Sri Prahlada’s Birthday

Giriraj Swami: Does everyone have an idea about Krishna; He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and about Lord Chaitanya?

So according to revealed scriptures Lord Krishna appears in every age. There are four ages that repeat in cycles like the four seasons and Lord Krishna personally came at the end of Dvapara-yuga. Now we are towards the beginning of Kali-yuga. And in each age, a different method of self-realization or God realization is recommended and in each age an incarnation of God comes to teach or propagate the method that is recommended for the particular age. So, in Kali-yuga, the incarnation of God or Krishna is Lord Chaitanya, and the recommended process is chanting the holy names of Krishna. So, although Lord Chaitanya is Krishna Himself, He comes in the guise of a devotee of Krishna to show us, in the age of Kali, how to worship Krishna. And Lord Chaitanya actually began the saṅkīrtana movement of the congregational chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. So, Lord Chaitanya Himself left only eight verses but He instructed some of His confidential associates and disciples in the science of Krishna consciousness. His foremost disciples were the six Gosvamis of Vrindavan and they wrote volumes of transcendental literature on the science of Krishna consciousness.

So, they all came from wealthy and aristocratic families and one of them was named Raghunatha dasa. Raghunatha dasa‘s father and uncle were great land holders and they were practically on the level of kings in Bengal. Raghunatha dasa was the only son and he had a beautiful wife as well. But he became attracted to Lord Chaitanya, and he wanted to join the movement of Lord Chaitanya and be with Lord Chaitanya in another part of India. But his father and uncle and especially his mother would not allow him to leave home and they actually appointed a guard to make sure that Raghunatha dasa would not escape because in the past he tried to run away from home and join Lord Chaitanya, but they caught him and brought him back. They didn’t want to take any more chances so they kept a guard posted twenty-four hours to make sure he didn’t try to escape again. So, Lord Chaitanya had an associate named Nityananda and Nityananda is actually considered the original spiritual master. Once he came to a place not far from Raghunatha dasa or from Raghunatha dasa’s home. And so, Raghunatha dasa accompanied by some of his servants, some of his family’s servants, went to see Lord Nityananda at the place called Panihati which is near Calcutta. And he saw Nityananda Prabhu from a distance, sitting on a raised platform under a banyan tree with some of his associates. And one of Lord Nityananda’s associates pointed out “There is Raghunatha dasa standing at a distance.” So, Lord Nityananda said, “Oh why are you standing at a distance just like a thief? Come here and I will punish you.” So, Raghunatha dasa came and Lord Chaitanya said that “I am going to punish you now. I am going to make you serve a feast to me and all of my associates, and the feast will consist of flat rice or chipped rice mixed with yogurt.”

Now flat rice or chipped rice is one of the most common foods you could get. It is one of the cheapest foods you could get. So, Nityananda Prabhu’s punishment of Raghunatha dasa was actually quite funny because Raghunatha dasa was the only son of his father and uncle and they were immensely wealthy. But Lord Nityananda said “Just prepare a feast of chipped rice and yogurt and milk.” So, when news of the festival spread people from all over the area began to come and Raghunatha dasa bought all the stock of chipped rice and yogurt and milk in the area and he had them soaked in big pots. The flat rice it has to get soaked otherwise it is sort of hard and dry and you can’t eat it. So, he had the chipped rice soaked and then one portion was mixed with condensed milk, another portion was mixed with yogurt, and then they also added some of the seasonal fruits like mango and banana. And so they had a big festival. When the merchants heard about the festival they came running with their chipped rice and milk and yogurt and sold their goods to Raghunatha and he in turn would make them sit and he would feed them the same goods that he bought from them. And eventually there were so many people in the area there was no room for them to stand or sit so they began to stand on the banks of the Ganges and even then when the crowd was too large they began to actually stand in the water of the Ganges and eat their chipped rice and yogurt.

