PRABHUPADA’S BOOK READING ROOMS
People in general know the importance of reading Prabhupada's
books, but they fail to stick to a commited reading for a long time
due to these two factors:
• A. Lack of inspiration when reading the book alone or even
with their family. Everyone's schedule is too busy, so they are
unable to stick to a reading schedule, as due to lack of
inspiration, something 'more important' comes up and they
give up on reading.
• B. Even those who read the books for quite sometime find so
many things difficult to understand. They get so many
questions which are not answered, and thus after a while, their
initial interest in reading the book slowly dwindles away.
Therefore, Prabhuji a long term scheduled reading of
book becomes easier when it's done in a small group with
a leader to inspire the people and make the reading more
interesting for them by satisfactorily answering their
questions.
There's another perspective which I would like to bring forward.
If we want to label any activity as "official", then it should have the
following two criteria:
➢ It should be conducted by persons who are of good standing
within Iskcon and are well connected with Temple and Temple
authorities.
➢ Activity should be conducted according to the standards of Iskcon
and should be regularly monitored by Temple authorities.
Prabhuji, in my opinion, Official Reading Room is technically a
preaching activity like Bhakti Vriksha only, as eventually we are
giving more stars to persons who are doing the reading in a group,
and inspiring others for take up Nitya Seva, and also sell ISKCON
items in the long run. So anyone who will try to develop his own
group to get more stars will technically be representing ISKCON
as a preacher in a general perspective.
Therefore we should be as strict with the standards of
official reading rooms as we are with our usual
preaching programmes.
PLAN OF EXECUTION
I had thought of a slightly different way of executing
the concept of reading groups. Here's my proposed
plan Prabhuji:
For the beginning we can use the same format as we had used for
Book Distribution, which was quite successful this time.
1. Invite the devotees for a general Prabhupada Book
Reading meeting and inspire them to read
Prabhupada's books regularly.
2. At the end of the meeting, we shall be asking for the
names of those devotees who are willing to be take up
this service of Prabhupada's reading room.
3. All those who are interested in reading books might fill
up a simple form with their name, address, phone
number along with one basic information that will they
be reading books individually or in a group.
4. We must review all the forms that we have received
and categorise them based on the qualification of
devotee that which devotees' reading room can be
labelled as official and which reading rooms will stay
unofficial for a cooling off period.
5. All those who have filled the forms can sign the
commitment letter as it'll encourage them.
6. Official Reading Room signboard can be put up in front
of the houses of devotees whom we think can
appropriately represent ISKCON in a general
perspective.
7. We can create a WhatsApp group for all the devotees
who have committed for book reading where they'll be
sharing a picture or short video of their reading
sessions, so that everyone else in the group will be
motivated to read the books regularly and also inspire
others to read.
8. A monthly meeting for all the readers where they can
share a bit about the book they are reading and also
discuss if they're are facing any challenges. That
monthly meeting will be so nourishing as we'll get to
hear about many books from different devotees.
9. Some quizzes may be posted from time to time to keep
the people motivated for reading the books, and the
winners of the quizzes may be awarded a certificate of
appreciation.
Prabhuji, reading books is an activity which people do start very
enthusiastically but fail to maintain in the long run. Therefore, Steps
number 7, 8 and 9 will ensure that Reading rooms will continue
and multiply in the long run.
Also, having a WhatsApp group and monthly meetings will
make it easier for us for monitor the groups, and also make
it easier for the devotees to share their report without any
excuses.
