Interview with Brigupati Prabhu, October 2002
Dear Vijaya Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Granted- I want name and fame. But I also want the book distributors world-wide to be pleased upon me. Some operate with the idea, "Krsna knows what I did; no need to tell anyone." But I operate with the idea that if devotees hear about my insignificant service, they will bestow their good wishes upon me, and that is my advancement.
All this to say that I wouldn't mind being mentionned as the one who transcribed the following talk.
Your insignificant servant,
Candrasekhar Acarya dasa
Question: What do you see as the effect of book distribution?
Brigupati Prabhu:
The effect of book distribution remains to be seen. What is happening, however, is that the act of distributing so many books, millions and millions since the last 60s', is having the effect of raising the spiritual consciousness of human society as a whole. Eventually, at some point, we will see some dramatic changes in how human society conducts its affairs. Book distribution will be responsible for that. I'll give you an example: Imagine that you have a pot of water on the stove and you put the flame under it. After thirty seconds, you won't see anything; it will look exactly the same as it did at the beginning. After one minute of heat, you won't see anything. After two minutes, you still may not see anything. After three or four minutes, you may see some bubbles on the side of the pot. But after five minutes, it suddenly may break into a boil. This happens very quickly. Thirty seconds before the water boiled, however, the water looked like ordinary cold water. That water had to absorb all that heat, and at a certain point, when it reached that critical temperature, BOOM, it broke out into a boil. But thirty seconds before that, you would not have been able to recognize it. It would be foolish to say, "Oh, the fire is not having any effect on the water." It may superficially appear that nothing is happening and that the water is not getting warmer, but it is factually becoming increasingly hot, to the point where it eventually breaks into a boil at 212 degrees. But before it reaches 212 degrees, it appears as if the temperature of the water is cold.
Similarly, the books are having their effect. It appears as if nothing is really happening as a result of book distribution. No nations are coming up and are declaring themselves as being Krsna Conscious. But it is having its effect. The more the books go out, the more it is building up, just like the longer you leave the pot of water on the stove, the hotter the water becomes. If the books keep going out, going out, going out by the hundreds and thousands and millions, a point will come at which something dramatic will happen, just like when the water reaches the boiling point. If the books keep going out in big quantities, as has been happening, a point is going to come at which everybody will say, "Oh! I guess this book distribution was really all that it was cracked up to be." But until that happens, the tendency is to think, "Oh, nothing is really happening because we have distributed so many millions of books, and look: human society appears to remain the same."
But this is the same as saying that the heating water on the stove is not getting hotter because we have not seen it come to the boiling point yet. Only an ignorant person would make that statement. But someone who really knows, someone has some common sense, knows that at every second that pot is coming closer to boiling.
In the same way, if the books keep going out in large quantities, as was Srila Prabhupada's desire, at every second human society is coming closer to some dramatic transformation for the better, some transformation towards something spiritual. And what is that? It is the prediction of Lord Chaitanya, namely that His name will be heard in every town and village. We are told that the next nine thousand five hundred years is called the golden age of Lord Chaitanya, an age in which Krsna Consciousness is supposed to flourish like anything.
Right now it doesn't appear that anything like that is on the verge of happening, but, as I said, it does not appear that the water in the pot will boil either, even just a few seconds before it does break out into a boil. Imagine if you did not know that water could be brought to a boil. If you were to stand next to the pot of water on the fire for several minutes, you would think, "Well, nothing is happening." Similarly, we can also think the same way about book distribution. But we don't know, actually. We have not been around when there is a spiritual renaissance. We don't know what to except and what to look for.
So we may think, "Nothing will happen."But we may be seriously wrong in thinking like that. As a matter of fact, according to the prediction of the acaryas, we are wrong. It is going to happen. Therefore we should very confident and certain that if we just keep pushing on this movement, Krsna Consciousness will spread in every town and village.
Srila Prabhupada said, "Print as many books in as many languages as possible, and the Krsna Consciousness movement will automatically spread." These statements are there. Therefore we just have to keep faith in them and try to act upon them, and some very, very significant effect will be there. Hopefully it will happen in our lifetime, and we'll have the pleasure of witnessing it. If it does not happen in our lifetime, it will happen. Keep the water on the fire, and the water will boil. Something will happen. If these books keep going out, some profound thing is going to happen in human society. What exactly? I don't know, but it is going to be something very significant.
