Instructions for ISKCON—Part 03

Giriraj Swami: Mr. Sethi and some of the devotees stayed up all night long so the guṇḍās wouldn’t come and destroy the temple. We went to the court, and Mrs. Nair presented her petition. And then the judge asked us, so we informed the judge that the temple was already rebuilt and there was no meaning to the injunction. But if he wanted to grant the injunction, we had no objection. So he granted the injunction, and we also agreed that no further construction would be done. But we didn’t mind because we already had rebuilt the temple.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:00:45]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I don’t know how it happened but somehow by Krishna’s arrangement, we just got the news because so many people were involved by then, we had so many friends helping us.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:00:55]

Giriraj Swami: We didn’t go to court. No, they summoned us; they summoned us to appear on Monday morning. So that is why we went.

READING from Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta

On Monday morning, when the judge learned of the new temple, he declared, “What is built is built. No one can destroy the temple.” When Prabhupada heard the news; he considered it a complete victory. The temple has been rebuilt, and public opinion was swinging strongly in ISKCON’s favor.

COMMENT

Satsvarupa Maharaja summarizes the whole event.

READING (continued)

Your disciples in Bombay canceled all agreements and agreed to quit the land. “I shall be the last man to give up Hare Krishna land to rouges,” and so then, tempers flare between you and Mr. N in a personal encounter. You said, “Either take our money and leave us alone or return our down payment.” He did neither. He cursed the devotees as CIA spies, threatening to destroy the temple and remove the deities. He stormed out of the room. Two weeks later, after a severe heart attack, he died. Mrs. N and her lawyers recommenced the fight. Demolition of a Krishna Temple was scandalous for India, but they almost succeeded. By her order, police officials arrested the devotees, and one hundred demolitionists with hammers and torches dismantled the pillars and tore a path through, approaching the inner room of Radha-Rasabihari. But not a minute too soon, influential Hindu friends intervened.

COMMENT

Actually, there is another incident here that, with the pickaxes and the sledge hammers, they were able to destroy or dismantle all of the temple hall except for the steel bars that were supporting the roof. So they called for a blow torch to cut the steel rods. Meanwhile, all of the demons gathered around the land, and they were looking and laughing and talking and joking. And Mr. Mahatre was there by the little Shiva temple, and his accomplices, and they were enjoying the whole show. And one man who lived across the street, who was quite influential in Juhu, he came, and he was laughing, especially when they were trying to cut the bars with the fire. So we had another devotee named Jagad Purush, whose wife was from Juhu, and Gandiva’s mother was something of a mystic in her own ways. There are many types of mystical people, so she was also one of them. And the man across the street also, he used to have séances. Actually, it is not there now, but on the road to the Juhu beach, he had, as part of his garden, an altar, and he had these stone feet and stone tablet, and people used to come, and he would invoke the spirits of their dead ancestors and communicate with them. So he was also quite influential in this sort of tamasic way. And he also used to distill illicit liquor. Actually, when we came to the land, the front portion was just bushes and weeds and jungle-like, so they used to distill the liquor. They used to hide it in the bushes of the land and then they would sell it. So he had quite a hold in Juhu, and they thought that we were a threat to them that they wouldn’t be able to keep the same hold that they had if we came.

So anyway, he came real close. The others were standing away, but he came real close, and he was watching them with the blow torches on the steel bars and laughing. Then Gandiva’s mother cursed him and said that, “Just as you are laughing now when Krishna’s temple is being burned, one day you will also burn.” Then a few weeks later, just after maṅgala-ārati at five o’clock in the morning, we started hearing shrieks from across the street. And then after a few minutes, an ambulance came, but it was too late. The man had already poured kerosene over his body and set fire to himself, committing suicide. So actually, it was very heavy, very heavy. There was another incident that took place later, and one of the big leaders who was with Mahatre, who was trying to get control of the temple from the devotees, he also suddenly collapsed on the street outside Sachivalaya. He was MLA and died on the street. So anyway, it was very intense, very intense for years; still intense.

Now, I don’t think we are going to be able to finish the whole story. But every now and then, we will be having seminars, so maybe we can continue. Each time we have seminars, we can discuss more. I think we can complete the acquisition of the land and then getting the permission to build, and then actually building the temple may have to come later.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari ki jaya!

