Prabhupada life-story 04 – League of Devotees – A clique thwarts the promise

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
talks.
Thank you. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
Welcome back to our series on Shri Prabhupada’s life story. We have discussed till now the point where Shri Prabhupada was single-handedly working tirelessly to publish back-to-garden magazines. And he decided slowly to shift his energy to writing books.
Along with that, he was trying multiple avenues for outreach. So, while he was traveling to various places, he would try to work in meeting people, talking with them, and trying to get some things to move forwards. So, in the 1950s, roughly 1951, he more or less, formally or informally, however we want to put it, he took up the Vanaprastha ashram.
In the traditional Indian culture, there were four stages of life, Brahmachari, Grahastha, Vanaprastha and Sannyas. So, Vanaprastha is like the retired life, where one stops working for earning and for promoting oneself materially, and then starts focusing more and more on spiritual advancement. Sannyas is not just retirement, it is renunciation.
So, during Vanaprastha, a husband and wife may still live together. But in Sannyas, they don’t live together at all. Sannyas is complete formal separation.
So, Vishal Prabhupada had been working diligently at all three fronts. He had been working at his family level to take care of his family responsibilities, to inspire his family to practice spiritual, to pick up Bhakti also seriously. He was working at a professional level to expand his business to try out various ventures by which he could both provide financial stability for his family and provide financial support for his spiritual master’s mission.
And additionally, he was trying to do his own outreach initiatives, do programs and conduct programs, write articles, try to write books and try to share the spiritual message with others. Now, these three were all heavy demands on his time, energy, and his consciousness. And he slowly found that his family is pious, but not spiritual.
Actually, that was the condition of most Indians that he met. They appreciated religion as a good thing. And they felt that there is no need to do it too much.
And the definition of too much was that they just felt that why have preaching programs? Why try to make other people into devotees? Just have some sort of worship in one’s house, occasionally go to temples. That was what they expected. And that kind of pious religiosity was what his family, especially his wife Radharani, she was satisfied with that.
And in fact, Manjula Prabhupada, Abhay, he became Abhaycharan Arvind when he took initiation. In 1932, his sister Pishima came there for the initiation. The family was there only at that time, but his wife did not come for the initiation ceremony.
First, she refused to herself take initiation, and Prabhupada was okay with that. Ultimately, initiation is an individual spiritual commitment, and every soul has to make that oneself. But then, her refusal to even come for the initiation ceremony was a strong signal that she did not support or approve this so much.
Prabhupada, of course, was trying to do his family responsibilities, but he found that his family was not interested in spirituality, and he was trying to, he anyway had a job which required him to travel to various places. And so while he was traveling, often his travels mixed the spiritual with the professional. When he would interact with people, he would do professional work of selling pharmaceutical products and other things that he was trying to market.
But along with that, he would talk about his spiritual aspirations also to share Krishna’s message. So he was living a vanaprastha life where he would intermittently go and meet his family members, and otherwise he would be away trying to do both, earn as well as preach. So while he was doing this, he has made a major initiative in Jhansi.
He is, one of his family, one of his business visits had got him Jhansi, and then he had talked about Krishna Bhakti also, and he had found a number of people who were interested over there. So when they were interested thus, what happened was that he took the focus on trying to cultivate them. He shifted the focus to cultivating them.
And when he found a number of people were interested, then he started inquiring about the possibility of making a base over there, and people seemed to be very receptive. Now, of course, what happened was that they were receptive, but in a different way. They were, it was more of a pious regard for a sadhu, not so much of a specific spiritual interest or a specific spiritual commitment.
It was this that created a conflict of mutual expectations, which would eventually come to a flashpoint. But at this stage, the people over there seemed to be enthusiastic, and Prabhupada was conducting programs regularly, and people would come and hear, and they encouraged him to formalize his preaching initiatives, his Krishna Bhakti sharing programs, and thus, he decided to start an organization over there. During the course of his conducting programs, as well as his doing his business work, he had met a number of influential people, and he invited many of them to come for the inauguration of what he declared as the League of Devotees.
