Prabhupada life-story 13 – Fearless amidst disturbed and disturbing audiences

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Welcome back to our discussion on Prabhupada’s life story. We are discussing now about Prabhupada’s breaking new ground in terms of finding dedicated people and starting off his own center at 26 2nd Avenue.
So, Prabhupada, after facing several reversals, first, he had not been allowed to speak because at the Mishra Yoga Studio, he had not had interested people at Salya and Gopala Garhwal’s place. He had been robbed at the new place which he had got for himself. He had been attacked and driven out at David Allen’s place.
He had been an unwanted guest at Karl’s place. So, like this, Prabhupada had gone to many places, almost five to six places and finally now, he had found a place which he could work on. From where he could work? From where he would be? He had a setting ready for him now.
He had a place that was his own. He had an audience that was interested, somewhere seriously interested. And he also found that through the medium of Kirtan and with some philosophy interspersed, he could get people to come regularly.
Prabhupada had long ago recognized when he was in Butler itself that going to places for doing programs where people could hear him only once, that was not going to have much impact. Because he was not there simply as an orator to impress people with his oratorial or intellectual abilities. He was there to assist people, to serve people by inspiring them to raise their consciousness, by offering them the knowledge in the process by which they could change themselves.
They could discover and develop their own latent divinity and spirituality within them. And this required a regular connection between them, between him and those who came to hear him regularly. And for that, he needed his own place.
He had tried again and again to get some support from India, but that had not worked out. So, now that he had a place and now interested people seem to be coming. So, things started moving on.
Now, when the agent who had provided Prabhupada 26th Avenue, Prabhupada had already told him that you can become a trustee of our movement. Now, although there was no movement at that time, and most of the people who came with him, they did not even think that there would be any movement in future. But Prabhupada had his vision.
So, specifically, we discussed about how Howard came to meet Prabhupada and Prabhupada, they chatted for a few minutes and Prabhupada started asking him. So, what do you think, is this a, I have a place over here where I give talks regularly. And Prabhupada showed him the place.
And there Howard saw a note, a small notice, almost hand, it was very simply done. He said, classes every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, from evening 7pm to 9pm. And Prabhupada asked, do you think this is a good place? He was surprised.
Normally, he would have thought that Swamiji is an enlightened person who will give knowledge to everyone. This Swami is asking him. So, he said, yes, Swami, if you want to reach young people, this is a very good place.
Prabhupada was pleased to hear that and he said, will you get your friends, will you tell your friends to come and you come next time for the election? He said, yes, of course, I will tell them. He had no idea what Swamiji would be speaking, but he was eager. He had already gone to India all the way.
And now, if a Guru was, if a real Guru was here in America, surely he was interested. He ran back and told Keith, his friend, and Vali. And they were all intrigued.
And the word spread gradually. And so, the next time, in the iteration of Monday, Wednesday, Friday, when the lecture came, Keith was there and he brought several of his friends. Howard was there and he brought Keith and several of other friends.
And Prabhupada saw him. He was a clearly conspicuous presence. He had a beard, he was tall, he had spectacles.
Oh, you come! You have brought your friends? He said, yes, Swami. Yes, Swamiji. He said, thank you.
Good. And then Prabhupada started his kirtans. And as soon as the kirtans started, Keith and his friends, Howard, Keith and the other friends felt this was going to be something far out.
Prabhupada closed his eyes and he was singing. And they also closed their eyes and started to sing. Some of them opened their eyes, looking at each other, what was everyone doing.
But the singing was so captivating. And they felt as if the sound was like some kind of mystical plane. And as they would place their consciousness on that sound, their consciousness were transported somewhere else, just as when we alight in a plane, when we enter into a plane, then the plane takes us away.
So they wanted to go as far out as they could. They had tried drugs as a means to go high and now they’re open to try sound as a means to go high. They had of course, many of them were into music, but this music was itself very special.
And as they observed it, what was happening? They felt as if they were no longer in the Lower East Side. They closed their eyes and they just seemed to enter into a different realm, a mystical realm where they were propelled deeper and deeper into arenas of sweetness, of serenity, of peace, of ecstasy. As they were transported up, Prabhupada would sing and they would follow.
Sometimes they would not wait for Prabhupada to lead again. They would sing throughout. But the kirtans were mystical experiences.
