The Juhu Story

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Hare Krishna everyone. Welcome to our Wisdom the nectar from senior devotee experience with Srila Prabhupada. Today we have very special guest His Holiness, Giriraj Swami Maharaja. Giriraj swami Maharaja ki jaya. Maharaja, I have not language to express my how great I am that I get you and please accept my humble obeisance to your lotus feet, all glories to Srila Prabhupada. And today we are going to just little biography of Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami Maharaja born Glenn Phillip Teton. The only son of respected Chicago lawyer who was later appointed judge. His Holiness, Giriraj Swami Maharaja met His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, founder-acharya of International Society for Krishna Consciousness early 1969, if I’m not wrong. While studying at a prestigious university in Boston yet he considered that he learned more from Srila Prabhupada in five minutes than in his twenty years academically study. His Holiness took formal initiation from Srila Prabhupada and was given spiritual name Giriraj dasa.

Giriraj dasa quickly become a leader member in the Boston center and reorganization and appreciation of his service. He was given the opportunity to go to India with Srila Prabhupada to help begin the mission there. In 1972, he [unintelligible 00:02:26] India with Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada appointed him as temple president of ISKCON Mumbai, as well as, trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. At that time, Srila Prabhupada and his disciples had to [unintelligible 00:02:50] tremendous obstacle to acquire the Hare Krishna Land in Juhu, Mumbai and build a beautiful temple for Sri Sri Radha and Krishna. He become renowned for the austerity, he accept, and for his royalty and dedication to Srila Prabhupada mission in Mumbai, as well as, for his ability to cultivate important members of society and rise fund for the project.

In 1982, he was made a member of ISKCON government body council, the ultimate managing authority for the movement. Giriraj Swami went on to oversee the society activities in Mumbai, Mauritius, South Africa, Spain, Portuguese, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. His Holiness, Giriraj Swami Maharaja has toured extensively through India and other country helping to develop Srila Prabhupada mission. He has also taught at Bosnia Institute for Higher Education in Vrindavan.

A frequent contribute to Back to Godhead magazine and other journal. Giriraj Swami Maharaja is well known for his speaking and writing ability. Although, health consideration have obliged Giriraj Swami to reduce his travel. He has taken his opportunity to focus on Srila Prabhupada instructions to him to write.

He is now based in south California. His famous books are Watering the Seed, Many Moons, Life’s Final Exam: Death and Dying From the Vedic Perspective. His new book coming soon, I’ll Build You a Temple: The Juhu Story. I just happy to introduce little bit share for that.

Giriraj Swami (video clip): In august 1965, a few weeks before Srila Prabhupada left India for America, he walked past a four-acre plot of land in Juhu, Bombay and thought it would be a good location for a Radha-Krishna Temple. Six years later when he returned to Bombay after successfully introducing Krishna consciousness in the west, a local businessman offered to sell him the same piece of land for a reasonable price. Srila Prabhupada entered an agreement for purchasing the land but the seemingly straightforward transaction soon turned into a formidable challenge demanding unimaginable amounts of sacrifice and perseverance from Srila Prabhupada and the devotees. But because Srila Prabhupada had promised Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari to build Them a temple, he did not stop till he fulfilled his commitment.

Srila Prabhupada struggled to build a temple and establish Hare Krishna Land in Juhu was perhaps the greatest effort of his preaching movement. After he returned to India in august 1970, he spent five hundred and fifty-four days in Bombay more than anywhere else in the world. The project took six years from 1972, when he took possession of the land, to 1978, when the temple opened. After the conveyance was signed, Srila Prabhupada triumphantly leaned back behind his desk and declared, “It was a good fight. Someone should write a book about it.”

Radhanath Swami (Video clip): One of the most important books about Srila Prabhupada and his līlā, of years of heart break and struggle in Juhu, Mumbai; no one else can write this book like His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja, because he was there from the beginning to the combination.

