Prabhupada life-story 09 – Alone and unaided in an alien land

Audio Podcast :

Video :

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Welcome back to this series on Prabhupada’s life story.
We have discussed in the previous episode about Prabhupada’s momentous journey by sea across the Indian Ocean and then the Atlantic Ocean, a journey that was physically demanding with getting seasickness and two heart attacks, but a journey that was also divinely revealing. He got a revelation of Krishna’s form with all his avataras, guaranteeing him protection and it was also divinely revealing in terms of revealing the heart’s consciousness of Prabhupada, how he was absorbed in the remembrance of Krishna, how he was utterly devoted to Krishna, how he was longing to simply be an instrument of Krishna, how he had this mood of determined devotional surrender to Krishna, begging him to let him dance, to make him dance. So Prabhupada landed in the… he came to the Boston Pyre, landed over there.
The journey had taken him 45 days. He started on 13th of August, had reached on the 17th of September. Now when he landed, he did not even know whether to turn left or right.
He was dressed appropriately for a Vaishnava mendicant in India, but his apparel was strange, to say the very least, in America and it was gold. And yet Prabhupada was unfazed. He was determined to do whatever it took to carry out his mission.
So he thanked Captain Pandya for his hospitality during the ship journey and he came out. There was the Sindhya shipping company agent, Mr. Forster. He was impressed to see this unusual passenger with such a light baggage.
And then there’s a travel agent who had arranged, who escorted Prabhupada to a bus and the bus took him from New York to Butler, Pennsylvania, where Gopal and Saliya Garwal were living. Now Prabhupada, as his bus went through Manhattan, he saw the imposing skyline. Now he saw this material prosperity and within it he saw actually spiritual scarcity.
He saw, he was not impressed on seeing how prosperous the people and the culture and the civilization of America were. He felt distressed on seeing how amid this material prosperity, there was spiritual bankruptcy. And his heart moved with compassion to do what it took to share this spiritual treasure that he had with whoever he could.
As his bus went through first the urban area, then the lands changed and he went through the hilly area, sometimes going through tunnels, finally Butler, Pennsylvania. And there at the bus stop was waiting Gopal Garwal who met him and he bowed down several times from the waist down and said, welcome Swamiji, welcome. Now while Gopal was offering this formal welcome, you know, Swamiji’s coming here had been none of his business.
His father had asked him to arrange for the sponsorship for several sadhus and several elders like this and he had dutifully fulfilled the sponsorship forms, but nothing had come of it. And when again he had asked him to do the same thing for his Bhaktivedanta Swami, he had thought it would be something similar. But one day when he got a letter and his wife Saliya Garwal, who had been born and brought up in America, she had met her husband as he was an engineer and they had got, they had met at work and then they had got married.
So she opened the letter and she said, oh gosh! She was concerned, she was alarmed, she was perplexed. He says, the Swami is coming here. Now they had a small house and they didn’t know what to do with the Swami.
So Srila Prabhupada had enclosed a photo of his so that they could recognize him and Gopala looked at that and he saw how unusual a person like that would be in America. So there was no mistaking him. So now they were at their wit’s end and Prabhupada was a very alert person.
He could sense that and he just fit into their house without making any undue demands. They did not have a very big house and they asked Swami to sleep on a couch and Prabhupada agreed to that. And now they were just simple Americans and they were little apprehensive about how this elderly Swami’s presence in their house would be taken.
So they decided to take him and his details to a local newspaper and to get an article published about it so that everybody would know and they would not have to explain again and again. So they did that. The first newspaper was not very interested but another newspaper did become interested and then an article was published and they said that this is a representative, representative, elderly scholarly representative of a Hindu cult has come to Butler and Prabhupada seeing this host discomfort kept a low profile.
