MOTEL

GITA
Solace for
the Traveling
Soul
An ambitious project aims to distribute one
million Gītās to hotels across North America.

by Nandinī Kiśorī Devī Dāsī

I
T WAS BUSINESS AS USUAL at a Ramada Inn in New
Jersey. The receptionist was busy at the front desk when sud-
denly a customer stormed through the door. While the re-
ceptionist assigned him a room, the man, who appeared angry,
noticed a random book on the counter. He grabbed the book
along with his room key.
The next morning, he emerged from his room peacefully, and
gladly thanked the hotel’s manager for the book.
“I checked into your hotel last night to commit suicide,” he
said. “But I found this book, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. I read, and
kept reading, and forgot my plan. This book saved my life.”
Around the same time, halfway across the world in New
Photo © Simon Thomas | Dreamstime.com / Montage by Govinda Cordua

Delhi, a French professional BMX rider found Bhagavad-gītā

As It Is in his hotel room and spent hours reading it. The book
inspired a visit to Vrindavan sometime later. While there, he
made a YouTube video based on the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa
consciousness. It got seventy thousand hits.
“In the BMX industry,” he says, “everyone now knows I’m
into Kṛṣṇa. I’m so stoked to think that when people think
about me they remember Kṛṣṇa – that makes my life complete.”

30 BACK TO GODHEAD • NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019 • BACK TO GODHEAD 31
How It All Started

How is it that people are finding Śrīla

Prabhupāda’s Bhagavad-gītā As It Is
in their hotel rooms? The seed for
this innovative book-distribution
strategy was planted eleven years ago
by clever devotees in the software
capital of the world, Silicon Valley,
California, where ISKCON has a
temple. Māyāpur Vihārī Dāsa and
Dilip Patel approached temple presi-
dent Vaiśeṣika Dāsa and asked if it
would be a good idea to place copies
of Bhagavad-gītā in motel and hotel
guest rooms.
“We’re already distributing Śrīla
Prabhupāda’s books outside grocery
stores, malls, and other big outlets,”
Māyāpur Vihārī said. “Why not
hotels? Just as the Gideons place
Bibles in hotel rooms throughout oversaw the initiative, and the project in Pacifica, California, became the
the world, we’re thinking to dis- has flourished under his expert guid- inaugural hotel. A few other hotels in
tribute Bhagavad-gītās to hotels in ance and inspiration. Together the California soon joined the cause. The
California.” team came up with a mission state- initial response was overwhelmingly
Vaiśeṣika immediately agreed and ment: “Provide solace to the traveling favorable. Guests and hotel owners
encouraged them to put all their en- souls.” wholeheartedly welcomed these sa-
ergy and effort into this service. He Dilip Patel’s Sea Breeze Motel cred books. Hotel owners rejoiced
at their customers’ reactions and felt
purified by performing this simple
Appreciations service. One of the first hotel owners
to take part donated four thousand
“I think this is the most important project ever undertaken for preserving dollars toward the project.
and promoting Vedic knowledge in recent times. Thank you!”
Satish Kumar
Motels, Gujaratis, and the
“I have developed respect for the Hindu culture now that I have read and Śrīla Prabhupāda Connection
understood a little about it.” Devotees from the Indian state of
Vivian Browne Gujarat, where Lord Kṛṣṇa is wor-
shipped in nearly every home, were
“The Bhagavad-gītā is a profound literature. It has helped me to under-
beginning to settle and buy property
stand who am I and what this life is about. Lucky I found it at a motel!”
in the United States around the time
Jon Rodriguez
Śrīla Prabhupāda came to America
“It has opened a new horizon, hitherto unexplored by me.” in 1965. Lord Kṛṣṇa seems to have
Andrew Spencer prepared the field for dissemination
of His message through them. Sev-
“I often see guests coming in for breakfast with Bhagavad-gītā in hand enty percent of motels in the United
and reading it while they are in the lobby or in the reception room. It is States are owned by Gujaratis. This
satisfying to know that I have contributed to spreading this knowledge.” widespread venue for planting the
Nilesh Patel, manager of Super 8, Sacramento Gītā has the potential to spiritualize
the lives of countless people for many
“When my regular customers do not find Bhagavad-gītā in their drawers, years to come.
they ask me, ‘Where is that book?’ My customer Ben Smith has the Gītā The large population of Gujaratis
on his iPad. You know Utah is predominantly Mormon.” in America has led to much of the ap-
Muljibai, Utah proval for placing the Gītās in hotel
chains as well as financial support for