So, Lord Chaitanya was so pleased with the festival that he came invisibly to join the festival. And Lord Nityananda, he is basically also an incarnation of Krishna’s first expansion, Balarama. So he is more or less on the same level as Lord Chaitanya almost on the same level as Lord Chaitanya. So, Lord Nityananda and Lord Chaitanya who was invisible began to walk through the crowd and Lord Chaitanya would take a morsel of the chipped rice soaked in yogurt and put it in the mouth of Lord Chaitanya, but nobody could see Lord Chaitanya. So, it was quite a joyful occasion and a humorous event and then at the end of the festival there was great chanting together and there was a big festival, Hare Krishna festival. This was about five hundred years ago. So, Lord Nityananda being an incarnation of Krishna is also omniscient so he knew the heart of Raghunatha dasa, that Raghunatha dasa wanted to escape from the house and join Lord Chaitanya. So, before Raghunatha dasa left, Lord Nityananda blessed him that “Very soon Krishna will arrange for you to escape from the house and join Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and you will meet Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri and you will become one of his confidential associates in Puri.” So, Raghunatha dasa returned home and what Lord Nityananda said would happen did indeed come to pass very shortly thereafter. Raghunatha dasa actually did escape from home and joined Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Jagannatha Puri and then slowly Lord Chaitanya placed Raghunatha dasa under the care of Svarupa Damodara Gosvami and eventually after the end of Lord Chaitanya’s manifested past times, Raghunatha dasa went to Vrindavan, which is a holy place in North India. And there he joined the other Gosvamis and became one of the six Gosvamis. So today is the anniversary of the celebration of the Panihati Cida-dadhi festival and at our little ashram in Carpinteria we made some of the chipped rice soaked in yogurt and condensed milk with some mangoes and some bananas so it is part of today’s feast. We can have some of it.

Lord Chaitanya’s movement attracted all types of people from all walks of life some were very simple and humble folk, and some came from very aristocratic families very opulent families. But they all love Lord Chaitanya and they all served Him to their capacity. And the present Krishna consciousness movement which Srila Prabhupada brought to the West is a direct continuation of the movement of Lord Chaitanya. Srila Prabhupada has basically preserved all of the principles of Lord Chaitanya and brought them to the West and engaged his followers and disciples in the same activities that Lord Chaitanya engaged His followers in five hundred years ago and again for the general population, the main process is just chanting the holy names of Krishna, dancing, and taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda or sanctified food that has been offered with love and devotion to Lord Krishna. At the same time, of course Lord Chaitanya Himself was the most learned scholar in all of India and He also instructed some of His disciples like the sixth Gosvamis to compile books on the science of devotional service. And as Srila Prabhupada said that the books written by the Gosvamis are the most voluminous and exacting of any religious literature in the world. So, if one wants to realize God, he can realize God just by chanting Hare Krishna and taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda. But if one wants to understand analytically and philosophically, then there are volumes and volumes of books to study which explain practically every aspect of existence, material and spiritual.

One interesting point about Raghunatha dasa is that earlier when he ran away from home and joined Lord Chaitanya, Lord Chaitanya sent him back and He said, “Don’t be a crazy fellow. You should go back home and live with your father and uncle and mother and wife and just be detached from the situation you are in. Outwardly do your duties but inwardly be absorbed in Krishna consciousness.” So Lord Chaitanya also taught that we can remain in whatever position we are in and without being attached to the situation and without being repulsed by the situation just remain neutral to the situation, do your duty in the ordinary sense and at the same time be Krishna conscious. Therefore, Lord Chaitanya also set the example through Raghunatha dasa; use Raghunatha dasa set the example of how one can remain at home and be Krishna conscious until the time comes when, by the grace of Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda, one can be released from the obligations of family life and become free to engage fully in the service of the Lord. Lord Chaitanya warned Raghunatha dasa about markaṭa-vairāgya; vairāgya means detachment and markaṭa means monkey. So, there are many monkeys in the holy places in India like in Vrindavan and they appear to be very renounced because they don’t wear any clothes, they just live in the forest and eat fruits and berries. But Srila Prabhupada says every monkey has like two dozen she monkeys. So although the monkey appears to be very renounced actually the monkey is full of very gross desires. So, Lord Chaitanya warned Raghunatha dasa that, “Don’t be a crazy fellow and don’t try to jump like a monkey from your household life to renounce life. But you can stay in household life and be detached and outwardly do your material duties and inwardly be Krishna conscious. And then when the time comes when you are actually ready, Krishna will make the arrangement for you to come.” And that is what happened by the grace of Lord Nityananda which was bestowed on Raghunatha dasa on the same day as we are celebrating today Panihati Cida-dadhi festival.

Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: To do the same old personal thing, regular human thing with detachment when there is a desire to be detached a desire not to desire those things anymore yet you still do, how is it the chanting that when there is like two; am I making any sense?

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Well, we are materially attached but we want to become detached so what is the process? And you are right that the process is chanting. There are a few processes but the first two are hearing about Krishna and chanting and associating with devotees. Associating with devotees is especially recommended and the Bhāgavatam explains for the householders, in particular, that they should ideally spend some time every day in the association of devotees hearing and chanting about Krishna and that will help them to become detached. And the Bhāgavatam gives the example that when a person is asleep he identifies with his dream even though someone who is awake can see that the person is just lying on the bed and dreaming but the person having the dream, he can be terrified, he can be elated, he can be experiencing so many emotions but they are all based on a mental concoction on the dream. So the Bhāgavatam describes that when the householder associates with devotees and hears and chants the glories of the Lord with devotees, he begins to see that the world that he is attached to is actually like a dream. Because his real identity is not the body his real identity is the soul which is eternal and the body and the bodies of the people around him and the land and the houses and the society around him are all temporaries like a dream. But he, as spirit soul is eternal and Krishna is eternal and his relationship with Krishna is eternal. So, that is real and as one understands more and more that the life that is attached to us is a dream and that the reality is Krishna and Krishna consciousness and one’s relationship with Krishna and Krishna’s devotees, then one naturally becomes detached from the dream.

So we may wake up and we may be in a terrible state because we had a horrible dream but gradually we realized “Oh I was just dreaming, I was asleep I was just dreaming,” then we feel relieved “Oh it was just a dream, it didn’t really happen.” So when we wake up from the dream of material existence and we realize that all the things that we were afraid of and attached to and afraid for, were basically just illusory and then naturally they become detached from it. And we want to put our thoughts and our energy into our real life, into our eternal relationship with Krishna. Of course it also depends on one’s situation because Raghunatha dasa was already married and he was already in a particular situation, but even otherwise Lord Chaitanya wanted his renunciation to be mature He didn’t want him to renounce all of a sudden and then all of a sudden go back. He wanted him to stay where he was and when his renunciation was mature, which really means when his attachment to Krishna was mature and as a consequence of his attachment to Krishna he would be detached from his material situation. So when his attachment to Krishna was mature and his desire to serve Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was strong enough, then by the mercy of the Lord or the arrangement of the Lord he was able to leave the family without any difficulty. He had to work hard to do it and he had to accept some austerity along the way but basically once he got the mercy of the Lord or in other words when the Lord saw that he was ready, he was able to leave the family and remain fixed in the service of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:29:00]

Giriraj Swami: So, the Bhagavad-gītā gives the example that the material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world; like a banyan tree which is on the bank of a body of water is reflected in the water. Everything that is in the reflection also exists in the original. So we can point to the reflection and say there is the trunk, there is the branches, there is the leaves, and the words are true but the difficulty is that when we hear branch we who only know the reflection, we think of the branch as the reflection. We don’t have any experience of the original branch; the reflection is two-dimensional and the branch is three-dimensional—it has texture it may have fragrance it may have so many things that the reflection doesn’t have. So when the Gosvamis write the spiritual world they use words that are commonly applied to the reflection in the material world, but they are referring to the original which is more real than the reflection and it is richer, it is transcendental, unlimited.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:31:40]

Giriraj Swami: Well, by the process of bhakti-yoga. And part of the process of bhakti-yoga is to hear about the spiritual world, hear about Krishna. And even though we don’t have direct experience of the spiritual world, but the descriptions of Krishna because Krishna is absolute so the descriptions of Krishna are also Krishna although we don’t have full realization but they are also Krishna. And by hearing the descriptions of Krishna we are associating with Krishna. By associating with Krishna we become purified and when we are completely purified then we can actually perceive Krishna with purified senses and then we will know that all the words that we heard about Krishna, even the words we used to glorify Krishna were completely inadequate because the reality of Krishna is so much beyond the ability of words to convey. But still because Krishna is absolute the words about Krishna are Krishna; they are Krishna. When we hear discussions of Krishna we are actually associating with Krishna but without full realization but that is the process to get realization, to hear and chant about Krishna.

