Finding My Perfect Master

Giriraj Swami: Last night we spoke about how one insignificant living entity was picked up by Srila Prabhupada, and because I wanted to complete certain topics last night, I had to skip over some incidents that took place. But tonight, I would like to remember some of those other incidents as well, because they are very instructive. So as I mentioned, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Srila Prabhupada would speak in the temple. And Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, he would speak outside, usually at a university but sometimes in other places. So one of the next programs was at the International Students Association, and there Srila Prabhupada gave a beautiful example why there is not peace; why there is always conflict. He said that when a baby is born, the baby thinks only of himself. But as his or her consciousness develops, he thinks of others more. If you give a baby something to eat, he will just put it in his mouth, but when his consciousness expands a little, he thinks of sharing it with his mother or father. And then further expanded with his brothers and sisters, and further expanded with his friends. Then as he matures, with his community members and he may think of sharing with all of the people in his country. And eventually, he might think of sharing with every human being. But Srila Prabhupada made the point that even if we come to the point of wanting to serve all of humankind, still it is not complete; because what about the animals, what about the plants? They are also living entities.

So he gave the example that if you drop a pebble in a pond of water, so many concentric circles will expand from that one point. When we are in the bodily conception of life, that central point begins with the body; my mother, my father, my brothers and sisters, my friends, my community members, my nation, even my species. So I drop a pebble with me as the center; someone else drops a pebble somewhere else with him as the center, and someone else drops a pebble somewhere else with him as the center. Those waves that are expanding overlap and conflict with each other. My service to my family conflicts with your service to your family. My service to my community conflicts with your service to your community. My service to my nation conflicts with your service to your nation. And even my efforts to serve humanity may come in conflict with efforts to serve the animals or protect the animals; serve the plants or protect the environment. And Srila Prabhupada said, “The only way that there will be an end to conflict, is if all the pebbles are dropped in the same central point; then there will be no overlapping or conflict at that central point. So this is a beautiful example and a beautiful philosophy. That is what I experienced at the time. But now, so many years later, I have the same thoughts but I have a further realization, which is that Srila Prabhupada exemplified what he taught us. He actually was concerned with every living entity, and because he kept the central point as Krishna, and because every living entity is part and parcel of Krishna, his care for Krishna included caring for every living entity. And we are seeing the result of his care for every living entity right here.

Now, I am going to tell a little story from much later in my life, which is not meant to say anything about Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan or anything. It is more about my own ignorance. But even more than that, it is about Srila Prabhupada’s mercy. So one year, after having served Srila Prabhupada in India for many years, I went to visit my mother and father in Chicago. And it was a little awkward because we didn’t have that much to talk about. I wasn’t that interested in the stock market and my father wasn’t that interested in Krishna consciousness. But I had come all the way from India and we had to spend some time together, so we thought that we will watch something on the Educational Television Network. And the program happened to be about a professor in America, whose life’s ambition was to visit Uzbekistan. And in those days, it appears that there was no airport there. So the program showed how towards the end of his career as a professor, he got a car and he was going over land to Uzbekistan. And he even put personalized license plates on his car that said “Tashkent” and I don’t remember all the details, but it was quite a moving story about how after his retirement he was traveling over land and then he got very ill. Maybe he had cancer, some fatal illness, and I don’t even remember if he made it. But I remember thinking, “Uzbekistan, I never even heard of that place; Tashkent, what is that?” So I guess it is pretty ignorant. And that was it. That was it for Central Asia.

Then I read, I guess it was maybe in Diary of a Traveling Preacher by Indradyumna Swami, that he had come to Kazakhstan and spent some time with Govinda Maharaja, and they were preaching to Muslims and the Muslims were actually responding and coming forward, and wanting to become Krishna conscious and support the mission. I was very inspired, very intrigued. And then I thought Kazakhstan, I wonder where that is. So this little story is meant to explain how ignorant I am, but more than that, how merciful Srila Prabhupada was and is, that he has inspired his disciples to go all over the world to bring the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Krishna consciousness. And because the central point is Krishna, we all have a natural relationship with each other. I saw many of you for the first time last night but there is an immediate bond, on the basis of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna consciousness.

