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Publishing our books (Conversations, 1977)

Expressions researched:
"book" |"book's" |"books" |"literature" |"literatures" |"manuscript" |"manusripts" |"mss and pressbook" |"print" |"printed" |"printer" |"printer's" |"printers" |"printing" |"printings" |"prints" |"publication" |"publications" |"publish" |"published" |"publisher" |"publisher's" |"publishers" |"publishing"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We may need a small loan, Śrīla Prabhupāda. I'm not asking till it becomes...

Prabhupāda: No. For printing books I'll give you loan.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually the BBT's turnover now is around four lakhs. A year ago we opened this BBT account with only two thousand rupees in the bank. Now it's gone to four lakhs.

Prabhupāda: Books which are sellable, you can print in quantity. That will be cheaper. These books I think will be...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We're going to sell this for one rupee, fifty paisa.

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I selected the most popular pictures for covers because people buy in India on the basis of covers.

Prabhupāda: Yes. It is very nicely selected. Both pictures are very nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: All the three books, I think, the pictures have come out quite nice.

Prabhupāda: There are others also?

Indian: I went to the printing press, and I asked him "Why don't you print like the other books you have, Easy Journey to Other Planets?" So he said that "We have done little mistake, and the next printing it will be better."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It's not a mistake. We perfectly agreed. You told me so, that (Hindi).

Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai of Kripalu Ashram (PA USA) -- January 2, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: What will be price for one lakh?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Of this? I think it will go around a velo(?), because the real book cost seventy-eight paisa; paper is about forty paisa. So paper, whether you buy one or one lakh, it's the same. Printing is about thirty-eight paisa. And out of thirty-eight paisa, plate-making and all will come to about ten paisa.

Prabhupāda: Plate is already made.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that's what I'm saying. No, I'm just saying by increased run how much can you save? So I imagine you save about three paisa, four paisa more per book. It's not enough to warrant extra investment. I have analyzed the difference between doing large print runs India and America. In America and Europe labor is very expensive. So to them, to stop the machine in between and start again, it's very expensive, so it makes a lot of difference. But in India labor is cheap. So for them to stop the machine in between and then start again, it's not so expensive. So the ceiling is not as great as the extra investment you have to put in. Therefore I'm not doing large run except where it's absolutely necessary.

Prabhupāda: No. Items which are selling, that we can do because...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Like Bhagavad-gītā we did one lakh.

Prabhupāda: ...to wait means that waste of time.

Letter to Russian -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So I have decided to construct a temple in Bhuvaneśvara.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You have? Okay.

Prabhupāda: The condition is that I'll invest money for Oriya language books, and you'll sell-half the collection for temple, and half the collection for printing again, the same principle.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: They won't be able to collect one crore by selling books.

Prabhupāda: No, no, if they can, I have no objection. I can give them ten crores.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But they'll never be able to...

Prabhupāda: No, that you cannot say. It is all in the hands of Kṛṣṇa. Not one crore. Say a few lakhs. He's ready to go town to town, village, in Orissa. He wants that in my absence somebody must be there to look after the construction. That is quite reasonable.

Letter to Russian -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So I have told them "Any amount I can invest. You print book and sell." That is my open secret. Print books, and distribute, and spend half in whichever life you do and half, again print books. That is my ambition (vision?). I want to see our philosophy is widely spread by different literatures. That I want to do.

Letter to Russian -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So let him come to Bhuvaneśvara. I am going after Kumbhamela. And begin the work immediately. We have got one gentleman, professor. He is good learned scholar. I can engage him for translating.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oriya. Very nice.

Prabhupāda: He has writing... That machine... I can see the manuscript. In this way, arrangement make.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very good. We just printed two books in Oriya, Topmost Yoga and one more. One more.

Letter to Russian -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (japa) Sell books and this principle follow: half construct temple, half print books. That's it. No income tax. "We have spent everything. That's all." (japa) In Vṛndāvana, he was suggesting, that Set, Setterji, that "You make some will. Otherwise, after your... In your absence the government will..." And I'll not keep a single farthing. I shall spend all before I die. (chuckles) Invest in book, that's all. I am insisting on this. But I am simply afraid if we have got enough stock, it may not be stolen and misused. Otherwise I want to immediately invest in books all the money that I have got.

Hari-śauri: I don't think there'll be any problem there.

Prabhupāda: So arrange like that. We want. Then I'll print all books, keep in stock. Never mind. Why use the bank?

Letter to Russian -- January 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Hm. Keep in stock. It will be sold. There is no doubt.

Hari-śauri: And now we have so many different languages coming out.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And here, if we make closet or on the wall. We can keep anywhere, all the verandas, all these rooms, four walls, keeping books, book stock. Make vigorous propaganda by advertising, "Read Hare Kṛṣṇa literature. Hare Kṛṣṇa is wonderful." In this way advertise. Hindi, English, Bengali. I can give suggestion; you do it. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa... We are getting paper now, government paper. Money is there. Now we have to print very intelligently, and even it is not immediately sold, we can keep stock.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: At night we translate. In daytime they type, and they send to the press, and the books are printed. Then they sell. So in this way I am bringing ten lakhs of rupees per month and investing in constructing these temples.

Room Conversation -- January 7, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: We are the number one publisher of religious, philosophical...

Indian (1): Printing and writing attractive, everything is such a nice... That man is attracted, and he goes through the books and writes...

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: It is a superstition that one should not lie down keeping the head on the northern side. So one says that "I have no head at all. So why shall I bother about keeping my head this way or that way?" Similarly, keep no head, so there will be no question of keeping northern side or southern side. That I want. We have no such program. You spend all money. I want that whatever collection is there, you spend. There is no account, and there will be no question of income tax. We are beggars. Whatever money you get, you spend. That's all.

Mr. Asnani: So your books will also show you, ultimately at end of year, expenditure, income, equalized, neutralized.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I am insisting: whatever money we have got in the bank, spend it for printing. Keep the books. That's all. I am insisting this point everywhere. You kept that money seven thousand, seven lakhs or what?

Haṁsadūta: I was going to spend it. I spent every month, but they came at the end of the month.

Prabhupāda: Therefore the botheration came, in Germany. He was waiting for sending the money for food distribution. In the meantime, they created trouble. Anyway, we should be free like that. Spend all money immediately. (break) I say that, that don't keep any more money in the bank. Spend it.

Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Bon Mahārāja published a portion of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Eleven hundred books. Still lying for the last ten years.

Hari-śauri: Bon Mahārāja.

Prabhupāda: And he's the rectum of... (laughs) He can pass stool very nice. (laughter). There was no second printing. And so many scholars , MA, PhD, and so on, so on, so on. Our Dr. Kapoor wrote some books. It was given to some Benarsi. They first of all took it, then they refused, "No. We cannot publish."

Hari-śauri: They won't publish his books.

Prabhupāda: Who will take it? A philosophical textbook. There's nobody interested. Actually there is no customer for philosophy nowadays.

Discussion on Deprogrammers -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: We always answer their charge that "You are saying that all the people are being upset by us, but actually the proof is that we are getting so many letters every day, hundreds of letters, and all these letters, no complaints. Simply they want more information. They want to order all our books. So from our mail order we can see that these people are writing to us because they have been sold books on the street."

Prabhupāda: So these letters are important. You can publish these letters in book. Those who are ordering our books, they...

Rāmeśvara: Also, when we tell them, "Our magazine used to sell two hundred thousand copies a month, now it is selling five hundred thousand, seven hundred fifty thousand, some months one million copies. so that means the public is..."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Becoming more interested. So let us go on fighting with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no disappointment.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So now you... Our big business brain is here, Rāmeśvara. If he recommends, I can do.

Rāmeśvara: For his...?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: For the book expansion.

Prabhupāda: He wants one lakh loan. So if you recommend, I'll give.

Rāmeśvara: Who's going to drive the party?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No, this is for book printing. Bhavabhuti's going to handle the party.

Rāmeśvara: The loan is for book printing?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, for book printing. We're printing the Bhagavad-gītā now.

Rāmeśvara: Then who's going to pay for the vehicles? You are, right?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So what to do? Rāmeśvara, you are here. You can see. They are not cooperating. And besides that, Mahāṁsa takes loan. He never returns. He has taken about five lakhs for the temple. So I have already told to the auditor and the... They are (indistinct). This is going on.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, we are working...

Prabhupāda: So you keep account in such a way that whatever income it is, it is spent for books. Print some... You also do there. Whatever income you get, you spend for promotion. This principle should be followed. All businessmen are doing that. Whatever income is there, it is spent for maintenance establishment. That's all.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Anywhere, this is our main program. Print books as many as possible and distribute. This is our main program. All other programs are secondary. So with this aim in view, work all together. Our Caitanya-caritāmṛta is unique literature. For Caitanya-caritāmṛta, we are above any ācārya. There are four ācāryas: Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī... But our Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's legacy, ācārya's, that is unique. Anarpita-cariṁ cirāt karuṇayāvatīrṇa kalau. Here the Supreme Personality of Godhead is personally teaching-ācārya.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: Mostly we are selling Bhagavad-gītā, ratio of two Bhagavad-gītās for every other book, twice as many Bhagavad-gītās, as an introduction.

Prabhupāda: That is the introduction. And Śrīmad Bhāgavatam?

Rāmeśvara: First Canto. Mostly First Canto. We're only printing twenty thousand copies of every volume. But of First Canto we always print fifty thousand copies. And now Bhagavad-gītā, we have printed one and a half million copies.

Prabhupāda: That's abridged.

Rāmeśvara: For one year's sales.

Prabhupāda: That's very nice. (laughs) One and half million.

Rāmeśvara: They say it is the largest printing in the history of the Western United States. They are giving Bhaktivedanta Book Trust credit now for the largest printing of any publisher in the Western United States for one title. And for our printer, the only books... He has never printed... He prints encyclopedia, he prints the Bible, but he has never printed so many copies of one book all at one time. This one and a half million copies should be printed all at once.

Prabhupāda: They are proud of printing.

Rāmeśvara: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) That is good.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: He says that his press will have to run continuously for twenty days and twenty nights just to print all these books without taking any other business.

Prabhupāda: That's a great...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In India it would take one year to do.

Prabhupāda: They have very big, big printing press.

Rāmeśvara: They are so proud that they have offered to hold a big press conference to announce to the press and all the journals of printers that they have gotten this order to print so many copies of Bhagavad-gītā from the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.

Prabhupāda: Let them say that. This is our advertising. And let this opposition party understand that "If it is brainwash, then your whole country is now washed. (laughter) How you'll protect them? It is already washed." Tell them like that, humorous.

Room Conversation -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: The price of this printing...

Prabhupāda: Very cheap. No, we are supplying also very cheap.

Rāmeśvara: Yes. But last year we printed 500,000 copies, this year, one and a half million copies, and the savings was $200,000. We have gotten them to reduce the price so much that now, just because we have ordered so many books, we will save 200,000...

Prabhupāda: Why not spend some money for advertisement? It will be noticed.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We can advertise them in prestigious papers like Reader's Digest or printer's...

