Srila Prabhupada s Disappearance Day || Chaitanya Charan

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
All of you are welcome today for the Sunday programme here. And we had the appearance day of Srila Prabhupada immediately after Janmashtami. And I was delighted to know that you had this grand celebration, the 50th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s appearing and coming to Perth over here.
So on this day I thought I’ll talk about Srila Prabhupada’s life. So I’ll go over his life. We’ll talk about some key incidents or key characteristics of what he did and how he did it in various phases of his life.
So I’ll use the name of Srila Prabhupada as an acronym and I’ll divide his life into eight stages. And we’ll talk about what we can observe and learn from his life for our own, for facing our challenges in life and for growing spiritually in our own life. Now if you look at Srila Prabhupada, in which year did he appear? Does anyone know? 1896.
Yes. And how long was he here with us? Yes. In a manifested form, he was there.
He’s still there in his books. So during this period, he met his spiritual master in 1922. So we’ll take this timeline and we will discuss characteristics based on this.
Now before this itself, we see that he was a man of principles. He grew up in India at a time when India was under colonial rule. And slowly, India had started awakening to the huge exploitation that was being done by the British.
The economic exploitation, the cultural devastation, the cultural uprooting of the faith primarily, not so much explicit devastation. So when Prabhupada was getting educated, he was in Bengal, that was the centre of the Indian independence movement. In 1920, Gandhiji had launched the first major struggle for independence.
That was the non-cooperation movement. So at that time, Prabhupada also was born in a family that was very spiritual. He says that every morning he would wake up to the sound of the Aarthis.
So he had a very deep spiritual inclination, attraction. When he was just less than 10 years old, he had organised a Rath Yatra festival. When his hands were not long enough to reach to the two sides of Rodanga, at that time itself, his father had said that he should learn Rodanga and he had arranged a teacher for him.
And Prabhupada says, may he become a great devotee of Radharani. So he had that spiritual inclination strongly and he felt that India’s spiritual culture would be destroyed while India was under colonial rule. So he joined the Indian independence movement and at that time, nowadays the word activist nowadays the word activist has become very cheap.
Anybody can say that, oh I am an environmental activist, I am this activist, I am that activist and all that they do is, maybe just like some posts on Instagram, post some pictures on social media, that people have called as keyboard warriors. You know, they think that just typing something, they become big warriors. But Prabhupada at that time, he graduated through college, Scottish Church College was the college he went to.
But as an expression of non-cooperation with the British government, he refused the degree. This was a huge sacrifice. He did not accept the degree for which he had studied for so many years because he didn’t want to be a part of the British government at all.
So, the cause at that time was independence struggle. But whatever be the cause one is fighting for, right from his childhood, from his youth, we see that he was ready to sacrifice, pay a heavy cost for his principles. That time he would also wear khadi clothes.
Khadi was not just a fashion statement, it was a political statement at that time. When those clothes meant that you rejected the cloth that was brought from the mills in Manchester. And so, that was right from the beginning.
When Prabhupada met Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, who was a spiritual master. Spiritual master observed him and he saw this person. You know, he is young, intelligent, articulate.
Prabhupada was good in English. And the first thing that Prabhupada was told by his spiritual masters that you are educated, you are intelligent, you know English, why don’t you spread the message of Lord Chaitanya in the world. Now, Prabhupada was abhaya at that time, he was taken aback.
Who is this saint? In my first meeting he is giving me a mission for my entire life. And Prabhupada felt he was already working. He said that we cannot really work without independence.
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, they had a very vibrant, robust discussion. After that, he said that the spiritual raising of consciousness is the most important thing. Prabhupada agreed.
And when he was a missionary, one tendency is that when we take up any one cause, we become inspired by that. We can lose perspective and go to extremes. Like when we make one thing important, we make it so important that we trivialise everything else.
But that’s what we see. Vishal Prabhupada met his spiritual master. The next thing he exhibited was, he said that if I had not been married, I would have immediately joined my spiritual master’s mission.
I would have become a full-time missionary. But, he speaks that now that I was married, I had a child. It would be unfair for my family if I just renounced.
So then, Prabhupada took responsibility. Sometimes, spirituality becomes an excuse for irresponsibility. Prabhupada did not simply think of that as a material responsibility.
I have to take care of my family. That is there. Prabhupada saw it as dharma and he saw it also as an opportunity to serve his spiritual master.
He decided he had not taken up a degree. So, the avenue of going into the government and getting a secure job was closed for him. That’s what many people at that time who were educated in the British education system would choose that trajectory.
So, Prabhupada decided to go on the track of business. His father had a cloth business. He went to the pharmacy business.
So, now at that time, Prabhupada thought that now that I have become a grahastha, grahasthas are meant to give charity. So, he says, if I earn a lot of money, then I can give a lot of charity to my spiritual master. And that way, I can assist.
And for that purpose, Prabhupada, during his grahastha ashram, worked extremely hard. Now, if you consider, let me try this. I always fail.
And if you know, what is this? Map of India. That’s an insult to the map of India. This is the map of India.
So, this is Kolkata. This is Mumbai. This is Prayag.
What is special about these three places? Yeah, these are the three places where Prabhupada had his business. Now, I had a friend, I have a friend who is doing his PhD in pre-independence history of India, social history. So, I was discussing with him, since in those times, people would not relocate so much.
Especially not business people. If you are in a government, the government would transfer you and then you could relocate. Then everything was taken care of.
