Brhat mrdanga

Lecture on SB 1.5.11 -- London, September 12, 1973: That transcendental vibration... Just like we are chanting, this is one vibration. And these books are bigger vibration. This is... This, when we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, a few yards, people can hear, "Here is Hare Kṛṣṇa." But this, my Guru Mahārāja used to say, that "This is bṛhad-mṛdaṅga." Mṛdaṅga, that drum, you have seen, that is small mṛdaṅga. If I beat on this drum, maybe a few yards, people can heard from few yards. But this is... The books are distributed, it can go from country to country, from continent to continent, actually it is so happening. So our only appeal is that all book sellers, all publishers, may come forward and cooperate with us and distribute the transcendental literature in the unique form. They will find something sublime, and we'll be benefited.

Lecture on SB 1.5.12-13 -- New Vrindaban, June 11, 1969: The six Gosvāmīs, they engaged themselves in literary work. Nānā-śāstra-vicāraṇaika. They are... You'll find in Rūpa Gosvāmī's books. Oh, how many references are there! From Purāṇas, from Vedas, from this literature, that literature. Highly, great scholars. So that is one of the duty. We have given the list of qualification of a devotee. One of the qualification is poetic. Poetic means not write poetry. Poetic means literary man. They must give literature. Naturally they'll give. That is the nature of devotee. Because without literature, how can we enlighten the people at large? My Guru Mahārāja used to say that this press is bṛhad-mṛdaṅga. Bṛhat means bigger, at large, bigger mṛdaṅga, bigger. Just like we are playing mṛdaṅga. This mṛdaṅga can be vibrated in the neighboring quarter, but our mṛdaṅga, Back to Godhead, that will go far, far away. So therefore this press was considered by my Guru Mahārāja as bṛhad-mṛdaṅga. He said. You'll find in the picture: there is this mṛdaṅga and press. He was very much fond of press. In the very beginning of his, this life, he started one press. You'll find in his life a small press. So this press propaganda, this literary propaganda, is required because it is not sentiment. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not sentiment. It is not that some sentimental people have gathered here and dancing and chanting. No. There is background. There is philosophical background. There is theological understanding. It is not blind or sentimental.

Lecture on SB 1.7.7 -- Vrndavana, April 24, 1975: We are giving this Bhāgavata translation all over the world. And you will be surprised that we are selling more than thirty, forty lakhs of rupees per month. This movement is helping the whole human civilization. So yasyāṁ vai... If one purchases... That is our propaganda. Some or other, we are giving one book. This is in the matter of following the footprints of our Guru Mahārāja. Our Guru Mahārāja, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī, he was publishing one small paper, Dainika(?) Nadiya Prakash in Bengali. And if a brahmacārī would go and sell a few copies, he would be very, very glad. He would be very, very glad. And similarly, he advised me also that "If you get some money, publish book." And he used to say that "This press propaganda, the publication propaganda, is bṛhad-mṛdaṅga." So just to satisfy him we are trying to publish this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, very, very authoritative books, in English. And by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, it is unique in the history that religious book can be sold forty lakhs of rupees per month. It is record-breaking. There is no such instance. Because we are trying to give the opportunity, yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyām [SB 1.7.7]. Simply by hearing he will become pious. People are suffering on account of becoming impious. So one cannot understand what is God, what is Kṛṣṇa, unless he has finished his impious activity.

Discussion with BTG Staff -- December 24, 1969, Boston: Hayagrīva: You want me to do Nectar of Devotion and then Kṛṣṇa and then Bhagavad-gītā, in that order?

Prabhupāda: Yes. So everything is all right, bṛhat-mṛdaṅga department? Major saṅkīrtana party. They are going, saṅkīrtana parties in different cities. That is junior. But your, this party, it is senior. You are sitting one place; you have to work thousand times more than them. Yes. You have to edit in such a way. Where is that water? Brahmānanda: It's being offered, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: All right, all right. That's all...

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Prabhupāda: So we want that. Let them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa somehow or other. (devotees laugh) "We don't want to be bothered by Hare Kṛṣṇa." That means chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee (2): Because our kīrtana party now, we have, we go on kīrtana, eighty men. We go two nights a week with eighty men. Huge kīrtana with five mṛdaṅgas and guitars, and we get huge crowd from the whole street.

Prabhupāda: That will make you triumphant. Go on kīrtana. That is very nice. Kīrtana, and book distribution. This is also kīrtana.

Guru-kṛpā: This is bṛhad mṛdaṅga.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So do it enthusiastically. Keep yourself pure. Nobody will be able to do any harm to you. Kṛṣṇa will give you protection.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: That construction is not so important as printing of books.

Jayapatākā: The president of the Bhadrak temple that Lokanātha Swami got donated from the Gauḍīya Maṭha to ISKCON, he has been collecting life members, hoping that he can build and improve a little bit on it. He was hoping to get the same facility of Bhuvaneśvara, of matching fifty-fifty. He's collecting everything locally in Orissa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? We got a telegram from Nṛsiṁha-Caitanya. You know, he's the boy who does library distribution? Should I read it to you?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay.

Jayapatākā: Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura's analogy of Bṛhad-mṛdaṅga has really come true through Your Divine Grace. The sound of your books has been heard in all corners.

Letter to Bahulasva -- Los Angeles 18 April, 1970: Please increase the sales of literature. That is our great Sankirtana—Brhat Mrdanga. The correspondence with Dr. Staal published in the Daily Californian was very much interesting, so we shall publish it in our BTG.

Letter to Niranjana -- Los Angeles 21 May, 1972: I have recently heard from Ksirodakasayi in Vrndavana that he is finding difficulty with Hindi translating work. So I am wondering if you can be of some assistance in this connection. I can understand that now is difficult time for you also because of your examination time. But after your examinations, if you can help this movement of Lord Caitanya expand very widely through India by assisting in translating work, then I shall be very much pleased. (My Guru Maharaja used to say that these literature are the "Brhat Mrdanga," that is to say, the big mrdanga, because like the mrdanga which can be heard from a long distance, simply a few words can have a tremendous effect on millions of people if they are propagated widely.) So it is our duty above all to print these words for the general benefit of mankind. Therefore if you can assist me in this manner then that will be the greatest service.

Letter to Pancadravida -- Bombay 31 December, 1974: Sankirtana if it is not possible, never mind. Try to organize a meeting and impress upon the people Srimad-Bhagavatam philosophy by explaining. Manasvi can explain in Hindi and you can explain in English. This is also Sankirtana although not singing. So, where sankirtana is hampered, we can go on with kirtana and distributing magazines, that is more important than sankirtana. That is Brhat-mrdanga.