Dancing White Elephants

In August 1970 Srila Prabhupada announced that he was going to India. When he was asked why, when his guru maharaja had ordered him to preach in the west, he replied. . ."

We began our stay in India in the home of Kailash Seksaria, A Marwari businessman who had a five story building overlooking the sea on Bombay's prestigious Marine Drive.

Srila Prabhupada said, "This man is inviting us. He says he has a place where you can have programs. Get down from the train and see what you can do." He gave Gurudas fifty rupees and told him, "Try and start a temple in Delhi. It is the capital of India and very important."

After a month in Bombay, Srila Prabhupada proceeded to Indore by invitation of the Gita Bhavan for the Gita Jayanti Mahotsava the celebration of Lord Krishna speaking the Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, and on December 8, at his request, our group joined him.

The next stop for Srila Prabhupada and the World Sankirtan Party was Surat, a town in the state of Gujurat, home to over half a million people, which Srila Prabhupada said was a "city of devotees."

In Surat, Srila Prabhupada had determined that he would go to Allahabad for the Ardha-kumbha-mela, but he wanted to stop in Bombay for a few days en route. Twenty-five devotees went directly from Surat to Allahabad, and a few of us took a train to Bombay.

From Bombay Srila Prabhupada proceeded to Allahabad, or Prayagraj, for the Ardha ("half") Kumbha-mela, the ancient spiritual festival that is the world's largest gathering of humanity.

From the Ardha-kumbha-mela we travelled with Srila Prabhupada by train to Gorakhpur, having been invited by his only disciple there, Ramananda dasa, a research chemist who had met him in San Francisco and taken intiiation in 1967 and had now returned to Gorakhpur and was teaching chemistry at the Gorakhpur University.

From Gorakhpur I proceeded by train with a small sankirtan party led by Hamsadutta to Agra, where we received a telegram from Srila Prabhupada calling us to Bombay for a big pandal program.

Wanting to build on the success of the Bombay program, Srila Prabhupada sent Tamal Krishna and me to arrange a similar program in Calcuttta, where the year before, some devotees had established a temple in a rented property on Albert road.

On August 20, Srilla Prabhupada wrote to Tamal Krishna, "Delhi is the most important city in India because the capital is established there. Mostly the population is educated. Many foreigners are there also and embassies of different countries. So, from the cultural point of view Delhi is the most important city.

In November, on the eve of Srila Prabhupada's first tour of Vrindavan with his disciples, Acyutananda, Bhavananda and I volunteered to go to Madras to arrange a preaching program for him there.

In Madras I had kept hearing a cinema song being played - Dam Maro Dam Hare Krishna Hare Rama. When I asked my host what the words meant he had replied, "With every breath I take Hare Krishna Hare Rama" - which had sounded quite nice - but later I found that they meant, "With every puff I take Hare Krishna Hare Rama."