Even if you don't understand the Sanskrit or English, simply if we become eager to hear about Kṛṣṇa, then you become pious. It is so powerful. Therefore it is recommended, yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyām. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). This should be our practice. 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.
This is unique in the history, that a single person's books are sold in so many large quantities. I don't think any author has sold so many books
Expressions researched:
"In the history it is unique"
|"Six lakhs or six hundred. No, I say this is unique in the history"
|"This is unique in the history, that a single person's books are sold in so many large quantities"
|"huge amount, that is unique in the history"
|"no record of selling religious books so many daily. It is unique in the history"
|"unique in the history that an Indian sannyasi has done so alone"
|"unique in the history that religious book"
Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Conversations and Morning Walks
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Carol Jarvis (Woman Interviewer): Oh, no, I mean, how many do you sell a day? For instance, how many of each book would you sell a day? Would it be thousands a day?
Guru-kṛpā: Yeah, maybe.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, sometimes tens of thousands.
Prabhupāda: Twenty thousand dollar daily.
Guru-kṛpā: Minimum.
Prabhupāda: Minimum. Sometimes we go to fifty thousand dollars.
Carol Jarvis: A day?
Prabhupāda: Day. All over the world.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Devotees are working very hard to spread this consciousness, knowledge. (background talking)
Prabhupāda: Religious book, selling daily so much, huge amount, that is unique in the history.
Carol Jarvis: Are they sold mainly in the Western countries?
Prabhupāda: All over the world. Especially in Europe, America.
Hariśauri: We even had some book orders just recently from Russia.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They are also inquiring.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is giving. I never thought my books will be sold as much. I never... Neither in the history of human society religious books sell six lakhs of rupees daily.
Indian man: It has never happened.
Prabhupāda: And it is selling where? Where they are not Hindus.
Indian man: Yes, all Christian countries, so-called, Westernized countries.
Prabhupāda: In the country of Hindus it is selling very less in comparison to what we are selling daily.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's hard to talk (?). Vṛndāvana also is doing six, seven hundred rupees a day in book sales.
Prabhupāda: Still, six lakhs or six hundred. No, I say this is unique in the history. Now we have got... we are going to print, next our printing program... Bring it from Harikeśa. I am being surprised. Fifty thousand, one lakh, five hundred thousand each item.
Prabhupāda: Part of the money is contribution for construction of my house. Ten thousand. Ten thousand dollars?
Jayapatākā: Ten thousand dollars I think. Jayatīrtha mentioned.
Prabhupāda: I'm writing one letter to the governor that I work hard, I print my books and they are selling, and if I bring the money to construct temple, why people are envious? What is the wrong there? Rather, I should be encouraged that I am bringing so much money in India, foreign exchange, by my hard labor. So why they are envious? Why... I have sent this to the governor.
Jayapatākā: To the governor?
Prabhupāda: Governor, Mr. Chandra Reddy. "Why, wherefrom they are getting money, where, why?" That is my very, very hard labor, that's all. Is it wrong if a man works hard and gets money in foreign country and bring in India?
Gargamuni: I think they cannot believe that a sādhu could have so much money from selling books.
Prabhupāda: That may be beyond their dream, but I am not so-called sādhu. I am trying to execute the orders of my Guru Mahārāja, predecessor. I am not a so-called sādhu, taking a saffron robe, begging for fulfilling the belly.
Gargamuni: They have to accept you as an international leader.
Prabhupāda: I must be international leader. Yes, they are surprised how... This is unique in the history, that a single person's books are sold in so many large quantities. I don't think any author has sold so many books. Huh?
Gargamuni: In some of the American magazines they publish a best-seller list of books, and the number of books we sell goes beyond the best-seller list.
Prabhupāda: And especially philosophical and religious books. These people do not touch. (laughs) Untouchable. Has even Vivekananda has presented so many books? A small book, "Thus spake..." And what he will write? What does he know? Simply bluffers. Chaliots.(?) Our Bon Mahārāja is also one of the chaliots. What is the English for chaliot?