Prabhupāda: Nice advertisement. Spend some money.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That will increase our prestige.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But we should advertise in America as Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, not Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: No, no. As Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Actually, we have to keep ourselves.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Advertise as BBT, because no connection with Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: If you have got excess money, you can advertise. There is no need of keeping money. Spend.

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: In Europe when men go to the libraries, sometimes they don't speak English. So they're already taking standing orders for the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in French and other languages.

Prabhupāda: So make this immediately.

Rāmeśvara: This is the notice of the money we just sent to Bombay from Los Angeles, seventy thousand dollars.

Prabhupāda: So now do the needful about this. And the invoice? You have sent the books?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So these books are there?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Now I have everything in stock. We have everything.

Prabhupāda: And which we have not got stock you print here. Keep for sufficient stock, in this way. So I was asking last night that at least in Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, simply whatever collection is there, fifty percent print books and fifty percent spend for temple or for pushing on the books. No money available. Bas.

Rāmeśvara: That is always the situation. (laughing)

Arrival of BBT Manager -- January 9, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: (laughs) As soon as there will be money, there will be headache and income tax, this tax, that tax. So keep always empty. Bas. Vigorously push, and whatever available, spend. Bas. Finished. How do you like?

Rāmeśvara: That is always our policy.

Prabhupāda: That's all. And if we have to take contribution, take ISKCON. They're free. But for Bhaktivedanta Trust there is no need of contribution. Then there will be exemption certificate required and so on. We don't want any contribution. If anyone wants to contribute, let him contribute to the ISKCON. They're tax free. And here there is no tax, no tax free. That's all. Print book and sell and spend. Follow this policy there and here also, and push these books. That is our main preaching. Somehow or other, it must go, from door to door, hand to hand. Then our preaching is successful. Anyone who will read, he'll get some benefit. That is sure, because such literatures are not available throughout the whole world. It is a new revolution to the people in general. Am I right or not?

Rāmeśvara: Definitely.

Prabhupāda: That's all. (laughs) Then do it now. And I shall spend all this money for advertisement. That's all.

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: You supplied paper to Japan, I think.

Rāmeśvara: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So you can supply the paper.

Rāmeśvara: And now, whenever we print books in America, we supply paper. It's much cheaper if we buy it.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We do the printing. I buy all the...

Rāmeśvara: The printer will mark it up if he has to spend his money for paper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. In India also we buy the paper ourselves. We buy the paper and give it...

Prabhupāda: That is good. Supply paper.

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Rāmeśvara: Printer loves it. The printer doesn't have to spend his money on paper.

Prabhupāda: Not only that, if he makes bill for the paper, then he has to pay sales tax.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Also the income tax will say, "Your sales were so high," so he doesn't want the paper account to come under that. So what I'm saying, Śrīla Prabhupāda... The demand for our books is there. And like BBT Los Angeles sells a Bhāgavatam to the temples for $3.50, and we are selling it for $1.45. And that includes our profit already. Our real cost is 90 cents, 95 cents. So we can expand our printing capacity here. As I discussed with you last week, there's one machine from England that Usa Printers wants to import. And if we give him a loan... It will be his machine. He'll give us documents, and he'll pay back interest every month. In two years he'll pay back the whole money plus interest, which will be higher than what the bank gives us.

Room Conversation -- January 10, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We're getting up to two months' credit on printing books. Everything is nicely set up.

Prabhupāda: But keep your credit.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I have very good credit, even with the paper manufacturers. They just give us the paper right away.

Conversation on Train to Allahabad -- January 11, 1977, India:

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa was proved, and still He is proved. Who is reading others' book all over the world? Therefore He is God. Where is that book so respected as Bhagavad-gītā? Who is printing so many books? Not even Bible. They respected Bible. Why the foreigners are reading Bhagavad-gītā? That is the proof that Kṛṣṇa is God. During the Christmas festival we sold our books greatest number in the history. How many copies Bible you have sold? That is the proof. Here is God. Otherwise why Christians should purchase Bhagavad-gītā during Christmas holiday?

Conversation and Instruction On New Movie -- January 13, 1977, Allahabad:

Rāmeśvara: Suppose we make a profit. Someone may enquire, "Isn't it better to use the money to distribute more books rather than giving it to the food program."

Prabhupāda: No, no, books department, that is already sufficient income.

Rāmeśvara: I would personally like to use it for the food program.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Book we are getting.

Rāmeśvara: So that's the answer then.

Prabhupāda: And we are not taking any profit. Neither the seller, neither the author is taking any profit. So there is enough money. You haven't got to pay either to the seller or to the writer, then why not spend the whole income? No profit. So we save income tax. And whatever little excess is there, (indistinct), advertise or pay some gṛhasthas some pocket expenses. In this way make it meet. No profit. By our arrangement there is no question of profit but even there is profit, we should pay the gṛhasthas some expenditure. He has... Family man there is... In this way, make always no profit. I was doing from the very beginning (indistinct), then I began to sell books. I was working, I was selling, I was collecting, I was spending, going to the printer, everything. Forcing (indistinct) I was publishing. Work nicely. If I don't force (indistinct), they'll not give me the concession rate, still I am doing. So I think this book department (indistinct) all right, you don't require to invest. But whatever income you'll get from this record business, spend it for giving prasādam. So we have got so many centers, they will feed.

Room Conversation on 1976 Book Scores -- January 16, 1977, Calcutta:

Rāmeśvara: And we gave this proof, another proof that our movement is transcendental to all material obstacles and impediments, that this year in America there was 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. Bas. 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.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Gargamuni: But because our books are printed so nicely and coming from America, and they are seeing the foreign sādhus, oh, they become so, "Oh, yes, we must take." But actually they have no budget for any religious books.

Prabhupāda: That is good. The so-called religious books, they're presenting—all bogus hodge-podge. (laughter) Humbug imagination, that's all. There is no fact. Just like Ramakrishna Mission. What religion they have got? Anyone? This religion, that religion, Jainism, Sikhism, this "ism," no nothing. Simply bogus propaganda.

Gargamuni: All the libraries, they say, "We have too many religious books, too much religion."

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Rāmeśvara: But then the best one is by Dr. Mukherjee, former Chief Justice. He writes that "This book is an intellectual, a cultural, and a spiritual landmark in this world. The beautiful printing and photographs evoke the spirit of the work. It is a book which should be in the library of every reader who values the essential glories of human life..."

Prabhupāda: This is the judgment of the Chief Justice. He's not ordinary man.

Room Conversation -- January 21, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Prabhupāda: He was speaking to me that "Swamiji, I was thinking of presenting such Bhāgavatam, but I could not. But you have done." Therefore he said "cherished dream."

Rāmeśvara: "I thank the Lord that due to His grace this publication could see the light."

Gargamuni: He's a Prime Minister.

Prabhupāda: I first of all approached him for publishing my book. So he said that "I have no arrangement for publishing nice English book." So he recommended Dalmia to help me publish it. So my first expenditure was six thousand rupees. So he gave me four thousand. In Dalmia Trust, he was one of the members, this Poddar. So he immediately rubbered that, that "Give Swamiji for the first publication." But I did not know that it would be six thousand rupees. I thought maybe four, five thousand. So he gave me four thousand, I think. So balance, two thousand, I repaid after selling the books.

Room Conversation -- January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Hari-śauri: Once people recognize the worth of spiritual literature, then they'll purchase. Just like they sell these Encyclopedia Brittanicas from house to house.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hari-śauri:...on the basis, "You've got so many children. They need this knowledge and education for when they go to school." So they purchase whole volumes.

Prabhupāda: Introducing as study book in higher colleges, universities, text book, then it will be... What is the use, a so-called scholar having a Ṣaṭ-sandarbha? And this has been failure... Our one Godbrother, he did. Simply he printed. It was not sold, and then it was mishandled, distributed like anything.

Hari-śauri: What was that?

Prabhupāda: That Ananta Vāsudeva, my Godbrother, he printed so many Gosvāmī literatures, but it was not successful.

Evening Conversation -- January 25, 1977, Puri:

Gargamuni: I met one professor in Lucknow University. For his own self he purchased all of your books. And I asked him, "Can you help us to meet more professors in Lucknow University who also can take?" He said, "They are all debauch."

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: "They are in the bar." He says they all go to the hotel. They get paid high salary. They go to the hotel, they drink and they have prostitute. He told me this.

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Gargamuni: I said, "Just see." And these are so-called big professors.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: Authors of books. He said, "They will not purchase. But I think these are valuable. Therefore I am purchasing." He told me this.

Prabhupāda: This is the fact.

Gargamuni: So all of these men are nonsense. But people accept their...

Prabhupāda: So we have no business to print other books of Gosvāmī literature.

Satsvarūpa: To cater to them.

Prabhupāda: That is not required.

Gargamuni: They won't follow, anyway.

Prabhupāda: These two books, Bhāgavata and Bhagavad-gītā, if they actually read and assimilate, their life will be successful. So we want to organize widespread publicity of these books. They'll be benefited.

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This printing is all right? At least for India it is very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The paper quality I saw that Gopāla is using now is getting much better.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The book could be sold anywhere in the world. The most recent publications of his could be sold anywhere.

Conversation on Roof -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is very ambitious to print all these books. He seems to be working on it day and night.

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's a good team. Gargamuni is distributing, and Gopāla is publishing. Gargamuni has so many standing orders.

Prabhupāda: Encourage them.

Morning Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So get Bombay finished very quickly and book-printing, stock, propaganda. (break)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...society is growing on that principle.

Prabhupāda: Yes. This I want to increase more and more. No money in the bank. In the books. And as soon as there will be stock of book, it has to be sold. Otherwise you will starve. (chuckling) That I want.

Morning Room Conversation -- February 16, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: ...rasāmṛta-sindhu like my other books, word to word. Then Bon Mahārāja began. So Bon Mahārāja could not do it. Only he published only a part of it with gorgeous sound, that, only that eleven hundred or one thousand copies printed forever.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: To show. Name only.

Prabhupāda: Name only.

Hari-śauri: And they're all still in his (indistinct).

Prabhupāda: Then I thought that "Not in that way. Let me have the summary study. Then it will be..."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's really nice that some of your books are like this, in summary study. It's a nice variety. Some are very scholarly presented and some are very for the other person.

Room Conversation -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Trinidad, there are many Indians. They know Hindi.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They were waiting for Hindi books.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Give them. Print huge quantity. This is very important item, our book distribution. Whole Bombay, whole building should be stocked. Hindi, Gujarati, Telegu, so that one house for one stock. And try to, mean, vacate even by giving them. Simply our business, nothing else. And those who are devotees, they'll follow you, and they can come and live. That's all. And engage whatever help they can give.

Room Conversations -- February 20, 1977, Mayapura:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The point that I was trying to bring out, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is that as you were mentioning that you had desire to spend your money for printing books... The point I'm trying to bring out is that...

Prabhupāda: Print books, sell, and expand.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What I'm saying is that...

