Dear ISKCON Leaders and Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. 

“I am requesting all of my students to read my books very seriously every day without fail”     Letter to Bhargava - LA, 13-06-72

I submit to you, with immense gratitude, this short report on the recently concluded International Shravanam Week, 2020. The objective of the festival was to glorify the reading of Srila Prabhupada’s books every day. By all of your support, it exceeded all of our expectations many folds, in its very first year.  

On behalf of ISKCON’s Ministry of Education, I would like to express a very big thank you to everyone of you, who celebrated and supported it in your respective ISKCON centers. 

It would be impossible to mention the names of all the devotees who participated but I share a few highlights. 

LEADERS PARTICIPATION

Srila Prabhupada’s books must have a unifying effect on ISKCON and this festival demonstrated that abundantly. Almost 25 senior leaders across various continents, including 10 plus GBC members, gave interviews on this topic. In unison, each said, how they owe their spiritual lives to Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental books.   

The GBC Executive Committee, gave their valuable time for supporting this. HH Ramai Maharaja gave the inaugural address. HH Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja and HH Bhanu Maharaja gave interviews to inspire others to read. Other leaders, such as HH Jayapataka Maharaja very kindly continued to inspire to commit more to reading through their daily classes. 

We hope that within 2020, we would have an opportunity to hear from each of the GBC members on this topic to inspire ISKCON members.  

FAVORABLE OUTCOMES 

1) Methodology:

Several leaders appreciated the methodology of celebrating this festival. HG Radhey Shyam Prabhu felt that the approach the Ministry of Education adopted, is an excellent way to celebrate international festivals. i.e. identifying a few simple steps and disseminating the necessary resources to execute over internet to facilitate the celebration in small and big centers alike. Several devotees are already adopting it successfully for world wide festivals. 

2) Content

Several gems of realizations were mined through the interviews. HG Visnumurti Prabhu from Vanipedia said “haribol Tapana Mishra prabhu. I just finished listening to your conversation with Praghosh prabhu. Absolutely brilliant. I am very happy that Praghosh and your good self addressed so much about Prabhupada's letters and conversations and him being our preeminent siksa guru.”  

The interactive webinar and interviews were viewed by thousands of devotees around the world. Close to 500 devotees have expressed interest in hearing more on this topic regularly. And 30 devotees have volunteered to assist in spreading the word. All of their accord inspired by what they heard from leaders. 

I am grateful to Bhakta Russell (Australia) who worked round the clock with support from Bhakta Steve (Mayapur) and our small team to publish the content. We had the kind support of ISKCON Desire tree, GBC SPT team led by H.G. Gopal Bhatta Prabhu (ACBSP), Dandavats.com for spreading the word. 

ACROSS COUNTRIES

• Auckland, New Zealand: ISKCON devotees held 5 reading groups through the week, with up to 30 members reading variety of Srila Prabhupada Books every day;

• Devarshi Prabhu in Mayapur, lead and inspired several French speaking devotees in few countries including francophone Africa to read the complete French Bhagavad Gita As It Is (with purports) within the 7 days period;

• Krishna Premarupa Prabhu (Zurich), conducted his own reading sessions and interviewed the leadership in Europe;

• A presentation was made on the project and well received by almost 100 senior leaders present in the ICC, ISKCON India meeting. Thank you Sumithra Krishna Prabhu (TP, Chennai).   

• H.H. Lokanath Maharaja’s inspired one of his disciples who is reading with a group of 350 devotees every day. 

• H.H. Kavicandra Maharaja shared “A group of matajis in Israel got enlivened and had a 12 hour reading marathon. Everyone of 18 participated. They posted the link and have have received 3000 views. They got so enlivened that they now have a 5 day 3 hour daily event.”

• In ISKCON Kanhaiyadesh, devotees are now reading Srimad Bhagavatam every day over zoom for 30 mins each in two languages.

Way forward

The International Shravanam week is not the end of the emphasis on reading every day. It was meant to have a concerted effort to remind us all of the significance of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books every day for every member of ISKCON. At the ministry we have now close to 108 realizations and several recorded interviews that we will release one every week. We hope that with your support we can maintain the enthusiasm until the next year festival and for lifetimes to come :- ) 

For the pleasure of all the devotees, as part of our weekly inspiration, we release a very special interview with H.H. Kavicandra Maharaja https://youtu.be/b-VPercXU80 

Request

I beg each one of you (or other you may know who can) to come forward and speak with us on this topic. You will be surprised as to how much this service we volunteer to help others would help ourselves. 

I close this report here. With thank you. Thank you. Thank you. With a grateful and jubilant heart. All glories to Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental books!  


Thank you.

Your servant,
Tapana Miśra dāsa
Ministry of Education