The government would provide quarters. There would be already ready job. But, if you have to relocate your entire business, that’s not easy.
In those times, there were no flights. So, Prabhupada would have to take trains. My point I am making is, Prabhupada worked extremely hard in his grahastha ashram.
Starting a business in one place, trying to expand it, then trying to relocate it to another place, to a third place. His purpose was not just to become wealthy. His purpose was, through wealth, to serve his spiritual master.
He diligently tried that. If you read Prabhupada’s books, now, you will see that he quotes so many verses. I have always had this question, when did Prabhupada get time to read? Because he had a busy grahastha life.
He had many children. He had a big business. So, that was primarily when he would travel.
Travel for his business. But, when he was travelling for business, it was not necessarily comfortable. It’s okay.
Okay. So, that’s okay. Actually, a little lower.
That’s okay. So, he would travel extensively, and in the trains, he would read. And, it’s not easy in the trains.
The trains of India are not like the trains. Do you have trains here in Australia? Subway or something? Here, it’s quite comfortable. If you see a local in Mumbai, feel as if you are cramped in your mother’s womb.
But, the trains, pre-independence were even worse. If any of you have seen movies of pre-independence India, the trains would be cramped full and people would actually sit on top of the trains and travel. It is not that Prabhupada was very wealthy that he would travel first class.
But, he would manage to read. So, his spiritual orientation was always there. But, it is not that for the sake of bhakti, he gave up his dharma.
He was responsible. Then, he continued in the Ghrastha Ashram till almost 1955. Let’s move forward.
So, from around 1940s onwards, he was always trying to think of ways in which he could further the spiritual master’s mission. So, from 1940 onwards and especially from 1955 to around 1960, the next stage was, his role was assistance. His spiritual master departed from the world in 1937.
So, he thought, how do I assist my spiritual master’s mission now? Let me assist my senior Godbrothers. In the Gaudiya Math hierarchy, Prabhupada was relatively quite junior. He was not a person who was living in the temple.
He was not a sanyasi. He initiated his first disciple in 1908. He initiated his first disciple.
He started initiating actively and preaching from 1919. But he had disciples who were sanyasis and who had become gurus. Prabhupada thought, let me assist them.
So, whichever part of the world he would go to, if his Godbrothers were there nearby, he would get business people from his contacts to come to the temple. He would invite them to the classes of his Godbrothers. Then gradually, as Prabhupada started retiring in his mission, retiring from his grahastha ashram, after he settled his financial responsibilities and family responsibilities, then he joined one of his Godbrothers’ mission.
He stayed in their ashram and he was assisting them. He thought, that’s naturally how I’ll serve my spiritual master. But unfortunately, he started encountering obstacles.
After the spiritual master departed, after Bhakti Sahasrako departed, there was a fracture. There was almost a rupture, more than a fracture in the mission. And the Gaudiya Math, which had been very powerful, 64 centres across India, 3 centres outside India, not very big centres, but one in Rangoon, one in Munich, one in London, they all just fragmented.
And everybody was concerned about just protecting their property and it started becoming more like a temple, not a traditional, a ritualistic Indian temple where there was not much zeal for sharing Krishna Bhakti. It became more like a cultural place for coming and worshipping and doing some puja and taking some donation. Prabhupada wanted to print magazines and distribute.
His spiritual master had a magazine called The Harmonist. He said, let’s expand it. I’ll get the sponsorship.
I will increase the circulation. Prabhupada got the sponsorship. He said, no, no, no.
The Math he was in, the Guru of that Math started feeling insecure. He said, this person is coming here, he is doing more service than me. People will start feeling insecure.
Prabhupada would give talks when his Godbrother was not there and people started appreciating his talks and some people asked, can you become my Guru? And then that Godbrother started feeling, no, no, no. This is our Math. I should be the Guru, not you.
So, Prabhupada started experiencing obstacles everywhere. One time there was a Vyasa Puja ceremony of his spiritual master and Prabhupada, although he was a little junior Godbrother, he gave a fiery speech. He said that, our spiritual master did not build a Math so that we can just eat and sleep.
We should be sharing the message. We should be preaching vigorously. It was appreciated as a talk but nobody did anything.
Then Prabhupada recognised that if the mission has to be carried on, then I have to do it on my own. So, after playing this role of being an assistant from 62 to 65, Prabhupada focused on the writing books. In 1944 itself, he had started the Back to Godhead magazine and he had been distributing that.
It had been very difficult because the World War was going on at that time. Prabhupada started that and Prabhupada had such dedication but at the same time, he was very open to learning. One of the biggest problems with religious groups is that religion often leads to a sense of certainty that goes into arrogance.
I know everything. You are all ignorant. You just listen to me and become enlightened.
That was not Prabhupada’s mood. When Prabhupada was working very hard, he would himself, there were times when he was running the magazine and he did not have enough money to actually have his own breakfast. So, he would still buy paper so that the magazine could be printed and then when you would go to the printer, the printer would ask Swamiji, did you have any breakfast? Prabhupada would not say no.
When Prabhupada would not reply, he would understand. He would try to arrange something some days for Prabhupada. He was extremely dedicated in printing the magazine and unfortunately, nobody seemed to be interested.
Then there was a postman who met Prabhupada and he said Swamiji, he had brought some mail for Prabhupada. He said, Swamiji, you are working so hard writing these magazines but people read magazine and throw it away. You can write books.
Prabhupada did not go on an ego trip. Do you know who I am? I am a sanyasi. I am a guru.
