Prabhupada life-story 15 – From spiritual shoppers to spiritual seekers

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Welcome back to our discussion on Shila Prabhupada’s life story. In the previous episode, we discussed about Shila Prabhupada’s establishing the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and we discussed his seven purposes and how they reflected the traditional emphasis on bhakti with a contemporary angle to them in terms of its dissemination. And we also discussed about how Prabhupada faced challenging audiences and he won over those audiences, gradually attracted a group of dedicated followers.
So, if we see Shila Prabhupada in America, he is, the people who came to him or whom he connected with were in different phases. So, there were some people, initially he was just a curiosity object for Sally and Gopal Agarwal and their acquaintances. There is no question that none of the people over there were interested in following him.
When he came to New York and stayed at Professor Mishra’s yoga studio, there he was, there were followers, but all the followers were of Professor Mishra, Dr. Mishra and they, because he did not allow Prabhupada to speak, asked him only to do kirtans. So, Prabhupada could not connect effectively enough to attract people to follow the path of bhakti. Then when he came to the Bowery, he was staying with David Allen, this was a very short time in between, at the place from which his typewriter and tape recorder were stolen.
But in these two, both places, he started attracting young people who were interested and they wanted to help in various practical ways. But they were inclined, but they were not committed. They felt themselves that Swamiji was an evolved person and they wanted to help him in some way they could.
But they were not interested in committing themselves to follow the path of bhakti. Then when Sri Prabhupada came from the Bowery to the Lower East Side, many of those people were the primary people who helped him in shifting over. But it was here in the Bowery when he met Bhavard and then his friends Keith and Valli.
They were the people who were serious spiritual seekers. Most others were like spiritual shoppers. They just were looking at this product, that product and they were interested in spirituality.
So, they were interested in spiritual shopping. The difference between spiritual shopping and spiritual seeking is that a shopper goes to various shops and then selects whatever product one likes. And there is no relationship between a shopper and a shop in a permanent basis.
Wherever the shopper may get a good product, he will go there. So, people often think of spirituality in those terms. Yeah, I’m getting some good experience here.
I’m getting some good wisdom here. I like the people here. And they keep going to various places.
Now, if we consider spirituality to be a process of inner healing, wherein our love, our attachment, which is caught in this world, in worldly objects, which causes an entanglement, and we need to redirect it from the world towards God, towards Krishna, then such redirection is a process of healing. And healing requires committed taking of the treatment. Just as a patient who is a shopper, going from one doctor to another doctor to another doctor without taking the treatment of any doctor, will not be substantially healed.
Like that, those who are spiritual shoppers, they may gain some spiritual understanding, but they don’t grow so much, because they are not following any particular path. We discussed how Howard and Keith, they were serious spiritual seekers. They had already gone to India in search of a guru.
And they had read, and they had also seen in India, how a guru was treated. And for Shila Prabhupada, meeting this group, Keith, Howard and their friends, who were not just spiritual explorers, spiritual shoppers, they were spiritual seekers looking for a guru, this was a significant breakthrough. Although Howard was the first person who met Shila Prabhupada, Keith, his friend, was the person who became serious.
In terms of assisting Shila Prabhupada, he was the son of a Baptist minister, and he had dabbled in Christianity a little bit, but now he was exploring Eastern wisdom. And Prabhupada, when he was staying in the Lower East Side, there were some people who were boarding over there, but they were just boarders, they were not really spiritual seekers. They just came like the Kirtans, but they were not interested in following anything.
But Keith shifted over there. And even before he shifted, he actually started helping Shila Prabhupada. He started helping in cooking, he started helping in shopping.
Prabhupada, at that time, had to do everything because he was alone. So when he would have any, he would need anything for either his own needs or for his programs, he would have to he would himself have to go and shop everything. But Keith started taking it up.
And Howard started helping in the editing of books. First he started typing. And while he was typing, he noticed something in the manuscript that needed fixing, he started editing.