Prabhupāda: Directly I do not want to spend money.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What I'm saying is that that selling is determined by the number of distributors, and so far, we have very few of them here in India. That's the point I'm trying to make. Until we make more devotees here, the distribution is going to be to some extent limited.

Prabhupāda: No. If you have sufficient nice stock, anywhere you go, you'll take up.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But you have to have men who can offer the books.

Jayapatākā: We'll have four traveling parties.

Prabhupāda: Just like this Gītār Gān. Wherever we are going, selling.

Evening Darsana -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Jayatīrtha: Śrīla Prabhupāda, it's only being published quarterly...

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Jayatīrtha: ...and we thought to publish one section every three months, people would lose the track of the thing. That's why we... The British economy is so bad that we had to give fairly inexpensive literature. So it's either a question of printing sixteen pages color and eight page Bhāgavata, or twenty-four pages color. We couldn't do twenty-four pages color and eight pages Bhāgavata. We thought that since it is quarterly...

Prabhupāda: That's all right. So you have printed one...

Jayatīrtha: One hundred thousand.

Prabhupāda: It is going on? Hm?

Jayatīrtha: Nicely.

Prabhupāda: So one hundred thousand you'll have to sell within three months.

Jayatīrtha: That's correct, yes.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Rādhā-vallabha: We have the figures for the production of your books in every single language since the beginning, twenty-three languages.

Rāmeśvara: This took several weeks of very careful work to prepare. We were calling up printers... We threatened Dai Nippon, they must give us the figures. We called up every BBT office around the world, so this is very accurate. And also I estimate that at least ninety to ninety-five percent of all these literatures that have been published have already been distributed. These are the figures for publishing, but most of them have been sold already.

Rādhā-vallabha: So English is first. 43,450,500 literatures. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: Where is such publisher?

Rādhā-vallabha: That's one for every five people in America. And second is Spanish: 2,947,000. Third is German: 2,125,500. Then Japanese, I had to make a guess. I'm not sure, but this is pretty close: 2,125,000. Fifth is French: 1,670,000.

Prabhupāda: There should be... A big board should be hang.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: This is the blessing of my Guru Mahārāja. He wanted it. And because we are trying to do this, he is giving us all blessings. He told me personally, "I wanted to sell this marble and publish some books." Calcutta, that Gauḍīya Maṭha is also marble floor. Now, he said that "Since this temple has been given by Mr. Datta, our men are fighting, 'Which room I shall occupy?' So I know there will be blazing fire here. So before that, I wanted to get out this marble and sell it and turn into some books." He told me, like that. So I noted down that, that he wants books. So I tried to do that. That's all.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Gargamuni: When we were in Rangoon and Bangkok, they were most interested in those Russian reviews, and we got very good response there. In Rangoon they're doing reviews, and they loved the books. They treated them as gold. They said, "This printing and Sanskrit and word-for-word... We have never seen such a translation!"

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gargamuni: They grabbed the books. I had to leave so many books there. They wanted them immediately. And they will pay us in dollars also.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Gargamuni: They get special grants.

Prabhupāda: How many standing orders?

Gargamuni: Well in Rangoon I went to the head of the Oriental Studies. They ordered all of Bhāgavatam. Then there's the National Library. They want. Then the National Trading Corporation wants to import our books and sell to the various libraries there. We met... We were only there four or five days, but we met so many people of different types of departments who want the books. Then in Bangkok I met the head of the Department of Philosophy. He ordered the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then I met the head of Eastern Languages...

Prabhupāda: Did you go to our center, Bangkok?

Gargamuni: No. I didn't have the address. And I heard they were giving up the house because it is not... They have to...

Prabhupāda: That's all right.

Gargamuni: There was very good response. And they're all writing reviews on our books. They have never seen such a translation of Bhāgavatam, they said. They said, "We have only seen the summary study, but we have never seen such word-for-word study." So I'm planning a tour of all the Southeast Asian countries, in Hong Kong and all these areas, to do standing orders.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Rādhā-vallabha: Perfection of Yoga also has the printing quantity on the cover, "Over 2,300,000 copies in print."

Rāmeśvara: Gorgeous! Look at those pictures of Prabhupāda!

Rādhā-vallabha: We also calculated how many hardbound Bhāgavatams are in print. That's one million. And there's almost three million Gītās in print too.

Prabhupāda: So this should be displayed here.

Rādhā-vallabha: That... We have one big framed stat showing the English. You have five or six books that have over one million copies in print.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is very good, putting the quantity on the cover. It's very impressive. (devotees talking among themselves about books) It's like McDonald's. They advertise...

Prabhupāda: This is the combination of American money and Indian culture. This is the result.

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Rāmeśvara: They've written us a letter about this. They have never received such a large paper order at one time for one book. We have a letter glorifying the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust from the paper company, and another letter from the printer. This is the largest.

Gargamuni: They said that... I read that letter. Not since 1930 they cannot remember that such an order has ever been placed. Right? It was 1930?

Prabhupāda: These letters should be published.

Rādhā-vallabha: They're the second largest printer in America, and they say they've never printed so many of one book

Arrival of Devotees -- February 24, 1977, Mayapura:

Rāmeśvara: We had a ceremony for our new warehouse, opening up of the new warehouse, and they published one article in the papers in California. It circulates about almost fifty thousand, this local paper. It says, "Hare Kṛṣṇa publishing office opens. Culver City councilman Paul Jacobs, assisted by Hare Kṛṣṇa leaders, cut the ceremonial ribbon last week at the grand opening of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement's new office building in Culver City Business Park at 8500 Higuera Street. The new 30,000 square foot warehouse and office building will house the organization's publishing arm, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, parentheses, BBT. BBT prints millions of dollars' worth of books every year and is the world's largest publisher and distributor of books on the culture, religion and philosophy of India."

Prabhupāda: Present this in the court.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Harikeśa: We printed ten thousand Hungarian books.

Prabhupāda: What is that book?

Harikeśa: It's Perfection of Yoga and Beyond Birth and Death in the same cover, because...

Prabhupāda: Oh. Like the German edition.

Harikeśa: Hungarian.

Prabhupāda: No, Germany, they have put three books in a packet. Like that?

Harikeśa: Oh, that. No, no. It's in one little book.

Hari-śauri: It's one book, but it has both books together.

Prabhupāda: Oh, I see. That's nice.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Harikeśa: And the Polish book, we were working like crazy but couldn't finish it in time.

Prabhupāda: No, should not be done... Slow...

Harikeśa: It will be ready in one week. That one is Easy Journey.

Prabhupāda: Slowly but surely. And the small book, first of all print.

Harikeśa: And Yugoslavian Īśopaniṣad, that will be ready within, I think, one month, one and a half months.

Prabhupāda: If there is scarcity of money, you ask me. I shall pay you. You can pay me later.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: For printing there should not be any delay for money. Whatever money you require, I shall arrange.

Harikeśa: I'm trying to follow your principle of not keeping a bank account by just always printing more books.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes, yes. It is very nice. I simply asking them that "Print books. Whatever money I have got in bank, let me spend." I am asking always. Always. So anyway, money is... Bhagavān is giving. Now I have asked them to invest at least five lakhs of rupees for printing these Hindi and Bengali books.

Harikeśa: I just suggested also that Gopāla Kṛṣṇa could...

Prabhupāda: Instead of keeping in the bank, keep books stock. It will save. That principles let us follow. Simply keep the book that it may not be spoiled, it may not be stolen. Otherwise it is our..., as good as government currency notes. Take that. As soon as there is money, convert it into books.

Harikeśa: I was thinking also that Gopāla Kṛṣṇa could buy the milk powder from Bali-mardana by printing books for him. He could print the books in India for Australia...

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Rādhā-vallabha: Jagannātha dāsa has done synonyms for Brahma-saṁhitā. For the Brahma-saṁhitā printing, Jagannātha dāsa has done some synonyms. Would you like to use the book also? I have the book here.

Prabhupāda: No... Yes. (Prabhupāda apparently looks them over) (break)

Rādhā-vallabha: So they're okay?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Rādhā-vallabha: Good. When we print this book, should we distribute it freely? Should we distribute this book to the masses?

Prabhupāda: No harm. So what is the arrangement?

Rādhā-vallabha: I was thinking that it would be nice to do it the way we do Bhāgavatam, with the devanāgarī, transliteration, synonyms, translation, and purport, say size of Īśopaniṣad.

Prabhupāda: Why not this boy help? He knows Sanskrit.

Rādhā-vallabha: Yes. He works on every book. He proofreads the Sanskrit and Bengali.

Room Conversation -- February 27, 1977, Mayapura:

Rādhā-vallabha: So gurukula should do their own books.

Prabhupāda: Hm? Why... That one book is sufficient. Why more books about this?

Rādhā-vallabha: Well, gurukula already has ten books, but they're printed very, very poorly.

Prabhupāda: Why ten books? Not a single student knows well English, neither Sanskrit, and ten books.

Rādhā-vallabha: These are the Americans, American boys, American gurukulas.

Prabhupāda: Why I do not know. You just discuss this. They do not learn anything, and we are printing books.

Rādhā-vallabha: Those books, they print themselves, the gurukula.

Prabhupāda: "Themself" means?

Rādhā-vallabha: They have a little... In Dallas they a little photostat, and Nandarāṇī would write and they would print it.

Prabhupāda: So it is waste of time, waste of money and waste of time.

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Satsvarūpa: Starting with South America... South America's responsibilities would be divided between Pañcadraviḍa Swami and Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja like this: Pañcadraviḍa would be responsible for the temples in Mexico and Central America, Guyana, Santo Domingo and Trinidad. And he will also work as required in the Los Angeles Spanish BBT office. And Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja will retain direct responsibility for Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Ecuador, and also he was going to take on co-GBC responsibilities in Spain and Portugal, which are the same language as the books he's printing in, along with Bhagavān, in whose zone that is, Spain and Portugal in Europe, for spreading Spanish book distribution. And as for the BBT duties that Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja has, he will have Pañcadraviḍa Mahārāja assist him in that also. We passed a resolution about...

Prabhupāda: What about the French printing and translation? That is stopped now?

Hṛdayānanda: No, it is not... It is not altogether stopped, but some members have left.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Some members have left, but...

Prabhupāda: Why?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja was just there in France. He just paid a visit, so he'd be... What is your report, Hṛdayānanda, about the French BBT?

Hṛdayānanda: Well, some of the important members have left.

Prabhupāda: Why they have left?

Hṛdayānanda: Well, they were dissatisfied with Bhagavān.

Prabhupāda: That should be rectified. They are important members. They are translating.

Room Conversation 'GBC Resolutions' -- March 1, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: So anyway, printing and translation must continue. That is our main business. It cannot be stopped. Must go on. Just like persisting, now we have got so many Hindi literature. (laughs) I was simply persisting, "Where is Hindi? Where is Hindi?" So it has come to some tangible form. And I was simply poking him: "Where is Hindi? Where is Hindi?" So he has brought into fact. Similarly for French language also, very important, we must translate and bring books, as many as possible. "Bring books" means we have got already book. Simply translate it in the particular language and publish it. That's all. Idea is already there. You haven't got to manufacture idea. So France is very important country. So printing and translation must go on. That is my request.

