3 Ts of Prabhupada’s historic outreach

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Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Hare Krishna. So, on the occasion of Srila Prabhupada's appearance day, we will discuss about Prabhupada's extraordinary contribution and I'll discuss it, Prabhupada's historic outreach. We'll discuss it in three broad perspectives and what he achieved, how he achieved and what we can learn from it.

I will use it, I'll talk about in three points. This is three T's, the timing, the teaching and the tuning. Tuning means how he was able to understand his audience and tune the message to that audience.

So, there is an American thinker Mark Twain who said that when I was 17, my father was a fool. Now, I am 25 and I'm amazed how much the old guy has learned in the last eight years. So, what he of course meant was that it's, yeah, maybe the father had learned something in the last eight years but more importantly, it is that the son grows and as the son grows, he also learns.

He learns based on his experience. So, a person at the age of 25 sees things with substantial difference from how they will see it at the age of 20 or 17. So, similarly over here, when we try to appreciate Shila Prabhupada, as we try to do some service, then we start appreciating what has been done before.

One of the things in life is that everything seems easy or at least easier when we are spectators. It's like, say, now the cricket fever is coming up, India is going to host the World Cup. So, everybody makes decisions, you know, this batsman should have been sent before or this player should have been selected, this should have been done, that should have been done.

So many people have so many ideas of what should be done and how it should be done. But when somebody actually starts taking the responsibility of being a captain and deciding in the heat of the moment, they realize it's so much more difficult. So, Shila Prabhupada's biography, the Leela Amrit, that inspired me most powerfully, among many other inspirations, to dedicate my life to try to share Krishna's message.

And even now that is one of the most inspiring books for me. But now when I look back, I understand that there is so much that Prabhupada has done which I am learning to appreciate now, especially for the last 10 years. I have been given the service of trying to connect with especially Western audiences in America.

So, almost nine months a year, I'm outside India and along with Indians outside India, I also try to reach out to Westerners and I try to understand not just Western culture, but Western intellectual history and the Western way of thinking. And that has increased both in appreciation, or in many ways, our spiritual advancement. Krishna conscious growth, spiritual advancement is actually a growth in appreciation.

Now, we are chanting the same holy names and pure devotees are chanting the same holy names. But they appreciate that this holy name is not just a sound, this is Krishna. We don't appreciate it so much.

So, my appreciation has increased in twofold. So, what Prabhupada has done and also what Krishna did for Shila Prabhupada. In general, when anything is done, there are two factors for success.

As we know in the Damodar Leela, it's our endeavor and Krishna's grace. So, both how our endeavor, what was Shila Prabhupada's endeavor and how Krishna was playing, how Krishna was arranging things for Prabhupada. We can appreciate both through this analysis.

So, Prabhupada said in his famous song, Arkine Bhagwat Dharma, he said, make me dance. Nachao, nachao Prabhu, nachao se mate. Kashtera putali jata, nachao se mate.

So, we will look at it in terms of two things. You know how Shila Prabhupada danced expertly and brilliantly and how Krishna created a stage for Prabhupada through dance. Krishna arranged the stage for Prabhupada.

And in this way, we see both the, not just, we don't see a pure devotee in isolation, we see a pure devotee in connection. And that reciprocation between what we are doing and how Krishna is, what Krishna is doing, that combination of this, both of these together is the dynamism of devotion. And that's what we also want to experience in our life, our endeavor, Krishna's reciprocation.

So, let's begin with the first point of timing. If you look at Shila Prabhupada's life, it's both inspiring and sobering. Shila Prabhupada was born in 1896.

He met his Guru Maharaj in 1922. And till 1965, Prabhupada endeavored enormously in India. Prabhupada, the sheer number of things he tried is mind-boggling.

Prabhupada initially thought that, let me run a business so that through that business, I will support my spiritual master's mission. I'm a grahastha now. I cannot renounce my family.

He had a young child and he had a young wife. So he said, it will be unfair to them. And Prabhupada worked extremely hard for his business.

If you see, in generally, India at that time was quite, people generally thought economic stability. So, for example, most people would look for a job and if you get a job, then you are settled for life. That was the idea.

If somebody gets a business also, just settle in business. But Prabhupada travelled across India. He started a business in Kolkata.

Then he did a business in Mumbai. Then he did a business in Prayag. Now, these three are almost three different corners of India.

And in those times, one of my friends studied Shila Prabhupada's life in greater historical context. And I also studied that time of Indian history, 1920s, 30s. Very few people would actually relocate from one part to another part of the country.

And so many different parts and start a business from scratch. It was extraordinary what Shila Prabhupada tried in terms of business. And that was, again, for the purpose of offering financial support.

Then Shila Prabhupada tried his own writings. He started the Back to Godhead magazine. He worked extremely hard.

But somehow, people were just not interested. At that time, like now also, most Indians were Hindi speaking and Prabhupada wanted to write in English. So for an English paper, there was not much audience.

And Prabhupada was struggling to distribute it. One time he was knocked down by a cow while he was distributing Back to Godhead in the burning heat of Delhi. He was also at one time, he just swooned, he felt unconscious because of the heat over there.

So that didn't work out very well. Then Shila Prabhupada tried establishing the League of Devotees. That was an organization he started in Jhansi.

And he almost shut down his business at that time, focused entirely on that. And people seemed to be interested. But then suddenly, those very people who were supporting him, they felt that, oh, let's use this place for some other cause.