Hare Krishna land ki jaya!

[ANOTHER LECTURE BEGINS]

Giriraj Swami: I will relate one incident that shows how Srila Prabhupada saved us, even when he was not in Bombay. We discussed yesterday how the municipal corporation demolished the temporary temple and how various friends came forward to help.

Some of the leading devotees in Bombay got the idea, and there was some validity to the idea that we are not expert managers, but we have so many life members who can manage very expertly. So we should let them manage, and we will just preach. So we formed one committee with various friends, good friends, life members, and we were going to meet them to give them the management of the society so that we could be free to preach and give spiritual guidance. At the time, Harikesha Maharaja and I both had jaundice, and we were recuperating together in the same room at Shivnair Apartment Building on Nepean Sea Road. Because as soon as the temple was demolished, Tamal Krishna Goswami and the traveling party who had gone to Madhya Pradesh came back to Bombay. So we decided we should get some place in Central Bombay so that we would be more free to work actively. So we approached Mr. Brijratan Mohta, and he gave us one big apartment on Nepean Sea Road. Harikesha Maharaja had the manuscript of The Nectar of Instruction, and as he was recuperating, he was reading it. Then, the night before we were supposed to have the meeting, he got very excited late at night. And he said he read something that made him think that we should not go through with the meeting as we had planned. He read,

“In this regard, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura warns all devotees engaged in broadcasting the Krishna consciousness movement not to speak to the impersonalist Mayavadis, who are always determined to oppose such theistic movements. The world is full of Mayavadis and atheists, and the political parties of the world take advantage of Mayavada and other atheistic philosophies to promote materialism. Sometimes they even back a strong party to oppose the Krishna consciousness movement. The Mayavadis and other atheists do not want the Krishna consciousness movement to develop because it educates people in God consciousness. Such is the policy of the atheists.”

This is the purport of the verse, guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati. That devotees should reveal the mind to each other. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says the other side of Srila Rupa Gosvami instruction is that we should not engage in the six reciprocations with non-devotees, karmis, or Mayavadis.

“So, we should not disclose our minds to the serpent Mayavadis and karmis; and such disclosures will never help. It is best to avoid association with them completely and never ask them about anything confidential because they cannot give good advice. Nor should we extend invitations to Mayavadis and atheists, nor accept their invitation, for by such intimate intermingling, we may become affected by their atheistic mentality, saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ. It is the negative injunction of this verse that we should refrain from giving anything to or accepting anything from the Mayavadis and atheists.”

So, Harikesha Maharaja being very intelligent, could apprehend some danger in giving the management of the society to Hindus who basically were not devotees but who were closer to being Mayavadis. So we both resolved that we should take the subject to the other leaders early in the morning before the meeting. So, the meeting was scheduled for maybe 7:30 in the morning before that gentlemen goes to work. So, at 5:30, we went into Tamal Krishna Goswami’s room and told him what we had read and discussed. Eventually, everyone agreed that we should be very careful because, actually, most of them were not really devotee, just pious and as friendly as they were. So we went to the meeting, but we tactfully avoided giving them any real authority. Of course, Srila Prabhupada wanted us to engage them, but at the same time, he was also concerned that they should not try to take the power away from the devotees and use the institution to introduce programs outside Krishna consciousness. Generally, they have two ideas: if they are impersonalists, they want to introduce other systems, other speakers, other practices besides bhakti. And if they are karmis, they want to introduce material welfare work like giving medical service. They have so many ideas for material benefits. So, we all felt that Srila Prabhupada had cautioned us at the right moment, and especially when he speaks about, sometimes they even back a strong party to oppose the Krishna consciousness movement. Because it was quite clear there were so many enemies of the Krishna consciousness movement, they were joining together to try to stop the acquisition of the land.