Room Conversation with GBC members -- March 2-3, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes. So the real legal thing is: some way or other, introduce books. Therefore... And it will be beneficial in the long time let us see. Read it.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "We're very happy to see that by your divine mercy the whole world is flooded with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just by printing and distributing your books the whole world will change. We can see the tremendous effect that your books already caused in the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. The people are mad after your books. Many of them can see that this is the only solution to get out from the miseries that are caused by the materialistic way of life and Communism. Please let me quote from a recent letter sent by a boy in Hungary." The boy's name is Yedi Peta. " 'According to the advices now, I am chanting daily on beads I made at home. I also have purchased the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, although I can only speak Hungarian. Now I do not give any more importance for the evidences from chemistry, physics, mathematics, etc. Rather, I appreciate A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda much more than any scientist or philosopher.' "

Devotees: Jaya!

Room Conversation -- March 31, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I am not speaking of that. You have printed in the book, Bhaktivedanta Marga, not Bhaktivedanta Swami Marga.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You left the word Swami out.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I follow.(?)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Anyone can be Bhaktivedanta.

Prabhupāda: No, no, apart from that. Actual name is Bhaktivedanta Swami Marga, but you have made Bhaktivedanta. Why?

Indian man: Swami is omitted.

Prabhupāda: Swami is omitted. That is a mistake on your part.

Room Conversation -- April 2, 1977, Bombay:

Gargamuni: ...from one very important Hindi scholar, and he is Dr. V. P. Singh, M.A. Hindi, M.A. Sanskrit, Ph.D. literature, and he's the senior professor and head of the department of Hindi, and Dean of Faculty of Arts of Benares Hindi University at Benares. So he writes about your Hindi Bhāgavatam, which has just come out: "It gives me great pleasure to review these publications of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Especially I am appreciating this Hindi edition of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, complete with original Sanskrit text, word-for-word synonyms, and a marvelously lucid Hindi translation. In addition, having read thorough portions of the purports, which in my opinion reflect the vast erudition of the genius of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, I am discovering an unequaled body of literature in terms of scholastic quality and devotional impact both. The real meaning of such bhakti literature can only be disclosed by one who is a truly devotee and a saint. The evidence of these qualities in Swami Bhaktivedanta are highly apparent because of his great dedication and success in spreading the message of the Bhāgavata all over the world, and creating thousands of foreign bhaktas who aptly deserve the title of Vaiṣṇava Brāhmaṇa, due to their strict practice, devotion and learning."

Prabhupāda: Ah, very good.

Gargamuni: "I am very proud to have the acquaintance of such a saintly devotees of ISKCON, who have such an addition of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in our library. I have also...."

Prabhupāda: So he will get order anywhere if you present this.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, the Hindi Bhāgavatam has been very appreciated, after the lamination that plastic coating we have put, it looks better. Actually the presentation is even better than the Spanish Bhāgavatams. I got some new, even improved binding, bound books today. I'll send them to you tonight or tomorrow. They look very first class. I am sending Prem Yogi back to Vṛndāvana tomorrow, because First Canto, Part Two, is almost composed. So it requires to be proofread before I bring it to Bombay for printing. So the work is just being delayed. And also there is just one week's work left on First Canto, Part Three. So I told him to go back to Vṛndāvana for two weeks, and if you go to Srinagar, I promised him I would send him to Srinagar, because he wants to go to a cold climate. Then after that...

Prabhupāda: Yes. If I go I will call him.

Room Conversation -- April 5, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: I have asked already Tamāla Kṛṣṇa. Can you give me a statement of the account?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. It's ready.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is supposed to be bringing it to me tomorrow morning.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. It is being typed. It is all ready. I am showing you a complete statement of all the paper purchased, how it is used, a complete statement of every book printed in India, where it is distributed, what the balance is; complete inventory report, how much stock we have in hand, and books distributed in the month of March. We are producing these reports every month now. Everything. All the records are there.

Prabhupāda: No, but that bank manager wanted to come?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He came, but I only got back by four-thirty, and he said he would come again at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: They both of them know English very nicely. Now some Bengali literature should come out. Hindi, Bengali, English, any, sufficient for the time being. Gujarati.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But no one from the Bengali side is as expert and hard-working in this matter as Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is here. That's one point. Pañcaratna is a good man, but I mean he himself doesn't speak the language. So I feel that Gopāla will get more done in Hindi than they can get done in Bengali because...

Prabhupāda: No, Bengali he's useless.(?) After finishing (indistinct) we will simply print. That's all. When the task is finished printing, Gopāla can print.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's my thought. He should do the printing of all the books.

Prabhupāda: And he will do that. He'll do that.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now with these books coming out, I think it is only a matter of time until we get many, many people joining us.

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.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: " 5) The Deity worship book will be printed by Jayatīrtha dāsa without BBT funds." This is that book. I forget the Sanskrit name, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Devotee: Hari-bhakti-vilāsa.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Hari-bhakti-vilāsa. So Jayatīrtha wants to print it on his own. Means he doesn't want to take BBT funds. So the trustees felt that that was very good, since funds were scarce; he does a nice printing. He said that he would take responsibility for printing and distributing it. Because it is a very limited edition, it's not going to be sold to the common people, just to devotees.

Prabhupāda: No. Few copies.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "7) Sa-vijñānam Journal"—that's the Bhaktivedanta Institute Journal, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the scientist journal—"will be printed and paid for by BBT India and exported to the Bhaktivedanta Institute." So that monthly journal or quarter, you know four times a year journal, will be printed here in India, because we felt the printing could be done much less expensively. And it will be sent from here.

Prabhupāda: But he was going to print it at Los Angeles.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm not sure if he's printing these... I think he is not printing a Sa-vijñānam Journal. He's printing some other booklets. But this regular journal, which comes out regularly, will be printed in India. "8) The scientists' book, Life Comes from Life, will be printed by BBT India, 5000 copies and paid for by BBT US. 9) No brochure will be printed for individual standing orders at this time. Rather, a selective market should be concentrated upon." This is in regard to Tripurāri Mahārāja's trying out some standing orders door to door in homes. So we decided that the BBT will not print any kind of special brochures at this time, but that he should first of all see what the market is like and make some experiment before we spend money.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.

Morning Conversation -- April 11, 1977, Bombay:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "18) The US BBT will experiment with importation of books from India as soon as practical. Gopāla Kṛṣṇa will make further efforts to increase the quality."

Prabhupāda: Yes, quality must be there. It is not yet standard. Unless quality is improved, it cannot be exported and spoil the market.

Room Conversation Meeting with Dr. Sharma (from Russia) -- April 17, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Is that Russian?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have one book in Russian.

Prabhupāda: So in this way smaller books we can publish. (break) ...to Other Planets, similarly.

Talk with Svarupa Damodara -- April 18, 1977, Bombay:

Svarūpa Dāmodara: And men like Dr. Sharma can help us a lot.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He is medical doctor, medical field. He can write some articles on especially these problems in biochemistry and the medicinal aspects. One can do a lot.

Prabhupāda: You have seen his small booklet?

Dr. Sharma: I read it.

Prabhupāda: Scientific Basis of...

Dr. Sharma: Yes. It's very interesting. I liked it.

Prabhupāda: So if you translate some of these small books, we can publish.

Room Conversation -- April 22, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Stick to our principle, and see our GBC is very alert. Then everything will go on, even I am not present. Do that. That is my request. Whatever little I have taught you, follow that, and nobody will be aggrieved. No māyā will touch you. Now Kṛṣṇa has given us, and there will be no scarcity of money. You print book and sell. So everything is there. We have got good shelter all over the world. We have got income. You stick to our principles, follow the... Even if I die suddenly, you'll be able to manage. That's all. That I want. Manage nicely and let the movement go forward. Now arrange. Don't go backward. Be careful. Āpani ācari prabhu jīveri śikṣāya.

Conversation: Vairagya, Salaries, and Political Etiquette -- April 28, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: So these things should be stopped, that they should live comfortably with husband and wife, children, and take salary from the... You decide. This is not to our... Besides that, in our BBT it is clearly written that "Fifty percent for printing book, and fifty percent for..." So you cannot violate this. Those who can give voluntary service, "Welcome." Otherwise we don't require. At least they should not be given any salary. That is very bad. This is against principle.

Morning Conversation -- April 30, 1977, Bombay:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? I told you that we have improved the quality of the composing. So this is a new style of composing. It is about... They have a new alphabet, cleaner. They are using better art paper. And I have shown it to our production manager. He also says the reproduction of it would be much better. I have improved the quality of art paper on which they are doing the art proofs. So I just got this one made, and I wanted to show it to you. We are experimenting with two types of composing. Now, this takes in more words, but what we will do at the time of printing, we will shoot it and it will become small, like the regular book, and this way we can get in more space. And this...

Prabhupāda: How many lines?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This is about... Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty, twenty... Thirty-three. But it's also little broader. It's a little broader than the others, thirty-three lines.

Evening Darsana -- May 12, 1977, Hrishikesh:

So people are accepting all over the world the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. These books we are selling. Daily our collection is five to six lakhs of rupees. Now this recent publication, how many copies we have printed, this?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: 220,000.

Prabhupāda: Yes. We expect to sell them very...

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Three months' time.

Prabhupāda: That Bhagavad-gītā, abridged edition, we have 300,000?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Of the abridged edition?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Where is that abridged edition?

Devotee (1): It's in the corner.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So foreign countries, foreign religions, and they are foreigners. So why they are purchasing these?

Devotee (2): Three lakhs and three thousand copies, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Prabhupāda: We are printing huge quantity.

Conversations -- May 17, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Hindi) I was very anxious to print my books. So he was the first one to come forward, a five thousand dollar check.

Conversation Pieces -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Another thing, the Hindi photographic pages, if you send to Los Angeles, the books can be printed there.

Rāmeśvara: Printed in America?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Rāmeśvara: What language? Hindi?

Prabhupāda: The photographic pages...

Kīrtanānanda: For the photographic pages in the Hindi, the printing of the photography...

Rāmeśvara: The color? That's possible. I can talk with Gopāla to see if it is less expensive.

Prabhupāda: Because Hindi composition is not possible there. So after composing here, if they send you the photography, finished copy, from that copy, whether you can print there?

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gargamuni: Well, we only printed two Oriya books. Both were printed in Calcutta so far, because there's one Oriya printer there. Gaura-Govinda Mahārāja is investigating completely the... We went around investigating the presses in Cuttack and Bhuvaneśvara, if we might get some cheaper or easier price. It appears that some things we can do cheaper there, like the inside part, but cover cannot do cheaper there.

Prabhupāda: Cover you can get there, cover.

Gargamuni: In Bombay we might be able to do cover much cheaper and then the inside cheaper in Orissa. That we have...

Prabhupāda: Better quality also.

