SPL – Srila Prabhupada’s African Mission—Q&A—Factors of Success

Giriraj Swami:

READING from Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta

Nairobi, September 18, 1971.

In Nairobi Srila Prabhupada demonstrated how a sannyasi should preach. For one month he strictly followed Vedic tradition by staying only three days or less in the home of each of his Indian hosts. Then, although his hosts always provided him good food and comfortable accommodations, he would move on to the next place. This was the rule for sannyasis, Prabhupada said; it kept them from becoming attached to bodily comforts and from inconveniencing their hosts.

COMMENT

Actually, there is a saying in India, probably from some ancient book of wisdom, maybe from Chankya Pandit that “Guests and fish stink after three days.”

READING (continued)

For Srila Prabhupada to practice these rudimentary lessons of sannyasa was, of course, unnecessary, for he was a paramahamsa, a sannyasi in the highest order of Krishna consciousness. His body, mind, and words being totally engaged in Krishna’s transcendental service, he was automatically detached from material comforts. Nevertheless, he followed the Vedic system, just to instruct his disciples by his example.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada commented that whenever he goes into a rich man’s house, he always prays to his spiritual master and to Krishna that he may not become attached to the material facilities and opulence. Just to further illustrate this mood of Srila Prabhupada, in September of 1977, Srila Prabhupada visited England for some days before he returned to India and Vrindavan. In class, or in some context, he said that you can fall down, but I cannot fall down. Later, when Srila Prabhupada came before the deities for darshan, he was offering some prayers, and one disciple was bold enough to ask Srila Prabhupada what he was praying. Srila Prabhupada replied, “I was praying that I may never fall down.” Then the disciple said, “Srila Prabhupada, you just said you could never fall down.” Prabhupada replied, “Yes, because I am always praying that I may never fall down. Therefore, I can never fall down.” In the same way, Srila Prabhupada always used to pray whenever he would enter a rich man’s house that he may not become attached, he may not become influenced by the opulence, and so on. He may not fall down.

READING (continued)

He was following the system of mādhukarī, named for the bee, which takes only a little pollen from a flower and then goes on to the next.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada actually also applied the principle of mādhukarī to collection. In India, Srila Prabhupada wanted to introduce the principle that all money from life membership should be put into the book fund and the building fund. It should not be spent on maintenance, and the devotees always had to struggle to get money for maintenance because the membership money, which was the main income, was not allowed to be spent. It had to be deposited in the book fund and the building fund. Whenever the devotees would spend the membership money on maintenance, Srila Prabhupada would become very upset. At one stage, Tamal Krishna Goswami had gone to Delhi and met one rich man who agreed to contribute two thousand one hundred rupees every month, which was enough to pay for the maintenance of the center in Delhi. Tamal Krishna Goswami was very happy because he would no longer have to spend the membership money. So he wrote to Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada wrote back that they should deposit his monthly contributions in the book fund. Then he said that they should be like bees and go from flower to flower and take a little honey from each flower, not that they get a big donation from one gentleman and then eat and sleep the rest of the month. This was another application of mādhukarī.

READING (continued)

This system of brief visits also enabled Prabhupada to involve more families in Krishna consciousness and to honor the abundance of invitations.

Wherever Prabhupada went, he was undisputedly the guru, the venerable sadhu. Yet he would deal intimately with his hosts, developing friendships and behaving practically like an elder member of the family.

Prabhupada’s behavior in Nairobi was instructive for the few Western disciples who accompanied him.

Prabhupada wasn’t satisfied preaching only to the Indians. He wanted to preach to the Africans. Indians and Africans were completely segregated. But since a Krishna conscious person does not make distinctions based on the body, Prabhupada said the Indians had a duty to share their spiritual culture with the Africans.

Prabhupada impressed on Brahmananda Swami that his first duty in Africa was to give Krishna consciousness to the Africans. Because of bad experience in Turkey and Pakistan, Brahmananda Swami had been reluctant to hold public kirtans in Nairobi. Besides, the Africans spoke mostly Swahili; they were culturally different and usually too poor to buy books, so Brahmananda Swami didn’t know how to preach to them effectively. Going to the Indians had been easy and natural.

But Prabhupada wanted the Africans. “It is an African country,” he said simply. “They are the proprietors. We should be preaching to them.”

