)

Prabhupāda: Boka lokera sob. (They are all foolish people.)

Indian guest: Eta all India basise ki bhabe organize kora yay? (How can this thing be organized by the basis of all of India?)

Prabhupāda: Korbe ektu sob organize . . . literature . . . oi ye stander literature, tarpore amader sob organizer ache, sob person to person meet kore huge organization. Tinso sare tinso tader sales man ache. (Just organize it . . . literature . . . these are standard literatures, we also have the organizer, they will meet person to person and this way it is a huge organization. They have 300 salesman.)

Indian guest: Seta apnara ekhan theke korte paren. ISKCON theke seta kora yete pare. ISKCON theke hok . . . (You can do it from here. It can be done from ISKCON. Let it be done by ISKCON . . .)

Prabhupāda: Raji achi. Seram organize korbar ekta lok cai. (I agree, but we need an organizer.)

Indian guest: . . . dependent ekta body kore setao kora yay, mane publisher, book sellers er kaj (. . . it also can be done by making a dependent person who will publish and sell the book.)

Prabhupāda: Hya, amader to BBT royeche, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust ekta bhalo office khule organize kora. Ami eikhane te bari kenbar cesta korchi ei sob office calabar janye, (Yes, we have BBT, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust where we have opened an office for organization,) stock, distribution, salesmen control. Yeman anya jinis kore, korte sob raji ache. (They agree to do this, as they do other things.)

Indian guest: Thik ache. (Alright.)

Prabhupāda: Ar oi rakam daily paper. Lok ke educate korte hobe, ei sob Russian philosophy era sob kichui nai eder . . . mal kichu nai, ekta propaganda korbe, ekta khara korbe. Amader to mal ache. (And the daily paper is like this. They have to educate the people, there is nothing in the Russian philosophy . . . there is no material, they will create propaganda, they will raise it. But we have material.) We have got substance.

Indian guest: Kintu sei substance er kichu publicity darkar . . . kichu . . . propaganda darkar. (But this substance also needs some publicity . . . some . . . need some propaganda as well.)

Prabhupāda: Hya, Sei sob korte hobe. Oi sob korbar lok pele amra korbo. (Yes, this we have to do. If we get people to do this then we will do it.) So it is very encouraging, this report.

Indian guest: Sure, sure.

Prabhupāda: What else?

Rāmeśvara: Now the next two reports. First of all, for the month of December there's the ratings for the whole Society. So in the top ten, number one was New York, Rādhā-Dāmodara, with $170,000.

Indian guest: Ami gele abar kobe asbo? (When should I come again?)

Prabhupāda: Oi to eikhane khabar neben. (You have to ask them.)

Indian guest: Accha! Amar kichu boi porte hobe apnar. (I need to read some books of yours.)

Prabhupāda: Hya, (Yes.) Give him some book to read.

Gargamuni: Where's the Bhagavad-gītā?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Indian guest: I should have some basic knowledge about.

Prabhupāda: Hya, Bhagavad-gītā porlei basic knowledge ta hoye yabe. (Yes, Bhagavad-gītā gives basic knowledge.)

Indian guest: Accha! Aschi tahole. (I am leaving then.)

Rāmeśvara: Number two was Los Angeles, with $87,000. Number three was Berkeley with $85,000. Number four was San Diego, $62,000; Caracas, 60,000; Brazil and England tied—$48,000; Germany 33,000; Denver 32,000; and Pittsburgh 30,000. And the medium temples weren't so outstanding, but the small temple, Houston, little Houston, $25,000. They only have about twelve men. I cannot understand how hard they worked to do this; very hard. Plus it shows Gurukṛpa's donation, ISKCON food relief donation. Then the outstanding zones for the month. Number one is Tamāla Kṛṣṇa, with $200,000. Number two was my zone. Actually it's your zone, but you've made me manage it a little. $182,000. Very close to beating him. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Actually, I have noticed that if the West Coast was not divided this year into two zones . . . formerly it was just one zone. All Berkeley . . . it was one zone. Now it is two zones. So I noticed that if it had not been divided, then every month the West Coast would have been number one. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: Combined together.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. Then Hṛdayānanda was number three, with $155,000. That is very good for Latin America.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Rāmeśvara: And number four was the northwest West Coast—that's the other half of the West Coast—with $122,000. Then fifth was Jayatīrtha, $89,000, which is very good for three temples.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Rāmeśvara: So the next thing is the entire year—the ratings for the whole year. So number one for zones is Tamāla Kṛṣṇa—$1,000,000 for the whole year. Number two was the area that I have: Los Angeles, Denver and San Diego—$762,000. Number three was Balavanta—$476,000. And number four was the other half of the West Coast—$464,000. You can see that if you put the West Coast as one, it would have been $1,200,000 to Tamāla Kṛṣṇa's $1,000,000. (laughs) But anyway, it's been divided, so he has won. So he's also . . . New York temple is number one among temples, and his zone is number one among zones. So he has set the whole standard for the whole movement in book distribution.