Devotee: Giriraj Maharaja asked me to speak. We remember Sri Prahlada Prabhu’s request earlier this morning that we read from a text today [Unintelligible 00:34:26] we followed the instructions

yasya deve parā bhaktir
yathā deve tathā gurau

One who has full faith in the spiritual masters, be they dīkṣā of śikṣā, in instructions of spiritual master and the Supreme Personality of Godhead then everything comes right. So we turn towards the library the transcendental library and we chose this particular volume of Caitanya-caritāmṛta and we opened up as if by chance, to this particular verse and by seeing this particular verse this morning our faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead has increased limited.

sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo
mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca

Krishna says in the Gītā that He is situated in heart of every living entity. From Him comes knowledge remembrance and forgetfulness. The Lord is in our heart and He is directing us if we have material motives and He makes the arrangements directly or indirectly to fulfill those material ambitions. But if we have spiritual desires, if we are cultivating spiritual desires that are the direction of well-wishers and our spiritual master the Lord will also direct us in that way and spiritually. So I feel Maharaja and the Lord has directed us to this verse today, because this verse describes the birth of a devotee whether he is born in the brahman family and exhibits the qualities of a brahman or if he is born in a family of dog eaters and by mercy

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

by mercy he comes to the level of Krishna consciousness. In either case such a person should be recognized as a devotee of the Lord. There is a class of brahman called caste brahman, who say that one could only be recognized as a devotee of Lord if he is born into a family of brahmans or devotees and if that birth is not there then he can never be accepted, at least in this life. But there is another type of birth which is called spiritual birth which is actually more significant. And that comes by the grace of guru or spiritual master. Brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja; that is a second birth and if one receives the mercy and training of such a spiritual master, he can be elevated even beyond the status of the brahma to a Vaishnava. A brahman is working within the modes of goodness but a devotee is working with śuddha, sattva, or pure goodness.

māṁ ca yo ‘vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

That anyone who takes the process of service to God, devotional service to God fully and doesn’t deviate in under any circumstances he immediately transcends the three modes of material nature and comes to the level of brahman on the spiritual platform. Srila Sanatana Gosvami has given the example just as bell metal can be changed to gold by a chemical process, so even a lowborn person who is initiated and trained by a bona fide spiritual master, he can come to the spiritual platform. Both of them are quite amazing you might say they are miracles; a miracle is something that contradicts the laws of nature so certainly it contradicts the law of nature to take some bell medal like this and turn it into gold, but there is a process. I know the process. I learned the secret how to change this bell metal to gold. Fortunately, we have not been able to perform at the risk of our lives, but in the Vedas it says that if the yogi with mystic powers, he drinks liquid mercury and goes to sleep at night in the morning when he answers the call of nature when he urinates he urinates on the bell medal and it turns to gold. It is very simple except that mercury is a deadly poison, so you have to be a mystic yogi to drink the mercury and not be affected; but there are yogis who can do like that. Yes, there is mystics who can do like that. Of course they are not very interested because generally, yogis are detached so what do they need gold for, but it is possible. This is quite amazing.

No less amazing, perhaps more amazing, is to take a conditioned soul who is inimical towards God and turn him within a few short days or weeks or months or years, into a fully-fledged devotee of God. That is, like we say, working against the grain. Sometimes you get the wood in there trying to cut the wood the wisdom is having a hard time because he is going against the grain; you are going to turn the wood and go with the grain and you can cut very easily. So anyone in this world, with all due respect to those who are living in higher planets, demigods even Lord Brahma; not our Lord Brahma, but anyone living in this world he is inimical to God to a greater or lesser degree. Lesser degree in the higher planets because of pious and more on the lower planets they are more inimical towards God, but this is the place you come if you are inimical to God, you leave the spiritual world. As lightning and thunder occur simultaneously, as soon as one becomes an inimical towards God, he is cast down into the material world. He falls down in the material world and becomes covered by illusion with the body; the purpose of life is sense gratification, maybe it is God but probably not. This is the situation but nevertheless if such a soul who is inimical to God gets the association of one who is devoted to God, his heart can change. It is all a question of good association; everything is a question of good association. If a child has the association of dacoits and thieves and murderers, then the poor soul will turn out like that. If someone has the association with the businessman, they will become like the businessman; one has association of sportsmen he could become a sportsman. It is all [Unintelligible 00:42:03] they are spiritual but very tiny it can be influenced by the spiritual and the material. So if we find ourselves in the material world and we want to go back to the spiritual world, our best hope lies in associating with devotees who have the inclination firmly implanted in their heart