As with everything else in Krishna consciousness, Prabhupada demonstrated how to do this also. He got the use of a Radha-Krishna temple in a predominantly African downtown area. The temple had a hall with doors opening onto the busy street, and Prabhupada instructed the devotees to hold kirtan in the hall, keeping the doors open. The devotees did as he asked, and in five minutes the hall began filling up with people. It was a shabby area of town, and the people who entered were illiterate and dirty. But they were curious, and they happily joined in the kirtan, smiling, clapping, and dancing.

Brahmananda Swami left the hall and went to the nearby house where Prabhupada was staying. “The place is filled with people,” Brahmananda Swami said, “but it’s not necessary for you to come. We can carry on and do the program ourselves.”

“No,” Prabhupada said, “I must go.”

Brahmananda Swami tried to discourage him.

“No, I must go,” Prabhupada repeated. “Are you going to take me?”

When Brahmananda Swami arrived with Srila Prabhupada, the hall was even more crowded than it had been a few minutes before. Prabhupada, in his silken saffron robes, appeared effulgent as he entered the dingy, poorly lit auditorium. As he walked the crowd parted, leaving an aisle for him to pass among them, and they watched him curiously. Onstage Prabhupada led a kirtan and lectured. Although the Swahili-speaking audience was unable to understand Prabhupada’s lecture, the people were respectful. And the kirtan they loved.

Members of the Indian community had been apprehensive of Prabhupada’s opening their hall to the Africans, and some of them had attended to see what would happen. Observing Prabhupada’s compassionate program, however, the Indians were impressed. Such an apparently simple program had the spiritual potency to erase cultural boundaries.

This should be Brahmananda Swami’s mission in Africa, Prabhupada insisted-offering Krishna consciousness to the Africans. And the program should be simple: distributing prasādam, distributing free books, and chanting Hare Krishna with drums and kartals. Krishna consciousness should not be just another Nairobi Hindu religious society. The Hindus should take part by donating money, but Brahmananda Swami’s preaching and recruiting should be among the Africans.

When several black American disciples joined Prabhupada in Nairobi, Prabhupada told them, “Four hundred years ago your ancestors were taken away from here as slaves. But ah, just see how you have returned as masters!”

Prabhupada also organized Nairobi’s first outdoor kirtan performance. The devotees went to Kamakunji Park’s largest tree, a historical landmark connected with Kenyan independence. As they stood chanting beneath the tree, a large crowd gathered, and many began chanting. Some even danced in a sort of tribal shuffle. One young man stepped forward and offered to translate Brahmananda Swami’s speech into Swahili. The devotees distributed sweet bundi, and the people in the crowd really enjoyed themselves. The whole affair was a great success.

Rushing back to Prabhupada, Brahmananda Swami reported on the wonderful kirtan in the park. Brahmananda felt the same emotion as in 1966 when he had reported to Prabhupada the success of the first kirtan at Washington Square Park in New York City. Now, as then, Brahmananda Swami had followed Prabhupada’s instructions, and the results had been successful. Prabhupada, by his personal example and by his pushing Brahmananda Swami, had within a few days changed the emphasis of preaching in Africa-from Indians to Africans.

The night of Srila Prabhupada’s lecture at the University of Nairobi, two thousand African students filled the auditorium with hundreds more standing outside to look in through the doors and windows. First Prabhupada had Bhuta-bhavana, a black American disciple, deliver a short introduction, using some borrowed Swahili phrases. “Harambay,” he began-which means “Welcome, brothers. Let us work together.” Then Prabhupada spoke.

“The whole world is simply hankering and lamenting. You African people are now hankering to be like the Europeans and Americans. But the Europeans have lost their empire. They are now lamenting. So one party is hankering, and one party is lamenting.

“We have come to these African countries to invite all intelligent Africans to come and understand this philosophy and distribute it. You are trying to develop yourselves, so develop very soundly. But don’t imitate the Americans and Europeans, who are living like cats and dogs. Such civilization will not stand. The atom bomb is already there. As soon as the next war breaks out, all the skyscraper buildings and everything else will be finished. Try to understand from the real standpoint, the real view of human life. That is the Krishna consciousness movement, and we request you to come and try to understand this philosophy. Thank you very much.”

The audience burst into applause, giving Prabhupada a standing ovation. This response proved once again that Krishna’s message spoke to the heart; it was for all people, regardless of their political, geographic, or social predicament. When Prabhupada had first landed at the Nairobi airport, he had assured the reporter that he would be preaching to the Africans. And now he was. He was delivering to the Africans the same message and the same process of devotional service he had delivered to the Americans. What the Americans wanted and what the Africans wanted could be realized only in Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness would work anywhere, if sincere and intelligent persons would only come forward and help distribute it.