I have descended from the spiritual world. You think you can instruct me? No. A genuine devotee is always open to the signals of Krishna from everywhere.
Prabhupada said, this is my spiritual master speaking. And then Prabhupada shifted to writing books. And then it was in this phase from 62 to 65 that he produced the Bhagavatam.
He produced the Bhagavatam first canto and that time he produced it in three volumes. One volume came out every year. Now this was a time when because Prabhupada was living in Vrindavan because Vrindavan was cheaper.
Delhi was a city about one and a half hours away from there, two hours away. That was a happening place. But Prabhupada did not have enough money to stay in Delhi.
Even in Vrindavan there are devotees who met him. Prabhupada’s situation was such that writing books, he had very little resources. Later on, when devotees were helping him in printing his books, when the movement became big, Prabhupada had no money to even buy paper for writing his books.
In 1968, in 1966 when Mandivodi Hai grew Prabhu, Howard Wheeler was helping Prabhupada. He noticed that Prabhupada had his manuscript was written on the back of envelopes. When we get an envelope, what happens is there’s an address but otherwise the envelope is blank.
So Prabhupada would open the envelope and he would stick something on the address slip and then he would write on the envelope. And that’s how he had stapled things together. And whenever he would get paper, Prabhupada, because paper was so expensive, he didn’t have money at that time, there would be no margins.
Prabhupada would write from the left top to the right bottom. And like that, Prabhupada didn’t have money to buy paper. That time he made a vision of translating the entire Srimad Bhagavatam.
It’s several thousand verses and Prabhupada made a plan, this will be a 50 volume book. Later on, they decided to change the plan and now it’s in 18 volumes, 12 cantos. But at that time it was a 50 volume plan.
And it’s like you don’t have enough money to repair the leakage in your house and you think I’ll build a skyscraper. That was Prabhupada. He was so untiring in his ambition and he had to go here and there to get sponsorship.
The first volume was printed finally. It took one year for Prabhupada, not to write. Writing was easy for him.
But to get the logistics, to get the book printed and 62, 63, 64, one year, one volume. This is where, till now everything that Prabhupada had done, none of that had seemed to be successful. His business had not really been very successful.
He tried very hard but he just managed to break even, not much beyond that. He tried to assist his godbrothers, that had not worked. Now books, when he started writing, this was the first time, Bhagavatam is a very respected book in the Indian historical tradition.
This was the first translation and commentary in English. So he was able to give this book to the President of India, who was quite spiritually minded. He gave it to the Prime Minister of India and both of them gave endorsements and they said that this book should go to all the libraries in India.
Then sponsorship for the remaining volumes started flowing. Now this is the time when Prabhupada could have taken it easy. He said that maybe this is the service that Krishna wants me to do.
I will become an author and in future years people will read books and then they will benefit. But for Prabhupada, his goal was not just to become an author. His goal was to inspire people spiritually and book was one means to it.
So he worked and after that we consider over here H is Prabhupada took the greatest hardship in his life. That was in 65. At the age of 69 nearing 70 he decided I will go to America.
Now normally speaking for most people they have big ambitions when they are young. If you ask a small kid, what do you want to do? I want to become the president of the country. I want to become the latest YouTube celebrity.
I want to become a millionaire. I want to become billionaire. I want to become the world’s wealthiest person.
But then as you keep growing, we have big ambitions but life keeps beating down our ambitions. By the time we graduate, we think if I get a job it will be good. Normally when we face failures slowly our ambitions start going down.
Now Prabhupada had faced so many setbacks. He had not, his outreach had not got any success in India. 1922 he had been trying.
From 1944 he had been trying in much more focused way. From 1955 that had been more or less everything that he was doing. That was his singular focus.
But he had nothing to show. There was one disciple who was also not a very serious disciple. Prabhupada had no success to show and what did Prabhupada think? I will go to America.
It’s like some cricketer on his home territory has always got out a zero. He says I want to go to foreign territory and I suppose double century over there. His ambition was unbelievable.
And still nothing was working out. When Prabhupada finally got the sponsorship there is one relative, one quasi-acquaintance who had a son in America and he got him through sponsorship. Agarwal family.
And Prabhupada didn’t even know this person very well. And when the mail came to him that you have got a sponsorship Prabhupada was in such privation at that time, he didn’t have a fixed address. And the letter that came from the American embassy that was forwarded four times.
Sometimes a person leaves the home and they go to the forwarding address is there. So for Prabhupada going to America, he had to thank the Indian postal system. Four times the address was, the letter was forwarded.
And Prabhupada was surprised. Who is this Mr. Agarwal? But now he got the sponsorship in terms of the legal sponsorship he had got. But now the money, how would he go abroad? So he came to meet one of his well-wishers who had organised some programmes for him.
Mrs. Sindia. She had a steamship company. And she told In India the culture is, if somebody is elder, respectable, you don’t say a direct no to their face.
So if you want to say no, just avoid meeting them. And hopefully they will go away and you don’t have to say no. So Prabhupada wanted to meet her and he told his secretary what was the request.
Secretary said, she is busy, she is busy. Prabhupada waited from morning to evening. Prabhupada said, unless I meet her, I will not go from here.
Then in the evening when she was leaving, she said, Swamiji is here? Yes, he has been there for eight hours. Swamiji, I have to rush now, we will meet tomorrow. And then the next day she met and said, Swamiji, if you want to speak the Bhagavatam, will you come to my house? Every evening I will hear Bhagavatam from you.