And Prabhupada was left all alone. And he just had to leave from there. That didn't work out.

Then he tried to, you know, edit a Godbrother's magazine. There's a Gaudiya Math. Gaudiya Math had many.

But then those people, I'm not going in sequence over here. I'm just talking in terms of what all he tried. And that Godbrother was very parochial, narrow in his vision.

And he didn't give Prabhupada much editorial freedom. He did not give Prabhupada the opportunity to expand the magazine, to make it more relevant. And that didn't work out.

Then Prabhupada tried to give live classes. He tried to do it in Delhi. He tried to do it, especially in various places.

But at that time, people just took it as, yeah, pious, nice thing to do. But it didn't seem to work out at all. And then even when he went to America, while he was going to America, the first thing that happened was his only resource, materially speaking, was his body.

And he got a heart attack, not just a heart attack, but two heart attacks. And that was devastating. When he came to America also, at that time, after great struggle, he found that there's some people who were interested.

And one of them seemed to be about to become a disciple is David. So it is like a prospective disciple. And what happened, he attacked Prabhupada in a drug-induced mania.

And Prabhupada had just to leave that place. So here if you see, it's not just struggle after struggle. See, struggle is bad enough if we consider when we get discouraged.

So struggle itself is bad enough, but failure is even worse. If after struggle we get some success, that's at least worth it. But there's failure.

And Prabhupada still continued on. When Prabhupada decided to go to America, it was an extraordinarily courageous act. He was going all alone at the age of 70 without any institutional support, without any significant financial backing, without even knowing who the person who was going to host him.

Prabhupada went all the way. And so when I'm using this word timing, I'm using it to two senses. Timing was, Prabhupada required enormous patience, you know, patience, perseverance.

Sometimes the word patience has more of a passive connotation. Okay, just wait. But perseverance means we keep trying.

So Prabhupada had such perseverance, which is unbelievable. If Prabhupada had that faith that things are going to work, they will work in Krishna's time. So when we talk about timing, we need to be ready to wait for Krishna's time.

Things work in this world according to Krishna's plan. And we need to keep serving, keep trying, doing our part, irrespective of whether we get success or not. What Krishna talks about in the Bhagavad Gita, Karmanyeva adhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana 247.

Prabhupada demonstrates that over here. So but I also demonstrate, so I said I'll talk everything in terms of two things, Prabhupada's endeavor and Krishna's arrangement. Now we'll talk about timing in terms of the US socio-cultural setting.

Now Prabhupada did not in any way study American history to know this is the time I should go over there. But as I said Krishna was arranging a stage for Prabhupada. So three things happened at that time by which Prabhupada, Krishna created that stage for Prabhupada.

One was political, the second was religious, and the third was probably the most important, that was the cultural. So politically one of the biggest challenges for Indians who go to America is that you need visa. Getting a visa is not easy and then extending the visa is even more difficult.

So there is even a temple of Lord Ganesh in Chennai, in Hyderabad and a few other places which is called as Visa Ganesh Temple. Ganesh's Vigna Vinashak is a remote obstacle. So the obstacle to fulfilling my dream to go to America is that I don't get a visa.

So you go to Lord Ganesh and pray. So now Prabhupada got a visa because he was sponsored by someone in America, the son of his, not even a follower, son of one of a pious Indian, Gopal Garwal. But if you see, getting the visa and then Prabhupada had to extend the visa.

The visa was just for two months. And if you consider American history, the way it was around 1920s or 1925 or something like that roughly, the immigration became very closed. They made it very very difficult for people to come to America.

If you see, America is itself a land of immigrants. The people who live in America now are all people who came from Europe and the Native Americans who are staying there for thousands of years have now just been reduced to reservations, if not eradicated. But at one particular point, America felt that there are too many immigrants coming and there are people coming from Japan and other places which they didn't want to come and they clamped down the rules very much.

So it was just a few months, you could say even a few weeks before Prabhupada went to America that the immigration rules became relaxed. And it was because they were relaxed that Prabhupada, getting the visa was not a problem but extending the visa was a problem. And Prabhupada was able to extend that visa because these rules changed.

Now we could say this is just some political change that is happening. Yeah, that is true. But Krishna can work in extraordinary ways.

Krishna can work through the political, social, cultural changes that happen in the world. And when Prabhupada was endeavouring, Krishna was arranging this. So Prabhupada was able to extend his visa almost eight to, I think, yeah, six or eight times.

And finally he said that, he said, you know, we cannot extend your visa. Maybe four, five times, exactly. But a significant number of times he got to extend and then they said we can't extend.

And then Prabhupada was so transcendentally innocent. He said, Prabhupada, that, you know, the only way you can have your visa is, actually, if you are related to somebody in America. You know, in America, there's a big, sometimes it becomes a scam.

People have fake marriages. They marry someone and then they separate from that person. They want a visa.

So Prabhupada said to one of his disciples, he said, okay, you adopt me as your son. Now that devotee was of the age of Prabhupada's grandson. Prabhupada just had faith in Krishna.

You adopt me. But then there was one popular singer, Allen Ginsberg, who was influenced by Prabhupada and he used his attorneys, you know, he had been, because he was propagating that drugs are used for spirituality and American mainstream opposed that. So he was persecuted and he fought against it.

