Inhibitions about distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Question: How do we overcome the inhibitions about getting out there to distribute the books?
Vaisesika Prabhu: Okay; here’s the trick. The inhibition comes from your mind. The mind accepts and rejects. When we are in material life, the mind accepts and rejects based on what it thinks will bring the highest bodily pleasure. So your mind may tell you not to go out on book distribution because you won’t enjoy yourself and it will be hard, and somebody might say no and you’ll get all offended or you’ll feel low. Isn’t it? The mind is blocking you; otherwise you would just walk out the door and do it. So you have to trick your mind. It’s a kind of yoga. So this is what I do:
Say I am at home and I want to go out on book distribution but my mind is telling me not to go. So I make a deal with my mind and I say, “Okay, I’m not REALLY going to go out on book distribution. I am just going to PRETEND like I’m going on book distribution.” So the night before, I pack my box, and I put it in the trunk of my car, and my mind is saying, “Yeah, this is going to be hard, and I don’t really think you should do this. You should probably stay home and sleep. It is a lot nicer. You’ll be warmer, it’s not hard, and this and that.” So then, you tell your mind, “That’s okay, because there is plenty of room in my trunk, and I’m not really going to go out anyway.” And then, the next day, when it’s time to go out on book distribution to some place, your mind is telling you, “It’s really tough and you probably won’t do anything, because you’re a real loser anyway, and you’ve never amounted to much, and who’s going to take a book? You’re an idiot.” Your mind is speaking to you like this. So then you say, “Well that’s okay, because all I am going to do is drive out to this spot and I’m just going to park out there, and I’m not even going to get out of the car, so don’t worry.” So then you drive out and you get to your spot, and then you say to your mind, “Well, just one other thing: I’m just going to get out of the car, but I’m not going to do anything. I’m just going to stand on the corner.” So you get out with your box. Then you say, “Okay, I’ll just take the books out and hold them in my hand.” Then you say, “Well, alright, I’ll just speak to one person,” and that’s it, you’re off and going. So, step by step, you pull yourself on Sankirtana. Just go through the motions and get out there. You have to overcome the mind. Indriyani parany ahur, indriyebhyah param manah, manasas tu para buddhir, yo buddheh paratas tu sah. The senses are the lowest. And above the senses is the mind. And above the mind is the intelligence, and above the intelligence is he, the soul. It gets subtler and subtler, higher and higher. So you have to take shelter of the higher position, and go above the senses, go above the mind to the intelligence, and develop your intelligence in Krsna Consciousness, studying the books.
This is our technique, strong sadhana. Our main process for developing our intelligence is to take as our life and soul, above all other activities, whatever they may be, our japa. It has to be our japa, otherwise we can’t get out of this material world. It is impossible without the Holy Name. It is impossible without taking shelter of japa. You have to take shelter of the Name, you have to become the most dedicated person to chanting the Names Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. That means regulated japa like anything. And the minimum is sixteen rounds. Mininum! Your shrine should be your bead-bag. You should build a shrine around your bead-bag. Your bead-bag should be your main source of inspiration for your whole spiritual life. You have to take your beads and sit down, you have to sit, and you have to concentrate your mind, and you have to hear the Names, you have to hear Hare Krsna, and you have to do that every single day until you have a taste. This is the way to rise above the mind and come to the position of developing your finer intelligence and coming to the position of understanding, “I’m not my body,” and understanding that we have a relationship with Krsna and that our real self-interest is in taking shelter at every moment of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If we have that, then we’ll also have the impetus to go out on book distribution, because, as Krsna says in the Bhagavad Gita, atmaupamyena sarvatra, samam pasyati yo ‘rjuna. The true yogi, he compares his own self to others. So, if he is suffering, he sees, “Oh, other people are suffering too.” And if you are becoming self-realized, if you are tasting something higher, you’ll see what is your actual position in this world and you’ll say, “Wao, look at these people! They don’t even know it yet! I have to save them! I have to save them. This is my duty: I have to give them Bhagavad Gita. I have to give them a chance.”