Prabhupada continued with outside speaking engagements. While appearing on the popular TV show Mambo Leo, Prabhupada displayed a painting of Lord Chaitanya dancing and chanting with His devotees. The interviewer asked Prabhupada why only Caucasians appeared to be in the picture. “Well, there are many colors in India,” Prabhupada replied.

“And who is the central figure here?” the interviewer asked.

“This is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu,” Prabhupada replied. “He is God.”

“He cannot be God!” the large, burly interviewer retorted. “What do you mean He is God? This is a human being.”

But Prabhupada became even more aggressive than the interviewer. “Why do you say He cannot come as a human being? Why God cannot come as a human being?”

In another of his many Nairobi lectures, Prabhupada stressed that peace was possible only on the spiritual platform. Krishna consciousness alone would unite the present factions.

“For instance, in Africa the Indians may be satisfied with their own methods, but the Africans are not satisfied. So if one is dissatisfied in material life, then another is satisfied-and there will be disturbance.

COMMENT

In other words, the Indians were satisfied materially, but the Africans were dissatisfied, so there was bound to be disturbance.

READING (continued)

But if you come to the Krishna conscious platform, if you engage yourself in the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then your mind and soul will be fully satisfied.”

Prabhupada went on to explain his plans for helping Africans.

“We have come to Africa to educate the people-not only Indians or the Hindus, but also the native people, the local population. I am glad that our people are going to saṅkīrtana party in the streets, as we go everywhere-in London, in New York, and all the big cities of the world. We are trying to lead our saṅkīrtana parties through the streets, and the local African boys and girls and gentlemen are gathering. They are receiving this movement.

“So there is every possibility of spreading Krishna consciousness everywhere. This movement has come here, so I request that those who are present try to cooperate with the Krishna consciousness movement. And I am sure that the African boys and girls will take part in it, as you have experienced. We have a great many African boys and girls as our students in America, so there is no difficulty.

“It is not that because one is very busy, therefore he cannot serve God. Or that because one is poor, or black, or white, that he cannot serve God. No. Anyone who takes to the process of pure devotional service will never be checked.”

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

ISKCON African Mission ki jaya!

Are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: [audio missed]

Giriraj Swami: Yes. At the beginning of the chapter, a resident of Vrindavan was a quote from Srila Prabhupada where Srila Prabhupada tells about how his godbrother encouraged him to take sannyasa, saying that unless one is in the renounced order, he cannot preach. Of course, every instruction has its own context, and here Srila Prabhupada’s godbrother or his own spiritual master, through his godbrother, was insisting that he takes because his spiritual master had ordered him to preach Krishna consciousness in the English language in the Western world. So when one is a householder, he cannot move so freely because he has to take care of his family memory, but when one is in the renounced order, he can move with freedom.

Srila Prabhupada told one disciple that sannyasa means if you don’t like the place, leave it. So, because Srila Prabhupada’s specific order from his spiritual master was to preach Krishna consciousness in the English language to the persons who spoke the English language, he was not able to fulfill his spiritual master’s order fully unless he entered the renounced order of life. And practically, we see that after Srila Prabhupada did enter the renounced order of life, he was able to leave India and come to the Western world and preach and deliver all of us. But there are also other instructions. The famous example is the devotee in South India, the householder devotee in South India, who became very attached to Lord Chaitanya and wanted to follow him, but Lord Chaitanya forbade him, and he said that, “You should go back to your home and stay where you are.” And then he instructed him that,

āmāra ājñāya guru tāra ei deśa
yāre dekha tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa

That you become a spiritual master, in the sense that wherever you go and whoever you meet, you simply repeat the message of Krishna, and in this way, you deliver the people in your place, ei deśa.

So one can preach in one’s place and deliver the people in one’s place, as Lord Chaitanya instructed the brahman, where one can travel all over the world and preach and try to deliver people all over the world. So for a householder, Lord Chaitanya’s instruction to the brahman in South India is appropriate. But because Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura especially wanted to preach in the Western world, and he even sent other disciples to the Western world to preach, although they were not very successful, Srila Prabhupada needed to take sannyasa. Not needed to take sannyasa, but it was appropriate for Srila Prabhupada to take sannyasa, and his godbrother knew that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura wanted to go and preach in the West, therefore he insisted, “You must take sannyasa.”