So he had a good battery of attorneys and he used that. And actually Prabhupada at one time was almost planning to quit America and go to Canada. Canada has relatively easier immigration policies.

And Prabhupada decided to make Montreal his international headquarters. But then this worked out and then Prabhupada stayed on in America. So Krishna was arranging in various ways for the stage.

The political is just one part of it. The other was religious. That Christianity, in general, the Abrahamic religions, the Abrahamic religions are Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

And within that, the biggest, of course, is Christianity. So Christianity had that idea that anybody who is not following Jesus is going to go to hell. And because of that, they were not only suspicious of our other religions, they were actually very critical and condemnatory and destructive about other religions.

Islam was much more destructive, but Christianity is also no less. But just again in 1965, something changed. The Catholic Church did something.

Catholicism is one group within Christianity. The other group is Protestants. But the Catholics, they had a Vatican Council.

And then in 1965, they affirmed that there is truth and there is God in other religions also. And this is how Shri Prabhupada actually was able to go to universities and talk. And because the people were, in one sense, so apprehensive about, oh, even if we explore some other religion, we'll go to hell.

But there was an openness. And of course, among the masses, it was not so much, but among the scholars. And there are many scholars who came to meet Shri Prabhupada and try to learn what Prabhupada was teaching.

And that opened many doors for Prabhupada. So Krishna arranged that stage. The timing was there.

And the most important was from the cultural perspective. What had happened is that time in America, there was phenomenal prosperity. See, after the Second World War more or less ended in 1945, and recently there was this movie, Oppenheimer, which talked about how America bombed Japan and Oppenheimer was behind it.

But the point is that in the Second World War, America emerged not just victorious, but also prosperous. Why? Because there was practically no attack on America. The only attack was in Pearl Harbor.

And of course, American soldiers went to Europe and other places, Africa and other places to fight. But America was supplying, there were least casualties. And America was supplying weapons to everyone.

So their weapon manufacturing industry became very big. And because of that, they gained enormous prosperity. And the generation after that that this is 1945, the people who returned back, when they grew up, they had lots of wealth.

And the generation that came after that, maybe in the 1960s generation, they had almost everything material was there for them. Because they grew up in an America that was prosperous. They had wealth, they had comfort, they had luxuries.

And there is this whole idea of what is called the great American dream. You know, you have a White House with a picket fence, and you have a garden, and you have a car, and you have a nice family. And these people grew with all this.

And then they found that this was just not satisfactory. It was all meaningless. There has to be something more in life.

And that's how what happened was there was this great American culture. I'm using the word great in terms of it was, it is spread across broader society. It was the American culture.

And that was a culture of, at that time, material prosperity. But especially among the youth, there was a significant thing, which was the counterculture. The counterculture, they just felt that mainstream religion, mainstream education, mainstream politics, mainstream society, all of it is just insubstantial.

That was the time the Vietnam War was there. And they felt that this war is being fought just to make the weapon manufacturers wealthy. So these, the counterculture, they were out to reject everything mainstream, education, religion, politics.

And within that, there was a small denomination that were the hippies. And these hippies, all this whole counterculture was exploring something alternative. And the hippies were especially into exploring through drugs.

So when Srila Prabhupada went to America, this was the demographic which was extremely open and receptive. And Krishna arranged for Prabhupada to go at that time. If you see in timescale, it was between 60s and 70s.

If Prabhupada had gone in this generation, there was no counterculture. Now, of course, we can say that Krishna could have arranged for Prabhupada to be effective in any way. And that's possible.

But when we look at what was happening and how Prabhupada reached there at the right time, we see that Krishna was guiding Srila Prabhupada. Now, Prabhupada could have gone to America earlier. But now, whether the sociocultural factors which made people receptive, whether they would have been there or not, that's open to question.

So Krishna arranged, like I said, he arranged the stage. And after the 70s, at least for the 70s, 75, it was only hippies. The counterculture was a large group and they were exploring.

But hippies means most of the people who were in the counterculture, they got into drugs. And then once they got too much into drugs, then they just were not capable of exploring spirituality. So this period was almost like a golden period that Prabhupada arrived in America at a time when people were looking for alternatives.

They were looking for alternatives, alternatives to what was being presented to them in mainstream Western society. And then Srila Prabhupada gave them the best alternative, by far the best alternative. So this is how the timing worked out perfectly for Prabhupada.

And this is in no way to minimize what Srila Prabhupada did. Now, just because a stage is set up does not mean automatically the performance is going to be excellent. Sometimes in cricket, a pitch might be a batter's paradise, but still the batter has to bat well.

Batter has to be expert and in good form. So that brings us to the second part now. Now, how Srila Prabhupada, what did he do? Now, how he presented bhakti in an expert way.

That is, we look at the teaching. So I'm talking about three things, timing, teaching and tuning. So in terms of teaching, what did Srila Prabhupada focus on? It's fascinating that when we look at the Gaudiya Sampradaya, coming from the various Acharyas down.

So if we consider Bhaktisiddhanta Surya Thakur, when he sent his disciples to the West, for them, the main book of teaching was a book called Sri Chaitanya. Sri Krishna Chaitanya, that was a book written by one of the disciples of Bhaktisiddhanta Surya Thakur, Nishikant Sanyal. Bhaktisiddhanta Surya Thakur practically co-authored the book.

But they were focusing more on the teachings of love of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And there was practically no reference to the Gita. The Gita was not in any way a central book in Bhaktisiddhanta Surya Thakur's outreach.