So he would just talk with guests, whoever would come to meet him. Whenever there’s opportunity he would talk with some other people. He addressed some meetings at the YMCA, Young Man Christians Association and other such places wherever he got an opportunity to speak and Prabhupada had a three-month visa and now while he was staying with Gopal and Sally Agarwal, he simply first spent his time in learning the American ways.
So Sally Agarwal, she said that Swamiji was so interested in everything that we did. So when I used a vacuum cleaner, he was very interested in knowing how it operated. Whenever I used any devices, whenever we went to supermarket and we had this frozen foods, Swamiji was interested in seeing how they are preserved, how they are kept and Prabhupada seemed very eager to learn about the western ways.
Now this is an aspect of Sri Prabhupada that reveals both his humility and his sagacity, his wisdom. It is he is an elderly man and not only is he elderly, he’s also spiritually profoundly advanced and yet he has humility to learn from people of the age of his grandchildren and not only that, he knows that he has to understand his audience before he can make himself understood to the audience and that’s why he was studying American culture, understanding the ways of the Americans and as he was doing this day in day out, what happened? Actually, he started getting more opportunities. There’s a nearby university from which a Professor Larson, he read an article about Sri Prabhupada in the newspaper and he invited Professor Larson, he invited Prabhupada to come and speak at his university and Prabhupada spoke over there and he found association of Prabhupada illuminating and he was asking about comparative religions and Prabhupada answered some questions.
Prabhupada was non-sectarian. Even in in Gopalan Saliyagar’s house, one day a guest had asked him about Jesus Christ and Prabhupada had said that Jesus is the son of God and everybody was surprised to hear that this Hindu Swami accepted Jesus as a son of God and then Prabhupada said that not only Jesus son of God, all of us are sons of God, all of us are children of God and then further Prabhupada told him that actually comparative religion is good but once one has come to know one’s way, then after that comparative religion just becomes intellectual sense gratification. One should not just keep investigating various different ways.
Once one has found the way, one should pursue the way. As Prabhupada observed and learned the various American ways, he was a very non-intrusive guest. The Agarwals would eat meat and sometimes Prabhupada would come to their house, they had just finished eating meat and he would say, they would say, they would apologize, Swamiji will find this smell very disagreeable.
Prabhupada would just nonchalantly say, think nothing about it. He would keep the food which he would cook and offer to Krishna also in the same fridge where they would keep their meat but Prabhupada was unobtrusive. So Sally Agarwal says that Swamiji was the best guest I have ever had.
He would make no demands from us. He would not expect us to change anything and if I couldn’t spend any time with him, he would just chant the names of God and he said he developed a bond like a father with him. He was like my father-in-law.
He says, he was a friend of my father, acquaintance of my father-in-law but he became very close, I came very close to him and Prabhupada spent two months in Butler, Pennsylvania trying to understand American culture and exploring options to speak. But then now only one month of his visa remained and he decided that there was not much opportunity for sharing Krishna’s message in Philadelphia, so in Butler. So he decided to go to New York.
New York was practically the most important city of America and the most important city of the world and thus he decided to go there and there was one Dr. Mishra who was his contact over there. So Prabhupada went to Philadelphia for a couple of days where he had a program and from Philadelphia, he went to New York. Now, although Prabhupada was alone in a distant land and although Sally Agarwal felt apprehensive, how will this elderly Swami stay alone? But Prabhupada was a sannyasi.
He was not dependent on any material facilities. He was there to share Krishna’s message. Now, when he came to New York, Mishra had a yoga studio and he also had an Ananda Ashram on the outskirts of New York where he would further teach yoga.
He had been a doctor earlier but now he had started teaching yoga and he was from the monastic school. So Prabhupada was a bhakta and he based on the Bhagavad Gita and other Vedic literature, he strongly held that God, the absolute truth is a person whereas Dr. Mishra held the idea that the absolute truth is impersonal and Prabhupada and he would often have lively discussions and debates and yet while they would have fierce arguments, but at the same time, Prabhupada was very courteous with him. In fact, Dr. Mishra was sometimes, because he was so busy and a little distracted, he would often not eat regularly.