Previously, there was the “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” movie. Did you see it? Devananda was involved with one film called, “Hare Rama Hare Krishna.” The film was released within the first year after Srila Prabhupada returned to India with his foreign disciples. And the film depicted the devotees as hippies who used to smoke hashish and have illicit sex and chant “Hare Rama Hare Krishna.” And when the movie first opened in Calcutta, I was in Calcutta at the time. So the movie first opened in Calcutta, we went outside the theater and distributed books because we thought for “Hare Rama Hare Krishna,” so many people will be coming, and they would be interested. So we did, and then when the film began, I went inside the theater just to see what the movie was, standing at the doorway. So it was very impressive, very dramatic. Some deeper voice came. It began showing the waves of the ocean coming in on the beach, and some deep voice said, “For centuries, India’s spiritual culture remained within the shores of India.” Then it showed a picture of Srila Prabhupada. “But one person has taken India’s spiritual culture beyond the shores of India.” And then it showed a map, and it showed India with an arrow, showing Prabhupada’s journeys to the West. Then it showed Ratha-yatra in London, big chariots with big canopies, and the police chanting Hare Krishna; so impressive. And then it showed a house program. Actually, the house program was held at Jagad Purush’s house. They were so clever; they invited the devotees, they said, “They will make many life members for you,” and they came to program and secretly filming the kirtan. And they used the kirtan in the film, Jagad Purush and other movie producers. And then the next scene was hippies, boys and girls smoking and dancing, and saying, “Hare Rama, Hare Krishna,” and then I left.

So Prabhupada had told us that there was a conspiracy to make the film against the movement, and it was in the beginning Devananda came, and we were naive, and even Srila Prabhupada could not expect. So Devananda came, and this is when Srila Prabhupada first came when we were staying at Seksaria House on Marine Drive. And one day we saw there is a picture of Devananda with Srila Prabhupada in some movie magazine, and he appeared to be very friendly. And then he and others approached us that, “We want to become life members,” and then they said, “We want to have programs; we will make many members for you.” So they all became members – Devananda, Jagad Purush, Ramananda Sagar. And so, they had the program at Jagad Purush’s house, and they filmed the kirtan and used it in the film. Of course, Srila Prabhupada said that ultimately the film would help us. The theme song of this film was “Dum Maro Dum, Hare Krishna Hare Rama." Dum maro Dum means “With every smoke that I take, with every puff that I take, Hare Krishna Hare Rama.” So Srila Prabhupada said, eventually, the film will help us because people will forget that “Dum maro dum”, and they will remember the Hare Krishna Hare Rama. Actually, it happened; for the first two years or so, wherever we went, especially the children on the street, they would all come up to us and go “Dum Maro Dum, Hare Krishna Hare Rama.” It was terrible; we couldn’t walk down the street. If we were in some car, taxi, stop light, they all would come near the car and said, “Dum maro dum.” It was terrible. Then after about two years, “Dum Maro Dum” became less, it was about half “Dum Maro Dum” and more Hare Krishna Hare Rama. And then after three or four years, they forgot “Dum Maro Dum," they would say only “Hare Krishna Hare Rama.” because Srila Prabhupada knew that “Hare Krishna, Hare Rama” was transcendental sounds, so people like to say it again and again, and “Dum maro dum.” Was mundane, so they will get tiredness. So actually, it helped.

So, many things that the demons do against Krishna consciousness, ultimately work in favor of devotee. The same happened with the demolition of the temple. At the time, it seemed so horrible, but in the end, it was favorable because people could see what kind of people they were, because they would even go to the extent of demolishing the temple. Now, sometimes people feel that, “How can we call other persons demons? They are also human beings; they are also respected persons in society. How did we call them demons?” But actually, it is the function of the madhyamādhikārī Vaishnava, to make distinctions between devotees, innocent persons, and demons. In the beginning, one disciple questioned Srila Prabhupada about the use of the word “demon,” and he was saying, “Srila Prabhupada, we can’t call them demons.” And Prabhupada said, “Why? They are demons.” And he was saying, “But Prabhupada, we can’t call them demons.” Prabhupada said, “But they are demons.” And Prabhupada said, “Unless you realize that they are demons, you cannot make any advancement in spiritual life.” Finally, he said, “But Srila Prabhupada, can’t they also become devotees?” Srila Prabhupada said, “Anyone can become a devotee, and then they are not demons anymore.” So this is important because the policy of the atheists and the Mayavadis, is that there should be no distinction; everyone is a devotee, everyone is good, nobody is bad. I am good, you are good. Actually, there was one book, I Am Okay, You Are Okay. Prabhupada said, “No, I am okay, but you are not okay.” So actually, this is essential for spiritual advancement beyond the neophyte stage; to be able to distinguish between the devotees, the innocent person, and the demon.