But Srila Prabhupada, his focus was almost entirely the Gita. Prabhupada introduced Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He introduced Krishna, Krishna in terms of Krishna in Vrindavan.

Then Radharani. All these much later. All these came later.

But first was the Gita. So if you consider, that means, this is again the expertise of a teacher. If you consider Vedic texts, you know, they are a Vedic wisdom or Vedic texts.

It's a vast body of literature. And if you consider somebody is a, say, a speaker and that person is speaking to an audience. So now, from within the tradition, that speaker can draw something from one part, can draw something from here, can draw something from here.

They can draw from various parts and reach the audience. Now, which part of the teaching does a person draw? That indicates, that is the expertise of the teacher. Prabhupada himself explained realization.

Realization, he said, what it means is to take the original message, but to present it in a way that is interesting to the audience. So we could say on one side is the scriptural message and the other side is the audience interest. So it is the speaker's expertise.

Realization means that the speaker is able to understand where these two intersect. So that each message and the interest. And when somebody is able to present in this area, that is where they will have the maximum impact.

So what did Shila Prabhupada present? So now Prabhupada presented many, many different things. But let's focus on what was the emphasis of Shila Prabhupada. Now Prabhupada was very sharp, astute observer of human nature.

And Prabhupada focused primarily on the difference between Atma and Deha, the soul and the body, their difference. In many ways, what Prabhupada presented was radically challenging and demanding. The teaching was hugely demanding.

For example, what is the demand? You know, two hours chanting. In many ways, this was quite radical. In Gaudiya Math, they had 64 rounds chanting.

Anybody who is not doing that person is fallen. But 64 rounds was not the initiation. Wow.

It was so two hours chanting for Western people was extraordinary. Prabhupada's godbrothers, when they went to UK, they didn't demand anything like that. And then he also asked for four regulative principles.

Now we could say Prabhupada is not asking, is this scriptural teaching? Yes, it is scriptural teaching. But Prabhupada emphasized it. So now, how was he able to get people to follow this? This was something which when I read the Leela Amrit, it struck me enormously.

That here is this old man. This is 1996-97. When I was just new, I said, this is an old man.

He has worked so hard to finally get to America in his old age. And now he is speaking something which is almost guaranteed to alienate people. In one sense, at that time, meat-eating, intoxicating, gambling, illicit sex, these were just normal ways of living for people.

You could say the only regulative principle for the people in the counterculture, that only regulative principle was to break all regulative principles, reject rules. One of the common slogans of that time was, it is forbidden to forbid. You have no right to tell us not to do anything.

The only thing, anybody can do anything except one thing, that is, tell others don't do anything, don't do a particular thing. And in this culture, so when I said Prabhupada set the stage, when Krishna set the stage for Prabhupada, that does not, so at one level, the audience was receptive, they were open to spirituality, but that does not mean the audience was submissive. There's a big difference between the two.

See, sometimes we think receptive and submissive are the same thing, but they are hugely different. See, receptive means I am open to hearing, okay, I want to give you a fair case, I'm okay to hear what you're saying, but submissive means open to following. And the stage was set for Prabhupada in the sense that the audience was receptive, that okay, they wanted something alternative, but what Prabhupada demanded was shocking.

The churches also would not demand, they emphasize, of course, no sex outside marriage, but apart from that, they're saying, okay, you can drink, but don't become drunk. And apart from that, they were not really so strongly against it, and certainly none of the churches or any mainstream religion demands two hours of spiritual practice dedicated. So how was Prabhupada able to reach? It was almost as if Prabhupada was making a demand that was likely to alienate people.

But Prabhupada was expert. Now what Prabhupada was offering was an authentic spiritual experience through the kirtans, through the practice of bhakti, through the seva, the adventurous service that Prabhupada gave to his people, gave to his followers. The kirtans themselves were far out spiritual music, and people could just immerse themselves and experience something higher.

Many Indians, when eventually they started coming to the temples, they saw that, yeah, we used to go to kirtans in the past in India, but kirtan was more like a, in general, in traditional India, kirtan is more like a ceremony, where somebody is doing kirtan and people politely stand and gently clap. But in ISKCON, kirtan is like a party. You know, it's not a sober ceremony, it's like a festive celebration, sing and dance and people are so earnest.

And everybody was stunned by that. Even Indians were stunned and they got some authentic spiritual experience. And not only that, Prabhupada gave them adventure.

His teaching was that not only you become, you start chanting Krishna's names, you become a devotee of Krishna, but you share Krishna with the entire world. And that just triggered their imagination. Americans have this spirit of the rugged adventurer, going against the world.

That's how they conquer the wild west. That's what they say. So Prabhupada regarded that.

He used to keep a picture of a globe, not a picture, a globe in his room in 1960s, 1968. And one time he told his followers, he said, all of you pick one, one country and go and deliver that country. And one of his female disciples, she was just a teenager at that time, Jadurani Devi, she said, Prabhupada, what about us girls? We are not boys or girls.

We are all souls. You also pick up one country and go and deliver. So that sense of adventure that Prabhupada presented, that created within them a spirit of sacrifice.

Yeah, we are doing something astonishing. We are doing something extraordinary. So Prabhupada, from the vast teachings that were there in Krishna consciousness, Prabhupada offered them experience, experience of Krishna through kirtan, through outreach, adventurous outreach.

