Food for Life (Hungary)

Homages Other Sources, VP2026

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet!

The material world and so much in it is impermanent. But even in the material world there are things that are eternal, which do not fade with the passage of time. In fact, their value only increases with the number of anniversaries that pass. Such is your person, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Despite the increasing number of generations who have not been able to meet you personally, you still represent the origin, the point of reference, and the basis of reference in terms of theoretical and practical matters in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You are an inspiration, an authentic example to countless souls. On the occasion of your appearance day, please accept my imperfect but all the more sincere, heartfelt offering, which I express to you now in words and through my daily service for the rest of the year.

The accounts I have heard of your years on earth speak of your exceptional brilliance. It is even more evident from the perspective of so many years that it was not a worldly quality of yours, but an eternal characteristic that permeates the movement that you have left behind to this day. Your legacy – the strength of our present and the guarantee of our successful future – is no less than the priceless treasure of our existence: to be in touch with Kṛṣṇa. With deep gratitude in my heart, I try to walk the path you marked out and to continue on it, clinging to your effulgence in times of difficulty. During my thirty years in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, I have been in various ways, but always connected with the distribution of prasādam. On several occasions, I have personally experienced the real power of this devotional service. I have seen how people’s hearts change month after month, year after year, simply by eating prasādam every day. They do not do any other spiritual activity, but they would take prasādam regularly, every day, and even without their knowledge, since they were not the ones offering the food. In many cases, I have also observed how, through the distribution of prasādam, someone becomes more and more involved in other forms of devotional service and eventually accepts Kṛṣṇa. I am often reminded of the anecdote in which you told the sādhus who were expecting a miracle from you that your miracles, your dancing white elephants, are the devotees.

In one of your lessons, you said that you are just a postman, only a messenger who received a message and passed it on without change. Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, the miracle you spoke about to the sādhus has now taken on a huge dimension, the reason for which is undoubtedly that you are a very special postman. Although you have not changed the message, it has become even more valuable and attractive through your person, through your special brilliance, through your unique qualities, through the love you have for the recipients of the message.

It is an understatement to say that I feel lucky that your message reached me, just as it is an understatement to say that you are just a postman. But this is also part of the miracle, for which words are not enough. Where words end, action, music, dance – that is, the colorful, miraculous life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness itself – begins. Thank you for this life, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Your servant,

Bhakta-vatsala Dāsa, leader of Food for Life in Hungary

ISKCON Book Distribution Ministry

Homages Other Sources, VP2026

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāminn iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

– I –

Śrīla Prabhupāda once said, “Impossible is a word in a fool’s dictionary.” As ISKCON’s global minister for book distribution, charged with carrying forward the mission that was dearest to his heart, I have found no better instruction for the work before us. We are not in the business of counting obstacles. We are in the business of assuming it can be done – and then doing it.

In December of 1969, Śrīla Prabhupāda descended into the basement pressroom of ISKCON Press in Boston – a former funeral home, unheated in winter – and stood before a large offset printing press. According to the eyewitness account of Patita Uddhāraṇa Dāsa, one of the press’s bookbinders who was present that day, Prabhupāda “affectionately pointed to the press machine and said, ‘This is my heart.’” When a devotee replied, “You are the heart of ISKCON, Prabhupāda,” he said simply: “And this is my heart.”

That press, in that cold basement, was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s heart. From that beginning – which the Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, by Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami documents in full – the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust grew to become, as Patita Uddhāraṇa Dāsa records in his compilation This Is My Heart (Bhaktivedanta Archives, 2015), the world’s largest Indological publisher, distributing millions of books in over fifty languages. Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote in a letter preserved in the Līlāmṛta: “When one book is published, I think I have conquered an empire.” He conquered many empires. And he left the maps to us so that we could carry on his conquests.

The tip of the spear – the most penetrating aspect of our entire movement – has always been the literature and the act of distributing it. Śrīla Prabhupāda said plainly: “Producing and distributing books is our most important engagement. All other engagements culminate in this one end.” He called the printed book the bṛhat-mṛdaṅga – the great drum – whose sound travels farther than any kirtan party, into places no kirtan party can reach. In a 1973 letter he described our method in terms that leave no ambiguity: “Fight with Maya means to drop thousands and millions of books into the lap of the conditioned souls. Just like during wartime, the bombs are raining from the sky.”

– II –

Śrīla Prabhupāda did not theorize about covering the earth. He did it. He boarded the Jaladuta at age sixty-nine with some volumes of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the holy name, and the order of his spiritual master – and nothing else. He suffered two heart attacks on the crossing. He arrived without allies, without money, without a plan anyone else would have called realistic. And within twelve years he had founded over one hundred temples, produced over seventy volumes of Vedic literature, and established a global movement on six continents. He did not dwell on the impossibility of the task. His unwavering question was always: “How can I do this?” That question – surrendered, determined, forward-moving – is the question we inherit.

