​Why doesn’t ISKCON distribute books free?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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so if somebody is distributing books and somebody says that now you are doing religious activities so you should do it free of cost why are you doing business by charging money yes that something is to be done religiously that does not mean that it should not be done without involvement of mind to do something for god means to do it without selfish motive it is not that actually the Vedic understanding is Vishnu or Narayan his eternal consort is Lakshmi so here when they are saying you should not have any money that means they are saying separate Lakshmi from Narayan so Narayan should not have Lakshmi Lakshmi should be for my enjoyment that is the idea no that is not the right understanding of course they may not have that kind of attitude but the point is that we actually you can tell them that I am not doing this for any selfish motive I am not earning anything from this I am doing this in a mood of selfless service and even from the practical point of view you see Bhagavad Gita is such a big book usually it is hard bound and if you see the printing cost of the book if you took a similar book which is over 800-900 pages it will not be for 100 rupees it will be for 400-500 rupees usually so we are not doing this for money we are doing this as a mood of self so firstly I am not getting any benefit out of it now I am doing this on behalf of spiritual movement and spiritual movement how much is it charging we are not here for the purpose of earning money if you see the cost of the book as compared to the cost of production of the book the cost is hardly anything much and further the primary purpose of of not distributing things free is that free things are taken cheaply so we have to take if we are distributing these books then the point is if we distribute it freely people will just put it aside but if people invest some money in it then they will think about it ok I spent some money let me spend some time let me see what is this about so from their perspective their investing their money in it increases their likelihood of their reading the book that’s one thing second thing is that their investing their money also means that there are people that they are using their money for a spiritual purpose the money that they are investing that is going to be ultimately used for sharing spiritual message for decorating the deities for beautifying the temple for enhancing the preaching so first of all that Lakshmi whatever is there is used for production of the book itself and beyond that it is used for further sharing Krishna Angasam so they are actually giving charity to valuable cause it may be in the form of money but their money is being used for a charitable cause ultimately thirdly the point is that the Bhagavad Gita is a spiritual book and if that is to be freely distributed then you can tell them yes we are not interested in doing money but whatever is the money required for printing of the books what is the money required for maintaining the spiritual organization you know if somebody is ready to give a sponsorship for the Gita we will use that sponsorship and distribute the book at a lower cost while distributing it free usually we don’t distribute the Bhagavad Gita free we distribute it at subsidized cost why because if people pay something they will bag it but there are many people who do donate for the Gita and then we distribute it at a subsidized cost so the point is that this whole notion that something which is done for God should not have anything connected with the money with it that itself is a misunderstanding because actually everything belongs to God even the money belongs to God so in the spiritual while doing something for God what should not be there is selfish motive it’s not that money should not be there Lakshmi is meant for Narayana the purpose and perfection of perfection of Lakshmi is to be used in Narayana’s service so Lakshmi that we have it is meant for Krishna and what we are doing is that we are actually sharing Krishna’s message with people so that their heart can become attracted to Krishna if they read Krishna’s name their heart will become attracted to Krishna and in meanwhile the purpose of Bhakti is to give our heart to Krishna but when we cannot give our heart to Krishna because our heart is caught with so many other things so then when we can’t give our heart to Krishna we should give what is in our heart to Krishna and a thing that is prominently in our heart is money so when we give our money to Krishna at that time we give Krishna a place in our heart and that’s why oh yes I gave this money for this book, let me read what this book is about and because we have given that money for Krishna’s sake so we become purified become closer to Krishna so we want to ultimately connect our whole being with Krishna and for that purpose we connect whatever resources we have and money is one valuable resource by connecting that with Krishna we move closer to Krishna does it answer your question?