And even when Prabhupada focused on following the four regulatory principles, his focus was very clear. He said, give up sense gratification. Now before, I had read many spiritual authors before I came to ISKCON and before I read Prabhupada's books, but I had not even heard this word sense gratification.

And Prabhupada emphasized that. And what was his reasoning? That's very important. The Christians talk about giving up certain level of sense gratification, but they talk about it in terms of if you don't do this, you will go to hell.

But Prabhupada hardly ever talked about hell. There was a reference to hell in our scriptures, but that was not the emphasis of Prabhupada. Prabhupada's emphasis was you can do so much better.

You can do so much more. It's like you are a soul. You are meant for spiritual happiness.

Why are you eating this rukhi chapati, this dry chapati, when you can be having a feast? So, this itself was mind-blowing. Sex was considered to be the greatest pleasure at that time and drugs was considered also a way to go high. And this Swamiji came and said, no, not that if you do this, you'll go to hell.

No, this is just insignificant and so much more available for you. Why don't you see that? So, it was a very affirmative presentation of bhakti. Sometimes we, when we are presenting bhakti, we can actually miss out on this affirmative aspect.

One of Prabhupada's senior disciples who was doing college outreach in America, he asked Prabhupada, how do I present Krishna bhakti? And Prabhupada said, the worst thing you can do is to present Krishna consciousness as a set of rules. It is presented as wisdom and adventure. It's wisdom that you have so much more potential within you.

Finding inner happiness from any outer contribution. There's so much more for you to do. And that message resonated with people in an enormously effective way.

So, that was Prabhupada's expert teaching. And that brings me to the last part now, that is the tuning. So, the way Prabhupada was able to resonate with his audiences.

Tuning is somewhat related with teaching. But by tuning, what I mean is that people from, Prabhupada was expert in reaching out to different people from different audiences. Sometimes, we tend to take one statement of Prabhupada and we absolutize it.

This is what Prabhupada said and if you're not doing this, then you're not following Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada made strong statements about scientists. Prabhupada made some strong statements about mainstream education.

Prabhupada made some strong statements about various spiritual leaders who were not giving the ultimate personal understanding of the truth. So, Prabhupada could be like a surgeon who would cut. But Prabhupada was a surgeon.

Prabhupada was not a butcher. He was not indiscriminately cutting here and there or anywhere. So, sometimes when we take one statement of Prabhupada and absolutize it, then we think we are being a surgeon but we end up being a butcher.

And when Prabhupada is a surgeon, would remove misconceptions. But when we do the same thing, we end, we don't remove misconceptions. We end up removing inspiration.

We just alienate people. We come off as fanatical. So, I'll talk about how Prabhupada was an expert in tuning to various people and presenting accordingly.

Now, Prabhupada was with us, especially actively outreach was from 1965 to 77. So, till approximately 70, Prabhupada was mostly in America and the western world. And after that was even India.

And in India, he spent maximum time in Juhu. But while he was in India, Prabhupada's approach or his focus was significantly different. You see, Prabhupada had two distinct groups of followers.

I'll use the word followers in a broad sense. They were Prabhupada's followers. So, first were his disciples.

Those who joined in 1965 to 70 and they continued joining thereafter. These were extremely dedicated. They were, you could say, single pointed.

Vyavasaya Tvikabuddhi aka Kuru Nandana. And they were chanting 16 rounds, they had moved into the temples. They were dedicated to Prabhupada.

Now, when Prabhupada came back to India, Prabhupada had a plan that Indians are infatuated with the West. When the Western people start practicing bhakti, Indians see that Indians will be inspired. And that did happen.

But still, something did not happen. That India at that time was having, it was too crippled by poverty. It was too fascinated by the West.

And it was too obsessed with politics. Obsessed with politics in the hope that political change will bring about a better India. And this was the situation pre-1965.

And this was the situation post-1970 also. So, it didn't change dramatically. So, what happened was that even when Shila Prabhupada came, it was not that lot of people started becoming disciples.

Because still these factors were there. But this one factor fascinated by the West, Prabhupada tapped that. And he created this program of life members.

And with the life members, Prabhupada would have robust philosophical discussions at times. But Prabhupada was very accepting. So, here with his disciples, he expected commitment.

Now, they gave their life to Krishna. And Prabhupada very much appreciated that. But Prabhupada here accepted contribution.

Contribution means whatever. Some of them did financial contributions. Some of them gave some contacts.

Some of them gave some logistical support. And that's how the Juhu temple was built. It's an adventurous story of how it happened.

And now, Prabhupada did not push the life members when he was meeting them. He was not guilting them. Why are you not changing 16 rounds? When are you going to take initiation? No, Prabhupada was not doing any of that.

Prabhupada accepted them. In fact, many of these life members, they were established people in society. And they were also, they were pious.

And because of their piety, they had already affiliated with other spiritual teachers. Some of them were prominent leading disciples of other spiritual teachers who were prominent in India, who Prabhupada would normally talk about as Mayavadis. But Prabhupada did not fight with them.

He did not criticize their spiritual teachers in front of them. In fact, Prabhupada would go to their houses at times and there would be these big pictures of these Mayavadi gurus. And Prabhupada would just be nonchalant about it.