He also left us a principle by which to work: “If you are going to hunt, you should hunt for a rhinoceros. In that way, if you don’t succeed, everyone will say, ‘Oh, it couldn’t be done anyway.’ But if you do succeed, everyone will be amazed.” We are rhinoceros hunters. Our goals are large by design, because large goals develop large capacity, and because Lord Caitanya’s mission is not a modest one. Pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma sarvatra pracāra haibe more nāma – “In every town and village, the chanting of My name will be heard.” Every town. Every village. Every language. We take this instruction literally, because Śrīla Prabhupāda took it literally.

The Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi-līlā 9.29, purport) gives us our operating principle in one sentence: “The only purpose of the preachers of the saṅkīrtana movement must be to go on preaching without restriction.” No restriction. Not considering who is fit or unfit. Not waiting for perfect conditions. Not keeping a list of why it cannot be done – because what is illegal in this ministry is keeping such a list. We go on. We assume it can be done. And then we do it.

– III –

The vision driving this ministry is what we call the One World Team: a global saṅkīrtana community in which every region of the world works together, shares best practices, and moves toward a common goal. The principle is simple – when we work as one, we do better than when we work alone. A rising tide lifts all boats. Where attention goes, energy flows. And when the entire world gives its attention to the distribution of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books together, the results are not merely additive. They are exponential.

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya-līlā 2.81) as the greatest spiritual capitalist, possessing the touchstone of love of God and distributing it without discrimination to anyone who comes. He does not ask whether the recipient is qualified. He gives. Our ministry takes its operating mood from Him: liberal, prolific, cooperative, and utterly confident in what we are distributing. As Nārada Muni confirms in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.5.11), this literature causes a viplava – a revolution – in the consciousness of anyone who encounters it. We are not selling a mundane product. We are delivering a cure. The only question is how many people we can reach.

Śrīla Prabhupāda saw the Sherwin-Williams paint logo – a can of paint pouring over the globe with the motto “Cover the Earth” – and said that should be our motto too. It is. The ministry’s work is to cover this earth, systematically and without restriction, using every language, every channel, every method available, cooperating across all regions as one world team, with the confidence that Lord Caitanya Himself is writing the checks. As we say in this ministry: Workarounds bring turnarounds. Your pledge is your wedge. And “touching the pavement” is enough to flip the switch.

– IV –

On this appearance day of Śrīla Prabhupāda, the ISKCON Ministry of Book Distribution is glad to report that the One World Team is working – and working well.

Since the launch of the Bhadra Campaign, the worldwide distribution of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam sets has grown from 7,007 sets in 2018 to 40,381 sets in 2025 – a 476 percent increase. Bhagavad-gītā As It Is has grown from 2.1 million copies in 2020 to 5.1 million copies in 2025 – a 143 percent increase. Overall BBT book distribution, as measured by the “World Sankirtan Newsletter,” has increased by 33 percent since 2018. Caitanya-caritāmṛta sets are on the rise as well.

These numbers tell a story. The focused, strategic, cooperative campaigns of the One World Team dramatically outperform uncoordinated individual effort. When regions share what works, when leaders set goals together and report to one another, when the entire global saṅkīrtana community moves in the same direction at the same time – the results reflect not just organizational efficiency but the direct reciprocation of Lord Caitanya, who, as Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī writes in the Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta, makes everything possible for those who carry out His mission: “Nothing is impossible for the Lord, His dear devotees, His transcendental abode or His pastimes, for all these are inconceivably powerful.”

We are either improving or we are getting worse. Staying the same is not tenable. The numbers above represent thousands of devotees around the world who chose to improve – who caught their own Jaladuta, stepped aboard, and sailed. The ministry’s task going forward is to widen that fleet, to bring more regions and more communities into the One World Team, to set goals that are larger than last year’s, and to assume – always, without apology – that it can be done.

*

Śrīla Prabhupāda crossed an ocean alone and changed the world. He pointed to a printing press in a cold basement and called it his heart. He left us that heart, still beating, in every book his ­followers carry out the door.

The saṅkīrtana movement is not a monument to what Śrīla Prabhupāda accomplished. It is a living mission he placed in our hands and asked us to carry forward. The paramparā moves only when someone picks it up, and with heart, soul, and intelligence, carries it forward. On this most auspicious day of his divine appearance, the ISKCON Ministry of Book Distribution pledges to carry it: without restriction, without hesitation, as one world team, assuming always that it can be done.

All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam.