[Question:] Bhakta. James asks, “Is the external result necessarily indicative of where the mercy is flowing?”

It may be. In one sense it is, but there are different types of mercy. But I think we could consider the situation from different points of view. When someone comes to Krishna consciousness, he brings various talents and abilities with him, and if he is materially capable, by application of his material abilities, he can be outwardly successful. But sometimes it happens that a devotee’s material intelligence or qualifications is more prominent than his actual spiritual advancement or spiritual qualification. And because of his material ability, he may achieve a degree of success or rise to a position of prominence, which at some stage goes beyond his spiritual ability to deal with it. And if he is not humble enough or intelligent enough to recognize his own spiritual limitations, and if he tries to engage in activities that are actually beyond his spiritual capacity, he may run into trouble, and he may even fall down. So we have material abilities by the grace of God, and we are meant to utilize everything in the service of the Lord, including whatever abilities we have. But we shouldn’t become bewildered by successes that, to a large degree, are based on material abilities being engaged in the service of the Lord and think that the success is due to spiritual advancement. If we do, then we will have trouble. If we try to do more than we are actually able to do in terms of our spiritual position, we may have trouble. Just the thought that, I am successful because of my Krishna consciousness, shows that the person is not very advanced. Do we ever read anywhere in Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta or anywhere that Srila Prabhupada said that the reason I was successful in my mission is because of my Krishna consciousness? He never spoke that; he never thought like that. Actually, he said that “I was successful in my mission because of the mercy of my guru Maharaja. I am successful because I have presented the message as it is, without imposing anything of myself.” So, that is the proper mood of a devotee.

I was just reading some very humble statements of Srila Prabhupada in some letters where he really does not take any credit for what he had done but gave all the credit to his guru Maharaja and even to others, disciples, and other Vaishnava disciples of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. In one letter I just read, he sent a donation to Tirtha Maharaja and asked Tirtha Maharaja to present the donation at the lotus feet of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, because Tirtha Maharaja was in Mayapur and there Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s samadhi was there. He said, “I am giving this a small donation to be offered at the lotus feet of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati through you. And you should pray to him that I should be successful in my mission.” So he always felt completely helpless and dependent on the mercy of his guru Maharaja and Krishna, and even on the mercy of others who were helping him in his service to his guru Maharaja’s mission.

[Question:] She said that he reluctantly took sannyasa. So why was he reluctant?

Maybe I will read Srila Prabhupada’s own words:

“Before leaving my family, I wanted to get all my sons and daughters married, but some of them disagreed. But then the time is up. Never mind whether they are married or not; let them see to their own business. Suppose I die immediately; who will take care of my daughter? At that time, we say God will take care. Then why not now? God will take care. My guru Maharaja used to say that renunciation of family life was civil suicide. If you commit suicide, that is criminal, but that renunciation of family life is voluntarily committing suicide. Now I am dead; whatever you like, you do. Krishna says, sarva-dharmān parityajya, give up all religion, so family life is gṛha-dharma, the religion of the family, but Krishna says give that up. But that attachment is there, and if we say that feeling of attachment has to be given up gradually, that we cannot do because the attachment is there. But if God will take care of them if I die immediately, then why not now?”

Anyway, Srila Prabhupada describes in other places that his guru Maharaja used to come in his dream and call him, “Come with me, come with me,” and he would wake up horrified, thinking that guru Maharaja is calling him to take sannyasa. “How can I take sannyasa and leave my family?” So Srila Prabhupada says humbly, very humbly, that that attachment was there and that concern—how will my family continue without me? There could be other considerations also. Once, as I have heard it, when Srila Prabhupada was staying at the Radha-Damodara temple before going to the West, because sannyasa was one thing, but the actual order was to go to the West and preach. I heard that Rupa Gosvami told him something like, “You just translate these books and go to the West, present these books, and I will arrange everything else.” So, sometimes a sannyasi might think, Oh, if I leave, what will happen to me? How will I deal with this? How will I deal with that? Where will I get food? Who will cook for me? In any case, Srila Prabhupada left with the conviction that his guru Maharaja, Krishna, and his predecessor acharyas would take care of him and arrange whatever he needed.

[Question:] How can one appreciate where the mercy is flowing before one is able to appreciate it?