And he would focus on engaging them in Krishna service. So tuning means, when I'm talking about tuning, what I mean is that we need to encourage people, we need to understand where people are at and help them take steps toward Krishna. So we need to be attuned to people's level, Krishna from where they are.

So this is something which is extremely important. Say for example, suppose somebody comes to a temple. Now say, if this is a temple with a nice big spire on top.

And now suppose this is the ground level and we expect people to take a high jump from here to come to the temple. Now or say suppose the temple is on some place like Tirupati Balaji, which is on top of a hill. People have to climb up all the whole thing and come.

You know, if they would take a jump, many people may not even take the jump. They'll just come here and go back. Or they will try to jump and they'll fall and they'll go lower.

But somebody who is wise, somebody who's expert, what they will do is, they will actually create steps. Okay, gradually you come forward. In that way you can enter the temple.

So in India, Prabhupada had the stepwise approach. So in the West, his disciples were ready to take this giant leap of faith. Western disciples, they took that leap of faith where they gave up everything to surrender their life to Prabhupada.

But Indian life members, Indians were not ready for that. So Prabhupada provided them the stepwise approach. And thousands and thousands of people became life members at that time.

In fact, because ISKCON was so respected that there were people at that time, in their nameplates, they would put ISKCON life member as if that was a significant achievement. And Srila Prabhupada in this way was an expert. So this expertise that from where a person is, how can we take them a step forward? Yes, we would like them to go all the journey.

But if they're not ready to go all the way, then let them take one step forward, one step forward and let them gradually come toward Krishna. This was Srila Prabhupada's compassion. His compassion was that he provided people the two things, the space and the pace.

So those who wanted to go fast, he gave them the pace. Those who wanted to go slow, he gave them the space. Okay, you can do this much and then you can take your steps forward.

And that was Prabhupada's reflecting Krishna's teaching in 4.11 in the Bhagavad Gita. All people are on my path. So in my Gita Delhi article, I try to present the Gita's message in poetic or quote-like format in English.

So I put this 4.11 as, from your place, at your pace, access Krishna's grace. From your place, at your pace, access Krishna's grace. So this was Srila Prabhupada's mood of compassion.

And we too can try to imbibe that mood today. Now, India is at a very significant position in the history of the world, where India is asserting itself globally. Geopolitically, India is a rising power.

Economically, India is a rising power. And as this is rising, there is an increasing awareness of Dharma, increases awareness of nationality and the spiritual, cultural, intellectual wealth of India. So then, at this particular point, if we can tap this opportunity also, for those who want to go all the way, we provide them facility to go all the way.

For those who just want to take a few steps forward, we encourage them to take those few steps forward. If we can do that, then we can play our part in carrying forward Srila Prabhupada's mission. Some of us, we may have a big part.

Some of us, we may have a small part. But when we are talking about service, we focus not on getting a bigger part. Oh, you know, I would like to give classes where thousands of people come.

Or I would like to have some special ability by which when I distribute books, I can just distribute hundreds of books in one day. If we are getting a bigger part, that's fine if we get it. But instead, we focus on playing our part better.

Whatever is the service that we have, service attitude means, this is the Krishna's mission is far bigger than you and me or anyone else. But we are fortunate that we all have some part to play in it. At Prabhupada's mercy, not only are we getting ourselves raised in Krishna consciousness, but we are also getting opportunities to raise others in Krishna consciousness.

So whatever be the talents we have, whatever be the approach facilities we have, whatever be the inspiration we have, whatever be the situation we are in, we just take heart from the fact that we are in Krishna's mission, we are in Prabhupada's shelter. And let us all do our part in moving ourselves toward Krishna and helping others move toward Krishna. That is the best way we can serve Srila Prabhupada and commemorate his appearance day.

So I'll summarize what I spoke today. I spoke about Prabhupada's extraordinary outreach in three terms. The first was timing.

In that I talked about two things, how Prabhupada's perseverance is legendary, how in spite of so many obstacles, Prabhupada consistently went on. And then I talked about how the stage was set for Prabhupada by Krishna in terms of the political openness, in terms of immigration, the religious openness in terms of accepting the truth in other traditions and especially the cultural openness in terms of the counterculture which came because of the prosperity of America in the post-world war. And that's how people were receptive.

And then we talked about teaching. How Prabhupada was an expert teacher who was able to find the intersection between scripture and the interests of people. And those interests stand on two things, giving wisdom, not just like creating fear, you'll go to hell if you don't do this.

No, there's so much more you can do. And then providing experience. He provided experience by presenting bhakti as adventure, especially outreach as adventure.

And in that way, he was able to reach to a large number of people. And he was able to, even though the audience was not submissive, but because he provided them experience, so they were able to grow. So they were receptive.

And from receptive, gradually they became submissive. And then we talked about how the tuning of Prabhupada. Sometimes we have this idea that Prabhupada was just cutting and smashing everyone.

But that is not, that was definitely one aspect of Prabhupada, but Prabhupada was an expert. And Prabhupada's mood was to engage people according to where they were at. So he accepted his dedicated disciples, and he also accepted willing life members who were not ready to contribute, not ready to commit, but they were ready to contribute.

And Prabhupada was broad enough to accommodate both of them and engage them and elevate them. So Prabhupada's overall mood was, in terms of his compassion, was such that for those who were serious, he gave them space. For those who were not that serious, he gave them space.

