Celebrating Srila Prabhupada’s Arrival in the USA—Part 2a

Giriraj Swami: The day of Prabhupada’s arrival in America and in Visalia we sung the first of the poem that Prabhupada wrote on the Jaladuta and now we are going to sing the second song that he wrote when he arrived in the Boston harbor.

[Song]

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Sri Prahlada: So Giriraj Maharaja is going to read and comment on certain sections of the song, this prayer by Srila Prabhupada, and he has instructed me to also read to a certain point. So we will read the introduction:

“On September 17, 1965 His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrived in Boston on board the ship Jaladuta, carrying within his heart the words of his spiritual master to spread the teachings of Sri Chaitanya beyond the borders of India throughout the entire world. As he looked upon Boston’s bleak and dirty skyline he could understand the difficulty of this sacred mission and felt great compassion for those godless people. Thus with perfect humility he composed this historic prayer in Bengali praying for the deliverance of the fallen souls.” 

Verse 1: “My dear Lord Krishna you are so kind upon this useless soul. . .”

Very very strong sentiments Prabhupada is expressing here. Firstly, Krishna is always very kind to His devotee. So Prabhupada in his humility he is calling himself a useless soul and that Krishna is so kind but if You are so kind why you have brought me here to this place? Obviously you have some plan. It is also interesting how Srila Prabhupada sees his coming to America as Krishna is bringing him although he himself was making so much endeavor to fulfill the mission of his spiritual master and come to the west and cultivating Sumati Morarji to get her to sponsor his journey. He had to convince her, it wasn’t easy. She was reluctant because of his elderly age and the fact that he didn’t have any friends or relatives in America. So he had to convince her but still he is saying to Krishna I don’t know why you brought me here. So ultimately he is seeing that it was Krishna who made the arrangement and who has brought him here to the United States. So that is how the devotee sees any experience that he has in life is Krishna’s mercy. One time Gaura Kishore dasa Babaji Maharaja was begging, doing bhiksha, going door to door in Navadvipa dhāma and some young boys, mischievous boys they started to throw stones at him and he saw the situation in a completely different way than we would at least than I would. He said, “He Gopal if you don’t stop throwing stones at me I would tell Mother Yasoda.” So he was seeing it as Krishna. We will see rascal boys misbehaving. We will become angry at them and want to correct them but his vision was completely transcendental, “Gopal, why are You throwing stones at me, means through these boys but Krishna is doing everything, “If You don’t stop I will complain to Mother Yasoda because in Vrindavan when Krishna is misbehaving, either pinching the babies or stealing the butter and the yogurt then the brijbasis they go and complain to Yasoda Mayi that your Kanhaiya He has misbehaved, please correct him and then there are different narrations in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, how when they see Krishna’s beautiful face, His sweet smile. They see this and then they feel so much love and affection for Him and then they tell Mother Yasoda, “It is okay He is alright. Don’t worry. Please don’t correct Him, don’t chastise Him. He is such a nice boy. We were just a little bit overwhelmed but actually there is nothing to be concerned about.” Anyway the principle is that Prabhupada is seeing this arrangement as Krishna’s arrangement and actually we have to also try to develop that vision to see Krishna’s plan in everything. to see Krishna’s arrangement in everything. But we are surrendered to Him. So He is taking care of us and sometimes we make experience may be to setbacks or disappointments but actually Krishna has something there for us and we can try to understand what that is and then we will never be disappointed in life. We will be always happy in Krishna’s mercy even in adversity. 

So Prabhupada is saying, “Why have you brought me here, whatever the case, do with me as you like.” And this is very much the mood of the song- Prabhupada’s complete surrender. I am Your instrument. You can use me. You can engage me as you wish. I have no agenda of my own, no personal agenda. My agenda is whatever you desire. I am here to make that my life and soul to give everything to please you, to serve you. 