When I first arrived at the airport, I was struck by how friendly everyone is. Of course I had a VIP reception, so I guess they are supposed to be friendly and helpful and courteous, and from different ethnic backgrounds, some seem like more oriental features, some had more. . . and outside the VIP lounge it was all devotees and I thought, Why! The people here are really nice. They come from all different kinds of backgrounds but they are all so nice. So with that mood I went for my walk yesterday, and well we were, I wouldn’t say we were lost but I would say we didn’t know where we were going. And we wanted to approach a few people to try to get some help. They weren’t all that friendly, so then I thought, it is not that the people are friendly and helpful, but it is the people plus Krishna consciousness that makes them friendly and helpful. But before Srila Prabhupada’s disciples came here, who was Krishna conscious here? We are more or less the same as all the other people, but Srila Prabhupada saw that everyone has the potential to become Krishna conscious. Therefore, he went all over the world, as far as he could, and he inspired his disciples to go everywhere. And now they are in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and people are becoming devotees. In fact, Srila Prabhupada said there are devotees everywhere, we just have to find them.

So that was the example that Srila Prabhupada gave in that talk at the International Students Association, and now I am thinking and seeing how Srila Prabhupada exemplified what he said and how what he said is coming true right here. So many people from so many different places and cultures living in harmony with Krishna as the central point. Then after the lecture, an Indian man, paraphrasing his understanding of the verse, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham, saying that everyone follows Krishna’s path, and then he added to that, and in the end, everyone will go to Krishna. He was trying to say that we don’t have to really accept any teachings, because whatever we do we will ultimately go to Krishna; and Srila Prabhupada said no. If everyone was going to Krishna anyway, what was the need for Krishna to speak the Bhagavad-gītā? It requires teaching and learning and following.

So like that, every night there was some program but one night something very special happened by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy. We went for a program to, I believe, Boston College but it might have been Northeastern. There was a medium-sized classroom, and Srila Prabhupada was sitting at the front on a dais and there was an open space, and then there were chairs on which the students and some of the faculty were sitting. And after the talk and questions and answers, there was kirtan. And again, the devotees would dance in a circle in front of Srila Prabhupada. So as we were chanting and dancing, I started feeling an overwhelming sense of love for everyone in that room. As I was dancing in the circle, I would look at the people in the room and I would just feel so much love for them. And then that feeling of love went beyond the walls of the university. I just felt a sense of love for everyone outside in the neighborhood, in the whole area. And then it spread even further across the United States, across the Pacific Ocean, throughout the universe. And I felt a great sense of oneness with everyone. But still, of course we are all individuals, and I was so overwhelmed by this experience that after the kirtan, I went up to Srila Prabhupada. And other than raising my hand and asking questions, I had never really approached Srila Prabhupada, but I was so overwhelmed I just went up to him. And as I got close to him, I felt I was entering a spiritual aura, some special energy field that was coming from him. And I just came very close to him and I said, well in those days we called him Swamiji, I said, “Swamiji, this chanting is wonderful.” And he looked towards me and his face broke into this huge smile; it was just like an ocean and he began chuckling. He wasn’t making much sound, but his whole chest was heaving, and I knew he wasn’t laughing at me. I knew he was chuckling in ecstasy. He just looked at me and smiled. He was beaming and he said simply, “Thank you very much.”

So I think this is one of the greatest gifts that Srila Prabhupada gave us; the holy name. And then I started chanting japa, and one night in the basement of the store front I had another experience. There is a beautiful picture of Krishna standing in the moonlight; it is called “Murli Manohara”. It is one of Bhurijana Prabhu’s favorite pictures, and it is on the cover of Unveiling His Lotus Feet. So I had heard that we should begin our meditation on the Lord from the lotus feet, but not even from the lotus feet, but from the toes of the lotus feet. And I thought, well it should be the tips of the lotus toes. So I was sitting there chanting japa, looking at the tip of one of Krishna’s toes, right where the toenail ends. And I really don’t know what was going on, but that little molecule of Krishna’s lotus foot was extremely fascinating. I just kept looking at the tip of His lotus toe and it was just endlessly fascinating; it was like there were worlds of experience in that little molecule of His lotus toenail. I was chanting, chanting, and chanting, and looking at that little molecule. And then I thought at this rate, I don’t even know when I am going to get past the toenail. But I figured well, let us just keep doing it and not worry about it. There is great potency in the holy name.

