Hamsadutta Dasa: In Indore, we stayed at an ashram called Gita Bhavan and one day Prabhupada suggested, "Why don't you go and make some Life Members?" I said, "What's a Life Member?" He said, "Go to some merchant or businessman, show him our Krishna Books, tell him what we are doing and ask him to become a member by giving 1,111 rupees. Then he will receive subsequent publications and support our movement." I thought,"These people don't speak English. What is the use of approaching them? Why would they want our books? They can't read them, and I neglected to make the effort. The next day, Prabhupada again said, "Why don't you go to the market and try to make some members?" I said, "Yes" but the same thoughts were running through my mind and I didn't go.

The next day Prabhupada said the same thing. I said, "These people don't speak the language? He said, "You can take an interpreter." By this time, I understood Prabhupada really wanted me to do this and I thought I should at least go through the motions, which I did. I went to a cloth merchant with the interpreter that Prabhupada had suggested. I told the interpreter what to say, and before he finished speaking, the merchant whipped out his cheque book and wrote a cheque out 1 thought, 'Well, okay: We went to the next merchant and the same thing happened. We went to a third merchant and the same thing happened again. In a short time we had made three members. I came back and gave the cheques to Prabhupada. He said, "Now do you understand?" That was my initiation into making Life Members.

Ref: www.srilaprabhupadalila.org/2322