Prabhupada said, that is not the kind of Bhagavatam. I don’t want to do the ritual. He wanted to be spiritual, he wanted to transform.
Then she said that Swamiji, my assistants are telling me you are so old. You are so old and America is so cold. So you will die there.
You are like a father for me. I cannot send you to your death like this. Prabhupada became very grave.
He said, if you really think that I am like your father, then please fulfil this last desire of your father. I am at the fag end of my life now. This was the mission that my spiritual master had given me.
Her heart melted and she agreed. When Prabhupada decided to go to America, this was the first time he had been on a ship for a long time. There was seasickness.
Then there was a heart attack. One heart attack. Two heart attacks.
Unbearable pain. There was no medical support at all. But still Prabhupada pressed on.
Krishna came in a dream to him on the third night. Prabhupada prayed to Krishna, Krishna if a third attack comes, I don’t think I can survive. Krishna came in a dream and said, I have taken care of everything.
So, the captain of the steamship was Pandya. His wife was also there on the ship. She said, Swamiji, we have travelled across the Atlantic many times.
In the last 30-40 years of our travel, the Atlantic has never been so peaceful. So, Prabhupada said, Krishna has taken charge of the ship. That ship was called Jaledutta.
And when he landed there, Miss Pandya said, Swamiji, our ride was so peaceful. You come back with us, again it will be peaceful. Prabhupada said, Krishna, I have not arranged for me to come here to come back so quickly.
Now, when Prabhupada landed in America, he didn’t know whether to turn left or right. He knew nothing over there. He went to Butler, Pennsylvania.
That was where his sponsor was there. It was immense hardship. See hardship, when I talk about hardship, it was at many levels.
First, there was this physical hardship that he had heart attacks. He had seasickness. When Prabhupada landed in America, it was the first thing if you have a heart attack, you say, where is the hospital? I want to go and do a check-up.
There is no record that Prabhupada ever went to a hospital. When Prabhupada was coming to the American coast, his prayer was to Krishna, Krishna, dance, dance, Prabhu, dance with me. Make me dance, O Lord, make me dance.
Prabhupada says, when he is coming to America, Krishna, you have been very merciful to me. You have been very merciful to me. From a material perspective, you may say, what is the mercy? He is old, he has had heart attacks, he has no money, he has no institutional support, he has no followers.
What is the mercy? For Prabhupada, the mercy was that he has finally been able to come to America. He has no facility for sharing the message of bhakti, but he is grateful that I at least have the opportunity. So, that is the positive attitude of a devotee.
Krishna, you are so merciful to me. Prabhupada says, Krishna, you must have some plan for me. You must have some plan for me.
You must have some plan for me. Otherwise, why would you bring me here? That is the faith of a devotee. Krishna, you have not brought me this far to abandon me now.
You will take me on the way. That is the faith we all can have. We have all gone through difficulties in our life.
Sometimes we feel, I am all alone. Is there any support for me? But if Krishna has brought us this far, he will take us all the way ahead also. There is physical hardship, but that was only the smallest of hardships.
Then there was cultural hardship. Cultural hardship was the place where Prabhupada was staying for the first time. They were Indians.
There was an Indian-American couple, Gopal Agarwal and Sally Agarwal. And at that time in America, there was a great protein myth that if you don’t eat meat, if you don’t eat beef, you won’t have enough proteins. So in the same fridge where Prabhupada would have his bhoga for offering to Krishna, there would be beef over there.
And Sally Agarwal, she understood this. Swami doesn’t eat meat. She said, I have only one fridge and we don’t have anywhere else to keep our food.
Prabhupada, think nothing about it. Prabhupada was tolerant, but it was difficult for him. Then, after cultural difficulty, there was logistical difficulty.
Logistical was Prabhupada’s mood. In Butler, he was just like a curiosity object. Who is this Swami who has come from India? How does he dress? How does he cook? What does he chant? But people were not interested in seeing him as a spiritual teacher.
If that had been the age of social media, people would have said, Swamiji, one selfie please. It would have been… They were interested in selfie, not in self-realisation. So, Prabhupada moved from there to… He came to Philadelphia to give some talks.
Then he came to New York. When he came to New York, there was a yoga studio over there. And that yoga teacher was friendly, but there was a philosophical difference.
He said, Swamiji, you can do kirtans, but you cannot give talks. Prabhupada said, that’s not what I have come here for. And then, this was a time when he moved to the Lower East Side.
That is where it was a hippie area. There was drugs. And the hardship that Prabhupada faced was also not just logistical.
Where will he stay? He stayed at one place and then he was robbed from that place. He had very little possessions. He had a dictaphone.
He was a typewriter. Whatever little he had was robbed. And Prabhupada suspected that the robber was not somebody else.
The robber was the janitor only. And when that happened, it was very demoralising. He was all alone.
He had very little resources. He had practically no friends. Then, beyond that, came what was probably the most devastating hardship.
He was staying in the Lower East Side with one young man, David Allen, who seemed to be ready to become a devotee. Probably his first American disciple. And then one day, David, who had been a drug user, had stopped using it.
Suddenly, he took drugs again and he had an episode. He just went mad. And he came to attack Prabhupada.
And he went wild. And Prabhupada was in a three-story building. He just had to leave.
And he was on the road. He was as homeless as many of the hippies who were just lying on the streets over there. So, this was not just a physical danger.
