With Kesava Bharati and Bhurijana Dasa—Part 02

Giriraj Swami: In central Bombay, he would invite the devotees on Saturday or Sunday to do hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana in Gaura dhāma, which was the suburb where he lived, which was even further from the city. And then, after the hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, he would feed the devotees prasāda. So, he was a member of a group called Radha-Madhava satsaṅga Mandali. They were all householders, and they had the practice of meeting every Sunday and doing akhanda Hare Krishna kirtan, that means they would chant Hare Krishna kirtan continuously for twelve hours, from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. And then, from six to eight, they would sing songs from Vraja, and the last song was Jaya Radhe, Jaya Radhe Radhe, Jaya Radhe, Jaya Sri Radhe.

So, in maybe March or April of 1977, they approached me because they wanted to arrange the akhanda kirtan at the temple, and at the time, we had the small temple, like a shed, but the project was almost ready to open, and Srila Prabhupada was staying upstairs in his quarters. So, the devotees came and our devotees also joined them, and they were chanting Hare Krishna kirtan, and really, the mood of the devotees was to please Srila Prabhupada. They were chanting in front of the Deities, but at a certain stage, the mood became to especially attract the attention of Srila Prabhupada.

So, the lift in the new building was not working, and Srila Prabhupada was in very fragile health so he could not come down, and it was not practical for the devotees to walk up the stairs, and they could not fit there. And in any case, they had to maintain the kirtan in the temple. So, there was this loving pull where the devotees were chanting Hare Krishna and Srila Prabhupada was hearing and relishing, but he could not come down, and they could not come up. Then finally, the devotees came out of the temple and started to chant under Srila Prabhupada’s window. Then Srila Prabhupada came out in the balcony and sort of glanced down upon them. They were looking up at him and it was a wonderful reciprocation of love, and then they went back and continued the kirtan in front of the Deities.

At six, as usual, they’d begin the Vraja songs, and there was one moment we would sing Jaya Radhe, Jaya Radhe Radhe, Jaya Radhe, Jaya Sri Radhe, and that was the highlight or the climax. And Mr. Sethi told me later that when she began to sing, tears started to stream down Srila Prabhupada’s cheeks, that was the end of the day, wonderful day of kirtan.

Then the next day, Srila Prabhupada called me and told me how much he liked the kirtan, and he said that we should invite the whole Radha-Madhava saṅkīrtana Mandala to stay at Hare Krishna Land and just do akhanda kirtan, and he would provide them accommodation and prasādam. So, I thought it was a nice idea, but I did not think that it would work, I did not think they would agree. I did not know how we would manage.

Then, Srila Prabhupada said, “Then at least our devotees, they should do akhanda kirtan every day for twelve hours, just like they had done.” So, I don’t know why I said it, but I said, “But Srila Prabhupada, we have so much service to do.” The whole past five years, Srila Prabhupada was just struggling to build the temple. So then, Srila Prabhupada said, “All right, then at least on Sunday.” I said, “All right, on Sunday.” And then, it was agreed, and we did it, we did it for many years.

And I remember all problems used to be solved. I had the same experience on Pada yatra in Mauritius, just doing hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana for hours every day and practically nothing else, all problems would get solved. So, I would deal with the problems at the beginning of the week, but by the Thursday, I would figure, “Well, it is just two or three days until we do the akhanda kirtan, and then the problems would be solved automatically, we will get solutions.” And then, I would say, “Give me a few days,” and then they would all get solved.

But later, Tamal Krishna Goswami explained to me the principle of transcendental bargaining with Srila Prabhupada. It means that Srila Prabhupada would ask for more that he wanted or expected, and that would bring us up, and then he would come down, and then we would agree. And then, I thought back to when he said that the devotees should do akhanda kirtan for twelve hours a day, every day, and then I said, “Well, Srila Prabhupada, we have so much service to do,” and then he said, “Then at least on Sundays,” then I said, “Okay.” Because if he would have started with twelve hours on Sunday, I might have said, “Well, how about four hours?” Or we might have ended up with eight hours.

Devotee: Could you tell about that time, [Unintelligible 00:08:45].