Jayapatākā: Bluffers?
Prabhupāda: It means he has no assets but he shows that he is very big. That is called chaliot.
Jayapatākā: Bluffer.
Prabhupāda: Bluffer? Our Tīrtha Mahārāja's Caitanya Research Institute. Here is an Indian Institute for... What is that? Bon Mahārāja's? Institute for Indian Culture and Philosophy. But where is your book? You have seen that Tīrtha Mahārāja's one book? The Vedānta as Caitanya Has Seen, like that. And he has given a picture of himself with effulgence on his head. You have seen that?
Gargamuni: No, I have not seen that one. In all the mandiras where his picture is there, they have all the ācāryas' pictures, but only his picture has the effulgence.
Prabhupāda: Such a rascal. He has given Prabhupāda's picture, no effulgence. His picture, effulgence. He's such a rascal. Publicly he's showing.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: And respectable position. The more we publish books, we become respected.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This was practically the only criticism I ever heard against us was that "Why your books they are all in English? We don't speak English." Just like Bajaj. Whenever I used to see him, he always used to say, "Oh, it is very nice, but..." And he would only speak to me in Hindi. He knew I could not properly understand, but he's such a Hindu, pro-Hindu, that he would speak to me in Hindi.
Prabhupāda: Then...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And he wanted our books in Hindi, so now they are coming. (break)
Prabhupāda: ...so much money, is it possible?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. No ordinary man could have ever done it.
Prabhupāda: In the history it is unique. Crores of rupees' property, and all over the world, buildings, temples. It is all Kṛṣṇa's. Nobody can harm them. It is not for me. There is no history. In one, ten years only, books like this, which are being received with so much adoration. They are simply Kṛṣṇa. If I want to take credit personally, this is wrong, sir. So money does not come in that way unless Kṛṣṇa gives. Janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrībhiḥ (SB 1.8.26). If Kṛṣṇa wants, He can give the whole world. My father used to say, "God has got ten hands. If He wants to take away from you, with two hands how much you will protest? And when He wants to give you with ten hands, with two hands how much you will take it?" That's a common... But people are after money.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Unless we can properly manage them though, there's no use taking them.
Prabhupāda: Land, house, they are free. But there is no arrangement we can make.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think the real key is this book distribution.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If we increase our book distribution, we'll automatically get...
Prabhupāda: No, no.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...people to join.
Prabhupāda: They're actually seeing.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I meant that unless we make devotees...
Prabhupāda: This is a unique in the history that an Indian sannyāsī has done so alone. That is unique. It is recorded in history. So therefore they are appreciating. They can... They have got common sense that "These rascal go and talk." Now this Bala Yogi has stopped his activities.
Correspondence
1974 Correspondence
They say that you are all my disciples. So the guru is not on the scene. He has fled away and nobody knows where he is, but the Krishna consciousness program is going on. That was also going on during the time of Lord Caitanya. In South India He used to travel, and in a village He would meet some man and induce him to chant, and the man would become a devotee, and Lord Caitanya would go away, but still the man would continue to chant. So, I am not personally present, but still things are going on, and it is increasing. So the books are selling and we are expanding. This book distribution is the brihat mrdangam. It is the greater preaching. Anyway, you have replied properly to the article that this may be some isolated incident.
Yes, as you have said in your reply they must see what kind of life our men are living. Our books are better than the nonsense books. You have written them to the point. And, even if there is some complaint, they are getting the real thing from our books. they are forgetting the aim of life. Somehow or other, we have to give them the real thing. Why this one man should be envious? In the history of the world, especially the Western countries, there is no record of selling religious books so many daily. It is unique in the history. Our men are doing good, that they do not see. They are so blind. But, the end justifies the means. We have to give them even if they do not want it. That is our duty.
| Page Title: | This is unique in the history, that a single person's books are sold in so many large quantities. I don't think any author has sold so many books |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, MadhuGopaldas |
| Created: | 25 of Oct, 2009 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=5, Let=1 |
| No. of Quotes: | 7 |