Bhakti Vikasa Prints 1 Million Books
BY: GAURANGA DAS
Nov 30, 2011 — USA (SUN) — The following is a letter from Bhakti Vikasa Swami that he recently sent out to his disciples. What is disturbing is the following: Bhakti Vikasa Swami has printed and distributed 1 million of his books, but how has this been done and on whose effort? In India the BBT has been printing his books for years and ISKCON devotees throughout India are being forced to distribute his books along with Srila Prabhupada’s books in all of the ISKCON temples.
What this means is that with 1 million of his books printed and distributed, that 1 million of Srila Prabhupada’s books didn’t get printed and didn’t get distributed. These books are being distributed in Srila Prabhupada’s temples on Srila Prabhupada’s book tables by Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON devotees in competition with Srila Prabhupada’s own books.
These ISKCON devotees should be distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books exclusively, not some other Swami’s book on the Ramayana. Bhakti Vikasa Swami’s books are a direct competition to Srila Prabhupada’s books and are taking sales away from Srila Prabhupada’s books because they are distributed in the same location by the same people – in Srila Prabhupada’s temples, by Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON devotees and on Srila Prabhupada’s book tables.
Let these Swamis start their own temples, have their own devotees who are not part of ISKCON, and start their own book tables to sell their books. Stop stealing resources, facilities and manpower from Srila Prabhupada to promote yourself and your own books.
Further, when these books are printed by the BBT, who do they advertise inside the book? Instead of recommending people to contact the BBT, it is written inside to contact “Bhakti Vikasa Swami”, and his address is given. All of Srila Prabhupada’s books recommend the reader to contact the BBT, but his books recommend the reader to contact Bhakti Vikasa Swami. This would be fine if the books weren’t printed and promoted by ISKCON and the BBT. His aim is that by distributing his books, which recommend people to directly contact him, he can have first access to prospective disciples, which leads to a long term financial donor relationship between himself and the reader.
I have seen him conduct ISKCON programs where they set up book tables primarily aimed to sell his own books instead of Srila Prabhupada’s books. Srila Prabhupada’s books may “also be available”, but his disciples are pushing to sell his own books, as he will make a profit from the sale, both short term and long term, and their guru will be happy with them. ISKCON leaders need to stop promoting themselves using Srila Prabhupada’s facilities and resources. They need to start promoting Srila Prabhupada, at least while using all resources and manpower that belong to Srila Prabhupada.
What the Swamijis are doing is stealing. They are stealing from Srila Prabhupada to promote their own fame, wealth and following. I know many of the Swami’s disciples who have become burnt out after being forced to sell his books on marathons for years. Some have even left Krishna consciousness, others have gone to other organizations. He appears not to care about his ex-disciples, nor does he try to communicate with many of them. He is more concerned with the new and active disciples who can help him distribute 1 million more of his own books. He should remember these disciples belong to ISKCON and Srila Prabhupada, and they should be engaged in devotional service to Srila Prabhupada and not himself.
The Swami thinks he is preaching and helping ISKCON, but the reality is he is diverting Srila Prabhupada’s manpower and resources for his own mundane benefit. He would really be helping ISKCON if he simply sat and did nothing. Because with BBT printing his books, and with ISKCON devotees wasting their time distributing his books, Srila Prabhupada’s service is being neglected. For every one of his books that is distributed, a conditioned soul could have been convinced to take one of Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental books. So the Swami has disturbed the spiritual advancement of perhaps 1 million souls. This is why it would be far better for ISKCON if he just sits and does nothing at all. At least he won’t be causing harm to Srila Prabhupada’s preaching and movement.
Devotees should insist that the BBT only print books by Srila Prabhupada, and they should insist that no books should be distributed in ISKCON temples or by ISKCON full time devotees except the books of the Founder-Acharya, Srila Prabhupada.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Bhakti Vikasa Swami
Date: Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 9:02 AM
Subject: One Million
30,000 Telugu Ramayana have just been printed, which brings the number of my books in print to over one million.
My thanks to all the devotees who have helped me in innumerable ways in the writing, production, and distribution of my books. I request all the devotees to pray to Lord Krsna that I may have a long life and sufficient intelligence, perserverance, and above all, the blessings of the Vaisnavas, so that I may write many more books as a service to Srila Prabhupada and his mission.
