Celebrating Srila Prabhupada’s Arrival in USA—Part 1

Giriraj Swami: Indeed, today is a most significant day. Many of the devotees in the room had the good fortune to meet Srila Prabhupada personally and to be touched by him. Even those who never met him personally have had the chance to hear about him, learn from him, follow him, and benefit in their lives.

When Sri Prahlada concluded his talk about the importance of the day, somehow my mind thought of Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day. Columbus Day, I think, is October 14th. Anyway, Columbus Day celebrates Christopher Columbus, who supposedly discovered America. But what did he do? He also came on a boat, but what did he do? He came, looked around, and left, and went back to Europe to tell the people what he saw. And what did Srila Prabhupada do? He also came on a boat, but he brought the greatest treasure of Krishna consciousness and delivered it. So how much greater is Srila Prabhupada’s contribution! Therefore, the day should be remembered and celebrated.

In my humble opinion, no one could have done what Srila Prabhupada did. There is one very nice devotee in Bombay named Krishna Chandra dasa Rishikesh Mafatlal, and he said that he could not conceive of what Srila Prabhupada did until he saw the early films. There are some films from the early days of New York and San Francisco, not even done by devotees because we didn’t think of it at the time. Maybe we didn’t even have the means, but there were some people who took interest in the movement and made documentaries. There is one, “Happiness on Second Avenue,” that came to light after Prabhupada left the planet. You see the people Srila Prabhupada was dealing with, where he was living, and where he was preaching, and it is inconceivable.

I was also thinking this festival should go on for weeks. We should read, discuss, watch videos, chant, read, and discuss, but it is inconceivable. There are so many interconnections between all the stories but anyway. Srila Prabhupada originally tried to establish his mission in India, in Jhansi, and he formed an association called the League of Devotees. There was a nice facility—you’ll see it in the movie—that he wanted to get to start his mission there. At the time, there were some politics connected with Kanhyalal Munshi, who was, at least at one time, the governor of Gujarat. Although the owner had agreed to give the place to Prabhupada, in the end, he reneged because of the politics that involved Kanhyalal Munshi.

So, many years later, in 1973, Kanhyalal Munshi’s wife, Lilavati Munshi invited Srila Prabhupada and the devotees to Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, which was their institution. What they really wanted to do was to sell Srila Prabhupada their printing press because they couldn’t manage it anymore. But at the same time, there was a conference being held at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan about how the Bhagavad-gītā could solve all the problems of the world. Before the program was inaugurated, they asked Srila Prabhupada to be the main speaker. Mrs. Munshi invited Srila Prabhupada and some of the other participants into her private area for tea and talk. She could not believe what Prabhupada had done, and she said to Prabhupada, “How did you do it? How did you do it? How could you get them to give up their ways?”

Srila Prabhupada brought some of us with him, and she said, “How could you get them to do it? How could you get them to wear dhotis and kurtas? How could you get them to wear sarees?” She just couldn’t believe it. Then all the other participants wanted Prabhupada to be the chairman of the conference, which was to last for several days. But Srila Prabhupada was very preoccupied with Juhu at the time and didn’t really want to spend the time at the conference. So he agreed to sort of inaugurate the first session. One of the other participants, who was also some sort of spiritual leader from India, was saying, “Swamiji, Swamiji, you are the only one who can lead us. You must take the lead. You are the only one that can lead us.” Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes, I may be the only one who can lead you, but are you prepared to follow me?”

Then Mrs. Munshi asked, “Well, now you are here, but what will be the future of your movement after you leave?” Srila Prabhupada said, “The future of my movement will be very bright as long as my disciples follow my instructions.” Because she was of that generation, and her husband especially of the freedom fighters with Gandhiji, Prabhupada said, “Just like Gandhiji had so many programs, but after he left, Nehru and the others did everything different from what he wanted. So what could Gandhiji do?” Srila Prabhupada said, “But yes, if they do follow my instructions, the future of the movement will be very bright.”

Of course, sometimes Srila Prabhupada understated his position and his powers, and I believe he did so there too. Because it is not—yeah, maybe if Nehru and the others went against Gandhiji, what could Gandhiji do? But we believe that God can intervene, and he does intervene when required. Even though what Srila Prabhupada did is so extraordinary and inconceivable, there were people, maybe there still are, who tried to sort of minimize Srila Prabhupada’s achievement in going to America and establishing Krishna consciousness. They would say, “We could have done that.” People would say, “We could have done that.”

Srila Prabhupada told a story of Christopher Columbus. After Columbus went to America and came back to Europe, Queen Isabella of Spain, or whoever, had a big banquet, and people were saying the same thing about Christopher Columbus: that anyone could have done it. What is the big thing? Anyone could have done it. Christopher Columbus had heard the talk, so he stood up at the banquet and said, “Who can, with just a fork and an egg, who can make the egg stand up straight on the table?” I guess maybe there were eggs at the banquet. Nobody could do it. Then Christopher Columbus took the egg, took the fork, tapped the end of the egg to make it flat, and stood it up on the table. They never said, “Oh, we could have done that, we could have done that. “Well, but you didn’t. I did.

Srila Prabhupada told the story in response to the people who were saying of his achievement, “We could have done that.” Whether they could or not, I don’t know. I personally believe that only Srila Prabhupada could have done what he did. But whether they could have or not, they didn’t. Srila Prabhupada is the one who did it, and therefore we are all eternally indebted to him. The extent that giving our lives and souls is not enough, but with whatever we have, at least we should serve him life after life and eternal.

Srila Prabhupada’s ki jaya!