Prabhupāda: All brahmacārī and sannyāsī.

Rāmeśvara: My zone is all gṛhasthas, (laughs) with a few brahmacārīs. Anyway, next year we can beat Tamāla Kṛṣṇa. (Prabhupāda chuckles) He has only beaten us by a few hundred thousand dollars.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) But don't tell now.

Rāmeśvara: Or it may be ruined.

Prabhupāda: He may be very careful.

Rāmeśvara: I think we should send him a congratulations letter.

Prabhupāda: (laughing) Yes. You send.

Rāmeśvara: I'll send him.

Prabhupāda: (laughing) Yes. To entice him.

Rāmeśvara: Because he is . . . this is his main . . .

Prabhupāda: Actually, in the beginning, for increasing the sale, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa gave the impetus. He was selling best in San Francisco. Then went from . . . what is that? We were printing in the beginning? What is that press called?

Rāmeśvara: ISKCON Press?

Prabhupāda: No, no. I purchased some hand press?

Rāmeśvara: Letterpress?

Prabhupāda: So that, it has got special name. I forget now. I purchased two presses, $150.

Hari-śauri: Mimeograph.

Prabhupāda: Mimeograph. Ha, ha, ha. So we were selling about five hundred copies, and gradually . . . but still, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa was selling almost major portion. Then I asked Brahmānanda that "Why not print?" So he took quotation from different printers, and Dai Nippon, we gave them, printing, this Teachings of Lord Caitanya. So he took quotation, ten cent per copy. But they want twenty thousand. So we were selling about one thousand, and it is a question of twenty thousand. So I consulted Tamāla in San Francisco. So he gave me some encourage. I asked Brahmānanda, "Yes, print twenty thousand." So (chuckles) from five hundred to twenty thousand—great jump. Somehow or other, it began like that. Now what we are printing per month?

Rāmeśvara: What? Hardbound books?

Prabhupāda: No, no, this Back to Godhead.

Rāmeśvara: 750,000. It is averaging like that.

Prabhupāda: So the first attempt was only 20,000. I calculated. Anyway, Kṛṣṇa is giving us all facility. Let us utilize it to the best of our capacity. We have no other ambition. We want to see that everyone may accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead and be happy. This is our mission. We have no other ambition, not to make any cost-profit. But when we see that so many people are reading Kṛṣṇa book, that gives us very good encouragement. Otherwise what . . .? Two cāpāṭis we can get anywhere.

Rāmeśvara: We wrote in the newsletter to the Society that even though our movement is being attacked in so many ways, the best counterattack is through book distribution.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That is the best answer to this opposition. And when the case is there, put all the books before the judge, "Now you read and give your judgment. Don't . . . you are learned lordship. Please read these books and give your judgment. We have got already judgment from the scholars." Present like that. "But still, because in your court it is presented, so we pray that you give your judgment after understanding our method of brainwash." That will make him flat.

Rāmeśvara: We gave this proof, another proof that our movement is transcendental to all material obstacles and impediments, that this year there was, in America, spiraling inflation and unemployment, and the cost of living was therefore rising like anything, but our books, in defiance of all these material trends, were being printed in larger quantities, but the temples were paying less for the books than ever before. And even though all the major airports were closed for a minimum six months or more, the hardbound book distribution—we just looked at the numbers—actually increased by one hundred percent.

Prabhupāda: So it is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. "You can do all kinds of opposition, but we shall go forward. The caravan will pass. You may bark." So take all these things as Kṛṣṇa's mercies and engage more enthusiastically. Why should we be defeated? Yuddhyasva mām anusmara (BG 8.7). Just remember Kṛṣṇa and fight. Bās. Fighting is . . . this material world is fighting. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). The karṣati is struggle, but struggle for Kṛṣṇa. That is perfection. That's all.

Rāmeśvara: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Thank you. Work very hard for Kṛṣṇa, one life.

Rāmeśvara: You may like to see these, so I can leave them here?

Prabhupāda: I have heard it. Śruta. It is śuśruma.

Rāmeśvara: When these come out, I frame them on my wall.

Prabhupāda: Our method is iti śuśruma: "I have heard it." That's all. (end)