So, once Jaya Advaita Swami wrote one article in Back to Godhead magazine about demons. And he was saying that he might be your next-door neighbor, he might look just like you, dress like you, look like you. It doesn’t mean that he will have horns coming out of his head or fire coming out of his mouth. But if he is against the Lord or the devotees, he is demon. And Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami says in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta that if someone is a devotee of Vishnu, but if he is not a devotee of Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he is a demon. Jarasandha was a devotee of Vishnu. Generally, the demons are the devotees of demigods like Hiraṇyakaśipu was the devotee of Brahma and Rāvaṇa was the devotee of Shiva but Jarasandha was a devotee of Vishnu. But because he didn’t accept Krishna, he was a demon. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami’s own brother, he accepted Chaitanya Mahaprabhu but he didn’t accept Nityananda Prabhu and Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami cursed him and warned him that, “You cannot accept Lord Chaitanya and not Lord Nityananda. They are two halves of the same whole.” And he said it is better to be an atheist and reject them both than to be a hypocrite and accept one and not the others. So, there was some disagreement and Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami says that immediately after that his brother fell down. So, this is the offense against Nityananda Prabhu. And in the night, Nityananda Prabhu appeared in Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami’s dream and advised him to go to Vrindavan. He said that, “In Vrindavan, you will get all things that you desire.” And Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami says that, “Because of my good quality in criticizing my brother, Lord Nityananda bestow mercy upon me.” So, we always have to remember the functions of the madhyamādhikārī Vaishnava, to make distinctions among different categories and to act differently to different types of persons.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:30:25]

Giriraj Swami: What he says is, anyone who accepts, he extends the logic that anyone who accepts Krishna but not Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is a demon. Now, if we want to get into it, which I don’t know if we do want to get into it, there are Vaishnava sects . . . you want to be able to distinguish. In one conversation, I heard Srila Prabhupada was speaking to one Indian man about how the leaders of India, after Independence, were demons and spoiled the country. And the man was very shocked, and he said to Srila Prabhupada, “But they are our own people. How could they be demons?” He said, “There is no question of our own people. Hiraṇyakaśipu was Prahlada Maharaja’s own father, but he was a demon.” So these are facts.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:31:33]

Giriraj Swami: If someone accepts Krishna but not Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is demon. But many people don’t know about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. They may be innocent, and until we preach to them, they can’t know. If you take us, we didn’t know. We didn’t know Krishna or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu before Prabhupada.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:32:00]

Giriraj Swami: He was against Krishna. You know Jarasandha, he was against Krishna, but he was the Vishnu bhakta. Generally, the demons are worshipers of demigods. But he was the worshiper of Vishnu, but he was against Krishna, so he was a demon.

So, coming back to the Juhu, temple was rebuilt. There was no chance that anyone could do anything against the temple until the court case was decided because the judge ruled, or the municipality ruled, that until the case was decided, the temple should remain. And in the meantime, Mr. Nair had had a heart attack and he expired. So there was a deadlock.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:33:10]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, in the meantime means before. So we were working, but there was no heavy pressure but we were working. But one man who worked very well was one advocate named Sushil Asnani. Not a big man, but a good friend. And he would meet with Mrs. Warrior, who was one of the tenants. And Mrs. Warrior sometimes would meet Mrs. Nair, and Mr. Asnani explained to Mrs. Warrior that, “Actually, Mrs. Nair’s lawyers just wanted to prolong the fight to increase the fees.” And Mr. Asnani even presented the idea that her lawyers actually wanted the land. That they wanted to increase the fees to such an extent that she wouldn’t be able to pay them unless she gave them the land. Somehow or other, between his efforts with Mrs. Warrior and with Mrs. Nair, she became somewhat changed, but still, how to conclude the whole matter.