Then in his next verse, he says, “But I guess you have some business here otherwise why would you bring me to such a terrible place? In the beginning he was saying you are kind but then why have you brought me here. If you are kind obviously there is some business, otherwise why would you bring me to such a terrible place. Interesting prospective in India everyone wants to go to America because it is the land of the free and the brave. Is that right? But here Prabhupada he is arriving in America he is saying a terrible place. Once when he arrived in London and the press was there to interview him. He was already there living in London and one famous presenter he had a television show. He would invite different personalities to his show and ask them questions. Actually he would ask them difficult questions that embarrass the  that is why he was so popular. The show was so popular. So he invited Prabhupada and the devotees were reluctant to allow Prabhupada to go, knowing this man’s reputation that he would try to humiliate Prabhupada on the screen and so they were advising Prabhupada humbly that Prabhupada we don’t think you should go for this and Prabhupada said, “No. no it is our duty we must go. So Prabhupada went and he sat comfortably on the chair and then this interviewer he starts with some casual question just to make you feel comfortable before he brings in the punch. So he asked Prabhupada, “How do you like it here in London?” And generally everyone gives the same cliché answer, “It is wonderful. I really like it. I am really enjoying myself here. So good to be in this city.” That is generally the expected response. Be positive on the screen. Prabhupada said, “London? London is hell! and he was so shocked. He didn’t know how to carry on because it wasn’t the expected response, the usual response that people give. Prabhupada actually stumped him and there were seconds of silence. He had his plan before him that wasn’t part of the script. London is hell. So there were some moments of uncomfortable silence. Then Prabhupada he saved the day. He saved the interviewer. He said, “But it is a great credit to the British people that they have built such a beautiful city under such hellish conditions, hellish weather conditions and so from then on this gentleman was very respectful and Prabhupada actually got to preach and he was very respectful to Srila Prabhupada through the rest of the interview. So Prabhupada was so expert like that. 

So Prabhupada’s view coming from Goloka Vrindavan or Gokula Vrindavan in the spiritual sky is that this material world is hellish and whether it is America or England. It is all the material world and so it is hellish. And he had just come from Sri Vrindavan dhāma, Radha-Damodara Mandir and now he is arriving in Boston, “Why have you brought me to this terrible place? Another thing I am remembering is Prabhupada’s lecture in Atlanta. When he sat and he saw the beautiful deities of Gaura-Nitai and he sung, parama karuṇa song and then he gave his talk and he said that Gaura-Nitai is so merciful that They have come to this far off region so far away from home. So Atlanta is quite a major city in America in the world. But Prabhupada called it the far off region, so far away from home, far away from Vrindavan, from Mayapur, from the spiritual sky. So his perspective is that this is a terrible place but he is here only for Krishna’s work, only for Krishna’s pleasure, only to fulfill Krishna’s desire and that is to deliver the conditioned souls, to give them a spark of Krishna consciousness, a ray of bhakti and now Prabhupada is describing why it is a terrible place.

Verse 3: “Most of the population is covered by the material modes of ignorance and passion absorbed in material life they think themselves very happy and satisfied and therefore they have no taste for the transcendental message of Vasudeva. I do not know how they will able to understand it.”

So this is why everyone is covered by ignorance and passion. the nature of passion is that we become feverous to enjoy material life. We hanker. We make schemes and plans and then when they are not fulfilled, then we become disappointed and we fall into ignorance, depression, apathy, disappointment, bewilderment, madness. So like this bhoga tyāga, desire for enjoyment and then so called renunciation, the sour grapes philosophy of the fox that couldn’t catch those grapes, so anyway they are sour, who needs them? Who wants them? So that is first he is trying so hard to jump and catch them but when he is not successful then what is it anyway? He becomes very renounced. So that is our state in material life, material conditioning. We are constantly fluctuating between these two states of bhoga and tyāga, desire for enjoyment and then false renunciation. And because of this it is difficult to develop attachment or attraction for the transcendental message of Vasudeva. We are so absorbed in materialistic life that the message of Vasudeva has no appeal and so Prabhupada he is wondering, “How will I be able to tell them of Krishna, how will I be able to tell them about Sri Vrindavan dhāma and devotional service. It is a very difficult. It is actually impossible a feat and it is a miracle that he accomplished that he was able to do it. No one else could do it, even those other acharyas, great acharyas, who appeared in this world. They taught in Bhārata-varṣa in India where the Lord Himself made His appearance, where the Vedas are generally understood and respected but that Prabhupada was able to come to this foreign land and instill this sraddha, this faith within the hearts of the westerners. It is a great miracle. Bhaktivinoda Thakura envisioned it and endeavored for it himself.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura personally sent his own disciples to the west to try to do it and he was maintaining them in London but it was Srila Prabhupada who was actually successful in fulfilling this miraculous feat and by reading the songs we can get a taste or understanding, a glimpse of how and why. It was his surrender to Krishna, his humility, his absolute faith in the instruction of his spiritual master. When we were in Bombay some years ago, some Sri Vaishnavas they came to the Chowpatty Temple. They wanted to speak with somebody and so they were introduced to me. So we sat in the temple room and they said we have a very important question. And Yes Please, we are not very qualified but we will try to answer. They said, “Who is Prabhupada?” and I said, “Prabhupada is our spiritual master. He took Krishna consciousness to the west and I started—No. no we know that. We know about his life and his achievements. But who is he? That is a very very esoteric question. I said we should explain a little more what you want to know. They said Ramanujacharya we know that he is Śeṣa, that he is Lakshman, that he is Balarama. So we know. So Ramanujacharya he was able to teach Vaishnavism throughout India and mainly in Southern India but your Prabhupada took it all over the world. Who was he? And I said we can’t answer that question.

