Talk with Devotees in Durban South Africa

Giriraj Swami: So, what shall we do now? I thought of maybe questions and answers. Do any of you have questions or any good thoughts or good news that you would like to share?

I heard you have a lot of senior devotees visiting Durban right now?

Devotee: Yes, Maharaja!

Giriraj Swami: Who’s there?

Devotee: Bhakti Gauravani Goswami.  [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Oh, yeah.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:01:18].

Giriraj Swami: Is there some event happening, or it’s just a coincidence?

Devotee: Some of it is coincidence. But next week is a three-day event starting with a BBC Africa conference where leaders from all over Africa are coming to participate.

Giriraj Swami: Oh!

Devotee: And the next two days are focused on all the leaders in South Africa getting together and discussing strategies and plans. We also have a new initiated sannyasi, Bhakti Prem Swami, a disciple of Bhakti Charu Swami, a very sweet saintly devotee. [Unintelligible 00:02:06].

And then next week, Bhakti Chaitanya Maharaja, Jaya Advaita Maharaja, Bhaktivinoda Swami, you may remember?

Giriraj Swami: Oh, yes.

Devotee: They’ll be joining us. Bhakti Carudesna Swami – I think he is from the Ivory coast. [Unintelligible].

Giriraj Swami: Oh! Nice.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:02:45].

Giriraj Swami: Well, a lot of opportunities for association, hearing, and serving. That’s nice. Is Pundarik Vidyanidhi there? Or is he mobile enough to be there?

Devotee: He normally is mobile, but today, I think he wasn’t feeling well. We are at the home of Sudama Prabhu.

Giriraj Swami: Yes. What I’m seeing it looks quite spacious. I mean, that’s nice.

Devotee: Future consideration for your accommodation.

Giriraj Swami: All right, that’s nice. Well, if there is nothing else now, I guess I could let you carry on. While we were speaking, the intercom rang from Kalachandji’s quarters, and I never miss his calls, but for you, I did.

Yeah, I was actually feeling quite blissful seeing all of you together, seeing that you are associating, chanting, honoring prasāda, continuing in Krishna consciousness. And I was also thinking of how much Krishna consciousness has developed in Africa because right now, in terms of the Juhu history, I’m working on. . . Oh, it’s Kalachandji again. [laughter]

[Speaks on the phone]

Hare Krishna. Well, yeah, I mean, I could. It actually occurred to me to look in folio. If Prabhupada wrote a letter to that effect, those were Brahmananda Prabhu’s words. Prabhupada said. Well, he said more or less the same thing, I’ll think twice. But I’ll let you know exactly. Yeah, I think this was Juhu Silver Jubilee talk. But I’m looking because he covered some of the same things. Oh no, he didn’t mention that when I did my interview of him in Vrindavan. I mean, he mentioned a lot, but not specifically that Prabhupada put that condition. Yeah, that was in this Silver Jubilee talk. Well, it’s hard to say. I mean, it’s in the Līlāmṛta that Prabhupada asked Brahmananda to arrange to meet the president. But I could look in folio. But there is so much that’s not in folio, but I could take it. If you want to make it, Prabhupada said that rather than. . .

Yeah, but it could even be. . . because some of the communication was done through Prabhupada’s secretaries. I mean, I didn’t go into all the details, but no one was even at the airport to receive Prabhupada. It was a real fiasco. I mean, there were definitely elements of fiasco. It seems that the message that Prabhupada was coming was to have been conveyed by Shyamsundara. Okay, all right. It does sound a little, what to say. I’m also not seeing. I just did a word search for Kenya. Yeah, I’m also not seeing anything. It’s one of those decisions, but it’s a direct quote of Brahmananda, alleged direct quote. Yeah, we do, yeah. All right, okay.

[Speaks to the devotees:]

Yeah, we were just talking about that. The way Brahmananda Prabhu put it was that he had seen the big pandal programs in India. So, he thought if they did a big pandal program in Nairobi, he could get Srila Prabhupada to come. But according to him, Srila Prabhupada didn’t want to be diverted from Juhu. So, he made a condition that he would come only if Brahmananda arranged for him to meet with the president, with Jomo Kenyatta. So, he didn’t. He wasn’t able to arrange that.

But then suddenly, Prabhupada decided to come anyway. The reason wasn’t for the pandal program. The reason was to get Brahmananda to come to Juhu to take charge. So, the way Brahmananda Prabhu described it, the pandal program, it wasn’t really a pandal program, but it was in a stadium because they didn’t have pandals then. He said it was a complete flop. The stadium was far away and the stage wasn’t constructed properly. So, it was half falling down and hardly anyone came. And at the end, Prabhupada said, “Oh, this is very good. You’ve done very nice.”