He would just grab whatever food he would get. But Prabhupada was very regulated in eating. He would himself cook his food, himself offer his food and he would take the food and while Prabhupada would argue with Dr. Mishra about philosophy, Prabhupada was himself very courteous, very caring and he ensured that Dr. Mishra ate regularly and maintained himself and took Prabhupada took care of him.
So Prabhupada’s culture was still very, his cultured refined behavior was very prominent even amidst their ideological differences and then now Dr. Mishra, he would teach yoga and he would also teach philosophy and he sometimes asked Prabhupada to speak, but then Prabhupada would criticize the impersonalist conceptions and he would focus emphatically on how the absolute truth is a person and that led to conflicts. So then eventually Prabhupada was told that you can sing kirtans, but you cannot speak. Now Prabhupada would sing kirtans and everybody would appreciate the sweetness of his kirtans.
But Prabhupada wanted to give a message and that message, he wanted to impart wisdom, not just share some music. So several people, although Prabhupada would not get to speak, he would be present at the time of when people would come to meet Dr. Mishra and he would sing and some people would come and talk with him and then Prabhupada would talk about bhakti wisdom with them. It was at this time that Shri Prabhupada was there in 1965 when America in that time experienced a huge power blackout.
Over seven states lost power and for several hours there was no power at all. Prabhupada was used to this in India, but he was surprised to see it in America. But he just picked up his bead bag and Prabhupada was staying in a small room near the Mishra studio and Prabhupada just was chanting.
So when Dr. Mishra sent somebody with candles and some fruits, Prabhupada, he found that, I mean it’s a darkness, Prabhupada was very cheerful. There were people who were panicky, people had become suicidal, people had become paranoid and almost 30 million people had become affected during that power cut. But Prabhupada was transcendental as he had always, as is always.
And eventually Prabhupada decided to have his own place separate from the Mishra yoga studio because he wanted to have the facility to share Krishna’s message. Now Prabhupada, he had been trying very much to have his own place, a place where he could speak Krishna’s message. Prabhupada had very limited funds with which he had been able to come to America and he had some more funds which he got because he had gathered his books and whenever people would meet him, he would sell them his books and get some money.
He would himself go and put some books at some stores and there he would get some money and he’s maintaining himself. But by no means did Prabhupada have enough money to have a place for sharing Krishna Bhakti. So he started writing to various Indians.
He wrote to his own godbrothers who were leaders of their mathas. He said that our spiritual master Bhakti Siddhanta Sri Thakur wanted that the bhakti wisdom be spread all over the world and now there is an opportunity for us to have our own center. Prabhupada reported of what all he had been doing and he said, I have concluded that unless we have our own place, we cannot preach effectively.
So therefore, I’m asking you please provide me some funds and he wrote to his godbrother saying that this can be an extension of your matha. It can be your center which I’ll manage for you and although he asked them, none of them responded positively. They said that they appreciated his preaching vigor and his having gone to America to preach but they said he cannot support.
Prabhupada finally through his contacts in India, he got in touch with a person who was interested in building a temple in America. This was Mr. Padampath Singhania and Prabhupada wrote to him and told him that if you could send this money to America and I’ll build a temple. Now Prabhupada was very practical in the sense that he simply, for him at this stage, a temple was not so much about the architecture, the dome, the spire, the elegance of the temple style.
His focus was what is the purpose of a temple. The purpose is to share Krishna’s message and Prabhupada primarily wanted a facility for sharing Krishna’s message, for inviting people to hear katha, to hear kirtan, to take prasad and to have some small deities where people could have darshan. But the Indian patron Mr. Singhania, he was more interested in a traditional kind of temple which would replicate Indian architecture and he wanted also the religious pride of having built a temple in America.