This was more like a danger of, you could say, existential danger. What does existential mean? Not just a danger to his existence, but to his very purpose. See, if a doctor goes to treat a patient and while treating the patient, the patient only goes wild and attacks the doctor.
The doctor may think, why am I even here? Why should I even treat these people? Are these people even treatable? So this, you know, somebody who could be a potential disciple turning around to attack him. This was probably the most devastating time for Prabhupada. The hardships for the spiritual master when they try to share bhakti.
This is one of the greatest dangers. The people towards whom they are trying to extend themselves. If those people turn bad, those people turn violent, those people turn malicious.
So, already his godbrothers had told him that, you know, these western people cannot become devotees. These western people, one of his spiritual godbrothers had gone to UK, two of his godbrothers, and the spiritual master had funded their mission fully. And after trying for two, three years, they came back.
The spiritual master came to meet them at the port. And the first thing they said in replying is, you know, your process doesn’t work. So, those words would have been there in the back of his mind.
But Prabhupada kept persisting. And, this was the time when, for him, he was all, the neighbourhood where he had gone to, the lower east side, that was a trigger-happy neighbourhood. People would take drugs.
America is a country where people can have guns. That is, people would just go crazy and start shooting also. But this was the place where Prabhupada was staying.
And then, while he was staying there, slowly, so from 65 to 66, probably was the period of the greatest hardship. The hardship continued, but here, Prabhupada voluntarily went there at that age and took up that immense hardship for the sake of his spiritual master’s mission. And then, from 66 onwards, the success that started coming, what is most spectacular about the success was its unlikeliness.
The audience that came to him was probably the most unlikely audience that anybody could have thought about. See, from the Indian perspective, the west is often considered to be a land that is degraded. Now, the hippies were very peculiar phenomena in western culture.
Now, the word hippie has become very normalised in some ways. But the hippies were considered degraded even by the west. So, they were considered degraded by those whom the followers of the Vedic culture considered degraded.
And for them, Prabhupada had lived such a pure life, he had never even drunk tea or coffee in his entire life. And here, there were people for whom breaking all the regulative principles was a regulative principle. Their idea was rebel against mainstream society.
So, these people, they were remarkable phenomena in American history. Somehow, they had got the idea that they were somewhat spiritually inclined, but they had the idea that you become spiritual by taking drugs. What is the unlikeliness? It was their habits were extremely unclean.
In the history of the world, there is hardly any other religious or spiritual movement where the distance between the Guru and the followers was so great. The distance was in terms of age, the distance was in terms of education. Prabhupada was educated in British colonial education.
Many of his disciples were dropouts from colleges, in terms of religion. They were born in Christian or Jewish background. At that time, people didn’t even know who Krishna was.
When Prabhupada, when the devotees first saw something of Hanuman, the picture of Hanuman, Swamiji, is this a rabbit or is this a cat? What is it? They had no idea what it was. So, in terms of religion, there was difference. In terms of, we could say, intellectual background, Prabhupada had not extensively studied western philosophy and they had not studied anything Indian.
Then, of course, in terms of culture, there was a huge difference. As I said, Prabhupada’s habits were very pure. For them, it is completely impure.
So, it is from a material perspective, if somebody were going to start a business, normally you start a business where there is likely to be a market for the product that you are selling. This was the unlikeliest of markets. Now, we could say, one of the biggest differences was not just culture, but it was also the standards.
Prabhupada went to America, I’ll explain what standards mean. At that time, this was a phase where people were interested in spirituality, but their idea was, we will become these young people, they thought that drugs is the way to spirituality. There was a drug which was very popular called LSD.
Now, LSD is the short form for a chemical name, but these people had renamed that drug. They called it as the League of Spiritual Discovery. So, anybody who takes this drug, they joined the League of Spiritual Discovery.
And, what would happen? That, when people would take drugs, often people become incoherent and they speak all kinds of crazy things. But, they would have the idea, if you have taken LSD and you are speaking after that, then you are a LSD saint. That means, you have got some glimpse into another domain of reality.
And from there, you are speaking some rare wisdom. Like, if you have been in India and some traditional temples, especially the goddess, sometimes people get possessed by something and they just start dancing wildly like dervishes. And at that time, that happens, everybody says, don’t touch that person.
The goddess has come in the body of that person. Now, whether the goddess has come or not, but the idea is that those people are considered like secret in some way. So, when Prabhupada started giving his classes, all kinds of weird things would happen.
One time, he was giving a class and suddenly one hippie got up and said, Swamiji, I want to speak. And Prabhupada said, questions after the class. He said, no, I don’t have a question.
I want to speak. And Prabhupada said, after the class. And that hippie just got up and there was no asana at that time.
There was just a stage on which Prabhupada would sit. And that hippie just climbed up and sat on the stage next to Prabhupada. And then Prabhupada just looked at him and Prabhupada continued speaking.
But then he was just looking at Prabhupada, glaring at Prabhupada. And Prabhupada noticed nobody could pay attention. So, then Prabhupada just picked up a cart and started doing kirtan.
And throughout the kirtan, the hippie was just glaring at him. And then, kirtan got over. Prabhupada didn’t have any money at that time to cook any prasad and give.
So, he would just get an apple and he would cut the apple into small pieces and he would give some pieces as prasad. So, he had that apple and he had a knife. And he cut the apple.
And with everyone watching, Prabhupada extended his hand. On one side was the knife, the other side was the sliced apple. And he gave it to the hippie.