So we had one friend named Biharilal Khandwal, who was very kind, and we spoke to him, and he said that, “Your guru Maharaja must come. Unless your guru Maharaja comes, we won’t be able to settle it.” In the meantime, Harikesha Maharaja had made another life member of a prominent lawyer named S R. Vakil, who was the legal advisor for Tatas. And somehow or other, S R Vakil also gave the same advice that, “Unless your guru Maharaja comes, a matter cannot be settled.” Then Satsvarupa Maharaja begins the story because he is traveling with Srila Prabhupada, so he is not telling everything that happened in Bombay when Srila Prabhupada was in West and come back.

READING from Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta

Srila Prabhupada received an emergency phone call from Bombay. Giriraj wanted him to come and personally settle with Mrs. N, the purchase of the Juhu land. Giriraj had consulted a new lawyer, Mr. Vakil, who felt that Prabhupada must be present for there to be a settlement. Another ISKCON lawyer also advised that Srila Prabhupada come immediately to Bombay. Giriraj therefore, telephoned Srila Prabhupada, begging him to please come and settle the matter with Mrs. N once and for all. Prabhupada agreed. He would remain in London one more week until Janmashtami. Then he would return to Bombay.

The day after his arrival, Srila Prabhupada met with Mrs. N’s solicitors and heard their offers. The situation had begun to look hopeful, and yet the conclusion eluded them. Mrs. Nair had become changed by the public reaction to her attempt to demolish the temple. If Prabhupada would pay the full balance of twelve lakhs of rupees for the land in one payment, she told her lawyer, she would agree. Prabhupada was agreeable but did not want to arrange to collect his money until he was certain that Mrs. N was actually serious. Mr. Asnani, a Bombay lawyer and ISKCON life member, regularly met with Mrs. N, persuading her to cooperate with Prabhupada. Mr. Asnani visited her and beg her, “Mataji, my guru Maharaja is leaving very soon. If you don’t come tonight, the problem with the land will continue for another year.” Mrs. N agreed, and around 9:00 p.m., she and Mr. Asnani arrived at the home of Mr. Bhogilal Patel, where Srila Prabhupada was holding a program of kirtan and Bhagavat discourses.

Prabhupada was on the roof preparing to lecture, but hearing that Mrs. N had arrived, he interrupted the meeting and came down to his room to talk with her. They talked briefly, and Prabhupada excused himself and returned to the roof to lecture. Around midnight, he returned to his room again. Mrs. N was still waiting. She burst into tears and bowed at Prabhupada’s feet, “I am sorry for everything I have done. Please forgive me.” She promised to do whatever Prabhupada wanted. Prabhupada looked at her compassionately and understood her heart. “You are just like my daughter,” he said. “Don’t worry. I will take care of you. I will see to all of your needs for the rest of your life.” And Prabhupada said, he still accepted the very terms she had proposed: that he pay the remaining balance of twelve lakhs plus fifty thousand rupees compensation for the delay. Mrs. N and Prabhupada had settled on November 1st as the tentative deadline for the finals, planning of the convention. There is a small table, and Mr. Chaganlal said, “So who will take the land, you or me?” Prabhupada immediately said, “I will take.” So, Chaganlal said, “Well, my claim is six lakhs.” Prabhupada said, “My claim is twelve lakhs.” So, first of all, he was surprised that a sadhu was so smart, and he was completely reduced. So finally, it was agreeing that Prabhupada would get the land, and there would be some further negotiation about how much we or Mrs. N would have to pay Chaganlal to get him to withdraw his claim.