Now to build that kind of temple required a huge amount of money and the Indian government was very very conservative about forex, about letting Indian money go out of America, go out of the country and what to speak of letting Indian money go out of the country to America. So the legally, when Prabhupada told that I need this much money to build a temple and Prabhupada was having a very operational practical kind of structure in mind. But Padampanna Singhania said with this much money you cannot build a temple.
We’ll need much more money and Prabhupada told him that let us start with this much and then we’ll build something bigger. So now all this was happening through letters, no emails at that time. Each letter would take sometimes 15 days.
So Prabhupada was spending his time there and he had arranged expertly through his contact with Mishra and other contacts he had managed to get his visa extended. But still he knew that he couldn’t extend this indefinitely unless there was some tangible thing that happened over there. Some people tangibly expressed interest and said that they wanted him there.
So now finally Prabhupada focused on the spirit of bhakti and he told Mishra Singhania that you are opulent. You have lived in opulence. You have built temples for Krishna with opulence.
So you are a Dwarkavasi and he says I have lived in Vrindavan. I am a Vrajivasi. Now Vrindavan has simplicity.
Dwarka has opulence. But whether there’s opulence or there is simplicity, ultimately both of us are serving the same Lord Krishna. So he said for the service of Lord Krishna let us come together and put aside our differences.
Let us start with a small temple right now and then we can build a big temple. But then Mishra Singhania said no. He said I want to build a big.
If at all I am going to provide funds, it will be for a big traditional architecture kind of a big temple. Now Prabhupada wrote to his godbrothers saying that you know that we have a patron. You please approach the government of India and tell them to clear these funds for building a temple.
Now his godbrothers were reluctant to do anything. Then Prabhupada got the news that Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Prime Minister of India was going to visit America and Prabhupada started going to the Indian High Commission in America and tried to make various arrangements. He showed his photo of his meeting with Lal Bahadur Shastri and he said that please give me an appointment with him.
And he was hoping that that way he could get the money cleared for the temple. Unfortunately, before that Lal Bahadur Shastri went to Russia for a meeting and there he got a heart attack and he passed away and Prabhupada’s plan was shattered. Finally again wrote to his godbrothers, he wrote to his patrons, he wrote to Padampad Sinhania and he got one response.
The essence of that response was it will not be possible to assist you. Prabhupada had come so far with such courage, with such conviction, with such tireless zeal and yet what he was asking for was some small assistance after he had done so much and yet nobody was ready to provide him assistance. But Prabhupada, as he wrote in the letter to one of his acquaintances, he says he was not a person to be disappointed.
Prabhupada’s determination remained unflagging and he had now tried repeatedly to get help from his contacts in India and then when he did not get any help, he was always dependent on Krishna but at the same time he was also determined to serve Krishna with whatever resources he could get. So when he realized that he is not going to get any help from India, he turned his full focus to America and to Americans. He realized that if he was going to share Krishna’s message, the only thing he was going to get from India was the message which Krishna had given long ago in India.
He was not going to get any support. So he would need to get that support from Americans and thus rather than getting disheartened by the failure in getting support, Prabhupada continued his mission and this was his infatigable determination. Prabhupada at that time would walk along in the streets of New York, the big metropolitan city with hundreds, thousands, millions of people, just hundreds of vehicles going by, people walking by.
Prabhupada was just one inconspicuous figure among them. Of course, Prabhupada’s dress was unusual but still considering that New York specialized in having all kinds of motley people, Prabhupada, somebody from a distance could have seen that he was just one person alone. He was far away from his country, far away from his home and having no support from anyone.
But Prabhupada had the supreme support. He had the support of Krishna and Prabhupada had prayed to Krishna on the ship Jal Doota, make me dance and Krishna would not only arrange for Krishna to dance but Krishna had been arranging a stage on which Prabhupada would dance. Now how Krishna had arranged that stage on which Prabhupada would dance and enrich the whole world with the treasure of Krishna bhakti, that we will discuss in our next session.
Thank you. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.