Now, this hippie was sitting, he was big, bulky. He looked at Prabhupada, he looked at the apple, he looked at the knife. He looked at Prabhupada, he looked at the apple, he looked at the knife, he looked at Prabhupada.
And everybody felt completely silent. And then he extended his hand. And everybody hewed a sigh of relief when he reached to the apple.
And he took the apple. So, this was an extremely difficult audience. There is an article published in newspapers over there.
It says, Swamiji is trying to talk about God to the toughest audience in the entire world. At that time, it was 1966-67. Times had published an article called, God is Dead.
That created a sensation in the cultural, intellectual circles at that time. But the unlikeliness of Prabhupada’s success was mind-boggling. Prabhupada started doing kirtan.
And Prabhupada had gone there on a two-month visa. And he kept extending the two-month visa. Little bit more, little bit more, little bit more.
Eventually, it seemed that the visa would not get extended. So, they said, Prabhupada did not have money to hire any high-powered attorney. So, there was one of his students.
He said that, Swamiji, one of the ways you can make your visa permanent is when people do this, when people go to another country, they get married, they have a fake marriage or whatever. So, he said, if you have a relationship with someone, then you can get. So, Prabhupada told, you adopt me as your son.
Now, Prabhupada was the age of their grandfather. So, when the visa was not getting extended, Prabhupada at one time made a plan that he will relocate to Canada. Canada seemed easier to get the visa.
I have been to the Montreal temple. We have a beautiful centre. Prabhupada had even said that Montreal will be our international headquarters.
So, somehow Prabhupada pushed on. But this was a little later. While he was here, in America, he decided to start going out for kirtans.
People would like kirtans over there, they would like music. So, he went to Tompkins Square Park, one of the first kirtans. He sat down there and started singing.
And kept singing and kept singing. Prabhupada just closed his eyes and kept singing. And there were a few people who had attended this programme.
They started dancing. After 20-25 minutes, Prabhupada opened his eyes and there were 60-70 people, all of them were dancing. And this was the beginning.
And Prabhupada was so unassuming. I met 2-3 Prabhupada disciples who were there for that programme. And they said that we had to watch for 10-15 minutes, at least 5-10 minutes before we even spotted Prabhupada and realised that he is actually the centre.
Because everybody was dancing in their own way, doing all kinds of things. Everyone was watching the spectacle. And then they noticed, okay, this is the person who is singing.
Because at that time, people didn’t know so well. Normally when we do kirtan, it’s responsive. One person sings and the other person sings after that.
Everybody sings after that. But everybody was singing like that only over there. So, Prabhupada felt that this is where things are starting.
So, in Tompkins Square Park, even now there is that tree under which Prabhupada sat and sang. And the New York government has put a plaque under the tree. They call it the Hare Krishna tree.
And this is from where it is from here that the Hare Krishna movement began. So, that was Prabhupada. The unlikeliness of his success was remarkable.
Prabhupada kept pushing on. From there some of his disciples went to San Francisco, the other end of the country. And there Prabhupada had gone.
Prabhupada was sick. He could not go out much. But he was just walking and chanting in his room and he saw a flatbed truck.
And he thought, now we will put Jagannath on the truck and this will become a rath for Jagannath. Now that was his Krishna consciousness. You see, how many people can think of a truck and think this will be a card for Jagannath.
And Prabhupada did that. And that was, became sensationally successful. The hippies liked to do crazy things.
And, even for them also, dancing on the road in public, that was far out. And if they tried to dance on the road, the police would have arrested him. But now with Rath Yatra, they were dancing on the road and the police were escorting them.
So, that was Prabhupada. The unlikeliness of what was happening was spectacular. And then, from here, so this was from 66 onwards, things started growing till 70.
Prabhupada started having enormous unlikely success. Then from 70, he started shifting his focus to India. He continued visiting America but he started focussing on India.
And when he came to India, he started tapping the cultural pride of Indians. So, P-R-H-E-U P-A-D. So, P is the pride of.
So, I’ll explain this, what happened exactly over here. That, before Prabhupada, many other spiritual teachers had also gone to America. And they had also got some success.
But Prabhupada was the first person who had brought about a cultural transformation. He had got western people to become so inspired that they had started wearing dhoti, kurta and saris. And for Indians, it was stunning.
And there’s a Times of India article that came at that time. He said that these western people have ruled India now. Now Indian culture is conquering the west.
And that cultural pride, Prabhupada tapped it to, now somehow Indians at that time were still not ready to commit to spirituality as sadhakas. They were pious people but they didn’t want to practise serious sadhana and become devotees. So, Prabhupada decided to tap their cultural pride.
Our culture is so big. Prabhupada decided we’ll build big temples. So, he started engaging devotees.
Many people became life members. And life membership at that time became so prestigious. There’s one devotee who showed me a picture.
There was one lawyer in the 1970s. He and his B.A. M.A. L.L.B. B.A. M.A. L.L.B. is called life member. That is written on the nameplate itself.
So, it became so glamorous at that time. And there are talks of Prabhupada where Prabhupada is tapping this potential for Indians. He says that this is the Bhagavad Gita is the message from India.
And to preach the Bhagavad Gita in India, I have to get people from outside India. He says, you are Indians. You take this message.
You learn it. And you share it all over the world. Prabhupada sometimes uses commercial language.
He says, There’s so many people who want to learn about it. There’s so many people who want to learn about it. the V. Krishna Consciousness, so many people took it up at that time.
