Annually, the Prabhupada Marathon unfolds as a transcendent occasion for benevolence across ISKCON communities on a global scale with the “Live to Give” Campaign. This year, the BBT MCI Team (Marketing, Communications, and Innovation), under the expert leadership of Vaisesika Dasa, has set the goal of distributing 3.7 million Bhagavad-gitas worldwide between September 30th and January 7th, 2024.

Vaisesika Dasa said, “This campaign aims to realize the seventh purpose of ISKCON, (with a view towards achieving the purposes above, to publish and distribute periodicals, magazines, books, and other writings) specifically by expanding the readership of Bhagavad-Gita-As-It-Is.”

He continued, “Srila Prabhupada taught that by the mass distribution of Bhagavad Gita, people can come to a higher level of consciousness. When he first came to America, there weren’t any English versions of the Gita that he could recommend, as none of them fulfilled Krishna’s purpose of speaking Bhagavad Gita. Therefore, this campaign aims to fulfill his vision of disseminating the original teachings of Krishna from the Bhagavad Gita to as many people, in as many languages, as possible.”

One major theme of this campaign is to harness the potency of global collaboration. Vaisesika Dasa pointed out, “We are finding that cooperative efforts are especially helpful when devotees think globally and work together to achieve economies of scale and greater efficiency. By sharing information and inspiration, and by working towards a global goal, we get exponential increases–not only in global book distribution but also within the communities who cooperate.”

In addition to distributing books, devotees are encouraged to increase their reading and to improve systems to cultivate newcomers. Vaisesika Dasa said, “We are keen on setting clear goals: for distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books, for reading them ourselves, and also for establishing follow-up systems so that people who receive books can enter a compatible environment to learn the practices of Krishna Consciousness.”

Drawing from Srila Prabhupada’s wisdom, we recognize the imperative of perpetual goal-setting and the presence of a good leader in executing the goals. Vaisesika Dasa asserted, “Srila Prabhupada said that leaders should regularly set fresh new goals so that the community members would be inspired to rise and achieve them.”

In one online presentation to inspire our global team, Vaisesika presented a catchy formula to achieve our goals–get ARMD!

Analyze – Take time to look and see what you did last year. Assess the facts.

Reflect – Reflect on what worked well and where there was room for improvement. There’s always something we could be doing better; that’s how we increase.

Meet – Get together with your team and talk about how to improve this year. Brainstorming is powerful.

Declare – Declare your goal. After you’ve met, analyzed, and brainstormed, write down your goal and declare it. Send it in an email to info@bbtbooks.org to be recorded on the international map so we can track it together with everyone else.

He concluded, “It’s so powerful to regroup every year and make a little more advancement. We invite everyone to participate in this very authorized service of distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books in measurably increasing quantities, as well as taking time to congregate and read the books together.”

To learn more and participate, visit the BBT website or connect on social media Facebook, YouTube