NUMBERS ARE IMPORTANT

Thursday, August 20th, 2026

Midtown, Toronto

Our guru, Srila Prabhupada, was very keen on numbers. Yes, achieving goals meant numbers. He would love to read about the sankirtan scores in terms of how many books were being sold. It gave him great joy to hear of Bhagavad-gita sales, as well as other prime texts such as Bhagavatams, Nectar of Devotion and Teachings of Lord Chaitanya. The selling of the monthly Back to Godhead was another one of his victories.

Additionally he liked to hear of how many new recruits there were. “How many boys and girls are joining?” he asked in Toronto in 1975. He was also eager of how many centres were opening such as temples, schools, farms and restaurants. The obvious question was, “How many souls can be reclaimed for God?” He saw how people were in pain and he wanted to see in them some gain.

More numbers. 16 rounds of japa. 4 regulative principles. 7 purposes of ISKCON. The list goes on. How big is the army getting? He was counting like an accountant does. He enjoyed the enlargement of figures, or at least that they be retained.

I complimented one of our brahmachari monks, Vishesh for seeing to it that the ongoing chanting held weekly in the Downward Dog Yoga studio is seeing some regulars coming and who are now inquiring about meditation on japa beads. That was a good sign. Although the count of the attendees wasn’t high. It was only 4 but they were interested in going beyond singing. These days we have a tremendous amount of Indian devotees coming and getting involved. We are happy when some locals come around. That really counts. In fact, those figures are really important.

MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU

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