They did not necessarily become disciples, but they became life members. Now, Prabhupada was always aware at the background. So, he was pride hit.
Tap the cultural pride of Indians. Even if they are not ready to practise Bhakti, that is the glory of Acharya. You cannot take the mission forward in one way.
You take it forward in another way. So, in the West, Prabhupada had disciples. And in India, he had life members.
And both of them, they were appreciative of Prabhupada in their own different ways. So, now, Prabhupada right from the 70s, started thinking about succession. He knew that he would not be there all the time.
So, one of his biggest services was training his disciples. That is for him, he started giving his disciples interesting responsibilities to them. Apprenticeship is basically like training.
So, for his disciples, it was not just like a ritual initiation, you attend a fire sacrifice. In the 1970s itself, Prabhupada started the GBC. In 1968 itself, when he had come back from India after he had been sick, he met his disciples and at that time, they had a big, they had a replica of a globe.
And Prabhupada told his students, he says, all of you, take one country, go and preach and deliver that country. Now, his students at that time were 18, 20, 21, 22 years old. The oldest person at that time was about 25.
And Jadurani Mataji, she was about, she was just an 18 year old girl. He says, Swamiji, what about us girls? Prabhupada said, we are not boys or girls. We are souls who are servants of Krishna.
You also pick up one country and go. So, that was Prabhupada empowering people. So, he encouraged disciples to take responsibility.
His apprenticeship was, not that I was only going to micromanage people. But Prabhupada had this capacity. For Prabhupada, Krishna was not a distant God.
Krishna was not a divinity to be realised in the future. Krishna was a living, loving, present reality. And those who were with Prabhupada, they felt that Prabhupada made Krishna real for them.
And Prabhupada would say, how will we go to a distant country and preach? Prabhupada said, you pray to Krishna, Krishna will help you. So, the preaching that happened under Prabhupada, by inspiration, devotees went to practically every part of the world. We know what Prabhupada did here in Australia.
All the devotees were not very well trained. He installed deities and he encouraged them to establish deity worship. So, he was creating a legacy.
He was training his disciples. You take responsibility. This is your mission.
This is not just my mission. This is our mission. And that brings the last part.
D is detachment. See, normally, when we work extremely hard to achieve something, then we want to see it happen. And if it doesn’t happen, we can get very easily a little frustrated.
There was no project for which Prabhupada worked as hard as one particular project. Does anyone know which was that? Juhu. Now, the Juhu project was going to be the Juhu was going to be like a signature project.
It was going to be the biggest temple that he was going to build. Grandest temple. It was in Mumbai.
And he practically fought for that land and for that temple. There was the owner who was a double dealing political kind of very politically minded person and that person wanted to take the money and not give the land also. When he passed away, his wife escalated matters and she sent thugs on the property to beat up the devotees.
Some of the devotees were beaten up. They were arrested. The temple was almost demolished.
It was practically a war. Prabhupada fought that much to build that temple. And does anyone know when the Juhu temple was inaugurated? Yes, it was Jan 14, 1978.
When did Shri Prabhupada depart from the world? Yes, November 14, 1977. Now, this was the biggest project of Shri Prabhupada’s life. And it was just two months away.
Anybody who has worked very hard to achieve something they say, I want to see this happen. I want to see this through. But when Prabhupada’s body started falling apart, one of his well-wishers followers asked him, Swamiji, do you have any last desires? Prabhupada said, I have no desire.
I have no desire. Now, would Prabhupada not have desired to see the Juhu temple? Of course. But this is ultimately a test of devotion.
Now, devotion means that if we are in this world and Krishna is in the spiritual world, so we want to offer the things of this world to Krishna. We have a desire. I want to build a beautiful house and in that I’ll have a magnificent altar.
Or I want to do this for Krishna. I want to do this for Krishna. So, there is the desire to offer things to Krishna.
And that’s a wonderful desire, a noble desire. But the test of our desire is that our desire for Krishna, the desire to be with Krishna should be greater than our desire to offer things to Krishna. Sometimes, what happens, I have seen this across the world, there are many devotees who want to serve very earnestly.
But then, when they are trying to do something, maybe start a goshala, build a temple, do some preaching, do some college preaching, whatever it is they want to do. And when somehow they are trying to do it and others are not cooperating, others are not supporting, others are putting obstacles, then they often become very bitter. Oh, this person like this, that person like that.
And you just start talking with them, so much poison comes out. They are eager to serve, but unfortunately, that eagerness to serve has transformed into bitterness. Because there is an obstacle in the service.
And somebody is becoming the obstacle. It’s understandable, but still it’s undesirable. In trying to offer the world to Krishna, we may end up making our heart unofferable to Krishna.
If our heart is bitter, filled with bitterness towards devotees, bitterness towards other people, then what are we offering to Krishna? So, Prabhupada, through his last lesson, he demonstrated while you want to do wonderful things for Krishna, ultimately, Krishna should be more important than the things we want to offer to him. So, the final lesson that Prabhupada taught was that we learn to accept Krishna’s will gracefully. So, the lesson that Prabhupada, now, I was, I mentioned this point many times, one Mataji in America, she asked me, why was Krishna so cruel to Prabhupada? Could Krishna not have let Prabhupada live for two months, he could have seen the Juhu temple inauguration? I said, I don’t know what Krishna was thinking, but if you look at the context, we can see that Prabhupada saw it that Krishna wants me to teach a different lesson.