Once Prabhupada was asked who are you? and this is what I told them, once our spiritual master was asked who are you and he said if I told you, you would faint and that is as much as we know but we can only in all understand that he is such an intimate servitor of the Lord so intimate that he fulfils such an important, such a confidential service fulfilling the vision of the acharyas, fulfilling the plan of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who said, prativiche naga that in all the villages and town of the world my name will be chanted. So then their next question was, “How do we do it? Then I said he went and chanted and they said no that is the external but how, actually how did he do it because no one else was able to do it and I said, “Well also a difficult question to answer.” But I suggested was that his faith in the words of his spiritual master, that Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati gave him the order and he understood that it was the desire of his spiritual master that was the desire of the acharyas and the desire of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and because of that faith but because it was their desire so it would be because of that faith and surrender that he was able to fulfill the impossible.

Verse 5: “How will they understand the mellows of devotional service? O Lord I am simply praying for your mercy so that I will be able to convince them about your message.” 

So we will conclude here this part and Giriraj Maharaja will continue from verse 6.

Giriraj Swami: Verse 6: “All living entities have come under the control of the illusory energy by your will and therefore if you like by your will they can also be released from the clutches of illusion. I wish that you may deliver them. Therefore, if you so desire their deliverance then only will they be able to understand your message.”

So in answer to the question how? Srila Prabhupada answers here: By your mercy, by Krishna’s mercy. But Krishna’s mercy is not the whole answer. It is actually by Srila Prabhupada’s appeal to Krishna for His mercy. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura had discussed how the conditioned souls get bhakti. He begins by proving with evidence from the scriptures that one cannot get bhakti by karma or jnana, by fruitive activities, by mental speculation, by austerities, by charity, by mystic perfections or by any such means. And he quotes the verse from the Bhāgavatam, bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā, that bhakti comes from bhakti but how does bhakti comes from bhakti? What is the actual process? then he puts forward the proposal that someone may say that one gets bhakti by the mercy of Krishna but Krishna is equal to all. So we cannot say that the cause of bhakti is the mercy of Krishna because Krishna would bestow bhakti equally on everyone because He is equal to everyone. He is the supreme father of all living entities. SO then Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says well one could say by the mercy of the devotee and again one might say well the devotee should be equal to every one as well but Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that the preacher, the madhyam bhakta, prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā, he gives his love to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he makes friendship with devotees. He shows mercy to the innocent persons and he neglects the envious. So the function of giving mercy specifically to the innocent is the preachers. It is the function of the preacher and therefore even though a mahā-bhāgavata like Srila Prabhupada in the ultimate sense sees everyone equally, sees everyone as servant of Krishna and therefore in no need of mercy but when he takes the position of a preacher, he functions as a preacher and he gives mercy to the innocent. But how does he give the mercy? He prays to Krishna to give mercy and therefore it is said that the mercy of Krishna follows the mercy of the devotee. I have my own personal experience.