And many of them, just as they had got hooked to drugs, they got hooked to kirtans. And Prabhupada would do long kirtans in the beginning. He would have a talk where some question answered.
Again he would do kirtans. And he told the people who would come for his program, he said, he gave them the Hare Krishna mantra and said, you can chant it other times also. And they tried it and they found that it just expanded their consciousness.
They felt as if the whole world was new. They felt as if they were somehow different because of this chanting and that attracted them. And then it was not just the chanting alone.
The Prabhupada himself was a magnetic, charismatic person who attracted all of them. And he said that when he would give classes, there would be all kinds of disturbances and Prabhupada would still stay purposeful. He would try to avoid the disturbances and he would focus.
Now, they had this 26th Avenue, the place where they would have these classes. Now this was right on the street itself. It was basically a storefront.
Storefront means just like we have a shop on the street. The shop as accessible to a street it is, the more likely that people will come and buy from it. So this was basically a storefront which had been converted into a spiritual center.
And now Prabhupada had to choose. Should he keep the door open or the door closed? If he kept the door closed, then there will be less disturbance and more focus. But then some passerbys who might be interested, they would not be able to come in.
So Prabhupada chose to keep the door open. And sometimes in the middle of the discourse also somebody would just peek in. What is going on? Come in, come in, Prabhupada would say.
So Prabhupada kept the door open. But when he kept the door open, all kinds of disturbances would be there. Sometimes there were dogs who would be barking.
And the dogs lived on the street. Sometimes when the dogs started barking too much, Prabhupada would ask someone to go and drive away the dogs. But even if they drove away the dogs, they would come again.
And there were immigrants, especially Puerto Ricans who were living in the vicinity. And they had their kids who would play on the streets and they would make a lot of noise. And Prabhupada would tell them, tell the kids, tell the children not to make noise.
We are having a serious discussion over here. And they would say, yes, we will tell. But the kids, their homes were small and barren, and the kids for all practical purposes would live on the streets.
So where would they go? And of course, because it was a road, cars would be going by. So Prabhupada, even amidst the distractions, first of all, his audience was not submissive, audience was distracted, was rebellious. And then there were so many disturbances.
There were dogs, there were children, there were cars. And amidst it all, Prabhupada would speak, conveying with seriousness and with urgency, the timeless spiritual wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, of the Srimad Bhagavatam. And even if his accent was difficult to understand, even if the concepts were difficult to understand, still people came, because they could see that Prabhupada was a spiritually evolved person who cared for them.
And they came and heard, and of course, they loved the kirtans. And Prabhupada would also, initially he did not have much money to give a full food, but he would just have apple, which he would slice and give to people. And they would come to hear him, to sing with him.
And especially this group of Keith and Valli and Howard, they became very committed. And they felt inspired to see that there was this Indian Swami who was here, right in Lower East Side. They had gone all the way to India to search for someone.
And now there is someone right here. They felt that there was some cosmic arrangement, some higher hand of destiny or something like that. And they felt a special connection, which they wanted to develop.
One day, Shri Prabhupada was giving a talk, and suddenly some unkempt, dishevelled hippie came in. Oh, Swami, I have come again. And he had come and met Prabhupada once.
And Prabhupada says, Prabhupada, we are having a serious discussion right now. Prabhupada said, Prabhupada continued his talk. And he said, he looked here and there, he was, everybody looked behind, you know, suddenly somebody has come in.
He looked, okay, I’ll be back. And he left. And then Prabhupada continued his talk.
And after that, that same, it was like a tramp on the streets. And he just came back again. And this time he was carrying something.
And he says, Swami, I’ve got something for you. And he just walked straight in. So, the door was in the back side, people would come in and sit.
And then Prabhupada would be behind in a small elevated dais kind of thing. And from there, he would speak. And then this person came right in, and everybody was looking, and Prabhupada was also looking.
And then they saw that he had brought some tissue paper. And he came, and he went to the restroom that was on the right side, and he put it inside over there. And then he started going out.
And he says, Prabhupada saw what it is. Thank you. Thank you very much, Prabhupada said.
Prabhupada did not see that he focused on the fact that he had disturbed the class. Prabhupada appreciated his service attitude. And then immediately, Prabhupada was so resourceful, he had such presence of mind, that he immediately connected it with his message.