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Well, Mrs. Singhal is another staunch devotee of Srila Prabhupada. She lived about twenty minutes drive from the temple, she and her husband, Dr. Singhal. And one day, she invited Srila Prabhupada to come and take prasād at her place, and Srila Prabhupada agreed. So, a few hours later, Srila Prabhupada was in the car with Tamal Krishna Goswami and me, and maybe one another who I don’t remember. And Mrs. Singhal received us in the proper Vedic way, she offered ārati to Srila Prabhupada and offered the remnants to us. And then, she invited us to sit down, so we all sat down on the floor and were taking prasāda. And then, towards the end of the meal, she and one of her lady friends burst into the room, she was playing the violin and singing Hare Krishna.

Maharaja: First, I would like to add, this was in front of Prabhupada?

Giriraj Swami: We were sitting in a row; Srila Prabhupada, Tamal Krishna Goswami, and me, and maybe one another.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:11:02].

Giriraj Swami: Well, I did not see him immediately because I was sitting next to Tamal Krishna Goswami and I turned, and he was making a face.

Devotee: Who was making the face?

Giriraj Swami: Tamal Krishna Goswami was making the face. And then, Srila Prabhupada turned to him and said, “This is spontaneous Vaishnavism. They are naturally Vaishnavas. You have to learn to be Vaishnavas.” So, one more question.

Devotee: I remember going to Bombay in 1970, there was one group of ladies who used to come one day a week and chant. And I was amazed, and I remember you telling me that Prabhupada had asked them to do that. This was thirteen years later or something, fourteen or fifteen years later, and they were still coming one day a week.

Giriraj Swami: That was actually Mrs. Singhal. She started the women’s bhajana group, and they would come and sing songs and chant Hare Krishna in front of the Deities every Tuesday afternoon. And she maintained it, I think she is probably maintaining it now, twenty years later.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:12:58].

Giriraj Swami: And she has seen how our programs begin and stop, devotees come and go, and she is still doing it every Tuesday afternoon.

Devotee: What inspired Prabhupada to suggest that she does that?

Giriraj Swami: Well, she was very inspired by Srila Prabhupada. She wanted to do service, and Srila Prabhupada was expert at engaging people who came forward to offer service. And he told her two things. One, that she should have meetings with ladies and read to them from the Bhāgavatam. That did not happen very much. But the kirtan did, the kirtan did. And what can I say? Hare Krishna should always be heard on Hare Krishna Land. But it turned out that she was also a poet in Hindi and Urdu also. And she wrote poems, and she would read them to Srila Prabhupada and he appreciated them.

And once, she wrote an article for Back to Godhead called Kṛṣṇa-līlā at Hare Krishna Land, basically about the whole struggle, seeing it as kṛṣṇa-līlā. And Srila Prabhupada told her, “I am going to send it to Back to Godhead to be published,” and it was never published. And I suppose I thought that maybe Srila Prabhupada was just encouraging her, and then years later, I heard a tape of a conversation of Srila Prabhupada in Hawaii, where Srila Prabhupada was talking about Juhu and he thought of the article. He said, “I sent it to the editors to publish, why haven’t they published it?” So, he actually did appreciate it.

Devotee: Did they publish it?

Giriraj Swami: No, they never published it.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:15:48].

Giriraj swami: I published it. No, they never did.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:16:06].

Giriraj Swami: Well, I published it in the local magazine, The Hare Krishna Monthly. Maybe they should do that, actually, the twenty-fifth anniversary might have been a good occasion. But one other thing that came to mind about the holy name was in Los Angeles. I had been serving in India, and then I got jaundice and Srila Prabhupada said, “You should go back.” He said, “As long as Giriraj stays in Bombay, he will never recover.” So, I went to America. And Vishujana Maharaja had written an article for BTG, and Srila Prabhupada read it. And he praised the article, there were just few of us in the room, he praised the article and said, “Just because of him spending so many hours chanting the holy names every day, he is able to write so nicely.”

Bhurijana Prabhu: [Unintelligible 00:17:34]. I remember one story that she went to visit Srila Prabhupada, maybe with her husband. And she knocked on the door and Prabhupada answered it himself. You remember that?

Giriraj Swami: Not yet.

Bhurijana Prabhu: And then she said, “You are here all alone. These people have left you all alone.” And Prabhupada said, “Sometimes I like to be alone.” I like that story.

Giriraj Swami: That’s a good one.

[Talks by other devotees, ending at 01:21:24]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Srila Prabhupada was sitting on the roof of one of the old buildings in Juhu, and he saw that it was seven o’clock, time for ārati, and there was no sound of kirtan in the temple. So, he asked Haridasa Prabhu, who was fanning him, “Where is the kirtan?” So, Haridasa imagined that devotees must have gone to the city to make life members and had not yet returned. But Srila Prabhupada replied, “That was not my idea that devotees should go out all day and collect, they should come back and chant for the pleasure of the Deities.”