I met Srila Prabhupada in 1969 in Boston and I was touched by him. I felt that he was the spiritual master that I had been looking for and after some time, probably after may be three months, the devotees needed a pujari. In those days anyone could be a pujari at first initiation. So they felt well I have been there for three months, so why not recommend him? So Satsvarupa Maharaja was the temple president. He recommended me. Srila Prabhupada was in LA at the time. So I guess in one sense I was actually initiated in LA like many of you were and he sent back a letter. Your name is Giriraj. Giriraj is a name for Govardhana Hill where Krishna used to tend His cows and sometimes devotees take a stone from Govardhana Hill and worship it as Krishna and he said some other things. Then he said, “I marked it in your presence when I met you and I prayed to Krishna that He may make you aware of the importance of Krishna consciousness. So I think that if we look at our qualifications we don’t find them. Our qualification is actually Srila Prabhupada’s mercy that he felt something for us and he prayed to Krishna just as he says here and because Krishna—Yes this is the next point: Someone could raise the question well why should Krishna listen to the prayer of the devotee, I mean so many people are praying to Krishna, why should Krishna listen to the prayer of the devotee? Is that not also partiality in Krishna? But Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that of all of Krishna’s qualities the quality of being affectionate to His devotees, what is your name Prabhu? bhakta-vatsala That is it! bhakta-vatsala, that is the quality of Krishna. That is considered the super most of all, of all of Krishna’s qualities, bhakta-vatsala, the quality of being affectionate to His devotees is considered the super most. It is not a fault in Krishna but it is the most exalted quality of Krishna and He really has no other desire than to please His devotees. Just as the devotees have no desire other than to please Krishna.

Krishna really has no desire other than to please His devotees. So when His devotees like Srila Prabhupada prays to Him to give mercy upon the fallen souls or to any particular soul, Krishna readily does it. He readily does it to please His devotee. And years later I found the verses that Srila Prabhupada has actually paraphrased here in verses six and seven in the prayers of the personified Vedas. The personified Vedas pray to the Lord that by your will the living entities are placed under the control of maya and therefore by your will you can release them from the control of maya and the same verse was quoted by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to Vasudeva Datta. When Vasudeva Datta prayed that let all the sinful reactions of all the living entities in the entire universe come on me. Lord Chaitanya, of course, first He was overwhelmed with love for Vasudeva Datta. Lord Chaitanya actually began to tremble and to weep out of affection for Vaudeva Datta. I mean, we generally wouldn’t accept the sinful reaction of any living entity. There is the famous story of Valmiki. Valmiki was a thief but he wasn’t stealing for himself. He was stealing for the sake of his family and then Narada came to sort of expose the fallacy of mundane family attachment and he asked Valmiki’s wife and children that, “Your husband is stealing for your sake, not for his sake. You are enjoying because he is stealing for you. Will you at least share in some of the sinful reactions?” “No! Why should I? He is the one who is doing the stealing. I am not the one.” So we don’t want to take anyone’s sinful reactions and here is Vaudeva datta. Even our own sinful reactions are hard enough to tolerate and here Vasudeva Datta is saying he is willing to take the reaction for every living entity of the whole universe. I mean we can’t even conceive of how much suffering he would have to undergo and he was not saying it with any duplicity like sometimes we say things to sound good like we want to say the right thing like we are pure devotee but he actually meant.

So when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard what he said His heart melted and He embraced Vasudeva Datta. But then he said, “But actually you don’t have to suffer their sinful reactions because just by your desire they can be liberated because Krishna fulfills the desire of His devotees. So by your desire He can liberate them without you accepting their sinful reactions.” And then Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu quoted the same verses from the prayers of the personified Vedas that, “O Lord by your will the living entities are brought under the control of maya and therefore by Your will, You can release them.” So this is from one point of view the secret, the secret that out of Srila Prabhupada’s sincere love and compassion and because of his intimate relationship with Krishna he prayed for us and therefore Krishna He reciprocated. But again what is the method by which we get the mercy. Even coming to Srila Prabhupada letter to me that I prayed to Krishna that this soul may become aware of the importance of Krishna consciousness. In other words, we become aware of the value of Krishna consciousness and then we take to the process that Srila Prabhupada gave us and that is the second part of verse seven.

“I wish that you may deliver them. Therefore, if you so desire their deliverance then only will they be able to understand your message.” 