Vaiśeṣika Dāsa

ISKCON Minister of Book Distribution

Indian Continental Committee

Homages Other Sources, VP2026

Dearest worshipable founder-ācārya, Your Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda,

Please accept our most humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

On this sacred occasion of the 130th year of your divine Vyāsa-pūjā, we, the members of the Indian Continental Committee (ICC), offer our heartfelt gratitude and prayers. Whatever we have been able to do in your service is only because of your mercy.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, you have given us everything – your books, your teachings, your movement, and a clear path to follow. When we look at ISKCON in India today, we can only feel that it is your work, your vision, and your compassion that are sustaining everything. The śāstra reminds us:

yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo
yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ’pi

Only by your mercy can we approach Kṛṣṇa. Without your mercy, we have no standing.

ICC is a small attempt to serve your mission in a cooperative way. It brings together ISKCON temple presidents, the general managers of preaching centers, Regional Secretary assistants, Zonal Secretaries, sannyāsīs residing in India, and leaders from various ministries, such as communications, education, goshala development, and social initiatives. The intention is simple: to support one another and serve your mission more effectively.

Over time, ICC has helped facilitate working groups in areas such as book distribution, harināma-saṅkīrtana, youth outreach, goshala development, and devotee care and other social initiatives. These are all small efforts to strengthen what you already gave us.

We have also tried to support large preaching events and festivals, including gatherings like Kumbha Melā and the Rāma Mandir inauguration, and are now assisting in coordinating efforts for the 60-50 global celebrations of ISKCON in India, working in cooperation with international leadership.

One important aspect of ICC has been that it provides a platform where leaders and devotees can come together, discuss openly, and help one another. Many times, challenges that seem difficult in one center become easier when shared and discussed with others.

We are trying to ensure that these discussions take place in a proper Vaiṣṇava mood – with respect, patience, and a sincere desire to understand. In this way, ICC helps leaders and devotees express their views in a constructive and respectful manner, while maintaining harmony.

The meetings, held twice a year, have been especially helpful. Leaders from across the country come together and make a sincere effort to discuss preaching, management, and how to improve our service. Recently, we have also begun focusing more on areas like sustainability, land development, and goshala initiatives.

By your grace, ICC has also been able to support efforts to preserve and digitally restore your audio and video recordings. We understand that your vāṇī is our life, and it is our responsibility to make it accessible for future generations.

At the same time, Śrīla Prabhupāda, we know that all these efforts are meaningful only if we remain faithful to your instructions. You gave very clear guidance to temple leaders. You wanted temples to be strong in sādhana, clean, and caring toward devotees. You wrote that the temple president is responsible for the spiritual standards of the devotees, and you also emphasized that everything depends on the sincerity of the leaders. Most importantly, you reminded us that our love for you will be shown by how much we cooperate. These instructions remain our foundation. They are simple, but not always easy to follow.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, in a country as large and diverse as India, differences in opinion and approach naturally arise. But we understand that such differences should not become obstacles in serving you.

So, on this day, we place a sincere prayer at your lotus feet. Please help us to cooperate. Please help us to listen to one another with respect. Please help us to remain focused on your instructions.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, you showed us what real leadership is. You were firm in philosophy, yet deeply compassionate. You worked tirelessly, traveled constantly, wrote extensively, and guided personally – all for the benefit of others. Above all, you lived fully for the instruction of your spiritual master.

We may be trying to serve in different roles, but we know that we are far from your example. Still, we take shelter. India is very dear to you. You wanted that people here take Kṛṣṇa consciousness seriously and help share it with the world. If we, as leaders and devotees in India, can truly work together – with sincerity, humility, and cooperation – then your movement can grow in a way that will please you and benefit many.

We therefore pray that you bless all the leaders and devotees in ISKCON in India. Please help us to work together in a cooperative spirit and guide us to follow your instructions carefully. Please help us strengthen book distribution, expand preaching efforts, care properly for devotees, train the next generation, manage temples responsibly, and develop goshalas and sustainable projects in line with your vision.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, whatever has been done is by your mercy, and whatever is lacking is due to our own limitations. On this day, we do not claim anything – we simply pray. If we have made mistakes, please forgive us. If we have not served properly, please correct us. If we are lacking sincerity, please purify us. Above all, please keep us together in your service. Let us not become divided. Let us not become distracted. Let us not forget why you created this movement. Let us remain your servants.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, please bless us that we may distribute more and more of your books so that your message can reach every home and every heart. Please bless us that we may develop consciousness of you – that we may think, act, and serve in a way that reflects your desire. Please help us to keep this movement truly centered on you, where your instructions remain the guiding force in all that we do.

We have no strength of our own – only the hope that by staying connected to your instructions, we may continue somehow in your service. Kindly keep us under your shelter.

Your servants,

Sahadev Dāsa, chairman

Sumithra Kṛṣṇa Dāsa, vice-chairman

Keshav Murāri Dāsa, secretary