COMMENT

So after the meeting, I walked down the stairs with Mr. Chaganlal. Mr. Chaganlal was completely bewildered, and he said, “Your guru Maharaja is pakka, he is pakka.” So then there are other incidents. Yes, there was negotiation about how much Mrs. Nair had to pay Mr. Chaganlal to withdraw. So this was really Krishna’s arrangement that Prabhupada was in one room with Mrs. Nair and Chaganlal was in another room, in Mr. Sethi’s house. And the gulf of difference was so big. Mrs. Nair wanted to pay about one lakh. Mr. Chaganlal want to demand six lakhs, tremendous gulf of difference. Then suddenly, Mr. Ganatra came, who had been the mayor of Bombay, who was also very shrewd and very expert at compromising. So he came to our room with Prabhupada and Mrs. Nair, and he said, “What is the most he can do?” So, she would say, “One lakh, twenty-five thousand.” Then he would go to Chaganlal’s room and say, “What the least deal setting for?” He said six lakhs. Then he would come back and I think he would tell us that he wouldn’t settle for less; he wouldn’t settle for more than he was actually ready to settle for. He would go to Chaganlal, and Chaganlal would say, “Okay, I will give him three lakhs.” But then he would come back and say, “He won’t give a penny less than four lakhs,” just to get us to come up. And then we say, “Okay, we will give two fifty lakhs.” And then he would go to Chaganlal and say, “They won’t give a penny more than one and a half. You have to come down.” So, we were thinking that it is hopeless. Each time it was so tense because we thought the difference was very big, but actually he was overstating Chaganlal’s price to get Mrs. Nair come up. And he was understating, this is Nair’s offer to get Chaganlal to come down. It was so tense, it looked like at any moment the whole proceeding could fail. And then finally at the end when we were thinking there is a big difference, he came and he said, “It is all settled.” And Chaganlal came in. It was all agreed and everything was settled. That was like when Satsvarupa Maharaja says that Srila Prabhupada stayed at Mr. Sethi’s House to resolve the remaining problems. This was the biggest problem; that is how to deal with Chaganlal.

There was another dramatic tense moment which definitely. . .

READING (continued)

. . . problems were cleared by Srila Prabhupada’s grace. And everything was ready for the signing of the conveyance. Srila Prabhupada had been staying at Mr. Sethi’s house, and then he moved to another house belonging to the Patal’s family, on the way to the Juhu Beach. Next we moved to the cottage of Mr. Chandrakant and Patal, just two blocks from Hare Krishna land, where he lived in a summer cottage. A simple structure with a bamboo frame and chattai walls. Usually, conveyances had to be signed in the presence of the registrar at his office downtown. But Mr. Asnani arranged for the registrar to come to Prabhupada’s place. At 6:30 in the evening, Srila Prabhupada was seated at his low desk between two windows, his back against the wall. Mrs. N and her lawyers, the registrar, Mr. Asnani, Mr. and Mrs. Sethi, and about eight devotees were present, and the full room was warm and stuffy. Mrs. N sat at Prabhupada’s right as the registrar prepared the papers for signing. Srila Prabhupada sat gravely. The room was silent, except for the sound of papers rustling and pens scratching. Preparing and signing the conveyance papers took more than twenty minutes. Prabhupada paid Mrs. N, who then signed the conveyance. The land was legally ISKCON’s.

Giriraj: “The room was hushed during the signing, and everyone felt as if a momentous event was taking place, just as if two great world’s powers were signing a treaty.” After Mrs. N signed the document, everyone silently watched the papers being passed. She started to cry.

I was thinking that she must be remembering all of the bad things that she did to these devotees. Maybe thinking how her husband had harassed the devotees and how he had died and therefore she was crying.

Tamal Krishna Goswami quietly asked her why she was crying, and Mrs. N replied that just the day before, that just that day, Mr. Mahatre had come and told her he had found a buyer for the land for many lakhs more than we were paying.

Actually, as we were watching Mrs. N, we were thinking that she must be remembering all the events that had taken place, the wrongs that she had done, the death of her husband. It was very intense, like a culmination of months of struggle. So Prabhupada, the devotee, and Prabhupada’s well-wisher, their dreams and desires and efforts over the past many years were being fulfilled. Srila Prabhupada asked that the devotees inform the newspapers, and he invited everyone into the hall outside his room for a feast because once the date was fixed, Srila Prabhupada said, we should have a feast after the signing. Mats were rolled out in two lines. The devotees brought leaf plates and placed in front of everyone. The devotees began serving the various dishes to the two rows of seated guests. Prabhupada was standing. “Now let us start,” he said as he supervised serving. The devotees had prepared several courses, rice, dal, many varieties of pakoras such as potato, cauliflower, and egg-plant. Potato sabji, white cauliflower sabji, papad, burfi, laddo, chumcham – it is a Bengali sweet rasagullā, but filled with cream. Vermicelli kheer, halwa, and the mañjarī. It was a festive and happy occasion. Mrs. Warrior attended on Hare Krishna land.