Now, the League of Devotees was the name he gave to the organization, which he hoped would bring together those who are devotionally inclined all over the world, and help them to grow spiritually and to contribute to this world spiritual growth at large. Just like the League of Nations had been an organization that had been established earlier to try to ensure peace and to prevent war among the world’s countries through fostering unity, similarly, Prabhupada wanted to foster Bhakti and spirituality through the League of Devotees. And he had elaborate programs inaugurating the event, and there was a building which was offered to him for the activities of League of Devotees.
And as they offered him, so he made that into his headquarters. And he had grand vision wherein he planned that he could even have people coming there and staying. So, he had a plan for something like a monastery, something like a spiritual training place where people could learn the Bhagavad Gita, learn the Bhagavatam, and then become equipped to teach it.
So, he envisioned this as a base from where he could reach a large number of people. And as he was working on this, the interest over there was also growing, and he could see good signs in all directions. Now, of course, while he was doing this, his business was being neglected, and he felt that his spiritual purpose was the most important for him.
That was what he lived for, that was what his spiritual master instructed him to work for. And he wanted to give his whole and soul to this particular initiative. Normally, when we invest, we are told that do not put all your eggs in one basket.
That means, do not invest all your money, all your energy in just one endeavor. Because if that does not work out, if that basket say breaks, then all your eggs are broken. So, if you put our eggs in different baskets, even if one basket falls, even if one basket breaks, we’ll have some eggs somewhere else.
So, the idea is that if we distribute our investment, then one loss won’t prove to be a fatal loss. But Shri Prabhupada, when he was working for establishing the League of Devotees, he put, metaphorically speaking, all his eggs in that one basket. He put his whole life and soul into trying to expand, establish and then expand the League of Devotees.
And yet, the same piety that had motivated people to come to him, that piety checked them from committing in any substantial way. So, people were ready to come and hear talks, people were ready to come and offer nominal religious respect, but in terms of commitment, commitment in terms of, say, following sadhana bhakti, following the rules and regulations of commitment in terms of being determined to devote oneself to Krishna, that was something which was, they were not ready to do. And there’s one person, person who was a professor in a college, Prabhakar Mishra, he became initiated by Shri Prabhupada.
This was the first time Shri Prabhupada initiated a devotee, disciple. Now, he had earlier worked with his godbrothers and at that time, his godbrothers had their own mutt and Prabhupada was staying with them and he would travel with, either with them or travel with their disciples and he would give classes. When he would give classes, people would be attracted and some people said, we would like to take initiation from you.
And Prabhupada was interested, yes, if you want, I can give initiation. But some of the disciples of the gurus, whose mutt he was working, they said, no, you cannot initiate. It is our guru who will initiate.
If you want, you can preach. So, Prabhupada, when he saw this such kind of conflict, he just left. Prabhupada did not want to step on anyone’s foot.
He just wanted to preach. He had tried also in many ways to work with his godbrothers. At one time, when he was experimenting with the phase of vanaprastha, of retiring from family life and focusing on bhakti.
So, he lived with his godbrothers. They all knew that he was himself a resourceful writer and a resourceful editor. And especially at a time when Indians were not known particularly to be good in English, a person who was both good at philosophy, good at English and had the inspiration and drive to write and edit, I suppose it was a blessing, was a precious resource.
And several of his godbrothers, several of the disciples of his spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhanta Vivek Thakur, they started inviting him to come and edit their magazine and help them publish it. And editing and writing was an area in which he was in his element. He loved to do this service and he envisioned.
So, when he was running the Harmonist magazine, which had been started by his spiritual master and his spiritual master and his predecessors, spiritual masters, Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur had started a magazine called Sanjantoshini. And over the years, it had been named as the Harmonist. And it was vibrant.
