Distribution of transcendental literature going door-to-door is a Vaisnava tradition. Lord Nityananda and Haridas Thakur went door-to-door in Nadia, tolerating all insults and attacks, distributing Krishna's message.

Srila Prabhupada carried forward this mission distributing BTGs door-to-door in Delhi before coming to the US. After he founded ISKCON, devotees all around the world have been going out and distributing his books at peoples' doors.

Advantages of Door-to-Door

* Captive Audience: Unlike distributing books to passer-bys on the streets, you have a captive audience here. There is no need to chase and stop them, rather when you knock on their doors, people come up to you (to open the door) and talk. This takes away a lot of pressure. Moreover, physically also, this may be less taxing than distribution on streets as you're less exposed to the elements.

* Chance to Develop Relationship: If a person takes a book, then it's easier to follow up with them since you know where they live. You can establish relationship with an interested person by revisiting them with prasadam, inviting them to events or local nama-hatta/Bhakti-vraksa programs.

[This document reflects the ideas and thoughts gathered from our door-to-door sankirtan over the past 6 years in North America (particularly the Washington, DC metro area). It is just a starting point to give you ideas so you can start your own door-to-door book distribution program. Please feel free to add, subtract or change anything we've said based on your own experience. To give us your valuable suggestions please contact me at lagarwal at yahoo.com Your servant,Lokadhyaksa dasaGaithersburg, MD]