And in this way, Prabhupada got people who were not just one-off assistants whenever they felt like assisting, but he started getting people who were committed followers. And eventually Keith started cooking for Prabhupada, and not just cooking for Prabhupada, when a number of people start coming over there, then Prabhupada asked him to cook for everyone. And now when some of these boys who either stayed there itself where the storefront temple was, or they stayed nearby, Prabhupada started doing a public morning program.
Not public in the sense that a lot of people were coming, but he started the morning program, where in the morning, they would have prayers, they would sing kirtans, and then Prabhupada would give a talk. So the devotees found that Prabhupada, in the morning, a program was in a different mood. He was in a more contemplative, sober and deep, internally focused mood.
And he would speak on the Bhagavad Gita in the morning also. But because in the morning there were not many people and because there would be time after the morning program, after the evening program, Prabhupada would leave. He would retire early usually, he would wake up early and he would do his work of translation.
But in the morning, Prabhupada would have time and there could be a lot of questions. And this became a group, almost like a father and a son or a grandfather and grandchildren. They all started bonding with Prabhupada.
And Prabhupada started talking, not just directly about the philosophy, they asked questions to him about his life, about how he had been introduced to Krishna Bhakti, his parents, his experiences. And Prabhupada generously gave his time. There was a spiritual connection which is already there because they saw Prabhupada as an evolved soul.
But now it was a human connection that was being established. And they started appreciating Prabhupada more and more. They would ask Prabhupada all kinds of questions on varieties of issues on India’s political struggle for independence and the condition of India thereof, on the comparison between India and America.
And Prabhupada was also well read. He had studied, well read in English literature. So, Prabhupada had studied the English literature when he was studying in Scottish Church College.
He was well basically informed about the authors, British authors. And Howard Wheeler was an English professor. So, he had lots of questions.
And he basically, what Prabhupada would say about whom, it was, it was unpredictable and it was a discovery. Prabhupada would always explain things in the light of scripture. And he would shine that light on a distinctive aspect, which most of them had not thought of and which gave them fresh illumination, not just in the breadth or scope of spiritual wisdom, but also in terms of the erudition of Prabhupada in presenting scripture in contemporary terms.
So, Prabhupada taught Keith and others cooking. And on, so Keith would cook on most of the days and on some days, especially Sundays, Prabhupada would himself cook. And the young people there were delighted to observe that Prabhupada knew so many recipes and cooked so well.
In fact, Howard said that Swamiji’s knowledge of recipes was as extensive as his knowledge of Sanskrit verses. Just as he could quote verses at will during his talks, he could actually cook so many items. And he had a very paternal or grandfatherly relationship and he would encourage all of them to eat as much as they wanted.
And the food that they would eat was actually all in a celebrative, festive mood. So, every day, especially the lunch would be festive. So, Prabhupada himself, after Keith would cook the food, Prabhupada had told him the standards of cooking properly for the Lord and Prabhupada would offer the food.
Thus, he was introducing the rudiments of bhakti culture. Right now, Prabhupada did not have formal deities. He had basically pitches to which he would offer the food.
At this, Prabhupada was introducing things step by step. And although there were no deities, no formal altar for the public to come and see, these deities were in an inner room, but already in the Lower East Side area, the storefront started being referred to as the temple. Because everybody could see that this was a spiritual place.
It was a place devoted to the glorification of God. And people came and some of them would ask challenging questions and some of them came to help. Of course, the number of people who came forward to assist were far lesser than the number of people who came forward to challenge.
But still, these few assistants also mark a new phase in Shri Prabhupada’s outreach in the West. Many of the people who were coming earlier, who had helped Prabhupada, Bill Epstein, Carl Juergens, who had helped Prabhupada when he was with the time programs at the loft where David Allen was staying, or when he had to leave there and move out. They still saw Prabhupada as an evolved soul, but they were not interested in treating him as a guru.
So, when they saw that these new boys, they stayed in the Mott Street, the Mott Street boys, they were offering respects to Prabhupada, treating him reverentially and they seemed to be treating him as a person of authority. So, Prabhupada would earlier sit on just a seat which was not very significantly elevated. But now they had created a significantly elevated seat for Prabhupada.