Because many people heard Srila Prabhupada’s message or heard Krishna’s message but not all developed faith in the message and that is the beginning of bhakti, adau śraddhā. So when we say how does one get bhakti what he really gets is sraddha which is bhakti but in the beginning stage and the faith is in the words of the scriptures or the words of the spiritual master that glorify the process of bhakti and therefore Prabhupada in utter humility prays that Krishna makes his words suitable and he also prayed that Krishna enlightens us or inspire us with appreciation for His message and therefore in the mood of utter surrender Srila Prabhupada really saw that Krishna was doing everything. Krishna was inspiring him to speak and Krishna was inspiring us to appreciate what he said and I am sure even we as servants of Srila Prabhupada have been in the same mood, not to the same degree but we have been in the same mood on book distribution; you know we prayed please empower me to approach this person, please inspire to approach this person. Please make my words suitable and we would pray specially like the person is looking at the person and thinking we pray to Krishna within the heart please inspire the person to take the book. Please inspire the person to do service and that is the mood. Of course, here Srila Prabhupada is speaking in the mood of compassion, praying for the sake of others but we can even pray for our own protection. It is not wrong to pray for our own protection. Like once Srila Prabhupada gave a lecture at Bhaktivedanta Manor. In the lecture he said that you all can fall down but I cannot fall down. That is the difference between you and me. You all can fall down but I cannot fall down. Then after the lecture Srila Prabhupada came before the deities and he was praying and one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada, “What were you praying? and Srila Prabhupada replied, “I was praying to the deities that I may never fall down and the disciple said, “But Srila Prabhupada you just said that you cannot fall down.“ And Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes. Because I am always praying that I may never fall down, therefore, I can never fall down.”

So, number nine is actually a series of five verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which—well I will read the translation:

“It is said in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.17–21, Sri Krishna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee cleanses the desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who relishes his messages which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.” 

So Srila Prabhupada began from the point that because the population was absorbed in material enjoyment they could not appreciate the message of Vasudeva but here he is saying that if they hear the message of Vasudeva the desire for material enjoyment will be cleansed. So it is similar to the idea of Rupa Gosvami that even though the holy name, forms, qualities, and pastimes of Krishna may be bitter to the diseased conditioned souls, but if he takes the medicine he will be cured of the disease and then he will be able to relish the sweetness.

SB 1.2.18—”By regularly hearing the Bhāgavatam and rendering service unto the pure devotee all that is troublesome to the heart is practically destroyed and loving service unto the glorious Lord who is praised with transcendental songs is established as an irrevocable fact.”

So both methods work, serving the person Bhagavat and reading the book Bhagavat and from the very beginning Srila Prabhupada engaged the devotees in service. Of course, one famous example was when the man walked into the storefront at 26th second avenue with a roll of toilet paper and he offered it to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Prabhupada accepted it and he said he has begun his devotional service. Once someone came again to the old storefront in New York with some leaflets of some Mayavadi and Srila Prabhupada accepted them and then later when the devotees were distributing prasāda, he handed out the Mayavadi leaflets for them to use like paper plates. So Prabhupada knew the value of devotional service and he did whatever he could to engage anyone and everyone in devotional service. 

At that time loving service is established in the heart and the modes of passion, rajas, and ignorance, tamas and lust and desire, kāma disappear from the heart. So again Prabhupada prayed that the people are covered by passion and ignorance, how will they be able to understand your method. So here he says yes but by hearing from the person bhāgavata and rendering service to the person Bhagavat, hearing the book Bhāgavata from the person bhāgavata and rendering service, one will become free from the lower mode and he will be established in goodness and becomes happy. Thus established in the mode of goodness the man rejuvenated by loving service to the Lord gains liberation from material association, mukti and comes to know scientifically of the personality of Godhead. 

Thus the knots of the heart and all misgivings are cut to pieces. The chain of fruitive actions, karma are terminated when one sees the self as master. So Srila Prabhupada prays to Krishna to give his mercy to us, to make his words suitable and to make us appreciate his message. But then we also have to take the process and here again I think of the example that Sri Prahlada gave last night of the person in the well that the person in the well is helpless. On his own he cannot get out of the well, but if someone comes and put a rope down into the well he can be delivered but still he has to hold on to the rope and therefore the mercy of the spiritual master that he gives the instructions and if we hold on to his instructions he will lift us out of the well of material existence and deliver us to the lotus feet of Krishna.