And he wanted to, he was editing magazines like the Harmonist, which had been started by the different splinter groups, which had come after the fracture of the Gaudiya Math. And the mission was the same as what was of his previous teachers. And he wanted to, through the format of the magazine, take Krishna’s message far and wide.
But somehow, they did not share that zeal. And thus, he found that he was repeatedly checked, he was repeatedly blocked, he was not at all encouraged. So, for example, he said that he had persuaded the printer that at the same cost, the printer would double the amount of production of the magazines.
But then, the Godbrother who was in charge of the Math, he wrote through his secretary saying that, you know, we do not print more magazines, keep them as the same. Prabhupada said, what is the harm in printing more? At that time, there were no computers. So, he would, he would either handwrite or he would type.
Now, when something is handwritten, for the printer to actually put it on the, put it for printing, they had to decipher it carefully. And if there is any mistake, which happens quite often, they had to go through the whole process again and again. So, if there was, things were typed, the chances of mistakes would be much lesser.
But there was no, there was no typewriter, although he was expected to run a magazine. And when he requested for a typewriter, he got a reply that, just work with, you know, if you write clearly, there is no need for a typewriter. So, Prabhupada felt that this was slowing things down.
So, himself, taking his initiative, he rented a typewriter. And then, while he was working thus, he was politely told to, that you know, that you are working with very young devotees. He was staying at the ashram of one of his Godbrothers, where, from where he was trying to run the magazine.
And he was told that while you are working, you are working with very young, inexperienced, immature devotees. And they do not know how to properly offer respect to a senior Vaishnava like you. And therefore, it is best that they do not offend you.
And therefore, it is best that you work with some of our other Godbrothers. So, basically, it is polite and flowery, but the essence of it was, they were dismissing him. So, Prabhupada had given himself to the service of his spiritual master and he thought that I can serve my spiritual master through those who are serving my spiritual master, through his sannyasi Godbrothers.
But somehow, their vision was limited and they just could not appreciate Prabhupada’s hugeness of vision. So, Prabhupada wanted to publish Chaitanya Charita Amrit. And although his focus was on English, Bhakti Siddhanta Sri Thakur had told him to write in English.
But right now, he did not see any option for speaking in English. So, for writing in English in major publications, so he thought that while he was travelling and speaking in the Hindi hinterland, then he could write in Hindi. So, he started translating Chaitanya Charita Amrit into Hindi so that it could be available for publishing.
And he asked his Godbrother for providing funds and they refused again. So, they said that we have too many projects going on, so we cannot provide. So, Prabhupada, he had been facing setbacks, first in his business, then in his outreach initiatives for assisting his Godbrothers.
But the biggest setback he faced in terms of something where he had invested himself totally and he seemed to have had a promising start, that was the League of Devotees. So, normally, you know, when something does not work out right at the beginning itself, we give it up. But sometime works out, something seems to be working out nicely in the beginning and suddenly we are blocked, then it becomes very difficult to accept it.
So, some of his patrons, some of the supporters in Jhansi, they also at that time, they felt that for them, religion was one good activity among many good activities. And so, as I said, there was no real philosophical understanding of the purpose of life, no serious contemplation on what, on how religious practice helps us want to grow spiritually and thereby attain life’s ultimate purpose. So, they felt that at a sentimental level, yes, going to a temple is good, supporting a sadhu is good.
But it was just one good activity among many good activities. And if another good activity seemed better, then the support for this good activity would go down. That was what, the danger was there and that is what unfortunately happened.
So, earlier, he had tried to call one of his senior godbrothers and he had said that, can your mutt purchase this land, the building where he was staying, can they purchase the building so that he can run the center over there, on behalf of that mutt? So, when he had called his godbrother like this, the problem was, his godbrother came and saw the place and he said that actually, Jhansi is not a very big city, it’s a small city and the people also don’t seem to be very seriously interested over there. So, since Bhaktsadhansa Thakur, the spiritual master who was no longer on the planet, he wanted the preaching to be established in big cities. So, he said that all centers are to be opened, let us focus on the big cities.