Of course, I also had other ideas from before I joined, being influenced by the hippie culture and the psychedelic scene. So the first night at the temple when I concluded everything about Krishna consciousness was perfect, one thing I saw was that they had a Hare Krishna maha-mantra sign and the letters were in English but they had a little Sanskrit type of appearance, and the letters were dissolving. It is like they would unform and then they would reform, and I thought Wow! this is really special; this is really powerful. So like that I was having some experiences on the side, and then one day when we were taking prasāda one of the devotees mentioned how another devotee had told Srila Prabhupada that when he chanted Hare Krishna, he saw different colored lights. But then the devotees said that Prabhupada had replied, “Don’t worry, keep chanting and it will go away.” So then I thought, Oh well, maybe this isn’t really the goal. Eventually that time came when Srila Prabhupada left and that evening or afternoon, the devotees gathered together to take prasāda. And there were a lot of devotees because when Prabhupada was there devotees came from other places; Montreal, New York, a lot of devotees. And one devotee came with a glass jar with dahl in it, and said that the dahl was Srila Prabhupada’s remnants. Everyone became completely enlivened and excited. They wanted some of that mahā-mahā-prasāda. So as the devotee was going down the rows of eaters, she came to me and she said that from the material point of view this dahl has gone off, but if you want you can try some. I saw how everyone else was experiencing it, so I thought, All right, I will try it. So she gave me some of the dahl and when I put it in my mouth the first sensation was, Oh it is gone off, it is spoiled. But then after a moment or two, I went past that sensation and I experienced this most sublime nectar. I can’t even explain what I experienced; I had never tasted such nectar. We were trained in the university to be scientific and to make observations and come to conclusions independently. So we were testing all these different items of Krishna consciousness to see what was the experience, and the experiences were extraordinary.

Another thing I noticed after Srila Prabhupada left, because I started to spend more time with the devotees, is that they would offer the food to the deities, Radha-Krishna, and then they would distribute the food from the deities’ plate as mahā-prasāda. And even though the food was the same, it came from the same pot as the rest of the food that the devotees were eating, but the food that came from the deities’ plate tasted different, tasted a little sweeter. So one day when we were all taking prasāda together, one devotee said to Satsvarupa who was the temple president, “You know, the prasāda that comes from the deities’ plate, it tastes like it had sugar sprinkled over it. Did you ever notice that?” He said, “Yes, I noticed the same thing.” So then I thought it wasn’t just my mind or my imagination, but it was real. So Krishna consciousness can be experienced. And many devotees have commented that when they first joined, they had more extraordinary experiences than later. So the question is, why? Why did we have those experiences when we first joined and why not so much now? But one answer is that when a devotee first comes to Krishna consciousness, Krishna gives him special mercy so he knows what Krishna consciousness really is. And that encourages him to continue.

There is an incident described in the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in which Narada, in his meditation, sees the Lord in his heart and he is overwhelmed with ecstasy. And then the next day he sits down and he thinks, “I am going to do the exact same thing and again the Lord will appear.” But he did everything the same but still the Lord didn’t appear. So he became very anxious. Why is the Lord not appearing? And then he heard the voice of the Lord and the Lord said, “I regret that you will not see me again because you are not mature in your devotional service.” And then Narada Muni was filled with feelings of separation from the Lord. Feelings of separation from the Lord gave great impetus to him in his devotional practices. So the Lord does give special mercy in the beginning. But another thing is that in the beginning, we pretty much are offenseless. I know when I joined, I thought that everyone in the temple was a pure devotee. And I spoke to other devotees of my generation; they said the same thing. But then after a while we start to see their human tendencies and then we think, Oh, they are not pure devotee. And then we see that one has that fault, and that one is that fault, and this one has this fault. And in a subtle way, we begin to commit offenses, and because we commit offenses, we don’t get the same experience from chanting the holy name and engaging in the other practices. But there is hope that after the stage of becoming aware of the devotees’ weaknesses, there is another stage where you are aware that on the human level, they may have human tendencies but their real essence, their internal nature is, they are pure devotees. What is really prominent in their hearts is their desire to serve guru and Krishna. And when we see them in their true spiritual essence and appreciate them as devotees, then we don’t commit offenses and we can relish the practices of Krishna consciousness the way we did in the beginning when we first joined.

I will just have to give the example of His Holiness Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami Maharaja. Before coming here, I spent five or six days in Vrindavan. And while I was there, I met many nice devotees and they had always been nice, but I just hadn’t realized how nice they were before. So one after the other, I was mentioning them to Govinda Maharaja, and in every case, Govinda Maharaja said what a nice devotee that person was, and he started to glorify each devotee. I thought, Wow! He knows how nice they are. His vision isn’t clouded or contaminated. And I was thinking, Boy, it would be so nice to see everyone like that all the time. So that is one of the reasons I like to be with Govinda Maharaja all the time. Because he sees the spiritual essence of everyone. So now I am feeling like when I first joined. I am seeing everyone as a pure devotee. But I think you probably are pure devotees, or by associating with these. . .