The devotees were all saying “Jaya!” after the signing, and all of them were very happy. Then Prabhupada gave a lecture about the Bombay project. He gave an idea to all the people of how it would be all marble. There wouldn’t be a single thing that wasn’t built from marble. Some were asking how it would be possible for everything to be marble. He explained that it was possible and could be done. He was visualizing the project, and everyone was thrilled to hear the way he was describing it. It would be like one of the Seven Wonders of the World. People would be attracted from all over to come and see it. It would be a landmark in Bombay. Prabhupada explained the whole project as if he saw it in his mind’s eye, and he said that after it was constructed, it would be more than what we could visualize. It would be fantastic. After the late feast, when everyone had departed, Prabhupada returned to his room. Leaning back at his desk, he exclaimed, “It was a good fight.” Prabhupada was in the mood of a warrior, and in the mood of a kshatriya. At the end of the battle, he leaned back and said, ‘It was a good fight.’ It means, in the kshatriya spirit, they give credit to the other side. So, he gave them credit for their good efforts also. Later, Prabhupada would cite the story of the fight for the Bombay land as evidence that a person in Krishna consciousness has no problems.

COMMENT

Actually, Prabhupada left Bombay and went to Europe. He gave one lecture in Switzerland, and the theme of the lecture was, or one of the themes of the lecture was, that a devotee has no problems. So, the course of the lecture, he said that we don’t have to go to the office or the factory to earn money. In other words, when one becomes Krishna conscious, he has no problems. All problems are solved, and the money problem is also solved. Then he gave the example of Juhu.

READING (continued)

Now, we have spent in Bombay eighteen to twenty lakhs of rupees. The property is actually worth fifty lakhs. People are surprised, and some of them are envious, but if you will come, you will find it is a very, very fine place. It is just like a paradise garden, twenty thousand square yards, and we have got six buildings. So actually, when we come to Krishna consciousness, there are no problems.

Surely, the land was full of potential. But how could he say there had been no problems? “No problems” means that Srila Prabhupada saw how Krishna personally arranged things for his devotees. When he had needed money, it had come in an amount that ordinarily would have been impossible to collect, and the formidable opposition, Krishna had removed. Prabhupada had no organized means of income and little political influence to fight persons like Mr. and Mrs. N, but because he was surrendered to Krishna, there was no problem. All the problems of the world were created by the non-devotees who defies the injunctions of the Supreme. Anyone who is in bhakti-yoga, he can understand that all problems are solved, and practically we can see.

COMMENT

One time, Srila Prabhupada was sitting on the terrace of the building where the saṅkīrtana office is now in the evening, and Haridasa Brahmachari was fanning him. So, seven o’clock came, and Srila Prabhupada did not hear any kirtan from the temple. So he asked Haridasa, “Where are the devotees?” Haridasa did not know. Srila Prabhupada thought that the devotees may be out collecting, and Srila Prabhupada said that, “This is not my idea, that the devotees should stay out late collecting. Mr. Nair was so powerful materially, much more powerful than we. Yet, we were successful, why? We were successful because we were surrendered to Krishna; we were on the side of Krishna. So even though Mr. Nair was materially more powerful, we were successful because we were with Krishna.” “So, our strength comes from surrendering to Krishna, following the regulative principles. So, we should not think that we have to stay out late collecting money, but we should come back, go to the ārati, hear the class, and by Krishna’s grace, we will be successful, not by material efforts.”

So, we will end here because I want you to answer some questions first. Do you have any questions?

So, I wasn’t able to get the questions typed. I will read them, and you can copy them in your notebook. And if you don’t have notebooks, we have some paper here. Does anyone need paper?

Okay, I will read the questions first, and you can write them down. And then, one after the other, we can answer them. So, you will write on the board. Okay. Still, I will leave enough, and while I am reading, just write.

1.  What facts or principles did you learn from the course? List five.

2.  What realizations did you have?

3.  Has anything in the course inspired you to change or improve your life? If so, what and how?

4.  What part of the course did you like most?

5.  What about Srila Prabhupada or Hare Krishna land would you like to know more about?