He was talking about how we are all souls who are meant to be servants of God. And if we don’t serve God, then we will serve our mind and senses. That was his consistent message that he would give.
And he said, by serving our mind and senses, we will always stay dissatisfied. But if we serve Krishna, then we will become satisfied. So, Prabhupada took this opportunity.
And he said, just see, you know, he is under the influence of drugs. He is himself not in a very stable condition, but still that desire to serve is there. And because of the desire to serve, he has come and he has brought this.
So, the attendants, the hippies look at each other. This is far out. First, we had that music.
And then we had this strange philosophy, which says that you are not the body, you are the soul. And now here this Swami is just sitting cool as if nothing is going to happen, as if he’s not afraid of anything, as if he’s not disturbed by anything, and he’s just so calm. However, the first thing when he had met Prabhupada in the streets of New York was that, you know, Prabhupada seemed to be rooted in some other reality.
Although he’s in the streets of New York and big vehicles would pass by on the streets. Sometimes we are walking on the street and suddenly a big vehicle passes by. People get shaken a little bit.
But Prabhupada is completely unfazed. He could feel that Prabhupada was there in front of him, but still Prabhupada’s core was somewhere else. That he was living there, but still he was not living there.
Prabhupada was sheltered at the feet of Krishna, in his service to Krishna. The physical location where he was was simply incidental for him. And this, Prabhupada being situated at a higher level of reality, was something that they all could experience.
And they moved on. They appreciate Prabhupada about how he was so fearlessly sharing Krishna’s message. On time, when Prabhupada gave a class that he, after that he had got some apple, he would just slice the apples and he would give one piece of apples to people.
So one time, one young man, he, Prabhupada was giving a class in a small dais on which he would sit. And so one person, he just came and sat next to Prabhupada’s dais. And he said, I want to speak.
And Prabhupada told him that, no, let me speak. Afterwards, you can, afterwards question answer. He said, not question answer, I want to speak.
So Prabhupada said, later. And then that person was just sitting there, waiting and waiting, wanting to insist, wanting to interfere. This is all happened at different times, in different situations.
But this is just indicative of the kind of difficulty that Prabhupada had in facing people. When Prabhupada continued speaking and throughout the discourse, this person was looking at, sitting next to Prabhupada on the dais and looking at him. And even the followers of Prabhupada, those who had become a little bit followers, they were also a little confused what to do.
And now, because people with the drugs, they just don’t know how they will act. Budhi pounds on Prabhupada and tries to attack Prabhupada. But Prabhupada just calmly kept speaking, so unruffled.
And again, when this person started making noise, I want to speak now. And Prabhupada said, okay. Now, Prabhupada concluded his class and he said, let us have kirtans.
And Prabhupada picked up the cymbals and started having kirtans. And started singing, completely absorbed in the mission of sharing Krishna’s message with these people. So this was Prabhupada, unruffled, absorbed in Krishna.
He was doing his best to share Krishna’s message. At the same time, you know, the unpredictable behavior of the people around him, Prabhupada just entrusted things to Krishna. You know, one way to, the only way we can work effectively in life is to focus on that which is in our control and to leave that which is not in our control to God.
So we do what we can and we leave what we can’t do to God. Prabhupada was doing that. This was a surrender.
Resourcefully doing his best to share Krishna’s message. But also managing expertly the various interferences that were coming. After that, when the talk got over, this hippie took out.
Prabhupada got the apple, he sliced the apple and then this hippie was sitting next to him only. So Prabhupada stretched out his hand. On his hand, on one side was a slice of apple and other side was a knife and Prabhupada stretched out both to him.
Pin drop silence came over the whole crowd. Prabhupada’s offering him the knife was unnerving to the audience but Prabhupada was unruffled. This hippie looked at the knife, look at the apple, look at Swamiji.
He looked at the knife, look at the apple, look at Swamiji. He looked again at the knife, look at the apple, look at Swamiji and Prabhupada just looked at him compassionately, calmly and finally he stretched out his hand. As the audience tensed, Prabhupada still remained calm and then he stretched his hand out and took the apple and everybody heaved a sigh of relief.
This was the kind of people that Prabhupada had to face. Sometimes he would be giving a talk and different people would come and ask. So Swamiji, what do you think about Albert Camus? So Prabhupada would say, what is this philosophy? He says that life is absurd.