Oh my gosh, I didn’t know you were back.

Devotee: (Unintelligible 00:30:26)

Giriraj Swami: No, I was wondering why I was suddenly speaking about pure devotees. Yes, wow!

Well, that is the effect of the association with pure devotees. Your consciousness is elevated and you see the other devotees in their true spiritual essence; as devotees of Krishna. And in the association of advanced devotees, all the practices of Krishna consciousness are heightened, they become vivid, they come to life. When Govinda Maharaja took me close to the deities before the class, I was seeing things on the altar that I didn’t see before. The deities were just so gorgeous, especially Giri-Govardhana; I never saw such a beautiful Giri-Govardhana. And Vrinda devi is also beautiful and so merciful, and I actually could feel that she was merciful to all living entities; and Nṛsiṁhadeva and Varahadeva, so powerful. Govinda Maharaja said he believes that the reason we are here on this land now, still, is because of Them. So Govinda Maharaja has a very personal relationship with the deities. And coming close to him, we also see the deities are alive; they are persons and of course he has very personal relationships with all the devotees. So this type of association gives us the heightened experience of Krishna consciousness. And there was another incident with Govinda Maharaja; I hope I am not embarrassing him too much.

Devotee: I am so proud, it is hard to bear.

Giriraj Swami: But the specific reason I was in Vrindavan, was to open a hospice for devotees. A hospice is a place where people who have terminal illnesses can come and spend their last days, or weeks, or months. And the hospice staff; the doctors, the nurses, the volunteers, they help the person to have the best quality of life that the person can have. But the patient and the hospice staff are in the mood that the illness will ultimately lead to death. Suppose the person has cancer; they are not trying to cure the cancer in the hopes that the patient will live. Of course, in the beginning we always do try but there may come a stage where we realize we are not able to beat the cancer, so we accept that in due course we will leave our bodies from the cancer. But still, we want the patient to have the best quality of life. So the patient may take some treatment to reduce the tumor, just so that the patient can be more comfortable. The cancer has already spread; we can’t stop the spread of the cancer, but we can reduce the size of the tumor so that the patient can breathe easier, swallow easier, speak easier, whatever it is. And ultimately, we want to help the patient think of Krishna at the time of death. So for devotees, quality of life really means being able to chant and hear about Krishna, remember Krishna, and have loving exchanges with friends and families, especially devotee friends.

So the idea of this hospice came from a lady named Arca Vigraha devi dasi, and it just so happened that Mother Arca Vigraha bought some land and built a house in Vrindavan that ended up being right next to the plot that Sivarama Swami bought, where he built a house where he and Govinda Maharaja stay. So Mother Arca Vigraha built the house when she was healthy but soon thereafter, she discovered that she had cancer. And so she settled up her affairs in Johannesburg and moved to Vrindavan. And Govinda Maharaja would take such good care of her as her next-door neighbor. He would bring his Giriraj śilā after he did his puja. Sometimes he would bring his Gaura-Nitai deities after he worshiped Them. Actually, I could write a whole book about Govinda Maharaja’s service to Mother Arca Vigraha, but he took such good care of her. And not only of her, but of the devotees who were staying with her and caring for her. It was a very intense experience to take care of a dying person, so he took care of them also. And in his own way, he took care of me by coming out every morning and saying, “Bol Giriraj Maharaja ki jaya!” Keeping me in good spirits like he keeps everyone in good spirits, except some of the local politicians. But one day, if they are fortunate enough, they will also realize his greatness. 

So there are so many pastimes, if you will, that took place then. But I was leading up to a specific point that I should mention. So Mother Arca Vigraha, she loved Vrindavan, and right next to her house is a little goshala that some sadhu has and she could look out her window and see the cows and hear the cows mooing. And that particular area had trees and it was like a sanctuary for birds. And every morning and evening the trees would be full of peacocks, singing their peacock songs; and there were a lot of green parrots everywhere, singing their songs; and of course, the monkeys. But as Srila Prabhupada writes in one purport, “One might think that the monkeys in Vrindavan are envious but actually they are not.”