Gargamuni: It is good quality, similar quality. They agreed, they could get same paper as we had in previous books, but for printing cover that would be very difficult.

Prabhupāda: And tell, we can get from Bombay cover.

Morning Conversation -- May 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gargamuni: Because we have very few men, so now Gaura-Govinda is taking on bullocks cart. He'll go to the villages, and he'll distribute. Then some portion of what I will collect, I will put in... I have separate account for book fund and one for construction. Some portion I'll put in book fund. Then we'll print, and I will bring...

Prabhupāda: No, you gave money. I can give you. There is Book Trust.

Gargamuni: I just feel...

Prabhupāda: No.

Gargamuni: ...that so many books are there I have not distributed yet. I will print more and...

Prabhupāda: No, no. This will come out. Very good idea. Sell.

Gargamuni: Sell first; then print. I should first sell...

Prabhupāda: No, at least you must have three, four, varieties.

Gargamuni: Right now we have two varieties.

Prabhupāda: So make it four varieties. That will be first class. Don't print twenty thousand. Print five thousand.

Conversations -- May 31, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: If we did it in America, it would not be less expensive. It might be even more expensive, because you have to order a special font for the Hindi alphabet. I've gone over this with Gopāla, and he says that so far, he is able to keep up with the translators. He is just now in Bombay, giving some more books in Hindi to the printer. Bhāgavatam 1.3 and Bhagavad-gītā in Hindi are going to the printer. And the translator is just still working on the first volume of Second Canto. As far as printing, this printer in Bombay called Usha is giving us very good service at a very low price. So it's a good place to print the books, the Hindi books. (pause) There's no question of buying equipment in India because it's too expensive for us to buy our own equipment.

Prabhupāda: No, that is...

Rāmeśvara: Plus it will not be repaired when it breaks.

Prabhupāda: That is very risky.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your original work that you're doing now, that is edited by Jayādvaita. That's the first editing.

Prabhupāda: He is good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is good. But then, after they print the books, they're going over. So when they reprint...

Prabhupāda: So how to check this? How to stop this?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They should not make any changes without consulting Jayādvaita.

Prabhupāda: But they are doing without any authority.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think we should make whole survey, all books already printed, before printing the next batch and check any mistakes so that it should be all corrected. Otherwise, if the scholars find out that there are so many mistakes in the books, then the quality and the appreciation will be reduced.

Girirāja(?): (indistinct)

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. We find so far that they are appreciating so much within the scholarly circle, and we want to maintain that actually.

Prabhupāda: Very serious feature. It is not possible for me to check, and they are doing all nonsense, freedom.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There was one verse in the Fifth Canto. From the way that they translated it, there was no way that anyone could possibly have understood what the verse meant. I mean, it was made unintelligible by the translation. So we were reading. Finally Bhakti-prema says, "Wait a minute. This translation is wrong. They have edited an extra statement here that is not there, and it makes it completely not understandable." Then suddenly, when he corrected the Sanskrit, it was easy to understand. It was very clear.

Prabhupāda: So what to do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So I think we just have to be slow but sure. We have to go over all of the books and make sure that they're perfect before they're printed again. Not be in such a rush, print, print, and print all nonsense.

Conversation, 'Rascal Editors,' and Morning Talk -- June 22, 1977, Vrndavana:

Śatadhanya: I remember when Rāmeśvara was here, he had mentioned that in one article you had denounced the Christians strongly, so he said he left one part out because he was afraid there would be a bad reaction from the Christians in America.

Prabhupāda: That is possible. That is possible. He should be careful. Then?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think in addition to Satsvarūpa and Jayādvaita checking the English, that Bhakti-prema Mahārāja has to check all the Sanskrit of all of the books... He's translating now, so as he's translating, he can check. He's going, starting from the First Canto.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: I think this is very appropriate, because checking English doesn't have any meaning without checking the Sanskrit, the original.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There was one verse in the Fifth Canto. From the way that they translated it, there was no way that anyone could possibly have understood what the verse meant. I mean, it was made unintelligible by the translation. So we were reading. Finally Bhakti-prema says, "Wait a minute. This translation is wrong. They have edited an extra statement here that is not there, and it makes it completely not understandable." Then suddenly, when he corrected the Sanskrit, it was easy to understand. It was very clear.

Prabhupāda: So what to do?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So I think we just have to be slow but sure. We have to go over all of the books and make sure that they're perfect before they're printed again. Not be in such a rush, print, print, and print all nonsense.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: One time I had a strong talk with Rāmeśvara Mahārāja about our article for printing in the Back to Godhead. I didn't want them to be printed in Back to Godhead because they made so many changes...

Prabhupāda: Oh, he has dared to change yours also?

Room Conversation -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā Mahārāja? Well, he's taking two different loans. One loan is for vans. Took fifty thousand rupees. He's now paid off ten thousand. Every month he's sending regularly five thousand. He's done that regularly now. And then he's taken another loan...

Prabhupāda: For printing books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...for printing books.

Prabhupāda: One lakh of rupees, hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, it isn't that much, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It was about forty-five thousand rupees so far.

Prabhupāda: Anyway, he can take any amount of money, provided he returns.

Room Conversation with Devotees -- July 1, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...allowing permanent residence, to suffer for that, that will help us. That will help us. But if they do not do anything, then what is the use of them? What we can expect from them, profit? What we expect? Our real problem is here, that every time, our men has to go out, they kicked out, trained-up men... So if we can at least, as he has asked, submit the names, let us test what they will do. Otherwise what help you expect from them?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Only that, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: What help you expect from them? For money's concerned, we are selling our books, publication, everything. They are also profiting. We cannot expect any money from government.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No.

Prabhupāda: So what help we expect?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Simply some allowing our men to be there like that. Simply allowing our men to remain in the country...

Prabhupāda: That is our request for them.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: No, if your brother has got good press, we can print so many books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You say he has a mind to print for us?(?)

Mr. Myer: Very good. I'll show you some work he's done.

Prabhupāda: In press we are very much interested. Our twenty-five, yes, fifty percent activities on press.

Room Conversation -- July 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Mr. Myer: So next two months are very, very busy starting from August. The books definitely, for printing and publishing, I'll get some samples. He has done good work. And in case you want to do some editorial work, he'll definitely do.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But then he has to be... To do editorial work requires that he understand the philosophy. And if he's following Sai Baba now, how will he...?

Mr. Myer: Actually he's not following. I think it's just that at that point of time, nothing else is there. Like most people...

Prabhupāda: The professors challenge him... What...?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. There was a challenge?

Mr. Myer: Yes, one of his disciples was recently caught.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, it's a pamphlet. Should I read it to you? It says, "Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Encyclopedia Department, Hare Kṛṣṇa Land, Juhu Road, Juhu, Bombay. In 1970 His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda founded the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust for worldwide printing and publishing of Vedic knowledge. Today the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust publishes in twenty-five languages with total of 55,000,000 publications printed in six years." Phew! Fifty-five million! That means an average of nearly ten million a year, pieces of literature. No other publishing house can boast that, I don't think, such a big amount. "The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust offices are located in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Bombay. Śrīla Prabhupāda has..."

Prabhupāda: You can send one copy to Dr. Kapoor by post.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says, "So far, I have credits of over three lakhs of rupees with BBT in our first year of distribution." He's given over three lakhs business.

Prabhupāda: Now print books and have enough stock.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That's what he wants. He complains that there isn't.

Prabhupāda: No. Then you have to manage that department also. How... There must be sufficient stock, not depend on one press. That Mr. Myer's... What is the address? Do you know?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. He wants to bring us samples from...

Prabhupāda: Very soon I shall send you good address of printing Bhāgavata in Bombay. So at least three, four, printing printers should go on, continuously printing our books. If you have money, you spend it for reprinting books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He says that he has three lakhs' rupees credit so far, and "our accounts receivable still amount to two lakhs." So five lakhs in one year.

Prabhupāda: So invest. Invest in printing books.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Śrīla Prabhupāda, out of his obviously great desire to inject the world with his vast storehouse of learning, has translated precisely the rich Sanskrit and Bengali ślokas. He has given the transliteration, word-for-word meaning, purports, and each volume filled with full color illustrations by his disciples. I therefore wholeheartedly recommend this encyclopedia of our culture and all other Bhaktivedanta Book Trust publications to all educational institutions, schools, libraries, and colleges concerned with the moral and cultural development of their students within the boundary of Maharastra and throughout the world.' "

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Anyone who reads Śrīla Prabhupāda's clear translations and commentaries of well-known Sanskrit and Bengali literature can understand his secret of success. I do not think such accurate scholarly and clear expositions of Vedic culture can be found in English elsewhere. His Bhaktivedanta Book Trust publishing house has made sure that the immortal words of our classics have been presented in first-class style. Among the BBT publications, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta, comprising an encyclopedia of Vedic knowledge, are especially notable. I have examined volumes of these sets and recommend these sets not only for our municipal corporation libraries and municipal-funded libraries, but for all libraries of the world...' "

Prabhupāda: They are approaching municipal libraries?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. " 'But for all libraries of the world, wherever people have a sincere interest to go into the depths of Vedic philosophy.' Signed Murali S. Deora, Mayor of Bombay."

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Room Conversation-Recent Mail -- July 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: What he is?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He is the Head of the Department of Sanskrit at the Bombay University. " 'The printing is really excellent and the general get-up highly attractive. I have nothing but the highest praise for this splendid publication. The BBT's encyclopedia would be a valuable asset to each school and college library as well as all general libraries throughout the world.' " These reviews are as good as your books, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Gargamuni is getting many standing orders for Hindi books.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He's just started. But there's very good scope.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Very good scope. You see... Just always remember that Gita Press, third-class printing and fourth-class subject, it is, and they were maintaining seventy-five big machines. Seventy-five in Gorakpur. And Pitagar(?) paper against. Still, they could not supply. There is so much scope for Hindi book.

Yaśomatīnandana: The only thing is, the people tell me Gita Press was very cheap.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I say, third-class printing, fourth-class paper. And if we give first-class paper, first-class printing, there is scope.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The Hindi-speaking people, they are not poor. Mass of people may be poor, but we want to approach respectable persons. They are not poor. They will pay. Why third-class printing, fourth-class matter? Our first-class matter, first-class printing. We have got better scope than Gita Press.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: Don't take less important this Hindi publication. You stock. I shall take charge of selling books.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually we are now also selling a lot. We are getting these distributors who are very interested.

Prabhupāda: Therefore I want stock.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda wants a big stock.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We have a stock of all the books.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, but printing three thousand is not a big stock.

Prabhupāda: Why not print ten thousand of each?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: If we print ten thousand of each every month, because now we are producing one book per month...

Prabhupāda: There is no "if." Print.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We are working together, but we don't have that much capital.

Prabhupāda: Why not? Use it... You can...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: But that we are using for the export order.

Prabhupāda: If they take money, that, and use it. Then...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, as we get money. Like the first shipment has just gone and we... Till it comes back, we are... But one point is clear. There's no book that we're printing in India that is out of stock. There's no book out of stock. Sometimes devotees misinform you for selfish reasons that we are out of stock, but there's no book out of stock that we are printing in India.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: This paper is nice.