‘sādhu-saṅga’, ‘sādhu-saṅga’ — sarva-śāstre kaya
lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya

[Unintelligible 00:42:38] Even after a moment of association with a devotee that inimical nature can turn into beautiful love of God. Just like coal; it is very ugly, very dirty. We see in eastern Europe they can burn the coal; you touch it; you can hardly wash it off. But you can press coal for a long period of time, millions of years, you get a beautiful diamond. That is where diamonds come from. Diamonds come from the most filthy substance by nature’s way they are compressed, compressed, compressed compressive and millions of years by the weight of the river then you find dig then you find diamonds. So our hearts are dirty due to association with this material nature but even that dirty heart can become purified and blossom by pure love of God, if we get the association of the devotee of the Lord. This is the secret of all secrets, sādhu-saṅga. Then we have our spiritual birth and it is just a question of time before we go back home back to Godhead. Once a seed is planted in the womb of the mother it is just a question of time before the child takes birth, nine months, unless there is some type of abortion or something horrible like that, but nature’s way. So nature’s way is once we get that seed planted in our heart by our spiritual teacher, the seed of the love of God, which we get in initiation. So, they don’t consider that if someone is taking birth in a Western family that he can’t become a devotee of the Lord. He can become as much a devotee of the Lord as anyone taking birth in India or anywhere within the universe. If he meets, let us say, devotee like Srila Prabhupada or a true representative of Srila Prabhupada like Giriraj Maharaja, the person has the chance.

So, this is speaking about birth and I was thinking that this verse is so appropriate today. Krishna has directed us to this verse because today is the birthday of Sri Prahlada Prabhu. We are all gathered here for that purpose. Because it looks like we are giving class but this is an introduction to the climax of this class. Generally, my classes are too long so we have just [Unintelligible 00:45:15] spoken concisely. We have just come to the crescendo of this class in announcing that today is the birthday of a very wonderful devotee, Sri Prahlada Prabhu. Just to inform Sri Prahlada Prabhu we are all gathered here today for your birthday. [Unintelligible 00:45:40], all devotees have assembled and we are cooking a big feast, the table is setup outside and that is why we didn’t go to Laguna Beach and we came back here. So, there it is all the way back here and we came back because this is a special day. So, we all assembled here for that particular purpose to acknowledge and honor your birthday, your service to your guru Maharaja, Sri [Unintelligible 00:46:21] Maharaja, our founder acharya Srila Prabhupada, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Actually I am going to ask other devotees to speak as well but of course I would love to say some words myself.

I met Sri Prahlada eleven years ago. He just graduated, I don’t know if he actually graduated, I think he ran away from the last month of school. One of those. Mahaprabhu is actually delivering everyone. [Unintelligible 00:47:02] and actually we are probably to be blamed, that we kidnapped him from Brisbane, Australia. He had to decide and he ran away; he didn’t want to go to school. He was a very spiritually ambitious boy. He was unlike the other boys. He didn’t want to play or be frivolous. One time as a young boy, he dressed himself up as a sannyasi when he was about five years old. He dressed himself up sanyasi and he had a danda and he and he commandeered the [Unintelligible 00:47:25] and he was wandering around the Govardhana community initiating all the other kids. He was just six but he initiated them and somehow or the other, he found a copy of Gayatri mantra [Unintelligible 00:47:44] I don’t know where he found the copy; it said “Confidential, only to be used by disciples of ISKCON.” He found a copy and memorized it as a six years old. So, he was initiating all his friends with the Gayatri mantra. He would give them spiritual names. He would give them beads. He would mention the four principles that they would follow and he gave them the mantra in the right ear.