Giriraj Swami (Video clip): I served in Juhu as temple president and later as governing body commissioner from 1972 - 1999, raising funds and overseeing every aspect of the project. The only devotee to be closely involved throughout that entire period, and Srila Prabhupada had already told me in 1971, “You should write. This is your first business,” and repeated this instruction over the years. So despite my limitations and disqualifications, but with the encouragement and assistance of many well-wishers, I took up writing about Srila Prabhupada in Juhu.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: This is wonderful Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Thank you.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yeah. So, today topic is the experience with Srila Prabhupada and the Juhu story. Juhu story is considered as per I experienced that it is small Mahābhārata-fighting with devotee and non-devotee.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: So we can know more about this. What is experiences of Srila Prabhupada from Maharaja. So again, thank you so much for your kind presence. It is my honor and gratitude too and everyone please stay with us. Thank you so much. So first of all Maharaja talking about Srila Prabhupada experience and Juhu story then later on twenty minutes we just question and answer.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Thank you so much. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. So I’ll start with singing the maṅgala-ācaraṇa prayers and leading a short kirtan and then we will just speak about the Juhu story. [Prayers 00:10:30-00:24:08]

So I will be back in a minute and then I will start to speak about the Juhu story.

Giriraj Swami (Video clip):. . .India for America, he walked past a four acre plot of land in Juhu, Bombay and thought it would be a good location for Radha-Krishna Temple. Six years later when he returned to Bombay after successfully introducing Krishna consciousness in the west, a local businessman offered to sell him the same piece of land for a reasonable price. Srila Prabhupada entered an agreement for purchasing the land but the seemingly straightforward transaction soon turned into a formidable challenge demanding unimaginable amounts of sacrifice and perseverance from Srila Prabhupada and the devotees. But because Srila Prabhupada had promised Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari to build that Temple he did not stop till he fulfilled his commitment.

Srila Prabhupada struggled to build the Temple and establish Hare Krishna Land in Juhu was perhaps the greatest effort of his preaching movement. After he returned to India in august 1970, he spent 554 days in Bombay more than anywhere else in the world. The project took six years from 1972, when he took possession of the land, to 1978, when the temple opened. After the conveyance was signed, Srila Prabhupada triumphantly leaned back behind his desk and declared, “It was a good fight.” Someone should write a book about it.

Radhanath Swami (Video clip): One of the most important books about Srila Prabhupada and his līlā of years of heartbroken struggle in Juhu, Mumbai, no one else can write this book like His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja because he was there from the beginning to the combination.

Giriraj Swami (Video clip): I served in Juhu as Temple president and later as governing body commissioner from 1972 - 1999, raising funds and overseeing every aspect of the project. The only devotee to be closely involved throughout that entire period and Srila Prabhupada had already told me in 1971, “you should write this is your first business” and repeated this instruction over the years. So despite my limitations and disqualifications but with the encouragement and assistance of many well-wishers, I took up writing about Srila Prabhupada.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Thank you Maharaja. You can start right now.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. So, as you have gotten an idea, or as Sacipran himself said, a Mahābhārata, and of course to tell the whole story would take days.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: The book itself is eight hundred pages long. But I will focus on two parts that are very interesting and instructive. So at one point in this battle, you would say, Mrs. Nair who is the wife of Mr. Nair, who was a big demon. I gave a talk about this in Los Angeles and afterwards my godbrother Virabahu Prabhu commented that he doesn’t usually like it when devotees call people demons, but after hearing this story, this history, he had to agree actually they were demons. So after Mr. Nair died, that’s another story, Mrs. Nair collected some life insurance and it said that she used that money to bribe the municipality and the police, and she arranged for the temple to be demolished, the small temple, that we had.

Almost completely demolished, but fortunately the whole demolition was halted through the intervention of a very influential political leader in Bombay called Bal Thackeray of the Shiv Sena political party. So, the demolition was halted just before the demolition crew got to the Deities room. They just removed one little piece of the roofing and then it was stopped.