Once in Bombay one disciple said to Srila Prabhupada that please give me your mercy that I may follow your instructions and Srila Prabhupada replied that it is like you are in a well and I hand down a rope to lift you out of the well and you are praying, “O Prabhupada, O Prabhupada please make my fingers curl around the rope and hold on. Prabhupada said no. My mercy is I send down the rope but you have to hold on to it. So Srila Prabhupada’s mercy is he gives us the instructions. He prays to Krishna that we can appreciate the instructions but we also have to do our part and therefore sometimes Srila Prabhupada because both are involved and somehow too far on one side and Prabhupada would emphasize the other side to bring them to the proper position. So once again in Bombay one Indian gentleman came to Srila Prabhupada and he said, “Swamiji, Swamiji, please save me, only you can save me. I am drowning in the ocean of material existence, please save me. Only you can save me and Srila Prabhupada replied, “ I cannot save you but I can give you the method by which you can be saved but you have to do the work. So this is the combination that works, Prabhupada’s mercy in the form of his instructions and his prayers to Krishna that we can appreciate his mercy, appreciate his instructions and our efforts but of course he also inspires us to make effort and he continues to do so today. 

Sri Prahlada: Trying to bind Krishna with ropes which is unsuccessful. The ropes are always two inches too short and so she is struggling, taking ropes from all over the house, tying them together and still two inches too short. When Krishna sees the perspiration on her forehead, on her brow, he sees that the flowers that were decorating her hair had fallen to the ground and that her hair has become disarrayed and how she is working so hard to bind Him, then He thinks, Okay, let her bind Me. And so she finally ties that knot and Krishna is bound. Srila Visvanatha Thakura he says that the two inches of that rope that were missing, they represent two things, one is the endeavor of the devotee and two, Krishna’s agreement, Krishna’s mercy. Krishna gives His mercy and the devotees endeavoring to take that mercy then we are successful in binding Krishna or achieving Krishna. Of course, that mercy comes to us.

All inauspicious things accumulated in the heart will disappear. So the three modes of material nature they are the constituents of material nature, sattva, rajas, and tamas and the spiritual nature also has three constituents. They are saṁvit, sandhinī, hlādinī, or eternity, bliss, and knowledge, sac-cid-ānanda. They translate in their perverted form in this material nature as goodness, passion, and ignorance. They are opposite to transcendence. Because we are covered by this modes of material nature we cannot appreciate the message of Vasudeva but by hearing that message, by contacting with the pure devotee and hearing the message, these things are cleaned away, then we can appreciate all the inauspicious things accumulated in the core of the heart disappear like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. The ceto, the consciousness which is also the heart is cleaned of all the dust accumulated for years the mirror of the heart. So when the mirror has dust covering it you cannot see yourself. You cannot see who you are. But when that dust is cleaned away then you can see yourself and similarly when the mirror of the heart is cleaned then we can understand our nature as soul, servant of Krishna. 

How will I make them understand the message of Krishna consciousness?

It is not something mechanical or artificial but one has to become empowered by the Lord. One has to become śaktya aveṣa, an empowered representative of the Lord and then that dynamic is there. Certainly Srila Prabhupada was empowered by Krishna because of his full dedication, full faith, full surrender to the Lord. It is not a material phenomenon that one can represent the Lord or transform the heart. It is a transcendental phenomenon.

Giriraj Swami: “I have no devotion nor do I have any knowledge but I have strong faith in the holy name of Krishna. I have been designated as Bhaktivedanta and now if you like you can fulfill the real purport of Bhaktivedanta.”