Is it another way of saying, “How can one distinguish between spiritual potency and material potency?” Well, anyway, if we look at someone’s success, there may be different causes or different factors. But then again, if we look at the description of advancement in Krishna consciousness in the books, we can understand, in one sense, by advancement in Krishna consciousness, who is getting mercy. Because by mercy, we make advancement in Krishna consciousness. In a broad sense, whatever we are doing, including preaching, is part of sadhana. And the definition of sadhana itself is practices by which bhāva is awakened. From sraddha to bhāva, there are many stages along the way. But the problem is to actually perceive a devotee, at what stage he is and so on, is not easy. To be able to distinguish a devotee’s position, what activities are indicative of spiritual advancement, what activities are indicative of his particular nature or material strengths and weaknesses may be hard to understand. But in principle, one could judge how much mercy one has gotten by one’s advancement in Krishna consciousness or by how dear one is to Krishna, which is really the other side of how dear Krishna is to the devotee.

Therefore, in Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, we find the story of the gentleman who was trying to understand who had been the recipient of the most mercy from Krishna. He visited so many devotees and was able to proceed from one to another, one to another, until he finally understood who had received the greatest mercy from Krishna. We can say that Srila Prabhupada received the greatest mercy from Krishna, from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, from his own spiritual master, and from the previous acharyas. So anyone who follows him should be expected to get the same type of mercy that he got. So we should maybe first try to understand Srila Prabhupada more deeply, understand who he was and what he did, and how he got the mercy of the paramparā, and try to follow in Srila Prabhupada’s footsteps. Because although Srila Prabhupada may have been whatever he was, which we are not, still he presented himself as a devotee like us, and he set an example for us to follow. He showed a process for us to follow, and so if we follow his example and his instructions, we will get mercy, and we will be successful. But of course, because the instructions of the spiritual master vary from disciple to disciple, success in the disciple’s life is following the instructions of the spiritual master, pleasing the spiritual master, so we cannot apply an external standard of success. But the success will be how the disciple has followed the orders of the spiritual master and pleased the spiritual master, which may vary from disciple to disciple. So we should also understand what Srila Prabhupada wants from us, wants us to do, wants us to achieve, and we should try wholeheartedly to do it. And that will be our success.

So whatever it is, we know that Srila Prabhupada wants us to chant Hare Krishna without offenses. He wants us to follow the four regulated principles, he wants us to follow the various spiritual practices outlined in his books, he wants us to learn something and teach others. He wants us to become Krishna conscious and help others to become Krishna conscious. And that is our process. The details may vary from person to person or even, in one sense, you could say from guru to guru. In The Nectar of Devotion, Srila Prabhupada explains that Rupa Gosvami intends only to deal with basic principles and not with details. He gives the example that accepting a spiritual master is a basic principle, but how to follow the instructions of the spiritual master, or what to do if the instructions of one spiritual master differ from the instructions of another spiritual master, is a detail. At the time I first read The Nectar of Devotion, I was so surprised because I thought, how could one spiritual master give an instruction that is different from another spiritual master? Because I thought they all must say the same thing. In one sense, they all do say the same thing in terms of basic philosophical principles because there was only one spiritual master for us, Srila Prabhupada. But now I see that actually there are different spiritual masters, and although they must agree on siddhānta, they may differ on details of application and emphasis.

So, it may be that the instruction of one spiritual master differs from the instruction of another spiritual master, and how to deal with it is a detail. But acceptance of the spiritual master is a basic principle. So you have to be a little intelligent. There is one statement that in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the statements of the Lord’s empowered representatives are always true. And the intelligent person should follow their actions only which are consistent with their instructions. So the verse includes the word bhuddiman, means intelligent, and the acharya explained that intelligent means that the devotee should follow the instructions of the Lord’s empowered representatives with intelligence. Intelligence means that one should consider the situation and then follow the instruction. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura gives the example that Lord Krishna Himself instructed Arjuna that you should kill Ashwatthama, but Arjuna did not execute the order of Krishna because he used his intelligence first to understand the situation. Finally, by the mercy of Krishna, he found another solution that satisfied everyone, including Krishna, Draupadi, and all the others that had different points of view. But the problem is that most devotees may be on the neophyte platform, and if they don’t strictly follow the order of the spiritual master as the spiritual master has instructed them and instead try to use their intelligence, they may make a mess because they may not really be so intelligent. So again, we come to the point that one should now be able to understand his actual position in spiritual life and act accordingly, and not try to imitate others on a higher platform.