The world is an absurd place. So Prabhupada says, yes the world is an absurd place for him and yes in the material world we will find absurdity but beyond that there is another world, an eternal world that is not absurd, that is full of meaning and the meaning of living in this absurd world is to attain that world. So philosophers were nihilists, rejecting everything, rejecting the all meaning of existence like Camus were quite popular among the hippies who themselves had no meaning in life.
Now Albert Camus had been infamous for saying that life is meaningless and miserable, therefore the only philosophical question worth asking is whether to commit suicide today or tomorrow. Such people who had had this kind of thoughts had sapped, had influenced the hippies and had taken meaning away from their life. But Prabhupada persevered, answering questions patiently.
Sometimes a person asks, Swamiji, your philosophy sounds like that of the Buddha. So Prabhupada said, do you follow Buddha? He said, no. Prabhupada said, follow Buddha, follow Jesus, follow Krishna, follow someone, don’t just talk.
What do you mean don’t just talk? There are different paths which promise to help us raise our consciousness. Now which path actually helps us to raise our consciousness, which doesn’t, we may not know at this stage. But if just like a medicine, if you never try the medicine, we will never know whether it is going to cure us or not.
So Prabhupada saw these hippies, they were spiritually inclined, but they were spiritually uncommitted. They were inclined, they were interested, but they were not ready to commit to anything. Prabhupada was exhorting them, commit yourself.
Without committing yourself, you will not be able to achieve anything. So don’t just talk, follow something. Sometimes a person would ask, Swamiji, I am a Vedantist.
So Prabhupada said, okay, have you studied Vedanta? What is the first sutra of Vedanta Sutra? I don’t know. For them this Vedanta was just a general word for Indian wisdom. So people came from all kinds of backgrounds.
One day, Prabhupada was giving a talk and one young man came and he said, Swamiji, I am God. And Prabhupada just looked at him compassionately and he says, please accept my obeisances. He just folded his hands and he said, we are having a discussion over here, please leave.
And person didn’t know what to do and he walked away. So, the kind of people whom he met over there was what we would in today’s circle call crazy. In traditional Indian temples, such people would not even have been allowed to enter also.
If they had entered, if at all they had been allowed entry, if they had exhibited even a slight fraction of the kind of behavior they exhibited, they would have been told to go out. But Prabhupada, this was the kind of people they were there. Of course, there were some people who were serious, but they all belong to the same crowd.
And for Prabhupada, who knew the tradition of how in what a reverential, respectful atmosphere spiritual discourses took place, for him this was unprecedented. He had never seen anything like this. But Prabhupada was fixed in his mission.
He had come so far to share Krishna’s message. And although these young people were uncultured, were disruptive, were addicted, but still they were spiritually interested. And Prabhupada was doing his best to fan that spark of spiritual interest that was there in them.
And one time a person would come and every time in a class, after the class he would ask some question about some philosopher. And Prabhupada would answer that question and the next day he would come and ask another question. And like that he kept asking questions every day, every day, every day, every time in the program was there.
And he was basically asking questions not so much to learn, but as to show how much he knew. When that happens, then Prabhupada one day he asked a question and Prabhupada just did not answer that question. Prabhupada just turned away from him.
Any other questions Prabhupada said. And that person fell silent and he did not come after that. So Prabhupada had given him as many chances as possible, as was reasonable to become spiritually interested.
But when he saw that he was not interested, Prabhupada decided that there was no point in spending so much time on him. He had come here to give message of Krishna and he wanted people who were interested in receiving that message. Some of those hippies, they slowly started becoming serious.
Week after week they came, they would hear the kirtans, they would hear the class. Most importantly, they would see the conduct of Srila Prabhupada. How calm he was, how spiritual he was, how considerate he was.
And even when there would be people who would be disruptive, they saw that Swamiji did not demonize those people. He so expertly answered their questions or addressed their issues in such a way, either they became pacified and satisfied or at least the audience could see that these people were so unreasonable and he would continue to win over the audience. So here Prabhupada was reaching out through his painstaking efforts what could well be said to be the toughest audience for bhakti wisdom that any bhakti teacher had ever faced.
How that audience responded and how Prabhupada created a formal forum for disseminating spiritual wisdom that we will discuss in our