32 BACK TO GODHEAD • NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019

the project. Donors simply love the
cause of bringing the Bhagavad-gītā
to the mainstream.
At a small-scale Diwali event early
in the MotelGita project’s history,
attendees donated more than five
thousand dollars in just an hour. In
2011, during ISKCON’s annual De-
cember book-distribution marathon,
MotelGita donations accounted for
fifty percent of book-related dona-
tions at the Silicon Valley Hare Kṛṣṇa
temple. Devotee representatives ap-
proached their colleagues at high-tech
companies, and the response was in-
credible. These colleagues applauded
MotelGita’s efforts and donated
wholeheartedly.
After the Silicon Valley MotelGita
team received promising responses,
other Hare Kṛṣṇa communities in
the United States followed their lead.
Today, MotelGita book placement is
performed by devotees in more than
twenty cities around the country.
Broadening the Reach
When devotees of the Laguna Beach
MotelGita team were on a road trip
during the Christmas holidays, they
encountered Chinese and Japanese
motel owners who enthusiastically
agreed to place Gītās in their rooms.
Jaya Caitanya Dāsa, a book dis-
tributor in the Los Angeles area, tells
the following story: “At the Griffith
Observatory I met a tourist from
Louisiana who excitedly told his wife,
‘There it is! The book!’ He picked up
the Gītā from my display table and
almost kissed the cover. His wife
couldn’t understand why he was so
excited. He said he had found a copy
of the book the previous day in his
hotel room. Because he had never
seen another book placed next to
the Bible, he knew the Gītā must be
a very important book. He asked
the hotel owner if he could keep the
book, and the hotel owner gladly
agreed.”
He bought a copy of the First Can-
to of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and several
other books from Jaya Caitanya and
gave a generous donation.
A Growing Team
Book distribution is part of
saṅkīrtana-yajña, or spreading the
glories of Lord Kṛṣṇa, as recom-
mended in the Vedic scriptures as the
religion for this age. Due to the popu-
larity of the MotelGita project as a
significant aspect of saṅkīrtana, the
project has expanded globally, with
programs in Canada, New Zealand,
India, Australia, and the UK.
Beryl Trimble from Maple Ridge,
BC, Canada, had to stay at the local
Best Western hotel for a few weeks
after her home was damaged by fire.
She found Bhagavad-gītā As It Is in
her room, a comfort amid the calam-
ity. She joined the MotelGita team
and is now an initiated devotee.
Bhakta Harish from Knoxville,
Tennessee, lives where he has little
opportunity for association with dev-
otees of Kṛṣṇa. But his book distribu-
tion service keeps him connected with
the larger ISKCON family. He visits
motels on road trips and has placed
over seven thousand Gītās in this way.
In my own experience, the Motel-
Gita team has become my extended
family. The spirit of cooperation is
unique as we work together to show
our love for Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Book Distribution in
Today’s Technology
Māyāpur Vihārī Dāsa explains that
several organizations in the past had
tried to place the Gītā in hotels, but it
was very challenging.
“If you have to do this on a massive
scale,” he says, “you not only need
to have a strong desire to share this
knowledge but also sound logistics
and infrastructure to run it. We are
blessed to have the Bhaktivedanta
Book Trust (BBT), which prints and
delivers books all over North Amer-
ica. We have devotees everywhere
who can take part in this project,
and above all we have leaders like
Vaiśeṣika Dāsa and Svavāsa Dāsa
who have dedicated their lives for
distributing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books
and are always available to inspire,
enthuse, and lead the team.”
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019 • BACK TO GODHEAD 33
A Call for Action
The MotelGita team’s goal is to
place one million Gītās in motels
and hotels. Most of the team
members work full time in their
own professions, so they have
limited time to dedicate to the
project. They invite participation
from more devotees. Here are
four ways to do that:
1 Start a MotelGita chapter
anywhere. It’s easy. If you’re
interested, email info@motel-
gita.org.
2 Post a “Like” on the
MotelGita Facebook page
(https://www.facebook.com/
MotelGita/) and share with
friends and family. Every Like
helps spread Gītās.
3 Become a volunteer to help
with social-media work, bro-
chure creation, ads, follow-up,
and more.
5 Donate via PayPal (teamisv@
gmail.com, memo: MotelGi-
ta); or credit card: http://mo-