Of course bhakti means devotion and Vedanta means knowledge. Actually Veda means knowledge and anta means the end. So Vedanta means the end of knowledge or the conclusion of all knowledge. Srila Prabhupada is saying that I am designated as Bhaktivedanta but I have no bhakti or Vedanta but if you like you can make me Bhaktivedanta. And coming back Srila Prabhupada’s secret, how did Srila Prabhupada succeed. He says I have strong faith in the words of Sri Krishna. Earlier Sri Prahlada told us that when he met the Sri Vaishnavas he mentioned Prabhupada’s faith in his spiritual master and the previous acharyas and along with that comes automatically faith in the process of devotional service and specially in the holy name. Srila Prabhupada himself had one godbrother named Akiñcana Krishnadasa Babaji Maharaja who was always absorbed in Harriman. In fact, I heard Srila Prabhupada said he was a paramahamsa. But in any case he was always absorbed in Harriman. So once Krishna dasa Babaji Maharaja met—before I continue with the story I want to give a little preamble about how we should deal with other Vaishnavas or Gaudiya Vaishnavas. We should treat them with respect. Obviously if they directly or indirectly criticize Srila Prabhupada or Srila Prabhupada’s movement or attack Srila Prabhupada or Srila Prabhupada’s movement we have to defend Srila Prabhupada but otherwise our attitude should be respectful. We should appreciate their service however big or small may be. So when I continue with the story I am telling I am not intending that we should any disrespect for any Vaishnava but I am telling the story to illustrate Srila Prabhupada’s faith in the holy name and the secret of Srila Prabhupada’s success. So anyway, Krishna dasa Babaji met another one of Srila Prabhupada’s godbrother named Bon Maharaja who had been sent by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura to England to preach. So Babaji maharaja asked him that you went to the west and Swami Maharaja, that means Srila Prabhupada, Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja.

The temple president somehow became very absorbed in doing business in making money for the temple and the devotees in the temple were sort of neglected. Of course, we were poor, we were very poor. We couldn’t afford milk. Of course even if we could, we don’t know exactly what the white liquid we got would be anyway. It seemed to be a combination, like a little buffalo milk, water, and paper. We heard that they used to sort of like soak paper to add a little bulk to the liquid. And there was one devotee there named Sudāmā Vipra. I don’t know if any of you knew him but he was like very strong. He had tattoos. He was very strong. But it is like even he was starving. We were like all starving. So after the ārati, he would get the ghee wicks and he would squeeze the ghee wicks and try to get like a drop or two of ghee out.

So anyway we were all just waiting for Srila Prabhupada to come to save us and Srila Prabhupada did come and different devotees met him and complained. And then Srila Prabhupada called a meeting of all the devotees and he listened very patiently and sympathetically to all of them and Tamal Krishna Goswami was the GBC and he said Srila Prabhupada I was just trying to execute your will and Srila Prabhupada said sarcastically—oh no he said I was just trying to execute the will of your Divine Grace and Srila Prabhupada replied, “Was it my divine grace’s will that all the devotees should be disturbed?” So he was very sympathetic to the devotees. He said we should have meetings every week. We should record our resolutions in the minute book and we should stick to the resolutions. He was very concerned. And needless to say, he had great love for Tamal Krishna Goswami and vice versa. That was a little exchange there. But then Srila Prabhupada’s mood changed and he said that we shouldn’t be too absorbed in these material matters because the tendency of the conditioned souls is to be absorbed in material things and if we get too absorbed and just talk about the material things then we will forget Krishna. We won’t talk about Krishna, but then he said, “My motto has always been everything for Krishna and nothing for myself,” and therefore I never complained and then he said I suffered so much for the sake of the movement, for our sake really. And he mentioned he had two heart attacks on the boat on the way over and then in New York he had a stroke and he said that even otherwise he would have headaches and he would have ringing in his ears and he said that you cannot conceived of how much I suffered and I don’t want to discuss it also but my motto was always everything for Krishna and nothing for myself and that is Prabhupada. So signed the most unfortunate, insignificant beggar, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami.

Now we first read this poem. This poem was published in Back to Godhead, many years ago in 1971 but few of us were living in the sea palace hotel because we didn’t have any place in Bombay and Srila Prabhupada had one friend from England named Ramachandra who owned the Sea Palace Hotel and he was a vegetarian. We didn’t have any other place to stay so Prabhupada arranged for us to stay there. So the magazine came and it was just a few of us, myself, Guru dasa Prabhu. So we got the magazine and the first thing was the poem and Mother Yamuna read it out loud and when she came to this “signed the most unfortunate insignificant beggar A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami,” she like burst into tears. She couldn’t control herself. So what can we say? 

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!