SB 7.9.43–44 – Nrsimha-caturdasi

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Hearing the nectarean descriptions of Prahlada Maharaja and Nṛsiṁhadeva is very purifying and uplifting. When His Holiness Radhanath Swami mentioned Srila Prabhupada, I thought he might be comparing Srila Prabhupada’s mood to that of Prahlada Maharaja, and actually, Srila Prabhupada was very much in the mood of Prahlada.

When Srila Prabhupada was dictating his translation and commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the Seventh Canto about Prahlada Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada’s secretary exclaimed: “Srila Prabhupada, you are just like Prahlada Maharaja.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “You think so?” [laughter] I think we all think so.

Prahlada’s verses, a prayer to Nṛsiṁhadeva, are often quoted by Srila Prabhupada, more often quoted by him. One of them was quoted by Srila Prabhupada in Vyasa-puja offering on the occasion of his spiritual master’s birthday. In that verse, Prahlada Maharaja says, “I am falling in a blind well full of snakes, following the general populace. But my spiritual master Narada Muni saved me. Therefore, my first duty is to serve him. How could I give up his service?”

Prahlada was saying this to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva. He was seeing the Lord face-to-face, but still, he was remembering his spiritual master, who had saved him, saying, “He delivered me, so how could I give up his service?” Srila Prabhupada quoted that verse in the mood of service to his spiritual master. And we follow in the line of Srila Prabhupada also, we are in the same mood; how could we give up his service?

Some other verses that Prahlada spoke to Nṛsiṁhadeva very much exemplify the mood of Srila Prabhupada. In one of them, Prahlada says that generally, saintly persons go to the mountains and perform vows of silence. They are concerned with their own liberation, and they don’t want to be in cities where there are materialistic people or materialistic facilities. And Prahlada says, “I am not like one of those saintly persons. I do not want to be liberated alone, but I’m always thinking of how to deliver these poor fools and rascals and make them happy, because I know that without surrendering unto Your lotus feet, they cannot be happy. I want to bring them to the shelter of Your lotus feet.”

And Srila Prabhupada was very much in that mood. In his purport to these verses, he says, “Therefore, we are opening centers in the busiest places of the world.” And he lists places such as Dallas and Houston out of compassion for the poor fallen souls. Prabhupada says, “Wherever I am, I can chant and hear the glories of the Lord and be happy. So, for myself, I have no unhappiness, but I am unhappy in the unhappiness of others.”

So, Srila Prabhupada engaged us in that mood of service, following in the path of Prahlada Maharaja, and because of his efforts, we are all here today. If Srila Prabhupada hadn’t taken that. . . His spiritual master ordered him to preach the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the English language all over the world. And pursuant to that instruction, Srila Prabhupada boarded the Jaladuta steam ship, cargo carrier, about fifty years ago, fifty years and some months, and came to Boston, to New York, and began the Krishna consciousness movement.

And after spreading Krishna consciousness in America and Europe and different places, Srila Prabhupada returned to India in 1970 with some of his disciples to revive Krishna consciousness there. He said, “People in India want to imitate the Americans.” In India they are very expert in imitating [laughter] “They want to imitate the Americans, so if they see that Americans are taking to Krishna consciousness, then they may imitate that and take to Krishna consciousness themselves.” And it proved to be true, it was quite a phenomenon.

I could tell many stories, but one incident took place in front of the state government building in Bombay, Sachivalaya. So, we were doing hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, and it was a huge building. In every window, there were people looking out. It happened quite frequently when we were chanting on the streets of Bombay, people would weep tears of joy, because for centuries, foreigners came to India and conquered, raided, corrupted, exploited. Here were foreigners who have been transformed, maybe in their minds converted, who took to Hinduism, became Vaishnavas. They literally cried tears of joy.

So, we were chanting in front of the state government building, and finally, one officer from inside approached us and said, “I really appreciate what you are doing, what your Guru Maharaja has done, but I must ask you to move on because the whole government has come to a standstill, and we cannot afford the machinery of the state to come to a standstill.”

So, Srila Prabhupada wanted to bring Krishna consciousness back to India. One disciple asked him, “Your Guru Maharaja ordered you to spread Krishna consciousness in the West. So, why have you come back to India?” Srila Prabhupada replied, “Yes, he wanted me to do that, and I have done it. And now, this is what I want.” And so, after travelling, finally we had the idea. . .

Some of our friends suggested that what the other Swamis do is they have a big pandal program, a tent, an open air pandal program. And so, if you could do that, that would be good. So, that seemed impossible to us, and then, Srila Prabhupada said, “We can do it. It’s like trying to shoot a rhinoceros.” Everyone knows you can’t shoot a rhinoceros. I don’t think that saying came from the days of brahmans, but the idea is that everyone knows you can’t shoot a rhinoceros. So, if you try and fail nobody will blame you, because everyone knows it’s impossible, you can’t do it. But if you are successful, everyone will applaud you because you did the impossible.

So, the devotees organized this pandal, our godbrother Shyamsundar Prabhu was the leader of the effort. It was amazing. The whole city of Bombay knew about this pandal program. He had a balloon at Cross Maidan, balloon on towers above the city, and there were billboards and all sorts of advertising. And finally, everyone knew so much about the festival that he didn’t even have to advertise the venue or the days, but at the end, he got this huge vertical billboard, right in PT Victoria Station, a very prominent location. And all the billboards said was, “Hare Krishna.” It didn’t even have to say anything more because everyone already knew, it was Cross Maidan, it was March 31st to April 12th.

So, every day, at least, I think, 20,000 people would come every day, on the weekend, 30,000 or something, it was a huge success. Srila Prabhupada performed a wedding, a boy from Sweden and a girl from Australia, and Srila Prabhupada said, “This is the real United Nations.” [laughter] Everyone cheered.

But amongst that crowd of almost all Indians, one American seeker was there and Srila Prabhupada sighted him. He was very humbly sitting at the back of the pandal, but Srila Prabhupada sighted him. He sent Gurudas to call him forward to the stage to sit with devotees. And that young man, he felt that Srila Prabhupada was his guru, but he wasn’t completely ready at the time to surrender, he wanted to continue his search.

But eventually, he did find Srila Prabhupada again in Vrindavan, and he surrendered to him. And he is sitting right next to me. [laughter] [applause] And through his efforts, so many more people are becoming Krishna conscious. It’s a continuation of Srila Prabhupada’s merciful activities in the course of which he gained great inspiration from Prahlada Maharaja. And so, we are eternally indebted to Srila Prabhupada by whose mercy we are all here today. Hare Krishna. [applause]

Host: His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja ki jaya! His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja ki jaya!