So Mother Arca Vigraha had the desire that other devotees should have the same opportunity that she had, to spend her last days in Vrindavan and leave her body in Vrindavan. She didn’t use the word hospice, I actually wasn’t familiar with the word hospice before then, but she used the phrase “Back to Godhead Clinic” and Govinda Maharaja and I, we took her request very seriously and we made plans to fulfill her desire. But as Maharaja mentioned last night, he ended up on the other side of the Himalayas and I ended up on the other side of the ocean; but still we kept up the effort, and last week the hospice opened. And after it opened, again, so many things became apparent that were not seen before. I won’t go into all of them, but one thing that has come to mind is that the parents of devotees who have some sympathy for Krishna consciousness can go there. Yesterday I got a letter from our godsister, Daivi Shakti, saying that her mother is ninety-five years old, in Philadelphia, and she is a nice devotee, and when I go there I should invite her to come to Vrindavan. I should invite her to come to Vrindavan and tell her that we can take care of her medically in Vrindavan.

So some of the devotees’ parents, although at first, they might have been a little inimical, but they are gradually coming to appreciate Krishna consciousness. And as their children mature in Krishna consciousness, we are also able to deal better with them. Maharaja, can I tell them about your mother at [Unintelligible 00:40:56]? Just maybe two weeks ago, Govinda Maharaja was in America and visited his mother there. And one evening he had a program at a big yoga place in Nashville, Tennessee and his mother came and she was very impressed. And afterwards she told Maharaja, I don’t know how you will translate this but she said, “Honey buns,” we need a colloquial translation here not a literal one. Because his father and mother they were in the music industry, and they are the first ones to discover Elvis Presley and others; make them famous. So Maharaja’s mother said, “Honey buns, we have always dealt with stars, we dealt with Elvis and Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis; we have always dealt with stars, but I didn’t know that I have a star in my own family.” And she also said, “Honey, if I didn’t have arthritis in these joints, I would have been up there dancing with the rest of them.” And Maharaja in his talk, addressed the audience that, “I am a sannyasi. I have been a monk for twenty years or more, but I have a confession to make to all of you. There is a lady in this room that I have loved for a long time.” So, everyone is just waiting to hear the revelation and then he introduced his mother.

Srila Govinda Maharaja ki jaya! 
Srila Niranjana Swami Maharaja Ki Jaya!
Bhakti Vidya Purna Maharaja Ki Jaya!
Gaura Bhakta Vrinda Ki Jaya! 

So the older generation, not us of course, means our parents, they could actually leave their bodies in Krishna consciousness. And if they happen to want to come to Vrindavan, we do have the facility there, otherwise the medical care in Vrindavan hasn’t been so good. But now at the Bhaktivedanta Hospice, you can get the best of both worlds. The sublime atmosphere of Vrindavan which is the spiritual world, and expert care by devotees; medically, emotionally, and spiritually. So of course, the idea began with Mother Arca Vigraha, but Govinda Maharaja really took up the idea very seriously. So I think Krishna tricked me here, because I wanted to say just a few sentences about how being close to a sadhu can enhance your experience of Krishna consciousness, but to get to those few sentences I had to give some background.

Now this topic of death, some people don’t like to think about it; most of us don’t. I also don’t sometimes, but actually from the spiritual point of view, death doesn’t even exist. The only thing that happens is that the soul leaves one body and enters another one. But that is not such a happy thought unless one takes birth as a devotee. Or, the soul can leave the body and go back home back to Godhead which is a very happy thought. And it has actually been found that people who talk about death, are less afraid of death and live longer. I came across a magazine that happened to have an article about. . .but anyway that is not really the point. The point is that by talking about it openly, you become more comfortable with the thought of it and you can prepare yourself for it, and you can deal with it better. Anyway, these bodies are just dresses.

Now I think I am ready to come to the point that I was leading up to. Eventually it did happen that Mother Arca Vigraha left her body. It was in May, and a lot of the senior devotees who were spending time with her earlier had to leave because the Gaura-purnima festival was over and they had to go to their different places, but Govinda Maharaja and Bhurijana Prabhu and I, stayed. We were determined to stay with her until the end. And she left; in a glorious way. Govinda Maharaja’s Giriraj and Gaura-Nitai were there, and there was a tape of Prabhupada chanting japa. And I was also by her bedside chanting japa and there were two or three other devotees chanting. That was in the morning; and then in the evening we took her body to the burning place by the Yamuna River; and usually the eldest son lights the fire. I think people thought I would, but we were so much in it together I thought all three of us, Govinda Maharaja, Bhurijana Prabhu and I, lit the fire, and afterwards we all went into the Yamuna River to take bath; to purify ourselves. It was evening, the sun was setting, and it was time for us to do our evening Gayatri. So we put on our gamchās and waded into the water and we were doing our Gayatri.