Please go on reading and distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books, and mine also may be read and distributed as auxiliaries to Srila Prabhupada’s books.
hari-guru-vaisnava dasa, BVS
—————————-
www.bvks.com
Dear Prabhus,
I would very much like to reach out to HG Gauranga Das the author of the above article “Bhakti Vikasa Prints 1 Million Books”. Could you forward me at my email address – his email address in order to facilitate our connecting?
Thank you very much.
Sincerely
Praghosa Das
———- Forwarded message ———-
To: sun@harekrsna.com
In my article, which you chose to delete, I had stated the following:
“In India the BBT has been printing his books for years and ISKCON devotees throughout India are being forced to distribute his books along with Srila Prabhupada’s books in all of the ISKCON temples.”
This is an indisputable fact. The BBT has been printing books by Bhakti Vikasa Swami for more than a decade. This does not mean that he doesn’t print books on his own. But it is a fact that the BBT has printed his books. Just see the BBT website:
http://www.indiabbt.com/BookDescription.aspx?Mode=Home&BookCategoryID=f62c0ef2-2263-456e-b3dd-bec0ca96cf06&BookID=e6634f27-5e0c-43f6-88e8-4ddb49214309&StartRowIndex=0
http://www.indiabbt.com/BookDescription.aspx?Mode=Home&BookCategoryID=581bd6ab-2ff9-4cad-997f-3974eb5cf6bd&BookID=0714947c-f634-414d-bec3-35a2c08e8d52&StartRowIndex=15
http://www.indiabbt.com/BookDescription.aspx?Mode=Home&BookCategoryID=576987ce-92e0-4e18-a797-72a0da27c3b1&BookID=b8f78f7e-7bd2-4d67-8771-ae721a6684bc&StartRowIndex=15
http://www.indiabbt.com/BookDescription.aspx?Mode=Home&BookCategoryID=5436f74d-c3e3-48c4-83d5-e9fdeb978ecf&BookID=8fab0ab1-0eba-488a-bcd6-01f1aa451d44&StartRowIndex=0
His disciples may try to argue around the points, saying he also prints his own books. We don’t care about those books. We are speaking about books that are printed by the BBT, and also books that he forces his disciples to distribute in ISKCON temples (which really means all of his books, even those he prints himself). All of his books are either printed by the BBT, or distributed in ISKCON temples by full time ISKCON devotees who should be spending their time distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books.
You may delete the article to hide the truth, but the truth remains that this Swami is using ISKCON devotees and ISKCON temples to distribute his books, and the BBT has been printing his books for over a decade. Exactly how many of the 1 million books did the BBT print? Only he knows. Maybe he should come forward and tell the devotee community.
How many of the 1 million books were distributed by full time ISKCON devotees? Almost all of them. Find any of his ex-disciples and they can attest to this. They were required to distribute his books, even though they were serving in ISKCON temples. ISKCON temples should be distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books, not Bhakti Vikasa Swami’s books, nor anyone else’s books for that matter. Those who know the ground reality know the history of his traveling sankirtan parties in India, manned by European brahmacaris who are full time ISKCON devotees. Let him state publicly that they are not distributing his books for the last decade. Let him say publicly that the temple his disciples run in Salem (India) is not distributing his books. Let him say that the other ISKCON temples in India Are not distributing his books. He cannot deny any of these points.
The BBT doesn’t only deviate with his books, they print many other people’s books including a one volume abridged Caitanya Caritamrita:
http://www.indiabbt.com/BookDescription.aspx?Mode=Home&BookCategoryID=f62c0ef2-2263-456e-b3dd-bec0ca96cf06&BookID=7627205b-b26a-419c-b99f-2da570e67b3e&StartRowIndex=45
http://www.indiabbt.com/BookDescription.aspx?Mode=Home&BookCategoryID=f62c0ef2-2263-456e-b3dd-bec0ca96cf06&BookID=7f158022-1894-44ea-b275-c76f3e4b4fa0&StartRowIndex=30
http://www.indiabbt.com/BookDescription.aspx?Mode=Home&BookCategoryID=f62c0ef2-2263-456e-b3dd-bec0ca96cf06&BookID=8de9535c-9048-47f8-975d-9e4bce6b7f2e&StartRowIndex=30
http://www.indiabbt.com/BookDescription.aspx?Mode=Home&BookCategoryID=f62c0ef2-2263-456e-b3dd-bec0ca96cf06&BookID=e8eb1539-61a9-4f25-a084-b84123b34268&StartRowIndex=30
So keep telling yourself all is fine with the BBT and Bhakti Vikasa Swami only has one book (in a dozen different languages) being printed by the BBT. Keep telling yourself that it is fine that ISKCON brahmacaris are sent out to distribute his books. Keep telling yourself that nothing is wrong, and just delete anything people say about it under pressure from his disciples. That is how ISKCON works and it is what is expected.