And if we can follow in Prabhupada's mood and just try to play our part better, then we will ourselves be able to move closer to Krishna and we will also be able to help others move closer to Krishna. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Do we have time for questions? Are there any questions? Maybe one question, if anyone has. Yes, please. Hare Krishna.

Hare Krishna. Yes, yes. Thank you very much, Professor, for a wonderful class.

It was very nice to cover these three aspects of Prabhupada's life. It was very eye-opening and practically relevant. So, Professor, you were mentioning about this Krishna consciousness, how he presented it as wisdom and adventures, not as rules and regulations.

So, my question is, how we can present this Krishna consciousness, because sometimes some rules and regulations are there, and for new people or new boys, that also becomes a little difficult, like waking up early and all, or whatever, some things are there like that. So, how we can… Yes, yes. See, it is not that Prabhupada didn't talk about rules and regulations.

Of course, he talked about regulative principles and there are definitely rules. But the point is something different over here. The point is, what is the emphasis? The emphasis is not so much the rules.

See, in some way, rules are, you could say, rules are like roads. When you are going on a road, that itself brings a restriction. Oh, you cannot go here.

You cannot go here. But then, instead of, when we are going on a road, the point is, oh, you can go here. And if there is an attractive destination here, then we just focus on following the rules because we can get to that destination.

So, that's why within our presentation, if we focus on the attractiveness of Krishna, the sweetness of bhakti, the excitement of service, then the rules don't become the emphasis. So, it's a matter of emphasis. Yes, and some people may just not be able to follow the rules.

And then, as I said, they can be encouraged to practice bhakti. They may not be able to say, stay in our youth centers, but we don't have to reject them. But if you, the emphasis is on these positive things.

So, rules, when we are traveling on a road, we follow the rules. But the point is not to follow the rules. The point is to get the destination.

So, similarly, if we are focusing on the destination, then what will happen is the rules will be seen in the light of purpose. So, when these things are highlighted, then it becomes much easier. Okay.

Can we come back to you? There's a few other questions also we can take and we can come back. I see some other hands also raised. There's no one else and you can ask.

Please go ahead. Thank you for the nice class. You were mentioning about the Western disciples taking a huge leap of faith to jump from the ground level directly.

Very nicely you are presenting, but then for Indians propagated those steps. So, what if people to whom we are targeting don't want to climb the ladder up and are like somewhat, you know, be good, do good to others. So, they want to, they just get stuck on the first or second step itself.

So, what can be done for those kind of people as you are answering to this last question that we don't have to discourage them, but then we find that these are the people who don't want to go ahead. And as Buddha also says that two people would never achieve perfection, one who is materialistic and the other who gets stuck in between. So, I mean, we want to convey them this also, but they are not ready for that.

I mean, so what can be done? Yeah, we can push people. We can't force people. So, if we find that people are not really ready to move forward and find other people who are ready to move forward.

We can see Krishna conscious outreach as expanding circles. You know, somebody, say somebody is coming from Tamas, if they write to Rajas also, that also is a good thing. If somebody from Rajas rises to Sattva, that also is a good thing.

Somebody from Sattva to Shuddha Sattva, that is also a good thing. That is what we would like to have the most. But for society to function, we need people in Sattva also.

So, we see ourselves, our mission is, you see, Prabhupada's seven purposes of ISKCON. The first purpose was to correct the imbalance between material and spiritual values. So, at one level, we can say that our purpose is to simply raise the consciousness of people.

And if that raising can happen up to Krishna consciousness, that's great. But if it doesn't happen, even a little raising also happens, that's good enough. We can't push people too much.

We can inspire them. We can encourage them. We can remind them.

But if they don't, we don't have to push them away. Yeah, let them stay over there. Krishna is also acting in their lives.

They will go through certain experiences where they will realize that, yeah, being good and doing good is not enough. Maybe there's something more we can be doing. And sometimes we can also show them how they can be good and do good better by practicing bhakti.

That they can actually be better human beings. There are many volunteer organizations that devotees can start where people may not necessarily want to say directly come to temple for Chandi Hare Krishna. But if we have something like Food for Life, they want to volunteer over there.

If we have some environmental activism, they want to contribute over there. So somebody may not want to Chandi Hare Krishna, but we have a Go Seva project and they contribute there. So in one sense, it is important for us.

Another way to look at it is that Krishna consciousness outreach is like we have multiple circles. And our purpose at the center of the circle is Krishna. And we would like people to come to Krishna, but even if they don't come forward, even if they come one step forward also, that is good.

So we will also have different devotees who have different moods. Some devotees may be very happy to engage with people and just inspire them to become well-wishers or supporters. And that's what gives them juice.

Others, they don't get that rasa unless you get people to become committed, to become initiated. If that's where we get the rasa, then we focus on that audience. The world is big enough for different moods to serve different levels.

So rather than thinking of Krishna consciousness as only one mood, where everybody has to come to one level. It can be in the seven purposes of Prabhu. Prabhupada doesn't say that everybody has to wake up early in the morning.

Prabhupada doesn't say everybody has to stand 16 rounds. Are those important purposes? Of course, they are important. But is that all ISKCON is about? No.

Now, if you look at seven purposes, Prabhupada is so broad and inclusive. So we can encourage people to take just one step forward toward Krishna. Nowadays, especially after the pandemic, there are so many young people who are coming to the temples.