In fact, the first time they had created it, they had just used some material that was available here and there. But when Prabhupada stepped on it, they were afraid that maybe it would crack and Prabhupada’s leg would go down. But fortunately, it had stayed firm and thereafter Prabhupada had appreciated that and they started using that.
So, when some of these older people saw that Prabhupada was being venerated, they didn’t like that so much and they felt that now that more people were coming for the Kirtans and Swamiji was being venerated, they felt that they couldn’t connect with him so well. They still remained well-wishers and whenever they would come, Prabhupada would welcome them and talk with them. But there was a change of guard.
The spiritual shoppers were now turning away. They felt that they had done enough shopping and they didn’t want to shop any further. The spiritual seekers were now connecting in a dedicated way and they were getting trained by Sri Prabhupada for going deeper into the principles of Bhakti.
Of course, the spiritual seekers brought their own set of challenges. So, when Sri Prabhupada started having systematic programs, say for example, morning everyday he would have Kirtans, everyday he would have class. Some of the people who were living over there, they were not really spiritual seekers, they were just boarders and they started objecting.
So, one such boy said that, Swamiji, my father was a boxer and I am not meant to sit here and just move beads. I want to go on the beach, I want to dance, I want to box. And this was a familiar litany of complaints and Prabhupada one day, when he kept speaking this again and again, Prabhupada one day goes, alright, go and do it then.
He just shrank back. Prabhupada, he says, go and do it. Prabhupada was actually echoing the words of Lord Krishna.
When Krishna at the end of the Bhagavad says, yathe chisita kuru, as you desire, so you do. Ultimately, everyone has free will and they have to make choices. Just as Krishna, before giving this call to Arjuna to decide as per his desire, Krishna had given the message of the Bhagavad Gita, which he asked Arjuna to deliberate, vimrish shaitada sheshena yathe chisita kuru, deliberate and decide what you want to do.
So like that, Prabhupada had been sharing spiritual wisdom for a significant amount of time. And he now told, now you decide what you want to do. So he shrank back surprised, but he stayed on.
Now, along with these three people, Valli, Keith and Howard, others also came who were more of spiritual seekers. There’s Bruce, there was Steve. Now, when they came, Steve was… All these would later become initiated disciples of Srila Prabhupada and they would also become leaders in his movement.
So, Keith would become Kirtanananda, Howard would become Haigreev, Valli would become Umapati, Steve would become Satsvarupa and Bruce would become Brahmananda. So, Steve was among all the boys who were coming and helping Srila Prabhupada. Steve was the only person who had a job.
As we discussed, most of them were hippies and they had left everything to explore. They had started exploring drugs, but when they came and started participating in Srila Prabhupada’s kirtans, Prabhupada’s kirtans were in a very inclusive mood. The lectures were very formal and it was clear that it was not just a casual discussion.
It was serious instruction and if somebody interrupted and voiced an opinion or a question, Prabhupada was firm, Prabhupada said question answers will be at the end. So, Prabhupada kept the atmosphere in the classes formal, but the kirtans were more informal. In fact, there were many musicians who came because all those people, hippies, were very much into music and they came just to see the music, just to feel it out and they would come and play their own instruments and Prabhupada was very liberal with respect to whatever instruments they wanted to play and the devotees, once in a pile of garbage, had found the innards of a piano and they had got that and kept near the door.
Now, none of them really knew how very well to play piano, but they just kept it there and sometimes some visitors would come and just start playing something over there. So, Prabhupada would allow that and he had brought cymbals from India and he would hand out the cymbals and sometimes different visitors, they would catch the 1, 2, 3 tune and they would start playing. So, Prabhupada accommodated them all and then Prabhupada would sing, Prabhupada would play the drum and they would find that he could play the drum in brilliant ways and many of the musicians, they came and they appreciated and especially for these young people, the kirtans were exploration and spiritual discovery as Swamiji would sing and they would sing with him and they would look at each other appreciatively and they would actually use drug terminology.
