Treasures Of The Brihat Mridanga

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I love pistachios. I can't eat them fast enough, and I get impatient, because it takes time to shell them. So I am glad that Treasures of the Brhat Mydanga is like a big bowl of shelled pistachios. What a joy it is to read.

And what are these shelled pistachios? A lot of people awakening to Krishna consciousness by hearing. In fact, these are the only actually interesting events in the world. When devotees of Krishna go out of their way to give people tran- scendental literature, and people respond by taking shelter of Krishna, something substantial has happened: A soul has used his or her free will to do the right thing. This is the greatest show on earth. Nothing compares. Nothing else is as conse- quential.

Reading Treasures of the Brhat Mydanga, therefore, is not only spiritual nourishment, it's pure enjoyment.

In the Gitä, Krishna declares the material world to be a place of suffering and strongly recommends that we not try to stay here. He wants us to join Him in the spiritual world in blissful loving service. Why, then, does He make a material world in the first place? The answer is that out of kindness the Lord gives us a viable option to forget Him if we choose to. Without this option, what would be the question of free will? And without free will, true love for God could not exist.

Even though Krishna restrains Himself and remains neutral as He sets the stage for us to voluntarily serve Him, and even though He advises His devotees not to waste time with people uninterested in Him, He nevertheless does have His preference. He wants every soul to be happy by taking shelter of Him. Thus He is pleased when devotees intervene in the lives of sleeping souls and awaken them to a relationship with Him.

In the purport to Bhagavad-gitä 3.29, Srila Prabhupada explains this apparent enigma: "Men who are ignorant cannot appreciate activ- ities in Krishna consciousness, and therefore Lord Krishna advises us not to disturb them and simply waste valuable time. But the devotees of the Lord are more kind than the Lord because they understand the purpose of the Lord. Consequently, they undertake all kinds of risks, even to the point of approaching igno- rant men to try to engage them in the acts of Krishna consciousness, which are absolutely necessary for the human being."

This is why ISKCON devotees take on the burdens of going out in public, knocking on people's doors, or meeting them on college campuses and street corners to offer them Srila Prabhupada's books. These devotees know how pleasing such distribution is to both Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. What's more, most of these distributors have their own realizations, for they, too, were rescued from the burden of materialistic life after receiving a transcendental book. And that experience will always be the most important event in their lives.

We know that Srila Prabhupada considered book distribu- tion vital in spreading Lord Caitanya's sankirtana movement. He wrote: "These books and magazines are our most important propaganda weapons to defeat the ignorance of maya's army, and the more we produce such literature and sell it profusely all over the world, the more we shall deliver the world from its suicide course." Śrila Prabhupada offered his followers profuse blessings for distributing his books: "I am so much grateful to you, and I am sure Krishna will bless you a million times over for doing this work”.

From the earliest days of the Hare Krishna movement, Srila Prabhupada emphasized book distribution. As a deeply compassionate pure devotee of Lord Krishna, he felt pained to see the conditioned souls suffer. In "Märkine Bhagavata-dhar- ma" ("Krishna Consciousness in America"), a Bengali poem he wrote upon arriving at Boston harbor, Srila Prabhupada addresses Lord Krishna: Most of the population here is covered by the ma- terial modes of ignorance and passion. Absorbed in material life, they think themselves very happy and satisfied, and therefore they have no taste for the tran- scendental message of Vasudeva. I do not know how they will be able to understand it. But I know Your causeless mercy can make everything possible because You are the most expert mystic. How will they under- stand the mellows of devotional service? O Lord, I am simply praying for Your mercy so that I will be able to convince them about Your message.

This is the nature of a kind-hearted devotee: he wants to see everyone become happy by practicing Krishna conscious- ness. Prabhupada's books are guides to the happiness everyone is seeking.

It is by knowledge of the Absolute Truth that people can become free of their suffering. There are so many universi- ties, so many libraries, so many books, so many websites-so much information available today. But where is the knowledge by which a person can be freed of ignorance and attain full satisfaction? That knowledge is found in the teachings of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Srila Prabhupada lived the transcendental teachings he wrote, and thus he inspired countless people all over the world to embrace those teachings. Millions of people are now learning about Lord Krishna and becoming purified. We are all very much indebted to Srila Prabhupada for giving us this great treasure of knowledge. He once said, "You cannot repay me for what I've given you. I've given you Krishna. But if you want to try, then preach." He also said, "The best way to preach is by book distribution." This is how we can show him our apprecia- tion-by giving this knowledge to others.

Book distribution is a joyful experience because it's pleasing to Krishna and His pure devotee. In 1973 Prabhupada wrote a letter to some sankirtana devotees. It contains my favorite quote about book distribution:

London.

My dear Prabha Visnu,.

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 1, 1973, and I am very glad to hear from you the wonderful news of tray- eling party in England. I think the people of that place are becoming more and more inclined for this Krish- na Consciousness movement, they are inviting you to stay at their houses, they are taking books, becoming sometimes devotees-all of these are very encouraging signs to me. Always without anxiety for destination and comfortable situations, always relying only on the mercy of Krishna for your plan, just go on preaching His message and selling His books, wherever there is interest.

**Contents and Sample Pages**