The lesson that Krishna ultimately matters more than the world. And Prabhupada was in Vrindavan and Prabhupada gracefully departed from the world. Till his last moments, he was dictating the Bhagavatam purports, he was hearing Krishna katha, he was hearing Krishna kirtan, and he accepted Krishna’s will gracefully.
Ultimately, that is the, you could say that is the most important sign of devotion. That what we do in the world is important, but for whom we do, that person is even more important. So, the detachment from the things of this world was Prabhupada’s sign of, one of the greatest signs of Prabhupada’s extraordinary devotion.
He did extraordinary things for Krishna and he was ready to leave behind extraordinary things. Having faith that this is not my mission, this is Krishna’s mission. It’s not that I have to do everything.
If Krishna wants, Krishna will make things happen through others. And we are blessed to be among those others. The mission that Prabhupada started, his disciples have carried it forward from 108 temples, now we have almost 700 temples across the world.
We have 700 centres with many more centres and temples coming up constantly. That mission has spread and that legacy is there for all of us to ourselves accept and to share with others. The gift that we get from the spiritual master, what is that gift ultimately? Prabhupada said once that I have inherited the legacy of my spiritual master.
Now, Prabhupada did not inherit anything. He did not get any money. He did not get any temples.
He did not get any disciples. The legacy of the spiritual master is the desire to glorify Krishna. Krishna is such a wonderful Lord.
I want the whole world to know about Krishna. How can anyone have a meaningful life if their life is not filled with love for Krishna? I want to share that with everyone. That was the legacy that Prabhupada got.
From that desire to glorify Krishna came temples. From that desire to glorify Krishna came books. From that desire to glorify Krishna came devotees.
It is that desire to glorify Krishna that is Prabhupada’s gift for all of us. We relish Krishna’s glories and we share those glories with others. That is what will make our life enriched while we are in this world with a deep and satisfying purpose it will become enriched.
Ultimately that is what will reunite us with Krishna beyond this world. I will summarise. We discussed about Prabhupada’s glories today.
Various aspects of Prabhupada’s life. So P was what? Anyone remembers? Principles. Yes, that was prior, came later.
Good. Principles. That was Prabhupada.
We see pre-1992 also. Before he met Prabhupada, he was ready to sacrifice the degree for his principles. He got education but for the sake of the independent struggle he was ready to give that up.
Then R was responsibility. So from 22 to almost 55 he was doing this responsibility as a householder. While he was doing that, he was trying to gain wealth so that he could use it for service.
For preaching the mission. And that is when he also worked very hard. He tried his business at various places.
He also studied Shastra when he could. And he was preparing his life for a future mission. And A was? Yes.
So when he started focussing on preaching, he couldn’t focus on preaching so almost from 1933 when he took initiation and especially from 44 onwards till 55, he was assisting his godbrothers. So his spiritual master had departed. So he was sometimes staying in their mission, staying in their ashram, assisting them in editing their magazines.
He was working very hard. Then after that B was? Books. So he focused from 62 to 64 in writing the Bhagavatam.
The first canto he published in three volumes. And that was where he could have stayed on and very easily completed the Bhagavatam. But then that’s when he decided to? H was? Hardship.
He himself took the extraordinary hardship of going to America. To America at the age. So the hardship was many things.
It was physical, that he had, he was 69, he was not in good health, he had a heart attack. Beyond physical it was? It was cultural. The people who had, they had none of no clean habits.
He had to live in places where logistically he didn’t even know where he would stay to go from one place to another. And ultimately that was? Relational. The very people whom he was trying to elevate, one of them turned and attacked him.
But through this hardship Prabhupada was never never, he never quit. He kept pushing on. And then success in you was? Unlikeliness.
From all the audience somebody could have imagined that Prabhupada might get. The hippies were the least likely. We discussed between the hippies and Srila Prabhupada, there was age difference, there was a cultural, there was an education difference, there was an experienced intellectual difference, there was a religious difference, there was a cultural difference.
Practically every way they were different. But somehow they had a spiritual spark. But that doesn’t mean they make them easy.
They were interested in drugs. But Prabhupada somehow connected with them and started teaching to them. And after that P was? Pride.
When he came back to India he activated the cultural pride of Indians. And he inspired Indians even if they can’t practise bhakti in terms of becoming sadhakas, they can at least support the culture which is being appreciated all over the world. That’s how he started having grand temples.
Then A was? Apprenticeship. He did not think that I alone am going to do everything. So he had that vision that others have to carry on this mission.
So he was training them. He was empowering his disciples. And Prabhupada not just, I know Krishna and I love Krishna.
He says, Krishna is there for you. With Prabhupada, everybody felt like Krishna was a living, loving, immediate reality. And last B was? Detachment.
Prabhupada demonstrated that the project that he had worked for the most, Krishna wanted somebody else to complete it. And Prabhupada was ready to accept that. His desire for Krishna was greater than was his desire to offer things to Krishna.
So he was not attached to anything in this world. And Prabhupada achieved all these things. The desire for Krishna is ultimately the gift of the Guru.
Is what? What Prabhupada inherited from his disciples is? From his Guru is that? The desire to glorify Krishna. So we all can pray to Srila Prabhupada that he may enrich our heart with this desire to glorify Krishna. And that desire will fill our life with meaning, with purpose, and will ultimately reunite us with Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada ki? Jai! Sri Krishna Bhagwan ki? Jai! Gaur Bhakta Vrinda ki? Jai! Nithai Gaur Premanandai!