My point was simple and still stands. Let these Swamis start their own temples, have their own devotees who are not part of ISKCON, and start their own book tables to sell their books. Stop stealing resources, facilities and manpower from Srila Prabhupada to promote themselves and their own books. Bhakti Vikas Swami does use full time ISKCON devotees (including his disciples) to distribute his books, he does use ISKCON temples and book stalls to distribute his books, and the BBT does and has been printing his books for over a decade. It is irrelevant if he also prints books on his own independent from the BBT.
Devotees should insist that the BBT only print books by Srila Prabhupada, and they should insist that no books should be distributed in ISKCON temples or by ISKCON full time devotees except the books of the Founder-Acharya, Srila Prabhupada.
For further confirmation that Bhakti Vikas Swami uses ISKCON devotees to distribute his books just see this article on your own website posted by his disciples:
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/news/05-10/news3288.htm
“On Saturday, May 8th, in the evening, the entire group of four hundred devotees went out to perform harinam nagar sankirtan, organized on the streets of Bharuch town, and accompanied by a number of devotees distributing BBT and Bhakti Vikas Swami’s books. Almost seven hundred books were distributed during that maha-nagar sankirtan program.”
“A small book entitled Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, written and published by HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami, was distributed in bulk to the visiting devotees so they could further distribute it at their respective places.”
It is a fact that he uses ISKCON devotees, ISKCON temples and ISKCON programs to distribute his books.
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/12-11/editorials8009.htm
Rocana posted today a lengthy explanation why HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami’s books are of the exact same potency like Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Why Rocana chose an alias, “Patita Pavana (Uddharana) from Bulgaria”, who joined 1968 is rather perplexing. There is no devotee like that in Bulgaria.
“What your lecture will do for three minutes, but if he reads one page his life may be turned.” Prabhupada did not appoint gurus, Prabhupada wanted sannyasis to get married because 30 fell down, etc etc.
Prabhupada wrote so many books. For sankirtan book distribution to make the initial contact with conditioned souls, Prabhupada’s books should be used. SDG wrote books, Harikes wrote books, so many books were written by questionable people who later on turned out to be fallen.
In Germany since 1995 they did not reprint CC, NOD, TLC, SB and all those small books except Isopanisad. In other words, all over Europe, Prabhupada’s books are in real bad shape. There are 50 languages and only English has all the books in stock.
And still they make huge attempt to publish new books by voted-in gurus who are not accepted as genuine by ISKCON Bangalore….
I read all these very good points made by Gauranga prabhu on the importance of reestablishing Srila Prabhupada’s books as the center of ISKCON preaching and selling books.
When I was a new devotee (I joined in 1986) I often felt myself quite disturbed to see how many books of SDG were printed and read among the devotees. With the passing of time we see now that nobody any longer cares for all these innumerable books he wrote…
At that time when I was living in the temple, the vyasa puja letter offered to my initiating ISKCON guru was to be printed in a book, and I choose 2 years after to stop my contributing letter for that book, because I felt uncomfortable that a great amount of laksmi was spent for other books than those of Srila Prabhupada. But because I was a very neophyte devotee, it was difficult for me to explain my inner feeling and my choice.
Thanks again for the good job you are doing with Prabhupadanugas
How sad, thank you for your article, it brings to the forefront the issues of not selling Srila Prabhupadas books these lost opportunities, I am very surprised these poor devotees have to distribute their Guru’s books at the expense of our Founder Acarya. It also begs the question why this swami is not promoting his own Guru’s books. Does he consider his books more important ?