So, the problem was that of course it was a childish prank or game and eventually they went back to school, but the problem was some of those boys kept training for two or three years through Gayatri mantra, and he kept getting back to their [Unintelligible 00:48:38]. And when I met him he had a desire to travel around the world. He was just fourteen or fifteen. He wanted to learn how to play harmonium and sing and to preach. So, I invited him to come with me, thought about it for a day or two but finally he came. So, we have actually been together for that time since fifteen. All these years we have been together and assist. Prahlada is “younger than me” but I never really considered that so much the case because Prabhupada said that we have to take shelter, those who are advancing us, we have to make friendship with those in the same level of devotional service, and we have to be merciful to those who are not so advanced in Krishna consciousness. So because we have learned so many things together because you can learn a lot in Krishna consciousness in ten years, eleven years; because we have learned so much together that I consider Prahlada an equal. Sometimes I think he is more advanced than me. Sometimes I am convinced of it, but just for practical purposes we lived together, we shared so many experiences, we have been to heaven and hell. We have been to heaven when you come to Carpenteria [Unintelligible 00:50:10] of course in California we have been to hell; we have preached in Russia which is a white hell. We went through some very traumatic experiences in preaching. We went to Bosnia just after the war; we went to Sarajevo. We had a hari-nāma party there; we were attacked by Muslim soldiers with knives. Five of our devotees were stabbed almost to death but not quite to death, they survived. There was blood everywhere I wasn’t hurt personally I had a good pair of kartals which I was swinging. Prahlada was just saying his mantras, they did not come close to him. We survived; we had a festival the next day over two thousand people came to our festival out of sympathy Five ambassadors from different countries came to the Hare Krishna Festival.

So we have been through a lot together, and when you go through experiences like this, of course the bond is very deep. This is the basis of real friendship, it is spiritual life, it is Krishna consciousness because mundane relationships, mundane friendship in this regard is close very superficial actually because mundane friendship is just based on sense gratification. That we are friends because we are unfortunately in the same mode of nature; ignorance and passion. Mundane goodness—so we like the same things and ignorance we like the same things and passion and we try to enjoy those things. So we think it is the friendship but actually that is how friendship degrades us, because we are doing sinful activities. Something not devotional to God. So those type of friendships are very superficial and that is where you see relationships in the material world because they are based on sense gratification which comes and goes and it leads to frustration and anger and bewilderment and intelligence. But those relationships, they break really easily. Quite often I will report three out of four marriages end in divorce in America, but when you serve together the mission of guru and Krishna because we are not trying to enjoy that service for ourselves we are trying to please our spiritual master and please Lord Chaitanya, by that service there is no consideration at least there shouldn’t be any consideration of sense gratification. Therefore, it is on the spiritual platform and therefore the friendship is unlimited. The depths of spiritual relationships whatever they are unlimited.

We see relationships like Narottama dasa Thakura and his great friend Ramachandra, Cakravarti, and Kaviraja; their friendship was so deep that when they were finally separated Narottama couldn’t stay in the world any longer. He had to go back to the spiritual world to join the eternal associates of Lord Chaitanya. So we were about to have to deal with this similar experience that Sri Prahlada, although we have served together for eleven years and it is very difficult to express our appreciation and our attachments and love in just a few short moments, but I am sure that will all pour forth the day that he goes to Australia. He is going back to Australia married and they want to have children actually. And Prahlada is going to go back to school to learn different things that he can use in Krishna’s service in the future; have his family but it means that I will be at loss because he has been my traveling companion. I guess you probably could say a soul mate for many many years. So I try not to think about it; it comes up once in a while, I don’t know how I am going to deal with it but I think Krishna has given me some strength or some realization but I have been fortunate to have his association for these ten years and everything in life, there is certain era or certain periods. I was in France for ten years and then I have been in Poland for ten years. So we have our associates and friends and so forth but things do change. So I have been very appreciative that during these last ten years to have Prahlada’s association and then I am sure the devotees in Brisbane Australia are just head over heels that he will be coming down there. He is a very qualified devotee in many ways.