And then, Brahmananda suspected something’s up. This is not the usual way Prabhupada would respond to such a fiasco. Then, he knew that Prabhupada had another motive for coming. Anyway, it’s a whole history. So, they had a house in Nairobi that was the temple. And one day, Prabhupada walked into Brahmananda’s room and Brahmananda was thinking, What’s happening? I mean, Prabhupada never does this. Why didn’t he call me to his room?

So then, Prabhupada came in and sat down on the bed and started to talk to him, “We got some land near a prominent beautiful beach in Bombay where many people go for walks. And we are going to build there a skyscraper, and a hotel, a temple, and a restaurant, and do so many things. But our Madhudvisa can’t do it. So, I want to ask if you will do it.”

And then Brahmananda Prabhu said that his qualification, his only qualification is that whatever Prabhupada asked him to do, he would say yes. Even if he couldn’t do it, he would say yes. So, he agreed. And then, Prabhupada felt he could go ahead with the project. I guess it was maybe a month later, Brahmananda Prabhu was ready to leave Africa and come to India.

So, it was the time of the Mayapur festival. So, Brahmananda Prabhu went to Mayapur and he met Prabhupada. And Prabhupada said, “What are you doing here?” And Brahmananda said, “Oh, I came to the festival. I came to chant and dance and take prasāda.” And Prabhupada said, “No festival for you. You are supposed to be in Bombay.”

So then, Srila Prabhupada sent Brahmananda Prabhu and Narayana Prabhu to Bombay to clear the land and make a pandal. So, it’s quite a fascinating story. I’m learning quite a bit about the history myself, especially the things that took place before I came to Juhu. Because at that stage, that was the time in Mayapur when Srila Prabhupada said, “During the British rule, they had three provinces: Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. So, which do you want?” So, that was going on with me. And meanwhile, Prabhupada said to Brahmananda, “No festival for you. You are meant to be at Juhu. You go to Juhu right away.”

But then, I ended up there too, about a month later. But yeah, it’s very interesting. I don’t think I’ll put it in a Janmashtami message, they asked for a Janmashtami message for Juhu. I’m so absorbed in this material.

So, there was one lady from Australia named Ambika who was in Juhu, very nice devotee. So, she explained that one year for Janmashtami, they had a play about the birth of Lord Krishna. And it began. It was very simple. There was a table that was supposed to represent the chariot. And then there were two chairs on the table, I guess for Vasudeva and Devaki, and Kamsa was driving the chariot. So, Ambika was playing Devaki, and maybe Jagat Purush was playing Vasudeva. And His Holiness Śrīdhara Swami was playing Kamsa.

So, when he heard the omen from the sky, “The eighth son of Devaki will kill you,” he became so furious. He put down the rein and the way she described, he just went wild. And he upset the table and the chairs fell down. And then he grabbed her by the hair and she was terrified. In real life, she was terrified. She didn’t know what was going to happen. And then afterwards, everyone congratulated her, “Oh, that was such a great job of acting. It was so realistic.”

Well, yeah, this is a wonder of modern technology. We can be so close together as if we are really in the same place. And this particular connection was quite good, the images are good and the audio is good.

[Speaks on the phone]

Hare Krishna. Okay, all right, thank you.

[Speaks to the devotees:]

And you are good, you look good and I’m sure you are good.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:22:22], we’d like to thank you for sacrificing your time to be here with us and it’s so pure that you are just sitting here.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I felt like that and I do feel like that.

Devotee: Thank you very, very much, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: My pleasure. Alright, thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Sri Sri Radha-Radhanath ki jaya! Sri Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra ki jaya! Sri Gaura Hari ki jaya!

Devotee: I would like to say something. [Unintelligible 00:23:25].

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Maharaja, [Unintelligible 00:23:50] Bhakti Tirtha Swami, and this year, my dream came true. And every year, I [Unintelligible 00:24:05] they have an International front Festival. So, this year, I went to the afrinolly.com. People from Nigeria, they are funded by the PORT foundation. And so, I told them that I like to make movies and give them at afrinolly.com. Especially life skills and stuff for Africa. I mean, Prabhupada said since you saw him, Brahmananda Prabhu, he said, “Well, Africa needs free prasādam every day,” but we can’t also steal them.

So, I was thinking it’ll be nice if we can have village programs, cow protection. So, I want to make movies and give it to these Nigerian people, filmmakers. And they can go all over and they can learn so many things. So, my dream has come true.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful. Hare Krishna. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami ki jaya!

So yeah, I don’t want to leave. So, what will you all do now? Oh, it’s already. . . What is it, 09:15 there?

Devotee: We’ll probably have some kirtan and prasādam. [laughter]