Devotee (1): Sometimes, Śrīla Prabhupāda, people travel from one airport to another, and they'll get a book in Chicago and then they'll come to Atlanta and we'll approach them to give them another book, and they've already gotten one book in Chicago. And they ask, "How many of there are you around the world?" Because everywhere they go, in every airport they are getting books. So they think that there must be millions. They think that there must be millions of Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees, because everywhere they go they're being approached to take a book.
Rūpānuga: I once asked a boy in Washington temple how many devotees he thought we had, and he said, "Oh, I cannot guess." And I said, "Make an educated guess." And he said, "Well, I've seen you here and I think maybe two million." (laughter) And I said, "Three thousand. Now just see the potency of Hare Kṛṣṇa. You're thinking we're two million, and we're simply a handful." He became a little convinced. So our books make us millions. People think we are millions because of the books.
Prabhupāda: Push on this. Then our movement is successful. All Americans should have at least one set of book. That is not very difficult for them, to purchase one set book. But it will be a good asset for them if they keep and see sometimes. Any line he reads, he will get transcendental knowledge.
Devotee (1): There is one very wealthy man in Atlanta who... We went and did a nice presentation at his home. And then afterwards we distributed prasādam and had a nice bhajana, kīrtanas. Then afterwards he bought the whole set of literatures and gave a hundred dollar donation for all of the literatures, and he has them now.
Prabhupāda: Yes. For an American gentleman one hundred dollars is nothing.
Devotee (3): One nice boy in the airport, he was a soldier boy. He had, like read a Kṛṣṇa trilogy, and he was coming through the airport, and I approached him. And he immediately saw the books, and he immediately wanted one. And I didn't even have to ask him for the donation. Automatically he gave $20. And then I was walking down the hall, and I saw him again, and he came running up to me again, and he said, "Here, you're doing such a wonderful thing. Let me give you another $20." And somebody walked by as I was giving him another book, and they said, "Don't take that book. It's a rip-off. These people are trying to rip you off." And he said, "They don't know what they're talking about. They don't understand." And then, after that, he walked up to Cārudeṣṇa Prabhu and gave him another $40. So actually he gave something like $65 or $70 in the airport just because he had read one trilogy.
Devotee (5): Just like in the Kṛṣṇa book it says anyone who reads this, he will become a devotee.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that's a fact. Anyone who reads that book, he will become Vaiṣṇava.
Devotee (5): And a year ago in a mall in Pittsburg, because I stay at the Pittsburg temple, I gave a big Kṛṣṇa book to a...
Prabhupāda: George has become?
Tripurāri: Pardon?
Prabhupāda: George, George Harrison.
Tripurāri: George Harrison?
Prabhupāda: He has become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa.
Tripurāri: He has?
Devotee (1): He's living in the temple?
Prabhupāda: No. He, not temple, but he chants always. He is keeping one Jagannātha within the bead. He showed me: that "I have put..." He saw me in Vṛndāvana.
Devotee (8): We use his name quite a bit to distribute books. A lot of people take books because of his name. We often wonder what he was actually doing as far as the movement was concerned.
Prabhupāda: He has got his foreword in the Kṛṣṇa book.
Devotee (1): Now each one, the foreword is there, in every volume. So we always show them that and they're very impressed, especially hippies and students, college students.
Devotee (5): Just like Kṛṣṇa says. What the big men do, the common men follow.
Prabhupāda: He gave me first money for publishing Kṛṣṇa book, $19,000. He is a good boy. He is a good boy, and he has got good regard for me.
Devotee (3): He just recently went on a concert tour around the country, and he was having the young people chant Kṛṣṇa's names in the concert. And because of the concert tour, many, many, many books were distributed, unlimited.
Prabhupāda: Oh, his song, "Kṛṣṇa..." I have forgotten that. That record?
Tripurāri: Yes. And he went on a tour of the United States, playing at different cities, concerts, and he would ask people in the audience to chant, "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa."
Prabhupāda: He was asking?
Tripurāri: Yes.
Devotee (1): And wherever he would go the devotees would be there with prasāda and literatures, distributing profusely. Very successful. Sometimes it seems that Kṛṣṇa is arranging these concerts simply so young people can come together so we can be there to reach many, many thousands at one time.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is all-attractive.
Tripurāri: But we have no attraction for Kṛṣṇa. You are attracting us to Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: (laughing) Actually Kṛṣṇa is attracting. One, what is called, touchstone, no? Magnetic stone?
Tripurāri: Yes, magnet.
Prabhupāda: So background, magnetic stone, one iron, and then another iron, another iron. It is all attracted.
Devotee (5): We are becoming happy by distributing your books.
Prabhupāda: Thank you. It is Kṛṣṇa's book. You have got that cake? Give them.
Devotee (5): I was going to say, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I was talking, and I gave a family a big..., a husband and a wife, a big Kṛṣṇa book. The husband took the Kṛṣṇa book. The wife was indifferent. A year later the wife read the Kṛṣṇa book and left her husband and joined the temple, just from reading the one book. And I was very enlivened by this. When you can see the results like that, you become enlivened.
Tripurāri: Just by distributing your books we can become self-realized.
Prabhupāda: You are already self-realized. Otherwise how you can push on the books? You love Kṛṣṇa. Therefore you are taking so much labor for pushing on. And that is self-realization. If anyone tries to establish that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, that is self-realization.
Tripurāri: Sometimes the devotees ask if they can take birth again distributing books for you.
Prabhupāda: Very good. That is real devotion. A devotee does not want to go to Vaikuṇṭha or any liberation. They are satisfied with the service. That is pure devotion. And distributing books for the benefit of going to Kṛṣṇa, that is selfishness. But "I want to simply distribute the books without any remuneration, without any my personal..." that is pure devotee. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja says that "I do not wish to go to Vaikuṇṭha unless I take all of these rascals with me." That is pure devotee. Pure devotion does not mean to... He is always under the protection of Kṛṣṇa. What is the use of going Vaikuṇṭha or...? Wherever he stays, that is Vaikuṇṭha. That is pure devotional service. Mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī: (Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4) "Life after life I may go on with this business. I don't want anything." That is pure devotion. (About cake:) So distribute.
Devotee (5): When a new book comes we're very happy. We read it, and then, when we read it, we become enlivened to distribute it. And sometimes we read one like the Bhagavad-gītā or one new Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and then we'll concentrate on that book because it has made us so happy.
Prabhupāda: You have read Caitanya-caritāmṛta?
Tripurāri: Yes. We study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the morning and Bhagavad-gītā in the evening. Then in the day we read Nectar of Devotion, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and Kṛṣṇa book at night. All the devotees are reading...
Prabhupāda: It never becomes old.
Tripurāri: No.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) Yes.