Coming to temple has become cool. Now, they may not necessarily want to become devotees, but if you just provide them some facilities, a welcoming atmosphere to come to the temple, that's great. So we have to find out how best to accept people where they are and give them facility to move a step forward.

Any other questions? Yes, Jagannath Sagar Prabhu. Hare Krishna. Thank you very much, Prabhuji.

So many enlightening, thoughtful, especially I like this point that butcher and surgeon difference. That butcher removes the inspiration and surgeon removes the misconception. So, Prabhuji, I also have doubt in this.

Sometimes we also act like a butcher while explaining the concept in such a new audience is there like children's are there. And if I am not capable to explain with their level of examples, then they take out the interest from learning. So, and many other experience also I have kind of.

So, what should be our step in such where we are confused if we feel that our outreach may be like that of a butcher which is taking away people's inspiration? Just like kids, Prabhuji. With kids, generally with respect to kids, the most important thing to do is to give them happy memories of bhakti. You know, how many rounds they chant, what time they wake up, what they do, what toys they play with.

All those are important, but they're not the most important thing. The most important thing is they should feel, oh, bhakti was when I went to a kirtan, a temple, I danced, I sang, I participated in drama, I did this activity, I did that activity. That is the most important thing because eventually they are going to grow, they are going to become teenagers, they are going to become youth, and they are going to choose at that time.

So, sometimes, you know, when we talk about parenting or guiding children, basically, there are two distinct aspects to this. You know, one is giving routines, rules, structures. The other is giving memories.

Both of them are important. In general, we focus more on the routines. You know, the routine means you do this, do this, do this, do this.

But if that is all that the children remember, oh, you know, this Krishna consciousness means sitting down for an hour and chanting when I just didn't like it at all. And as soon as they get freedom, they will just go away completely. So, in my understanding, at least we focus more on giving them memories of bhakti.

And yes, there are certain boundaries which have to be imposed, no doubt, enforced. But we have to be very cautious about that. And especially in today's world, the society is changing.

And if we try to impose too much on kids, they will just become rebellious and go away. And the attrition rate in general among religions is very high. And ISKCON has the, among religious organizations that have survived for more than 30 years, ISKCON in the entire world, ISKCON has the worst attrition rate.

Worst attrition rate means from our first generation, generally for a religious organization to survive and grow, between 70 to 80 percent of that organization's children should grow up and take up that religion. In ISKCON, it is the first generation, it is less than five percent. It is probably less than even one percent, but definitely less than five percent.

So, the idea of imposing rules has been an unmitigated disaster in the first generation. And we don't want a second generation to do that. So, we have to be very, very careful that we focus on giving them memories and not just rules and restrictions.

They are there, but that should not be their prominent remembrance of Krishna Bhakti. We will continue till nine o'clock. Any last questions? Before going to America, he struggled, tried so many things, which was supportive at the later part.

So, as a sadhaka, now I don't have to do that much. So, what does it mean for me to contribute? Is it my sadhana, strictly following morning program and these things, which will help me to grow? Or how is it so that these things will be taken care of in the long run? How can we practice our bhakti seriously? Well, again, everyone is an individual. So, there is the inner connection with Krishna that comes through our chanting, our study of scriptures, broadly our sadhana.

And then there is our outer contribution that comes through our seva, that comes through our studies, that comes through our growing toward becoming a responsible, respected member in society. And ideally speaking, both of these go together. Now, for some people in some phases of their life, one of them may be more important.

So, we can contribute to Krishna in various ways. So, we have to find out what is three things, our interest, our inspiration and our intention. By intention, I refer to our willpower.

So, we have to look at these three things and based on that we decide. So, you could say these three are related, but interest is a little bit more, which comes from subhava. There are some things which you are naturally interested in.

Some people are naturally interested in music. Some people are naturally interested in books. Some people are naturally interested in, say, fire sacrifices and rituals, mantras, whatever.

The inspiration comes from sangha, from our association. When we see other devotees doing something seriously, we feel inspired. And intention comes from our samskara.

We all have different samskaras. For some people, for example, the samskaras that they have from their past might make certain activities extremely difficult. So, we have to find out from our, from these three things, our individual journey to Krishna.

How can I, nobody else can sit in my body and work with my mind in going towards Krishna. I have to do that. So, all of us have to push ourselves, but in pushing ourselves, we need to find out what is the sustainable way we can push ourselves.

So, we look at our interest, inspiration and intention and find our way of moving towards Krishna. Ultimately, there is one path to go towards Krishna, but on that path, you can say there are multiple lanes and not everybody will fit in the same lane. Different people may go through different lanes.

So, for somebody, the primary lane by which they go through is sadhana. For somebody, the primary lane that sadhana means, as you said, waking up in the morning and doing strict sadhana. For somebody else, the primary lane might be seva.

For them, they may be very dedicated in terms of taking up committed responsibilities and serving, but they may not be able to necessarily do sadhana. All three go together, I should say. All of these various lanes go together, but we might find it our most comfortable lane might be one thing.

So, for somebody else, it might be swadhyaya and prachara. Now, sadhana and swadhyaya are not combining the two. The sadhana is more about a specific morning program.

Swadhyaya is more about studying scriptures, going deep into the philosophy, analyzing. So, that requires exclusive focus. Seva could be distribution, deity worship, outreach, wherever things.

So, we have to find out the lane that works best for us on the express way to Krishna. Okay. So, thank you all very much for your enthusiastic participation and thoughtful questions.