His Holiness Satsvarupa das Goswami Maharaja Vyasa Puja 2024

His Holiness Satsvarupa dasa Goswami Maharaja
Vyasa-puja Birthday Celebration
Saturday, December 7, 2024

What

Meeting of Disciples and friends of SDG

Where

The Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall

845 Hudson Avenue
Stuyvesant Falls, New York 12174

Schedule

• 10:00 –10:30 A.M.: Kirtana
• 10:30 – 11:15 A.M.: Presentation by Satsvarupa Maharaja
• 11:15 – 12:30 A.M.: Book Table
• 12:30 – 1:15 P.M.: Arati and kirtana
• 1:15 – 2:15 P.M.: Prasadam Feast

Vyasa-puja 2024 Message to Disciples, Followers and Friends from Satsvarupa dasa Goswami Maharaja

I would like to welcome everyone to this Vyasa-puja gathering. It is a special time for us to recommit ourselves to our spiritual master and disciple relationship in parampara. We express our love by service to our spiritual master, and he in turn gives us absolute knowledge about Krsna and Srila Prabhupada.

Due to my health condition, we are limiting the program to a short reading of excerpts from my new books. To save energy, we will not have homages, but they will be collected, or you can send them in. I will read them as strength allows. I encourage everyone to make this effort. It is a very important part of our tradition.

My talk will be short but to the point. I want to encourage my disciples to work in a single-minded way to produce and distribute my books. The worldwide congregation is working to produce and distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books. I am asking my disciples in a small way to do the same, but not at the expense of selling Prabhupada’s books. Writing is my service to Prabhupada, he asked me to do it. He also told me to “boil the milk”—write for devotees. I particularly keep in mind my disciples. I did this for you. Now please read them, there is something for everyone. We have one excellent team of devotees charged with the task of putting all my books back into print. At that present rate, that will take over six years. So we need to put together another team. Krsna-bhajana, our chief editor and manager of the GN Press, has put together a list of services to accomplish this feat. Copies of this list are being passed out here, and we will “advertise” further. I also want you to share them with others. Please distribute them whenever and however you can, but not at the expense of Prabhupada’s books.

We’re all getting older, so this is an urgent mission. Jayadvaita Swami has even asked his disciples to help us. They have come up with very good techniques to do this. So if they are helping, why not you? Your Godsisters, Damodara Rati and Syama Gopa Rupa are providing good examples of what can be done, in a small way, by anyone. Taking advantage of any opportunity the Sunday feast, seminars, kirtana festivals, home programs, etc.—any gathering of devotees or friends—they set up their little table and enthusiastically sell some books. Let us get together and please follow their example. Their experience is that if the books are available, they sell on their own merit, and therefore no one has to be a “super-salesman” to do this service.

Another exciting example is your Godbrother Nitai in India.

He has chosen fifty “best-sellers” for the India and world markets. Besides producing them, he has put together a wonderful Internet catalogue to aid in retail and wholesale distribution. Nitai sets up a display at the Mayapur and Vrndavana festivals to not only sell to individuals but also to connect with temple stores, regional buyers, etc. Based on your relationships with various devotees, you can connect him to our wholesale branch also. Our marketing can be unlimited, but it takes an individual commitment by you to make it work. Please do it.

ANNOUNCEMENT

GN Press Needs / Services Available

1. Our main need at this moment is for layout and publishing staff—persons who know how to use Adobe InDesign to layout the manuscripts and design book covers to the specifications required by Amazon. We have, for some time, been preparing manuscripts in a quantity that exceeds the output capability of our one layout and publishing man. He needs help.
2. We always need copy typists and proofreaders, but also people able to do final basic formatting and cleaning up of the manuscript before it goes to the layout person.
3. We are also in need of team managers who can oversee and participate in the preparation of groups of manuscripts (e.g. books on japa, books on reading, etc.) to the standard needed by the layout persons, to work under the supervision of the editor. This would include the scanning and cleaning up of any illustrations that the books might have.
4. We need another person who knows how to prepare manuscripts in the format required for Kindle editions, to work with Lalitā-mañjarī. She is currently the only producer of Kindle versions.
5. We currently have 45 titles available on Amazon, but very few ways of distributing the books beyond the twice-a-year meetings in Stuyvesant Falls. Reverend John Endler distributes books in Hartford and Śyāma-gopa-rūpa at Gītā-nāgarī. Nitāi in India has published a number of titles chosen specifically for that market, and he travels to festivals with his book table to distribute them. He also supplies Dāmodara-rati dd in Australia, who does the same at her local ISKCON temple. We need devotees able to do this in more locations, and devotees willing to finance the printing of copies of the books to be sold at these devotee events, such as Sunday programs, nāma-haṭṭa meetings, festivals, Ratha-yātrās, etc.
6. We get a few sales on Amazon, but nothing really significant. We need some forms of advertising in the right situations, that will inform devotees that the books are there and available on Amazon. Nitai in India has a printed catalogue. We could use something similar, but online, simply to draw attention to the books, maybe with links to the Amazon listings and some pictures of the books with some information about each one. Perhaps we could have digital flyers to post on different social media platforms that would direct the reader to the online catalogue. So, we need someone who has expertise in this kind of online marketing, so that the Amazon listings are not just sitting there waiting to be found.

If you would like to help, please contact Kṛṣṇa-bhajana dāsa at [email protected] or [email protected] and we will find you a service that utilizes your talents.