So thereafter, we were working with our life members and supporters to get permission from the municipal corporation to rebuild the temple structure and in the meantime Mrs. Nair and her lawyers were busy trying to prevent us. So we continued to hold meetings with our friends and life members discussing how to proceed. At one of these meetings at Sadajiwatlal’s office, one of our friends pointed out that we might not actually need permission after all. We had already been approved to build the temple in the first place.

The municipal commissioner had agreed to extend the temple’s permit and the municipality didn’t have any valid grounds for its demolition. So although we hadn’t specifically been given permission to rebuild, there was no ruling that said we couldn’t, nothing to stop us from just restoring it. Somehow, Mrs. Nair found out what we were planning to do and the next day, Friday, she went to the high court with a petition for an injunction to prevent us from rebuilding it. But the judge refused saying that he would not give any injunction until he heard our side. “Just give us a temporary injunction for the weekend, then you can decide on the permanent injunction,” this is Nair’s appeal, but her request was denied. “No,” Justice Nain responded. “Without hearing the other side, I will not pass any judgment.”

When we heard of Mrs. Nair’s petition and the judge’s response, we knew we had to take advantage of the opportunity. If the judge ruled against us, we would be prohibited from going ahead with the re-construction. But once the temple was up we understood an injunction, even if it were granted, would be meaningless. The temple would already be in place and no rebuilding would be necessary. We figured we had the weekend, until Monday morning, to put up the structure.

We managed to get the construction materials which were quite hard in those days, especially cement which was under quota and it just so happened that Mr. Sethi, in the little video you saw, Mr. Sethi was there in the demolished temple overseeing the region. So, Mr. Sethi was a building contractor and although he was in poor health he declared, “No matter whether laborers are available or not, I will rebuild this temple and I will do the labor work myself.”

As it turned out, he was able to bring plenty of laborers and also supplies from his own construction sites. “I got the material from Andheri East, where my work was going on,” he later recounted, “bricks, sand, and cement.” In the course of the day, Mrs. Nair, Mhatre, who was an ally of Mrs. Nair and one of the demons who was really working against us and Mrs. Nair’s solicitor Bachu Bhai shah, all came to the site. “You can’t do this,” they shouted demanding we stopped.

Bachu Bhai shah, the son of Chiman Lal Shah, came to serve me with what I presume to be a notice in joining me, that means, stopping me from rebuilding the temple and threatening me with consequences if I did. But when I saw him, I ran away as fast as I could and he came running after me as fast as he could, in his suit and tie. And I thought the respectable solicitor Bachu Bhai shah is running after me like a child in a playground. Where is his dignity? He couldn’t catch me and when I looked back, from a safe distance, I saw him looking frustrated, leave the letter with someone else who just happened to be there, with no proof that I had received the notice or ever would.

Mhatre too demanded that we halt the construction and Mr. Sethi, as you’ll find out soon,, had a real kshatriya spirit and he was a Punjabi and he had real kshatriya spirit. So Mhatre too demanded that we halt the construction. “No,” Mr Sethi replied, “why should we stop?” “You can build it up,” Mhatre threatened, “but I will come in the night with fifty guṇḍās, [hooligans] and break it down.” Mr. Sethi turned to his son who was by his side and said, “Brij Mohan, bring my revolver and my rifle.” Then he said to Mhatre, “Don’t bring fifty guṇḍās. Bring a hundred. Bring two hundred. I have two hundred and fifty cartridges. You will have to bring at least two hundred and fifty—one.” He had a kshatriya side and he was staunch.

Later, Maithili dasi who was one of the heroes of this event, said, “They didn’t count,” means the enemies. “They didn’t count on the amazing heroism and bravery of my personal hero Mr. P.L. Sethi.”