Now being with someone who is leaving his or her body can also heighten your experience of Krishna consciousness, because you enter into a very sacred realm somehow. So her departure, feeling separation, feeling ecstasy, and so many devotees and chanting the holy name. So when I was doing my Gayatri mantra it was like I was able to enter into the mantra, into each word of the mantra more deeply than I can remember having entered. So my eyes were closed and I was entering deeply into the mantra and suddenly when I had maybe one and a half lines left, that whole meditative mood broke and I thought, What has happened, what’s going wrong? And I tried to get it back but I couldn’t. Then I opened my eyes and I saw Govinda Maharaja was walking out of the water, and I realized that that experience was due to being near Govinda Maharaja in the Yamuna River while he was doing his Gayatri. And as soon as he left, that whole meditation was broken. So from that, I learned how important it is to stay close to Govinda Maharaja. So that is the more particular lesson; the more general lesson that by being close to more advanced devotees, one’s experience of one’s spiritual practices is enhanced. So again, we are back to the point that Krishna is blessing all of us by the association of advanced devotees here. But it is also something that we should appreciate and not take for granted. Anyway, I just got an idea for my next talk, so I think we will continue tomorrow.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:53:27]

Giriraj Swami: I guess since we have a few more minutes, I just made that up. Since you have a few more minutes I will tell one more, little story.

As you know, Govinda Maharaja’s parents, they were like the first to put Elvis on the radio, which was the beginning of Elvis’ career. And sometimes when Maharaja’s parents would go out, they would ask Elvis to come and babysit for Maharaja. So as a little boy, Elvis was his babysitter and they would play together. And once, Elvis took Maharaja to the county fair, the state fair, and there was a game where there were balloons.

Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami: Throwing baseballs at milk bottles.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, milk bottles; oh that is a Tennessee version. So they had milk bottles and if you paid a certain amount of money, they would give you these baseballs and you would throw the baseballs at the milk bottles and if you hit the milk bottles you would win a prize. So Elvis, he paid the money and took the baseballs and was hitting the milk bottle and he won a prize and he wanted to get something nice to give to Maharaja, so he got a teddy bear, which he gave to His Holiness Bhakti Bringa Govinda Maharaja.

Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami: The unique point was this; he threw the baseball and he hit the milk bottles. So he asked what I wanted. And I said a teddy bear. So the guy had this little teddy bear and he had all these big teddy bears. So the guy gave Elvis the little teddy bear and he said “No, I want the big teddy bear.” The guy says, “You can’t have the big teddy bear.” He says, “I want the big teddy bear.” The guy says, “You can’t have it.” So then Elvis grabbed the guy. . . [Unintelligible 00:56:41] Then he took the big teddy bear.

Unfortunately, I don’t have it because if I did, I could sell it and then I could build a big temple in every country (Unintelligible 00:57:05) 

Giriraj Swami: So later. . . No, I am not going to talk anymore about Elvis. There is more; but I will just tell a little how Elvis made spiritual advancement by Govinda Maharaja’s presence in his life. For a while Elvis wasn’t performing and then after some time he re-emerged and began to do live performances again. So at the first performance, Maharaja’s father was there and afterwards Elvis greeted him, because his father was the one who gave him the start, and he asked Maharaja’s father about Maharaja; what was Maharaja doing. And his father said he has become a Hare Krishna devotee. And Elvis said, “Oh, he has become a Hare Krishna devotee, that is nice.” So Elvis got two credits; he chanted the holy name and he appreciated a devotee. So that was just leading up to what I wanted to say. What I wanted to say is that years later when Maharaja was preaching, a new person came forward to join Krishna consciousness and after he heard about Maharaja’s history with Elvis he said, “I cannot believe it; I am meeting a person who knew the two greatest people of the century, Elvis Presley and Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Well, I would say that is a compliment to Elvis, but last night during the wonderful kirtan, I thought of what that person had said. That Maharaja has some musical ability which might have been encouraged by his association with Elvis and other stars, but he was using it as a medium for presenting the holy names, which he got from Srila Prabhupada. So that musical background has found perfection in the glorification of the holy name by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada.

Hare Krishna