Without The Head, The Body Is Dead

Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Patita Uddharana Dec. 8, I97I

This routine work, such as chanting, speaking, rising early, cleaning, cooking and offering prasadam, arati, reading books–these activities are the backbone of our Society, and if we practice them nicely in a regulative manner, then our whole program will be successful. If we become slack or neglect these things, then everything else we may try will fail. So it is very important that you keep your standards very high in these activities, then your preaching will be strong. Preaching is our real business, preaching and distributing books. If your preaching work is strong, then your management of temple affairs will also become automatically very strong. Just like if the head wills it, the hands will move. Preaching is like the head of our Krishna conscious Society–if the head is removed, the whole body dies. Managing is the hands, which work nicely if the head is healthy. If the hands are removed, the body will not die, but it will be crippled. So preaching is more important than management, but both must be there if the whole body is to operate nicely.

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In the above letter, Srila Prabhupada is telling us how important the missionary work of spreading Krishna consciousness is for our society. Srila Prabhupada particularly emphasises the importance of distributing literature. He compares it to the head of the body, whereas the body is compared to our society. The head can someheow survive without the limbs, but the limbs and the rest of the body can not survive without the head. That’s how important missionary work is.

At Sastra Dana, we continue our best to maintain the head, the sanity, the spiritual health of this society, by distributing the message of Krishna consciousness.

Here we’re presenting you with a few photos from the field. They are explained in the captions.

We are also very happy to report to you that our newspaper publication, 16Rounds to Samadhi, has been having a great deal of success. Many places where we were previously unable to place books are now allowing us to distribute our newspaper there. The newspaper’s content consists of Srila Prabhupada’s teachings and very often sections from Srila Prabhupada’s books. The reason why the newspaper is being accepted in the stores such as Ralphs, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, etc., is that the newspaper has a less of a religious appearance, though the content is the same. We will tell you more about that in the next issue.

Thank you for your continuous support. May Krishna and Srila Prabhupada bless you with unlimited mercy. Be sure that you are doing the most important service in the universe by helping to extend the Krishna conscious gifts to the world. There is nothing as important as education, the education about the difference between matter and spirit and the nature of each respectively.