Yaśomatīnandana: We will have a few at least a few books ready in a few months.

Prabhupāda: No, the manuscript you take. I want to see at least manuscript is not left idle. That is...

Yaśomatīnandana: Now, with your blessings, we'll go very fast.

Prabhupāda: Now we have got some position, Hindi books.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Gujarati books also should be same standard.

Prabhupāda: Yes, same standard. Very nice, Hindi books. All right.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Be enthusiastic to print books. And these items are very, very nice, greeting.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Greeting cards. This will overtake India, take everyone by storm. Plus, we are coming up with calendars next year.

Prabhupāda: Yes, make money and spend it for printing.

Room Conversation -- July 19, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We had a meeting, Jayapatāka Swami, myself, and Bali-mardana...

Prabhupāda: Very good.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...that we'd sell to the temples, and then the temples would pay for it and that money would then go back into Food Relief.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And the books I don't want to touch, because it is for the government of India.

Prabhupāda: No. That's nice. We have got so many avenues. So print books as soon as possible. This gives me life. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We've got the First Canto, Part Two, this time, in Hindi.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Very nice. So you are being recognized. You are doing good, so he's doing good.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He's doing good.

Yaśomatīnandana: I have got four or five books in Gujarati ready.

Prabhupāda: Why not print them?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We're printing them. I was in Ahmedabad last week, and we finalized plans to print those books.

Prabhupāda: Print.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We are purposely using government paper on this to keep the prices low.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Oh, yes. Use government paper.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Two thousand. Next, from 1.3, we're increasing it to three thousand.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Prabhupāda was hoping you could print in larger quantities.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, there's no need at the moment because we print these by offset. If we need more we can...

Prabhupāda: All right. Whatever manuscript you have ready, print.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Because it blocks up too much money otherwise, because we don't have much money, and we're going to print five books in Gujarati now, so we just invest the minimum.

Prabhupāda: I want to see, whatever manuscript is ready, they should be printed.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So far the printing is concerned, there is no question. First class. Very nice.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is costing the BBT only...

Prabhupāda: Whatever it costs, I don't mind. You make some profit. That's all.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, and actually, all these books that I'm now printing in Hindi, I'm all printing these from the profit of this export order. Even though I have...

Prabhupāda: So you have sent the export books?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. I shipped 26,000 books this month. That's why I got delayed. We shipped 21,000 books to Australia and 11,000 to England.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We are now printing the small books for Australia also. Hari-śauri just sent me an order for twenty thousand Rāja-vidyās...

Prabhupāda: Just see.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...which I'm going to ship by third week of August. August we'll ship thirty thousand small books to Australia.

Prabhupāda: No, give first attention to the question, printing.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I'm doing that.

Prabhupāda: Other things you can do, but you... This your only main business. Now do it very pleasingly so that you can... So whatever you have done, it is very pleasing.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Also we are now going to have big distributors who are ready to take on our books, and we're going to have them distribute our Hindi, Gujarati books all over India. Plus, you know, those railway stands? We're going to come out with a plastic, small bag type, with six pockets in it, and it's going to say, "Bhaktivedanta Yoga Library." We're going to have Beyond Birth and Death, Perfection of Yoga, in Hindi, and in Gujarati areas, Gujarati books. We'll have a complete selection of yoga books. I've been speaking to many distributors, and yoga books are very popular in India. I was also thinking, I have this book all ready, The Scientific Basis of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. I wanted to change the name to The Scientific Basis of Bhakti-yoga in Hindi. Just by replacing "Kṛṣṇa Consciousness" with "Bhakti-yoga," the appeal will broaden because people are buying books just...

Prabhupāda: You can.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Can I do it?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.

Room Conversation -- July 27-28, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Where is that book? Very nicely done.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Very nice.

Prabhupāda: Nobody can say it is Indian.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: You can't say it's printed in India. Actually even our export quality now is very good. Actually there's a plastic coating on the top.

Prabhupāda: You cannot imagine that India has published.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: The First Canto Bhāgavatam which you printed in India were... Also we are keeping the cost low. This is very, very important. This whole book, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we've done within eight rupees, fifty paisa, which is quite reasonable.

Room Conversation -- August 8, 1977, Vrndavana:

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, you always called Back to Godhead magazine the backbone of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. You have many times said that the Back to Godhead magazine is the backbone of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. So it is my ardent desire that the Hindi Back to Godhead should be made a regular monthly.

Prabhupāda: Why don't you make?

Devotee (1): There are printing and distribution problems.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We had a big stock of our old issue. We had printed seventy thousand of that. There's only few thousand left, and we have a lot of...

Prabhupāda: If you have got distribution problem, then you...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: And we have a lot of small books which we have just printed. So I wanted the small books to be cleared out. Like in Germany and France also they don't do Back to Godhead every month. They do it every few months so that they can get the books out.

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. Every month, if we regularly publish, we get some postal (indistinct). That's... If you every month publish some in certain date, you get very cheap rate for posting.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: The best thing is that in Bangladesh you get foreign exchange. You print books there. It think it is cheaper there. Never mind for the quality, but you'll get good number of books. The government will be pleased.

Prabhaviṣṇu: Yes. Then we can export the books also into West Bengal.

Prabhupāda: Yes. In this way organize these two places with the courage of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother. And we should ventilate in the papers that this Indian investment of American money is not American money. It is my money. I have written books, laboring whole night. The American boys have cooperated with me by printing, by distributing, and the money was received by selling the books. So the books are mine. I have given to the society. So I have done business, regular, in foreign countries. I have earned money and spending the same money in my country. It is not American money. It is my money. I have done business. That's all. It is a credit for Indian son so to do such tremendous business and bring money for investing in his own country, from the national point of view... Why the...? The Americans are not claiming that this is their money. They are my disciples; they are cooperating with me. Actually it is a business. I have done business, I have earned money and brought it at home to spend. Everyone does. They should not misunderstand that I have stolen money from America and brought it. It is fair business. That's all. Ventilate this. They are under impression that the American government is supplying, the World Bank is supplying. Nobody is supplying. I am earning money by business, by my hard labor.

Room Conversations Bangladesh Preaching/Prabhavisnu Articles by Hamsaduta -- August 11, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What my idea was, Śrīla Prabhupāda, was this: If he can print in Bangladesh, not only he can print for his own needs in Bangladesh, he can print for West Bengal. And Jayapatākā, instead of... We can pay him in foreign exchange from America, and Jayapatākā can pay the money for the books to the construction fund, which would have been coming from America anyway. In that way it will be very nice accounting.

Prabhupāda: So make that scheme.

Room Conversation -- October 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Haṁsadūta: We have one book now ready to be composed and printed in Singhalese language.

Prabhupāda: Bring that.

Haṁsadūta: Yes. It's now going to be composed. It will take a little time because outside of Ceylon no one speaks Singhalese, so we have to work with the local printers to get it composed.

Prabhupāda: Āp. Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...for printing. In Australia there is good field. So why you are not printing more books and send there?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We'll print more. Now we are printing more books for them. We are printing as many books as they order. So as they increase their order, we increase our print.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: As he orders, we print.

Prabhupāda: And you can send to Europe, America also.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, England. America, we are thinking of printing small books for them, because for America to get lower price on all books they have to print many hundred thousand. So many books of yours are out of print, out of stock with BBT Los Angeles. But we can get the same price on a lower run. That means that on lower investment we can print the same books, and in this way at least they will have some books in stock of every book you have published. So if somebody wants some book, they won't say that they don't have it, but they can supply it. So I've been writing about this to Rāmeśvara Swami.

Prabhupāda: My point is, I don't wish to keep money in the bank. Invest in printing.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In that Gurukula building, because now we have so many books and we don't have enough space, so we're going to start work on the go-down. I just need three lakh rupees, but when Rāmeśvara comes I'll talk to him and then start it.

Prabhupāda: No, three lakhs we have got.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. Because this will be a professional go-down then. Also New Zealand is ordering books from India, and the second print of the Bhagavad-gītā, which is going to leave on the 10th of October, that has come out even better than the American, the color work. I'm going to show it to Hari-śauri and you. Actually we should print some Bhāgavatams also, because many Bhāgavatams are out of print, and I have been using this mail order company. We are advertising our Gītā, and we've already sold more than thousand Gītās in two months. And this mail order company is paying for the advertisement. So they are very keen to also promote the Bhaktivedanta Encyclopedia. But before I do that, I must have all your Bhāgavatams in stock, because as the order comes, we have to fulfill them right away. This is working out to be very, very big, Śrīla Prabhupāda, this mail order technique.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: And print Hindi books, Gujarati books also.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. The Gujarati Gītā will be ready in one month. I have already finished printing the color pictures for Hindi Gītā, Gujarati Gītā and Telegu Gītā. It's already completed. That Telegu Gītā is being printed in Hyderabad, and the Gujarati Gītā is also at the printers. And the Hindi Gītā is being composed. Plus we are doing a Kannada Gītā in Kanarese language.

Prabhupāda: Is it necessary?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. We have a temple in Bangalore, and they need it for distribution in Bangalore. But this will be just your verses and translation, like they have done in Telegu two years ago, a small book which they can sell for one rupee or two rupees.

Prabhupāda: Don't keep money unnecessarily. Invest.

Room Conversation -- October 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Should we use that four lakhs for printing?

Hari-śauri: For that go-down.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We can use it for the go-down, for building that go-down.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, there is no need of keeping in the bank.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Because we can print more books and keep them in stock. And now we are finding out that this mail order technique is selling thousands of books. Like in two months I sold more books than Gargamuni's party did in one year with this mail order technique.

Prabhupāda: Hm. It is very good.

Room Conversation -- October 9, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: It is very difficult to publish any books in Iran, but the princess is personally giving our first book to the Minister of Information and ordering him to give us permission to print. It's a Muslim country, so it's very difficult. But the royal family is ordering the ministry that censors all publications. They are ordering them to let us have permission to start publishing your books in the local language, Persian, or Parsi.

Prabhupāda: So they are going to do that?

Rāmeśvara: She is personally going to the minister and ordering him, "Now you give permission that this book be printed."

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: In Islam there is a tradition of chanting God's name and other mantras or prayers, so they appreciate the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa very much. When you enter the restaurant there is a big book table, so the first thing that one sees are japa beads and your books, and people buy the books from the table.

Prabhupāda: English.

Rāmeśvara: For now they are selling Bhagavad-gītā, Back to Godhead, and Satsvarūpa Mahārāja's book. That is also being sold. They are just now printing the first Persian Back to Godhead, and in three months' time the Bhagavad-gītā in Persian will be... Translation will be completed.

Visit From Allopathic Doctor -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) Śatadhanya says that Bengalis, they like my book.

Bhavānanda: Very much. We get huge amounts of mail. We get huge amounts of mail from all over Bengal every day asking about different literatures that have been printed in Bengali by Your Divine Grace.