And then he said, “You know why we were successful against Mr. Nair? Materially, Mr. Nair was much more powerful than we were because he had wealth, he had influence, he owned the free press journal, which was basically English Daily newspaper in Bombay, he was the sheriff of Bombay. He knew so many political leaders, government officers. But we were successful, you know why? The reason is that we simply tried to please Krishna, we did not depend on our material strength. So, the devotees should come back early and chant in the temple, perform the ārati and chant in the temple to please Krishna, and by Krishna’s pleasure, we will be successful, not by our own independent efforts.”

And there were other times when Srila Prabhupada made the same point about devotees not staying out so late, that they have no time to attend the evening program, or the class, or the saṅkīrtana. Of course, if we go out for programs, we do the same thing.

Mahatma Prabhu: [Unintelligible 01:24:21].

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, that was another incident. In Bombay, Srila Prabhupada said that the devotees should come back by five o’clock, otherwise if they just keep collecting, they will become like the karmis. And once in Delhi, Srila Prabhupada was giving class and he noticed that Mother Yamuna wasn’t there. And it turned out that she had been out shopping for the Deities, and then he commented to her, “You think that because you are out shopping for the Deities, what you are doing is different from what the karmis are doing. But if you neglect hearing and chanting, then what you are doing will become the same as what the karmis are doing.” So, it was very important to maintain that balance. Is that what you thought?

Mahatma Prabhu: [Unintelligible 01:26:10].

Giriraj swami: They weren’t actually the same conversation.

Mahatma Prabhu: [Unintelligible 01:26:30].

Giriraj Swami: I can quote one purport from Caitanya-caritāmṛta. The verse is that we should always remember Krishna, never forget Him. And all positive injunctions and negative prohibitions are servants of the one injunction—always remember Krishna, and one prohibition—never forget Him. And in the purport, Srila Prabhupada mentions that the devotees in the Krishna consciousness movement are engaged in various services like enrolling life members and distributing books, and because such activities are in relation to Krishna, they give the devotee the opportunity to remember Krishna. But then, Srila Prabhupada says that still, of all the instructions of the spiritual master, the instruction to chant a prescribed number of rounds is most essential.

Devotee: Did he mention the prescribed number?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, sixteen rounds. And if we fail to chant the sixteen rounds, then we will not be able to always remember Krishna. So, that’s the idea behind what you said about mother Yamuna shopping for the Deities. But he took it a step further, not just chanting sixteen rounds but hearing the class, especially when he was giving a class.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:29:20].

Giriraj Swami: One conversation, there is one another relevant conversation. Okay. So, on one morning walk on Juhu Beach, Loknath Swami asked Srila Prabhupada, “Why have you prescribed sixteen rounds?” Srila Prabhupada said, “I have not prescribed sixteen rounds. Minimum sixteen rounds.” And then, Loknath Swami said, “But other devotees are fixing other numbers for themselves. But you have prescribed sixteen rounds for us.” Prabhupada said, “No, I haven’t prescribed sixteen rounds for you. Minimum sixteen rounds. If you can chant sixteen thousand, you should chant sixteen thousand. Minimum sixteen.”

And then, Yasomatinandana Prabhu said, “What if they have service for the devotees, and then they want to avoid the service because they are chanting extra rounds?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “Well, that is not good. It shouldn’t be, ‘Oh no, I am sorry, I can’t do any service now, I am busy imitating Haridasa Thakura.’ That is not good.”

So, I think that the idea is that there is no limit to how much we chant. Actually, Srila Prabhupada wanted us to chant as much as possible, but sincere chanting is the prayer to the Lord to be engaged in service, and if the Lord does offer us some service, we shouldn’t refuse it in the name of chanting extra, or even when there is an emergency, we have to deal with the emergency. In Juhu, Prabhupada gave the example [Unintelligible 01:33:45], we can’t say, “Oh, I am too busy chanting Hare Krishna,” [Unintelligible 01:33:53].

Bhurijana Prabhu: [Unintelligible 01:34:05].

Giriraj Swami: Chaitanya dasa?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:34:22].

Giriraj Swami: The turn of the discussion is now going toward balancing [Unintelligible 01:34:50] of the holy names. So, we will join to glorify the holy name, and balance all the. . .

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:35:00].

[Talks by other devotees]