We often look at our children in our movement and hope that they will turn out to be what we call rays of Vishnu which means good devotees It doesn’t always happen but a lot of the kids do keep that spirit in their heart but they haven’t taken it up yet but Prahlada has been an exemplary devotee since he came to the movement. I think he was three or four when his father joined. He has always manifested with this very strong devotee personalities, very traditional in his ways, becoming more traditional in his way. He has a very soft heart for giving Krishna consciousness to others. We have been preaching for many years together and there is never any question of not going out on saṅkīrtana unless he just can’t sing; gets a sore throat or he is completely down and out. That is the standard in our tour. You don’t go out on saṅkīrtana in large cities unless you are dead or you are just almost dead. So Maharaja, he has been going out and preaching and chanting and melting the hearts of many conditioned souls with his melodious voice and his sense of devotion. He has been a very kind friend to me and stayed with me probably a little longer than he should. I should have let him go a little while ago. He has to go and now it is time for the bird to fly from the nest. My son got married recently and I wanted to be down under the photos. So, I went down to the photos and Prahlada drove me back. He said, “Okay, let us leave him alone now. They are married so daddy has to go aside.”

So, it also happens in our devotional service that, I can’t expect Prahlada to stay with me forever. Of course, he will be in my heart forever and I hope I will be in his heart forever. But he is married now. It is time to go, but he is just kindly finishing up his, I know what he is doing actually. He is just doing his duty to leave, when it won’t inconvenience me because we have this tour of America and it wasn’t my idea he came. It was his idea because he knows that I am getting older now. It is not so easy to travel and a lot of people I have to meet, big, big people and I am actually a shy person by nature. So, he is kind of there to help me with all of that. And then our festival tour is coming up. We have five months of preaching. But, he is just coming out to support me through this last period and we can make the arrangements so we can find other people to take his place. But really, he should probably go about six months ago when he could go back into it. So, I very much appreciate. I know the problem; I know what he is doing. He is just sticking around, but, we are appreciating those last.

Giriraj Swami: I first really got to know Prahlada on the festival tour in Poland. I went for the first time a few years ago and I was only there for about a week, but we used to go out on hari-nāma together and most of the time Prahlada led and I was very inspired by the kirtans and then in the evening there would be a stage program and he and the other devotees would perform. But the first thing that struck me is when I arrived I was placed as everyone else was in a big school building that was vacant over the summer, that Maharaja arranged to be the base for the devotees and it was quite austere. I think there was one bathroom, that was reserved for the teachers that the sanyasis used and then there was one common bathroom attached to the gymnasium that all the other devotees used. And I guess you remember this big dark building and being left alone in a big empty room and I wasn’t quite sure how I would manage. And Sri Prahlada, he would always come up to me and see if I needed anything and he encouraged me a lot because it was so new and so different. I really wasn’t quite sure how everything worked and I felt embarrassed because I knew how pure he was and how important he was in the program. But he was so humble. When he would check to see if I was all right or if I needed anything he really meant it. He wasn’t just saying it as a formality or a matter of etiquette. And I didn’t want to take service from him, but sometimes because I had no alternative I did. And I felt like well as long as Prahlada is here I think I will make it.

He was staying with Maharaja and I also wouldn’t imagine how he could leave Maharaja and come and check up on me but he did it. And then, the kirtans. The main thing with the kirtans and the quality of his voice. Yesterday when Maharaja mentioned the quality of his voice, that it could touch the heart, I was glad Maharaja said it because I felt it like his heart was so open and filled with love that that love came out in his voice and then and when it entered our ears it would also enter our hearts. And I was also very impressed with the sincerity of the musicians. They really all seemed to be concerned with one thing, which was how to attract the conditioned souls to Krishna. And they worked very harmoniously as a group and I didn’t feel that anyone was trying to show off what he could do as an individual or she could do as an individual but they really just wanted the best for the people. And they really cooperated personally and musically and the effect was very powerful and wonderful. Then, apart from the street kirtans are beach kirtans. Sri Prahlada has some of the musicians in a group called The Village of Peace, and Sri Prahlada himself wrote some music and the words to the songs and at the program thousands of people would come close to the stage and they would chant and after every song there would be Hare Krishna. Just so wonderful to see the young people and not only young people, all ages of people chanting and dancing. Sometimes the devotees would go in the crowd and weave through the people and sort of make human chains with them and move in and out and it was just really wonderful.