Visit From Allopathic Doctor -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: ...praised Īśopaniṣad. This Yugoslavian professor is very famous.

Prabhupāda: Famous?

Harikeśa: We made it very scholarly, because I remember last time you said it should be very scholarly. We printed ten thousand copies of this.

Prabhupāda: Selling?

Harikeśa: Yes, we can sell these like anything, because in Yugoslavia we can pretend we're going to Greece, and we can bring as many as we like and then we can sell these.

Prabhupāda: So why not print ten million?

Harikeśa: I only had time to print ten thousand, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We did it in one day from the flats to this book in one day, just so I could bring it to you. This is the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Second Canto, First Volume, with Śrī-Śrī-Rādhā-London-īśvara. This we printed twenty thousand copies.

Prabhupāda: Selling?

Harikeśa: Oh, yes.

Visit From Allopathic Doctor -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Harikeśa: Each of these is twenty thousand copies. Then we are making these Kṛṣṇa books. Of this book we printed sixty thousand copies.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: How many?

Harikeśa: Sixty thousand for mass distribution. There's very nice cover.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow. Look at Rāmeśvara. He jumped at that.

Prabhupāda: He's defeated. (laughter)

Harikeśa: I am just taking everything they do and do it. That's all. And then there is these other ones, volume two and three. We have printed 35,000 of each. This one has a very nice picture of you on the back.

Rāmeśvara: Oh, yes.

Visit From Allopathic Doctor -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Rāmeśvara Mahārāja, how do you like?

Rāmeśvara: These books are very good. The most incredible thing, the printer can print them faster than anywhere else in the world. From the day he gives the book to the printer and the day the printer ships it, it is faster than anywhere else in the world.

Harikeśa: The printer has invited all the BBT trustees from all over the world, and he will pay their fare, and he will say he will beat everybody's price in the whole world for printing.

Prabhupāda: Then why not print there?

Rāmeśvara: He wants us to go to do the research next month in November.

Prabhupāda: So go. If you get cheaper and nicer, why not?

Rāmeśvara: We're planning to go and research it very carefully.

Harikeśa: This is another part. This is also 35,000.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What is the total number of volumes? Of these volumes, how much is the total printing of these seven books?

Jayatīrtha: Two hundred thousand.

Harikeśa: I can't... Sixty thousand and 35, 35, 35, and 25. So that's...

Yaśomatī-nandana: 190,000.

Rāmeśvara: In America just one book is 1,500,000 copies printed.

Jayatīrtha: Jaya Rāmeśvara.

Visit From Allopathic Doctor -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: ...some Swahili books Cyavana Swami has produced. This is the Topmost Yoga. We had printed this a couple of years ago. This is a reprint. Ufahamawa(?) Kṛṣṇa. The money for this printing was donated to us by Harikeśa Swami, his German yātrā.

Hari-śauri: You printed in Africa?

Brahmānanda: Yes. This is a magazine, Rudiwawumungu(?) It means "Go back to God." Mungu(?) is "God." That says, "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Upendra: They have letters explaining what each of the..., beads means, tilaka, clothes, explanation down here, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Brahmānanda: To distribute these books Cyavana Swami is having African devotees distribute them. He is organizing them. Cyavana Swami is good at organizing the Africans. But we are not able to distribute them for what it cost to print.

Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter.

Brahmānanda: What is that?

Hari-śauri: Doesn't matter.

Brahmānanda: Doesn't matter. Yes. Therefore we have to get... I've asked at the BBT that some fund, if we could set up some fund... We have published in the books that "This is donated to the people of Kenya by ISKCON Frankfurt, West Germany." So he is getting a good advertisement also, that he is sending money out of the country for welfare purposes.

Room Conversation -- October 12, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Two new Kṛṣṇa book trilogies arrived from Brazil.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Portuguese. How many copies are printed?

Hṛdayānanda: Altogether, about one hundred thousand.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One hundred thousand copies printed.

Prabhupāda: Ah, Hṛdayānanda has come.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja is here.

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Printing of book is our real work.

Room Conversation -- October 12, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Over one thousand per day are selling in Brazil.

Prabhupāda: Oh. What is the price?

Hṛdayānanda: Price? They're charging to the public around eighty cents.

Prabhupāda: So you have got a good collection?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good collection, Hṛdayānanda?

Hṛdayānanda: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Print more books.

Room Conversation -- October 12, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Thank you very much. Print books, and as I have given in my will, half, again print, and half spent for propaganda as you like. In this way go on. Jayapatākā, you are doing that?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā, are you doing that? Half spending and half for printing?

Jayapatākā: In Bengal, because the people are so poor, so there we are giving the book and just taking five or ten percent profit margin...

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Jayapatākā: ...for the small books, for propaganda purpose, so that we can reach many people.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Whatever propaganda require you spend, but print books and distribute. Whatever English book we have got, if we translate into Bengali, we have got enough stock.

Jayapatākā: Yes. We have a treasure house.

Prabhupāda: In this way, in all languages, distribute. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Room Conversation -- October 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda? The trustees have met, and there is one question to ask you. There are many articles in BTG which are written by you or your lectures and your famous conversations, like Professor Kotovsky, Dr. Stahl. So there is a proposal to take all of these different writings that have been published in BTG and put them together in one hardbound book, so that they will be preserved.

Prabhupāda: Good idea.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: For distribution.

Rāmeśvara: And in the future there are so many other lectures that may be preserved in this way too, if you desire. Other books can be printed in the future.

Prabhupāda: Very good idea.

Room Conversation -- October 14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: (Bengali) He has arranged alone.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Svarūpa Dāmodara? Yes. This is his single-handed attempt. Of course, the others have worked very hard also for writing the books and getting them printed. But this arrangement locally practically is his. He's worked very hard-Agra and Delhi.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So, why not publish in large quantity of..., large number of books?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I think that's advisable. There has been some complaints again about no stock.

Prabhupāda: Why it is not being done? There is money?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Jayapatākā had some complaint today.

Girirāja: It may be that because we're dealing with one printer he cannot handle all of the work.

Prabhupāda: Why one printer?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And Jayapatākā was thinking his parties are distributing Hindi books also, in Bihar and other places, and they ran out of books, and even though they went to Bombay, he could not get the books he wanted. There was no stock.

Prabhupāda: So what he recommends?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So he says he can print cheaper anyway in Calcutta.

Prabhupāda: Then let him print.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: You print. They will pay you. Jayapatākā?

Jayapatākā: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: There is no question of becoming miserly. You print as many books as you like. All money will be paid if you have no money. Why? If you are selling books, you must have money also.

Jayapatākā: We have a program to print. We're printing right now. It's in the press at the present time. The Bhakti-kathā, Jñāna-kathā, Bhagavānera-kathā and then hardback Vairāgya-vidyā. And also three issues of Bhāgavata-darśana. We're trying to, within that money also, print the first three chapters of Bhagavad-gītā.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We gave him a loan of forty-five thousand rupees, and then another twenty-five is coming. But that's all...

Prabhupāda: So you'll get money. Print.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: So why stock lacking? Why this mismanagement? There is no question of shortage of stock. I give you open order. Print more than necessity. If you do not print, what shall I do?

Bhakti-caru: Should we start printing Hindi books in Calcutta, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: I do not know where to be... But get it printed in huge stock.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhakti-caru: Should we start printing Hindi books in Calcutta, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: I do not know where to be... But get it printed in huge stock.

Bhakti-caru: Calcutta also has all the facilities in Hindi.

Prabhupāda: What is use of telling me?

Hṛdayānanda: What is the use of telling him?

Jayapatākā: He said, "I give an open order to print books. Always have big stock."

Hṛdayānanda: Huge stock, he said, more than necessary.

Kīrtanānanda: It's up to us to figure out where to print books.

Room Conversation -- October 15, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're installing Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma there, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Orissa.

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

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Transcendental qualities are already there. Only when we are designationless it manifests. Svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Sevonmukhe jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. When we are sincerely in service mood, this is manifest. It is already there. By māyā's veil it is now covered, but when we become prone to give service to Kṛṣṇa, it becomes revealed. It is already there. Nothing is imported. Now print book and distribute. In Australia they have sold all the Gītās. They will require more. Jaya Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Plus we are starting to construct a BBT godown. Surabhī Swami is working on that because now we are printing so many books, and also we have a big shipment of books from America that we definitely need a very huge godown in Bombay. Last time you had approved giving a loan of four lakhs for the godown.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Three lakhs. One lakh for printing, three lakhs for the godown.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: (softly) No.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. You said that the godown would only cost three lakhs.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Three to four is the estimate. (to Prabhupāda:) So we are going to start work on the godown in November.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

Room Conversation -- October 21, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Australian books are sold out. I was thinking that you would be thinking about that. He has to print in bigger quantities.

Prabhupāda: Great amount. You have to appoint two, three more printers.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Gopāla says that the problem is not the printers, because they have offset presses, so to them, to print ten thousand, twenty thousand, fifty thousand doesn't really make much difference. The real issue is that he only had a certain amount of money up until now to work with. Now, if he gets more money available, he can easily print more books.

Prabhupāda: Money is there.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. That was his point up until now, because once you have an offset press, it's just as easy to print fifty thousand as ten thousand. It doesn't really change their situation so much.

Prabhupāda: Money, there is no scarcity.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: We have nothing to do with politics. Rather, we are giving social service. What we'll do, politics? It is not our business. There are so many people. So the government should give us chance to organize a society for the highest benefit of human being. And they can see from our books what is our idea. (break)

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: ...printing books and exporting these books, and this way we're earning so much foreign exchange for the Indian economy. They liked it.

Prabhupāda: Did you show them the invoice of what book already we have got?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I told him the amount. I told him this year we have orders for Rs. twenty-five lakhs, and I said, "This is just the first year, and worldwide we print over eight crores. So this is just the beginning." So they liked it. And I also gave him the Hindi Bhāgavatam like you had told me.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: ...supplied?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja has just given us four lakh rupees' loan. So I have given you a report, which he has. We have twenty-two books in print now in various...

Prabhupāda: "A loan payable when able."

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: "When able." Prabhupāda... (laughter)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, I wouldn't agree to that. I'm very strict...

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: We are paying back the loan in time with interest.

Prabhupāda: Ātreya Ṛṣi, this kind of loan is very good.

Ātreya Ṛṣi: Very good.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's Gopāla's favorite loan.

Prabhupāda: You take loan—"payable when able." (laughter)

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we have twenty-two books in print.

Prabhupāda: Oh!

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: In various stages of production. Printing or composing or color... In the next two months, twenty-two books are coming out. By the end of December there will be twenty-two books given to you.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Now you must have good godown. Otherwise books will be stolen.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: At the market.

Prabhupāda: And market it will be sold at cheap rate. Then it will reduce its importance.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That was happening in Calcutta many...

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: I also got the loan for the godown. So in November we are starting construction of the BBT godown in Bombay.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That four lakhs, two lakhs was for the godown and two lakhs for book printing.

Prabhupāda: Money you'll get. There is no scarcity. Ātreya Ṛṣi will give you.

Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I also spoke to the Chinese Embassy in Delhi yesterday. I said I'd like to go to China, and I wanted to find out what the possibilities were. So they said since I have Canadian citizenship, they said I should write to the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa. I told them I'm from a publishing house that publishes books on ancient Indian culture. And I found out that they do not teach any Sanskrit in China, but they have Hindi and Urdu departments. Peking University has a Department on Asian studies that teaches Hindi and Urdu.

Prabhupāda: Let us introduce in Hindi.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Our Hindi books. And actually that man I spoke to on the phone, he spoke such fluent Hindi I had to ask him three times if he's Chinese or Indian. He was Chinese.

Prabhupāda: No, in Calcutta we have got many Chinese. They speak fluently.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This Chinese was from Peking, not Indian-born. And also I was thinking we can say that Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is one of the biggest printers in the world, and we are seriously thinking of buying Chinese paper for printing. And we can buy Chinese paper if it's good, because I found out that Chinese paper is as good as Japanese paper and it is cheaper.

Prabhupāda: No, we can print there also in China.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: That will be great, (laughing) if we print our books in China.

Prabhupāda: Yes, they have got paper.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: So it's okay to try for a visa.

Room Conversation -- October 29, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...for getting a little more clear purposes of the Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust we're developing at Gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi. Would you like to hear what we have written?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: "First point: To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to the residents and the visitors of Gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi. Second point: To propagate the consciousness of Kṛṣṇa, as it is revealed in Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and to propagate that Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, as is revealed in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta and the Caitanya Bhāgavata. 3) To bring all the members of ā together nearer to Lord Caitanya and thus develop within humanity at large that each soul is a part and parcel of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. 4) To teach and encourage the saṅkīrtana movement of congregational chanting of the holy names of God given in the teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. 5) To erect temples, schools, colleges, universities, institutes of higher studies, hospitals and other buildings with or for the advancement of the objects of the Trust and to maintain, alter and improve the same, including existing buildings, and to furnish and equip the same. 6) In keeping with the spirit of the previous ācārya's vision of Gauḍīya-Mādhva sampradāya, to cement relations with all the sister temples of Gauḍīya-Mādhva sampradāya under one banner, to solidify preaching the message of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as desired by His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda and Śrīla Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda and all the previous ācāryas in this line. 7) With a view to achieving the aforementioned purposes and to publish and distribute periodicals, magazines, and other books and other items. 8) To do all such other things for the attainment of the objects of the Trust. 9) Trustee members are appointed lifetime. The members should always be seven. 10) A meeting once a year at Śrīdhāma Māyāpura during Gaura-Pūrṇimā. 11) There should be a chairman, a treasurer, and a secretary elected each year. 12) A quorum of at least five members." Finishes.

Room Conversation -- October 30, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, I think the general is already covered by this Māyāpura-Vṛndāvana Trust committee. That's for all of India. And Gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi is especially for encouraging the development of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism in that area-Śrīdhara Mahārāja's nātha-mandira, this Yoga-pīṭha Bhaktivedanta Hall. Different buildings. Supposing one of your Godbrothers may have written some manuscript, he has no money. We can print some books for him so he can sell them, like that, works within the Māyāpura area.

Prabhupāda: That we shall fix up, what to spend.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity trustees would fix that up?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: All right.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Akṣayānanda: They enjoyed... We showed them the New Vrindaban film, Hindi. They enjoyed it very much. Also they asked us to speak. They said, "But don't speak anything about the Gītā."

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really?

Akṣayānanda: Yes. They said, "You can speak what you like about ISKCON, but we know all about Gītā. Don't speak anything about Gītā. Tell us about the progress of ISKCON." So I read out how many books have been printed and distributed since Your Divine Grace started ISKCON, how many farms you've established, how many centers, how many devotees all over the world and like that. They're very dry. But nonetheless, the film was so nice that they were very much impressed by it. They took prasādam. They enjoyed it very much.

Prabhupāda: "Don't speak of Gītā"?

Akṣayānanda: Yes. "Gītā-pratiṣṭhāna," but "Don't speak of Gītā." It's foolishness.

Prabhupāda: Now the danger is māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). So Vṛndāvana is full of Māyāvādīs. Do you accept it? And I am afraid our men may be influenced.

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sixty-three thousand copies printed. Kṛṣṇa book in Spanish, three volumes. (break) I think, 50,000.

Prabhupāda: Hm?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, 55,000 copies. Beautiful books, Prabhupāda. This is Volume One, Volume Two, and Volume Three, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma.

Brahmānanda: These are printed in America by the same publisher who publishes the English ones.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Now, here's a box. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, Part Two.

Prabhupāda: English?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Another edition.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This is the first time this is published. You haven't seen this yet.

Brahmānanda: This is 10.2.

Prabhupāda: Oh, Tenth Canto.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, 10.2 There's nothing quite as relishable as seeing your books in the English. It's beautiful. These colors...

Room Conversation -- November 2, 1977, Vrndavana:

Brahmānanda: All about preaching.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In other words, a devotee can use this book to learn these verses which substantiate the following points. These are the points. "3) Preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the highest welfare activity. 4) Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be distributed to everyone without restriction."

Prabhupāda: How many copies?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This was printed strictly for the devotees, two thousand copies only. It's meant as like a preaching weapon. "5) One who preaches Kṛṣṇa consciousness is dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa and is protected by the Lord. 6) Kṛṣṇa empowers the preacher. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement spreads by the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya. 7) Preaching is based on compassion. 8) The preacher should practice tolerance. 9) To be effective in preaching, the preacher must be pure and follow the regulative principles. 10) Conditioned souls benefit from hearing Vedic literature, kṛṣṇa-kathā. 11) The future of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement." Should I see what it says under that?

Prabhupāda: Hm.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "An hour later Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja was in the room and told Prabhupāda that they had printed 100,000 copies of Kṛṣṇa book in Portuguese. Prabhupāda said, 'Thank you very much. Printing of books is our life force.' Prabhupāda looked through the books and again he asked, 'How many published?' When he heard 100,000, 'Oh, how they are selling, and what is the price? Very good collection? Print more books. This is life. This material body—only bones. So go on and this is life. We are not concerned with bones and stones. Our concern is the living force. The living force is actually sustaining these bones. Bones are not life. Print books as I have shown the way: half again for printing and half spent for propaganda as you like. In this way go on.' Then he turned to Jayapatākā Mahārāja and asked him if he was doing that. He told him, 'Whatever propaganda is needed, you go out and spend, but print books and distribute. Whatever English books we have got, if we translate into Bengali, you have got enough stock.' Jayapatākā Swami replied 'Yes, we have got a treasure house,' and Prabhupāda said, 'In this way, in all languages, distribute. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.' " It says here, "Prabhupāda is translating the Third Volume of the Tenth Canto, and Volume Two is now just being printed and will be available for shipping to all temples on November llth along with a new book written by Śrīla Prabhupāda called the Teachings of Lord Kapiladeva. Fifty thousand copies of each volume have been published."

Prabhupāda: Fifty copies?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty thousand.

Prabhupāda: Oh.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Would you like to hear Tenth Canto, Volume Two, Śrīla Prabhupāda, a little bit? Or more of Kapiladeva? Kapiladeva would be nice. Ten, two?

Prabhupāda: Any book.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Any book. You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I was thinking, I'm going to write Rāmeśvara that we should have in Los Angeles a Bhaktivedanta Swami Library with all of your books, many volumes of each book in all the languages. Each different bookshelf will be different languages. Some part of the library will be Spanish publications, German, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, different languages of Europe, Indian languages. And then we'll also have a part of the library for archives. At least one or two copies of every single edition of all of the books. All the previous Back to Godheads, as many as we have even from your original ones published in India. In this way make a Bhaktivedanta Swami Library. People can come and read your books. No matter who they are, what language they speak, there should be at least one library like this. Reading rooms we can have all over the world, and we should have some library also like this.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Resting is good in this case. Best thing. Maybe I can read some nice news, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Would you like that? This is a very nice report, Śrīla Prabhupāda, from Peru. Dr. Kapoor said anyone would fall in love with it at first sight. (laughter) Pañca ought to see the Tenth Canto. This is a new edition of Tenth Canto that has just come out. You'll find some illustrations at the very beginning.

Dr. Kapoor: I think you have excelled all other publishers in this art. (laughs)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: These are Spanish publications. We were just reading. These are the books that they were distributing, that they were talking about, Kṛṣṇa book in Spanish, three parts. There's also some Spanish nectar that came.

Upendra: It's in the other room, I think.

Dr. Kapoor: Which other languages have you translated Prabhupāda's books in? French?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, there's I think twenty-seven languages. French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish...

Dr. Kapoor: Oh. All the books are translated?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Gradually, one by one.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Trivikrama: What about the language? Is there problem with language?

Girirāja: No. The educated people speak English. In all the schools they teach English, so all the youngsters speak English in Kathmandu. And then most people in Kathmandu, even if they don't speak English, they speak Hindi. And there are just a few who only speak Nepali. But Prabhaviṣṇu has arranged for The Perfection of Yoga to be translated into Nepali.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He sounds like he's doing very good, Prabhaviṣṇu.

Girirāja: Yes.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Good man.

Girirāja: He's very good. So he's eager to get that in print. Then they'll be able to distribute literature to everyone without exception.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Do you remember when Prabhaviṣṇu was here you told him to go with "the courage of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother"? He remembers those words.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Room Conversation -- November 6, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Should we buy this land, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Why not? You have got money?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. There is enough money.

Jayapatākā: We do not want to rest until every home in Bengal has a copy of Gītār Gān and Bhāgavatam.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Svarūpa Dāmodara: Gītār Gān is nice. It's attractive.

Jayapatākā: About ten new devotees are there now. Every week two or three new devotees are coming. Four of them are college graduate. They're helping answering letters and transcribing. Subhaga has five books that he had written in England. So we got those, and now they're being copies for printing.

Room Conversation -- November 7, 1977, Vrndavana:

Jayapatākā: Now that your books are being printed in Hindi, in Calcutta, one of our life members, Mr. Tulsan, he got your Hindi Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and he's begun reading, and now he said his whole life is transformed. He said that never he found anywhere that the knowledge was presented so simply and so clearly. All the paṇḍitas he could never understand. So now he's become so enthusiastic he's purchasing four rooms in Māyāpura-two for himself, and he's making two relatives purchase.

Room Conversation -- November 13-14, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bon Mahārāja: In and out, both are superexcellent. Inside, in Mahārāja's translation, and outside, your publication, printing, makeup, everything superexcellent. That is first attraction, when you take the book in your hand you feel that is something very nicely done. I don't think in India we can have this type of printing. You get them printed now in Los Angeles?

Jayādvaita: They're printed in Tennessee.

Bon Mahārāja: Tennessee. And the pictures are printed separately, then the pictures are sent to the publisher in pages.

Page Title:Publishing our books (Conversations, 1977)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Labangalatika
Created:15 of May, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=140, Let=0
No. of Quotes:140