Whenever they had been taking drugs earlier, they had been taking LSD, at that time, they would take one dose and they would say, man, I am going high now, I am seeing something special and like that they would share reports of what they were seeing and that’s how they had bonded and now when they would be doing kirtans, they were always singing or hearing Swamiji sing, but they would look at each other and they would appreciate and say, I am really going high, I am going higher than before. So, through the music, through the association with Prabhupada, through the wisdom that he was giving, they started experiencing something higher. Whenever the kirtans would take place, they felt as if the kirtans were transporting them far above Lower East Side to some mystical realm where they were experiencing things which they had never experienced before.
Now, Swamiji was very accommodating, but at the same time, with respect to philosophy, he could be quite cutting. Sometimes people would say, Swamiji, when I do kirtans, when we sing, then I see a white light. Prabhupada said, that’s just a hallucination.
Now, this person had thought that, oh, I have got a special sight, because their whole idea when they would take drugs was that the purpose of taking drugs was they were going to get some special sights, some special visions and they would share those visions with each other. In fact, the word LSD referred to the drug, its chemical formulation, but these people had given a new full form to this LSD. They called it, those who take drugs, those who take LSD belong to the league of spiritual discovery.
So, they had the idea that they were spiritual discoverers, but Swamiji only said that there’s no need for you to take drugs. Just chant and you’ll go higher. And these young people, they were experiencing that they were going higher, that they were experiencing something much deeper.
So, they were spiritual seekers and their seeking was giving them some results. So, sometimes some people, some who were drug users, they would come and challenge. They heard that Swamiji disapproved of taking drugs.
One time, one of them challenged, so Swamiji, what do you think about drugs? He said that if you want to experience God, God cannot be summoned by drugs. He can be invoked by devotion and you chant His names. So, but then how do you know? Have you taken drugs? So, Prabhupada replied that I have not even taken tea or coffee in my life.
Then how do you know? How can you know? This person was arrogant and he thought as if he had defeated Swamiji. If you have not taken this, how can you know what drugs produce? So, then Prabhupada just looked at his followers and how would you answer? And Howard replied that I have taken drugs before and now I’m chanting and I can tell you the difference. He said, when you take drugs, you go high.
But after going high, you come back again. You don’t stay up there. But when you chant the holy names, when you chant this mantra, you go high and you keep going higher and higher and higher.
You stay high forever. When he spoke this, this became the line which conveyed, encapsulated this distinctiveness of the gift that Shri Prabhupada was offering. So, people started understanding that this was a serious spiritual business and so they started committing themselves and some of them, more and more of them moved in staying with Swamiji and assisting him in various ways.
Now, when still he was a only among them, only among the early followers who had had a job, he was working in the Social Welfare Office and when he came to meet Swamiji during the lunch hour, he would come for some program. Then he came in lunch hour and he took a book and Prabhupada told him, sit down. And he purchased three volumes of Prabhupada’s books and he said, sit down.
And he said, no Swami, I’m sorry, I have to go. I just come on my lunch hour. And Prabhupada was actually pleased to hear that he was working and that he was a responsible young man on the moon.
And Prabhupada said, come in the evenings, if possible, come in the mornings when you can. And then he also started coming more and more. So, as all these people started coming, they all started assisting in various ways.
So, still because he was earning, he started contributing financially also. And as Swamiji would distribute his books and as they started, as they started getting some resources, then they started giving more and more food. Earlier, Swamiji would just give some small slice of apple to people.
But now, he started giving food after the programs. The programs are still going Monday, Wednesday, Friday and those programs, people were coming. And as the number of people coming started increasing, then they started creating a more of a devotional, festive atmosphere.
As the more vibrant Swamiji’s mission, he had started the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, but that mission started manifesting more and more. This was a temple, the first temple that Swamiji manifested in the West. And he had got no support from India.
But just by drawing on resources from the West, he had started the first tangible step in fulfilling the mission of spreading