I had a realization that two things actually combined to create the ecstasy: one was just hours and hours of kirtan, and the other was the fact that Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya were so pleased. And I could see even the devotees were more like technicians that had to set up the equipment or do things away from the group during the day, even though they didn’t have the benefit of the hours and hours of kirtans but they still felt the ecstasy because they were part of a process that gave so much pleasure to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai that they got the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai. I think the combination of the music was the last was when I had to leave. I was very sad that I had to leave. I just expected to walk out the building and into the car but there was Sri Prahlada and all the devotees to do kirtan and Sri Prahlada was leading and I was already in an emotional state and just his leading. And then on top of it he is saying, later I called it the happy melody, and that tune of all the tunes really touches the heart and Maharaja was there because I knew he was the force behind everything. But I will never forget looking out the window at Sri Prahlada leading with other devotees behind and around him. And as the car started to drive off the devotees were following the car and they were really running and eventually the car got ahead of them and turned the corner. I am not sure how many hours it was from there to the airport, maybe two, I am not completely sure, might have been more. When I got in the car, and as the car was going along, I was crying and then I kept crying the whole way to the airport.

Somewhere along the line, I got the idea that I have listened to the tape the devotees had given me. The tape of The Village of Peace. So, I put it in my ears and I especially like the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. Especially there is one song called Soweto, and I really liked it. And it was long enough and so I would hear it again and again and again. I just hear it once and eventually I could almost if I was really tuned in I would judge how tuned in I was because if I was really tuned in when I rewound it would go to the exact beginning and I just listened to it again and again. Same thing on the airplane, same thing in the airport. It is a little hard to get from immigration and customs and then continue until the devotees at the other end met me. I resolved within my heart that I have to come back and stay longer. And then even in separation, I felt that I must serve them in separation. So, this combination of Sri Prahlada and Maharaja was so powerful. They have so much devotion so much love and devotion that they can really uplift a person and many, many, many persons whoever they are. And I also feel that Prahlada’s purity and humility and sincerity and affection, that he is very advanced. He plays like a junior but spiritually he is not a junior and is a senior. And today I sat with him for a while he did the puja. I am just hearing him chant the mantras was so purifying and humbling.

So, I can’t really even imagine what Maharaja must be feeling and anticipating in the separation because I can’t fathom how deep it is and also because I am basically selfish and then thinking I might see less of Prahlada. But it is true, we do go through different phases of life and we can’t stop them. And I am sure that he will be a great blessing to everyone around him wherever he is. Just as I felt that the only way that I can find solace in separation from the Polish festival was to serve them and I actually got a little chance in Bombay through the visit of [Unintelligible 01:13:32] and then through some debates with the consulate. So when I am thinking of separation from Sri Prahlada the only solace will be to do some service for him in separation. So, I don’t know what I will be able to do because they will be in a different situation but I will pray to Srila Prabhupada Giri-Govardhana to enlighten me and inspire me to be able to do some service for Sri Prahlada in separation and give me his association once in a while.

Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Anyone else wants to say something?

Devotee: I would like to say something about Sri Prahlada. We knew each other in South Africa and he would come to our house to take prasādam with Maharaja and just being in the temples when we came. I also noticed one quality of Sri Prahlada that he is extremely humble especially when he served and come to our place and he would serve prasādam and his service in serving that prasādam really inspired me because I remember one time I hadn’t made enough prasādam and he was serving everyone and the way he would serve he genuinely wanted to serve everyone so they were satisfied. There wasn’t really enough prasādam for him but for him it wasn’t even a consideration he just kept serving and serving and serving and after the prasādam as Maharaja was finished with the prasādam they were taking rest. Finally, I had to say, Sri Prahlada please sit down and let me serve you and feed you prasādam. Because generally when we serve we are always thinking there is enough left for me but Sri Prahlada’s attitude was completely the opposite. He didn’t even think about himself; his concern was to satisfy everyone else. So that really inspired me and impressed me about one of his qualities has been very selfless in his service and you can see how that expanded in his service to Maharaja. And because of Maharaja that he sacrificed everything and wanted to please everyone honestly. Thank you for being such a good example and inspiring myself and many others. Good life in Krishna consciousness.