Srila Prabhupada tells the standards of disciples. The third class is given an order by the spiritual master, and he doesn’t execute it, or he argues and reluctantly tries to execute it but doesn’t really do it properly. The second class receives an instruction from the spiritual master and executes it perfectly. The first class, even without being ordered by the spiritual master, knows what the spiritual master wants and does it. So if someone is in the third category and he tries to act as if he was in the first category, he will make a mess. Like Ashwatthama, he killed the five sleeping sons of the Pandavas. He thought he was serving his master, Duryodhana, but his master was not pleased at all. So if someone is a foolish rascal, which I think most of us may be in one sense, then we shouldn’t independently act to please the spiritual master because we may actually displease the spiritual master because we don’t really know what he wants. If we are in the third class, we should try to come to the second class. That is really the best thing for most devotees to do. But if someone actually is on the second class, that whatever instruction he gets from the spiritual master, he executes perfectly, then he can gradually come to the first class of actually knowing what the spiritual master wants without even being asked and doing it, and then pleasing the spiritual master so much. So we have to know our own position in Krishna consciousness and act accordingly. That will please the spiritual master, not artificially trying to assume a greater position, trying to pretend that one is a greater devotee than he actually is.

So, Srila Prabhupada has given us the perfect process and success is assured for the rigid practitioner without any doubt. But there may be some intricacies to understand in the science, which can be understood mainly through the association of devotees and by the practice of Krishna consciousness. So if we continue our efforts in Krishna consciousness and try to progress through the association of devotees and by the continued process of Krishna consciousness itself, we will definitely be blessed, little by little, by more and more mercy. We will become more and more successful, both in our personal appreciation of Krishna consciousness and in our effort to help others in Krishna consciousness. Both will increase simultaneously by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and paramparā. Because if we only do one without the other, the process is not complete. If I just want to relish Krishna consciousness but not share it with others, the process is not complete. And if I want to give Krishna consciousness to others and I hardly have any Krishna consciousness myself and make very little effort to get it, how much will I be able to give to others? So both are required side by side: learning and teaching or relishing and sharing. But definitely, if we begin the process with all sincerity and continue the process, we will get all the help we need to achieve success in the end. And if we especially don’t commit any offenses along the way, we will definitely achieve success. Srila Prabhupada is always there to help us in so many ways. So we are also not alone in our efforts. He is there, and with him, through his mercy, so many others, his own guru Maharaja and the whole paramparā. The main thing is to continue. The main thing is to continue to stay in the association of devotees and continue the effort, but with sincerity, not with duplicity. If there is duplicity, then there are so many problems. Duplicity means I desire to serve Krishna, but at the same time, I desire other things also. But if we have one desire, only to serve Krishna, then whatever our weaknesses may be, whatever our deficiencies may be, Srila Prabhupada and the Vaishnavas and Krishna will help to compensate.

There is one devotee in Bombay. He was a very heavyset former football player from Canada, and looking at him, Srila Prabhupada said he should take charge of the construction materials. But the devotee really didn’t want to take charge of the construction materials; he wanted to preach. But everyone, by looking at him, his body, his mood, his nature, thought he should just take care of the construction materials and do what Prabhupada said. But he had a very strong desire to preach, and he wanted to preach. Later, he wanted to take sannyasa, and in one sense, he had some qualifications to take sannyasa, but in another sense, he looked like he had some disqualification. Finally, he came to the point where he was feeling so frustrated. He said, “Either I take sannyasa or I go back to my home in Canada and get married.” Srila Prabhupada criticized later, maybe in class that, “Either I take sannyasa or I go and get married” is not a very good proposal. But after a little while later, Prabhupada gave him sannyasa, and he went on to become a very powerful preacher. So, desire plays a very important role. Even if one is not very materially qualified, if he has a strong desire to serve in a particular way and he works at it, then by the mercy of guru and Krishna, he can also succeed in it.

Before we joined, we heard, and you might have heard here also, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Do you have that here? All right. Srila Prabhupada used to quote another saying: “Failure is the pillar of success.” So, we shouldn’t be discouraged if our attempts fail at first. Even Srila Prabhupada when he went to the West, made so many attempts, and at one stage, he was thinking he should go back to India because he was not getting success. But, of course, he persevered, and in the end, he was successful. So, we too, if we persevere, will be successful. You will be successful by the combination of strictly following the process and getting the mercy of guru and Krishna.