As Brij Mohan Sethi remembered, “So, with the revolver in my hand and the rifle in daddy’s hand we started the work. We could do this not because of something in us, but because of the blessings of Prabhupada. Only with his blessings and mercy could we start the construction. The entire night it was raining cats and dogs, (means raining very heavily) but we never stopped the work. It went on.”

As the rain fell, Mr. Sethi recalled how, by lifting Govardhana Hill, Lord Krishna had protected the inhabitants of Vrindavan from the devastating rainfall sent by Indra. He was unperturbed. “Indra wants to test me,” he thought, “Alright, if you want to come down, you can come down more heavily, but I have the blessings of Srila Prabhupada. I have to rebuild the temple and I will.” I was overseeing the rebuilding and Tamal Krishna told me, “I want you to stay up all night and make sure the work is done. People will be working all night long and guṇḍās may come to attack. I want you to stay up and make sure that the work keeps going and that nothing goes wrong.”

A few days earlier, Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, my first temple president by whom I was greatly inspired, had passed through Bombay. I appreciated his humble and gentle demeanor and I wanted to emulate him. When Tamal Krishna told me to stay up all night and oversee the work, I mentioned how I wanted to be like Satsvarupa Maharaja, a simple humble sadhu. Tamal Krishna looked me straight in the eyes and with a firm intensity and controlled anger, he responded, “Your humility will be to stay up all night and make sure this temple gets rebuilt.”

I thought about it and I had to agree; where was the humility if I was not ready to surrender to the order or desire of the spiritual master. If I would have retired for the evening so I could get up early and be a good devotee and chant my rounds, which wasn’t bad, I wouldn’t really have been humble. It was more-humble to submit to the authority and do the needful for Srila Prabhupada’s service. Mr. Sethi and his son, the friends and life members and the laborers stayed up all night to protect and complete the construction.

“I was there with a gun,” Mr. Sethi recalled. “We started at nine. At eleven, one man came at the road, but I challenged him, ‘If you come inside, I will shoot you,’ and he ran away and shouted to some other men, ‘They are ready to fight—don’t go there.’ It was pouring rain and the lighting was bad, and when the men were putting up the asbestos sheets to be on the roof, they were slipping on the ground. So, we brought fifty mats and put twenty men on them, one man supporting another so that there was no slipping. Ten masons worked all night and we completed the walls and the plaster.”

Śrīdhara  Swami was at the site too, chanting japa in the jeep. When someone asked him why he was there? He joked, “So if anybody comes, I can make a quick escape.” But then he later explained, “Actually the whole thing was right in keeping with my nature. When there is a good chance to fight for Krishna, I don’t run away from it. It was very exciting. I was ready. We stayed up all night, miserable night, but we were waiting for them to come.”

Mr. Sethi had his gun and I had a knife or some other weapon and the devotees, life members, masons, and other skilled workers, laborers, and other friends did it. They put it all up in that one night, finishing around four in the morning and no one came to disturb the work. And then we had maṅgala-ārati. Mhatre, who was one of Nair’s accomplices, returned around seven the next morning but by then it was too late. “It is built,” we told him, “Go to the court.”

Later that morning, we appeared in the High Court and told the judge that the temple had already been rebuilt. “What is built, is built,” he said to Mrs. Nair, “No one can destroy the temple.” When Prabhupada heard the news, he considered it a complete victory. The temple had been rebuilt. “In Bombay, we have just been victorious over the party who had torn down our temple and the temple has been completely reconstructed, in addition to our gaining overwhelming new popular support,” he wrote to Gurudasa. “I am glad to hear a victory in the matter of Bombay property,” he wrote to one of our local supporters Mrs. Singhal, “Now it is rebuilt and people are supporting our cause and finding out more about this great movement. You please help and tell everyone how nice chanting Hare Krishna is.”