telgita.org/donate; or check:
MotelGita, 1965 Latham
Street, Mountain View, CA
94040.
MotelGita (North America) is a
large-scale project with sound net-
working. The infrastructure includes
a core team member working from
India. Similar to the use of call cen-
ters, MotelGita has employed Dinesh
Tinani, a devotee from the Śrī Śrī
Rādha-Gopīnātha temple in Chow-
patty, Mumbai, to call motel owners
in North America for orders and then
do follow-up. On average he receives
orders for five thousand Gītās every
month. Vedavit Kṛṣṇa Dāsa man-
ages the dispatch of the orders. He
has set up a robust shipping system
through the US postal system’s Media
Mail and saved thousands of dollars
in shipping costs for temples in the
United States.
 Outreach Efforts
A project as massive as MotelGita re-
quires a strong outreach effort as well.
One way the MotelGita team reaches
out to motel and hotel owners is by
attending regional and national con-
ventions. Dilip Patel uses his contacts
in the hotel industry to secure vendor
booths at the Asian American Ho-
tel Owners Association (AAHOA)
and Leuva Patidar Samaj (LPS) con-
ventions. Several devotees on the
MotelGita team attend multiple
conventions.
“Local conventions are a great
place to connect with motel owners,”
says Rūpasāgara Dāsa from Austin,
Texas. “In this relaxed setting, you get
to understand more about the indus-
try. It helps us come up with innova-
tive ideas to help the owners.”
His wife, Mahāsundari Mādhavī
Devī Dāsī, relates, “I met a motel
Can’t
chant at the
temple
every
day?
Join a japa
teleconference
and chant with other
devotees. The japa
session is followed by a class,
discussion, or reading.
34 BACK TO GODHEAD • NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019
owner from Olathe, Kansas, at the
2017 AAHOA convention whose
property was right across from the bar
where an Indian software engineer
was killed on racial grounds. When I
approached him to take Gītās, he very
happily agreed. I asked him if he was
afraid of any backlash. He smiled and
said that it was in tough times like
this that the message of peace in the
Gītā is most relevant.”
She loves the idea of spreading the
teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda to ev-
ery town and village by reaching one
motel at a time.
This couple enjoys driving by a
particular intersection south of Austin
where there are eight motels – most
of them owned by non-Indians and
non-Hindus – and they all have Gītās.
MotelGita acknowledges the cru-
cial role motel owners play in this
project. The Laguna Beach temple
organized a special appreciation night
For more information
and instructions on how to
join the conference, go to
www.everydaychant.com
and click on the About tab.
for owners to thank them. They were
given full sets of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
The MotelGita team also does
Bhāgavatam installations at homes
and motels and conducts home pro-
grams. Occasionally motel owners buy
Bhāgavatam sets, and some donate
sets to needy devotees.
The Goal
Vaiśeṣika Dāsa writes in his book
Our Family Business, “A soul trapped
in a material body requires outside
help to become free. Only by hearing
from a transcendental source can a
conditioned soul awaken his dormant
spiritual awareness.” By sharing Śrīla
Prabhupāda’s books, the members
of the MotelGita team are hoping to
help the trapped soul become free.
This is what they strive for. It’s their
victory and success. As Sañjaya says at
the end of the Bhagavad-gītā (18.78),
“Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the master
of all mystics, and wherever there is
Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will
also certainly be opulence, victory, ex-
traordinary power, and morality. That
is my opinion.”
Śrīla Prabhupāda said that his
books are like time bombs, just wait-
ing to explode and destroy peoples’
illusions and anxieties, and MotelGita
is placing Bhagavad-gītā As It Is in
an ever-increasing number of motel
rooms. “If one properly follows the
instructions of Bhagavad-gītā,” Śrīla
Prabhupāda wrote, “one can be freed
from all miseries and anxieties in this
life, and one’s next life will be spiri-
tual.” As His Holiness Girirāja Swami,
a MotelGita supporter, says, “What
greater gift can we give to the weary
traveler?”
Nandinī Kiśorī Devī Dāsī, a disciple
of His Holiness Rādhānāth Swami,
holds bachelors degrees in both civil
engineering and computer science. She
is the director of the MotelGita team –
twenty volunteers in the USA and eight
other countries. She is also the North
American coordinator for the TOVP
project. She resides in Alachua, Florida,
with her daughter, Radha Sakhi.