So, this is a polite way in which he said that they cannot invest for opening, for purchasing the center in Jhansi. So, Prabhupada, as he was working on building the center, trying to get the resources, he was living on a property that had been given to him largely out of charity. But it had not been handed over to him, he was just allowed to do his functioning over there and he had a grand vision of making that into the international headquarters of his outreach mission.
But then at that time, the local head of governments, different places have mayors, they have sheriffs, they have municipal heads. So, like that, the local heads of state and the head of government at Jhansi. So, his wife, she got involved with some group, which was into providing vocational skills to women.
So, say women who have become widows or women who are from poor families or such situations where people who did not have adequate means to support themselves financially, they felt that if you could train such women and for that purpose, they wanted a place. So, now, the place that was available most easily was the place where Bhaktivant Swami was, where Abhay Babu was working as having made it the base of the League of Devotees. And he found, when Prabhupada heard about this, he was very disappointed, he was very distressed.
He felt that the people who were supporting him now, they were directly or indirectly pressurizing him to vacate that place, so that they could have this establishment made for training, for offering vocational training to women. There is social service, there is social empowerment, and that is important. At the same time, there is spiritual empowerment and spiritual growth, which is the most important because that is life’s ultimate purpose.
If we don’t do that, then whatever else we achieve, it all remains temporary. None of it offers any enduring benefit. The body’s needs, even if they are taken care of in the best possible way, still, what is the end of the end result? The body grows old, gets diseased and dies.
So, we need a proper balance between taking care of the body and taking care of the soul, just like we need a balance between taking care of a car and taking care of the driver of the car. Now, the car is meant for the driver, the driver is not meant for the car. Similarly, the soul, which is like the driver in the body, the soul is not meant for the body, the body is meant for the soul.
That means the soul’s needs have to be given due priority and due importance. But for people who did not have such philosophical understanding, they felt that actually, religion is a good activity, but there are already so many temples, there are so many sadhus, why do we need one more organization? And even if that is not there, we can always go to some other temple, we can always go to some other sadhu, we can always hear katha from someone else. So, but if these women are not provided for vocational training, then how will they live? So, the problem for them was that they felt this was very practical and that is not so essential.
So, then they started making conspiracy against Prabhupada to get him out of there. Now, Prabhupada had been entrusted that place for the use of, as the head of quarters of the League of Devotees, and he could have fought. And there were people who were some of the supporters, those people who had been supporting him in Jhansi, they had got split.
Some of them were feeling that that vocational training center was much more important, others felt that no, what Swamiji is doing, that is also important. So, they were split. Some of them said, you stay and fight, we will support you.
But then Prabhupada thought, is this worth fighting for? He felt that actually, after all, Jhansi is not such an important place, as his godbrother had rightly pointed out, based on the criteria that his spiritual master had set. And moreover, the people here were still of, I mean, sentimental deference, not any spiritual commitment, serious spiritual commitment. And he felt that if the people who were supporting him were going against him, then what was the point in fighting? Now, as a businessman, he had fought many battles, legal battles were not unfamiliar, but he felt that he did not have the time.
He was aging and he wanted to give his time for direct sharing of Krishna Bhakti. So, he decided that this was a battle not worth fighting, that he had bigger and more important battles to fight. And thus, he decided to leave Jhansi.
The place where he had invested all his eggs, that basket had cracked. He was left with nothing. When he left the League of Devotees, he just was homeless, penniless, jobless, but he was not purposeless.
He was purposeful. And that purpose of serving Krishna, sharing Krishna’s message, glorifying Krishna, attracting people towards Krishna’s practice of Bhakti, that remained undefeatable for him. And although he would get many obstacles and reversals, that purpose would eventually emerge triumphant.
What challenges he faced in future and how he persevered, we will discuss in our next sessions.