The Live to Give campaign, also known as the Prabhupada Marathon, is an annual effort to “cover the earth” with Bhagavad-gitas. This global operation, which launches the day after Bhadra Purnima and runs until January, is coordinated by the BBT MCI team.

Year-over-year results have increased rapidly. In 2020, we distributed 2.1 million Gitas. In 2021, we distributed 2.8 million. Our goal for 2022 was set at three million.

Thousands of book distributors from hundreds of ISKCON centers worked together to reach this goal. Gitas were even delivered to Antarctica, fulfilling a long-held desire to bring Krishna consciousness to every continent on earth. The final count was 3,500,899 Bhagavad-gitas distributed, smashing the audacious goal and breaking book distribution records. The results reported are from Sep 11 2022 to Jan 7, 2023.

When announcing the final tally, Vaiseika Prabhu said, “Again, we smashed the goal by Lord Caitanya’s mercy. Congratulations to everybody who worked together. It’s very satisfying to know that we can work together; I think that’s the most important of all. We’re in possession of the most valuable literature in the world, and we have pipelines open to distribute them. We can keep encouraging each other, and reaching for new heights, and Lord Caitanya will help us. In the process, I daresay we will either go back to Godhead, or Krishna will put us in a new place to increase the book distribution.”

He added, “When there’s noticeable growth, even though it doesn’t seem possible, we naturally come to the conclusion that Krishna is helping us in various ways. We can see how we’re instrumental; we’re not the doers. But Krishna is, and He’s helping us to expand. That’s the fuel the Krishna Consciousness Movement runs on: a powerful sense that we’re acting as instruments.”

On the African continent, 35 centers spanning 14 countries distributed 18,945 Gitas, a 30% increase over last year. Tirumala Devi Dasi said, “Oh Srila Prabhupada, we humbly offer you these results and we pray for the mercy and blessings of Guru and Gauranga so that we may align our lives to your desire of spreading Krishna Consciousness across the world. We pray for the courage and commitment to dedicate our lives to distributing Krishna-conscious literature across the world.”
From Russia, Ambarish Swami reported, “The Russian team set a goal to distribute at least 4000 Bhagavad Gitas… More than 20 temples and 100 devotees participated in book distribution, and the Russian team distributed 4400 Bhagavad Gitas, surpassing the goal of 4000. We pray to the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to empower us in our work together as one global team to spreads the sankirtana movement.”

Nandini Kishori presented results from the USA: “Over 50 communities participated in this campaign. Special mention to team ISV, who smashed their goal and distributed 74,976 Gitas, to team Los Angeles who distributed 29,000 Gitas, team Baltimore and team Krishna Life Atlanta for each distributing more than 10,000 books, and Tucson Arizona for joining the Live to Give campaign for the first time in 2022. We are pleased to report that Team USA distributed a total of 190,010 Gitas. We thank all the devotees who participated in this marathon, making it a great success.”

Communities around the USA reported positive results by setting up book tables at grocery stores, festivals, in city centers, and through door-to-door distribution. They also placed books in public libraries, senior homes, grocery stores, and prisons. Team MotelGita continues to dispatch books to hotels, motels, hospitals, and other institutions, placing 33,066 Gitas. Spanish and Arabic language books also went out in greater numbers than ever before.

Team Krishna Life Atlanta reported phenomenal record-breaking scores from their person-to-person distribution efforts in shopping areas, airports, parks, and more. The Corporate sankirtana team at ISV collected 304,298 Lakshmi points by networking, making phone calls, and sending emails. Kids sankirtana also continued to grow across the US.

Australia reported a total of 18,670, New Zealand came in at 11,625, the far East tallied 85,692, Fiji reported 1,283, Europe distributed 73,510, South America tallied 3,839, and Canada reported 23,617.

Vaisesika Prabhu commented, “Getting scores is part of the process. Once we get out there distributing, it becomes a flow, it’s easy. But counting how we did is a little more onerous because you have to concentrate and say, ‘How many units went out? How many are left? How did we really do?’ It’s very important because it gives us accuracy, measurability, and confidence in our process.”

The well-organized and highly enthusiastic sankirtana parties of India posted astounding results, surpassing the worldwide goal in a single country. Their total reported score was 3,068,646 books. Sahadeva Prabhu, the ICC chairman, commented: “Dear Srila Prabhupada, please accept our most humble obeisances at your lotus feet. Your army here in India, consisting of temple leaders, devotees, congregation, and well-wishers, is pleased to offer our highest-ever marathon scores to the dust of your lotus feet…Please bless us in our efforts to place one set of Your transcendental books in every home in India.”

Vaisesika Prabhu closed his address by saying, ”Every book that goes out has an effect on the world. We can understand from Srila Prabhupada’s eagerness and his insistence that even if somebody touches a book, or sees us out on book distribution, they get great benefit. So let’s keep this spirit of cooperation and setting goals. Not just for increasing the distribution, but also for following up and taking care of people when we meet them.

We have to increase capacity, which means not just doing the same thing we do every year, but thinking and brainstorming about how we can be all-inclusive, and how we can train people better. One of the reasons people don’t go out is that they don’t know exactly what to do. So train and train and train, it can never be enough.

Furthermore, we can also remember the lessons we learned during the lockdown. Whether we go out or not, we can still do huge as long as we reach out to people through any channel. They’re out there waiting for us. It can be done by telephone or by the internet. There are many innovative ways that we can do this.

Our goal is to distribute at least 100,000 sets of Srimad-Bhagavatam in the year 2026. We also want to increase globally to the point of distributing at least 5 million copies of Bhagavad Gita by 2026. We’re on an upward scale.

Every year when we reach our goals we think, ‘Can it be done again? It was a fluke.’ The numbers don’t lie. We’re going up because of Lord Caitanya’s special mercy on us. And it simply requires us to be instruments. We don’t have to be the doers, but we do have to be the instruments. If we continue in that spirit, he’ll work through us unlimitedly, just as he worked through Srila Prabhupada and did miracles. By following in his footsteps, and in his service, we can continue the miraculous campaign that he started.”