Q&A at Krishna Kirtan Prabhu’s House

Giriraj Swami: Mr. Mohatta was very much a businessman, and Srila Prabhupada always gave business example to him. So once, when Mr. Mohatta came to Juhu, Srila Prabhupada gave the same example that as Canakya Pandit says, at the time of death, if someone wants to extend his life for even one moment, even if he is ready to pay any amount of money, he cannot purchase one extra moment. So whatever, so every moment in his life that he loses, it is like worth, it is beyond what any amount of money can buy back.

Then, Srila Prabhupada said in the ledger of your life, all the time spent on Krishna consciousness is profit, and all the time spent on other affairs is lost. But the first meeting, Mr. Mohatta sent a letter. You know, he is a big man, and hardly anyone ever sent a letter to us. Then we didn’t even have a temple really, although we had the land of Juhu, we had the small temple. But he sent a letter, and I received it. We were staying at Acropolis Apartments in Kulaba, which belonged to the Wallia family.

So I went to Mohatta’s office and he had lot of workers. Then he started to sort of like quiz me about Bhagavad-gītā. He said that when Krishna says surrender to Me, He doesn’t mean to the person Krishna. And he said that actually the all-pervading is greater than Krishna. So, when I went back and gave the report to Srila Prabhupada, he said, “Well if Krishna says “Surrender unto Me and if give everything to Me” and Krishna doesn’t mean Krishna, then who does he mean? Mohatta, right?”

As far as the other point that, the all-pervading is greater than Krishna himself, Srila Prabhupada said, “That may be, but what is more valuable to you?” He said that I should tell Mr. Mohatta that’s, “Mr. Mohatta, what is more valuable to you, two rupees in the pockets of everyone in Bombay or a lakh of rupees in your pocket?” So it is like, yeah, maybe Krishna in the heart of every living entity or in the heart of every atom is greater than the person Krishna, but what good does it do? From Krishna can do a lot more good for you, like future happiness.