During the temple reconstruction, Mr. Sethi had demonstrated his kshatriya spirit for which Prabhupada expressed his appreciation, also teaching us a lesson, that sometimes a fighting spirit was required. “In this way we have to fight,” he later said. “We should not be afraid for these rascals. Why should you be afraid? If they take to guṇḍā-ism, we shall engage fifty guṇḍās: ‘Come on, let’s see.’ We have to maintain that spirit. Anyāya ye kare prabhu āra anyāya ye sahe  Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry: ‘One who does wrong and one who suffers wrong—- he is wrong.’ One should not do anything wrong; one should not suffer anything wrong. That is human. If someone does harm to me, wrong to me, I cannot suffer it. I shall not do any harm to anyone; that’s all right. But if you want to give me suffering, I must fight you. Why shall I suffer it? That, is kshatriya spirit. If you are challenging, then ‘All right come on, I accept this challenge.’ We have to do like that.”

He continued, “If somebody is a ātatāyī, an aggressor, you unnecessarily attack me, I must kill you. That is my duty. Just like you have done here Sethiji, “I’ll bring my revolver.” They wanted to put us in trouble and he was in great trouble. So, he came and stood- “All right come on. We shall fight. Bring my revolver.” He did that. So, we have to do that, why shall I tolerate unnecessary injustice? Take that spirit. If there is a fight” Prabhupada said, “we must be prepared to fight.”

So, there is more discussion about Mr. Sethi’s kshatriya spirit and then referring to the rebuilding of the temple Mr. Sethi said, “I declared if they challenge us, I’m ready. Come on, and then in the night at the temple I challenge, come on and you are a hundred and fifty. We are not afraid. Then Mhatre came with that barrister to give Giriraj notice. I scolded and insulted him publicly.”

“Therefore,” Prabhupada said, “Mhatre was so against, that ‘We must stop this.’ Yes. I heard from that doctor that he was insulted by Sethi, e ‘Either Sethi should go. . .’ Like that, he has repeated. He gave me a hint, ‘Remove Sethi,’ but I replied, ‘I will not let that happen.’ And that doctor was Mhatre’s man. He also gave hint, ‘Give Mhatre two lakhs of rupees.’ He was canvasser on behalf of Mhatre. He wanted two lakhs.” ‘“We will not give you a single paisa,”’ Mr. Sethi concluded, ‘“We will fight you. Come on.”’

So of course, we could go on and on speaking about Srila Prabhupada’s glorious victory in Juhu and all the wonderful friends and devotees who supported Srila Prabhupada. But I think we have come to the point in our schedule where I will conclude my presentation and we will have questions and answers. Is that right?

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yes. Thank you so much for your wonderful expression. We’ll learn a lot of things. So, we have a few questions about that. So first of all, I go for maybe beginning. First you joined the Hare Krishna Movement and you stayed. Within five minutes you experience with Srila Prabhupada and you feel that twenty years of academic character. So how you feel this is twenty years your academic experience is compared to five minutes. What is that actually? Can you explain more details about that Maharaja?

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Because what I learned in my academic experience did not teach me anything about who I am? That I’m not the body, I’m the soul within the body, or what is my purpose in life? And my purpose is to serve Krishna and ultimately go back home back to Godhead. So, I didn’t really learn anything of value in an ultimate sense. But when I met Srila Prabhupada, within a few minutes he told me everything I needed to know and I’m so grateful to him. He completely reformed my life. He completely changed the direction of my life. Yeah.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Okay. One more thing is do you have any issue with your family? You are joined in the Hare Krishna movement in that time and how you handled that thing, if have?

Giriraj Swami: Well, they were against my joining. Although to their credit, they did understand that Srila Prabhupada was a genuine Guru and that Krishna consciousness was a genuine movement. But, they didn’t want me to join it. They wanted me to be a regular person. Now what happened was  they came to India and met Srila Prabhupada and tried to get me back. They didn’t say they wanted me to leave Krishna consciousness but they just wanted me to come back to America. They said I could practice Krishna consciousness there. So, it was a very enlightening, I would say, exchange between my parents and Srila Prabhupada, in Calcutta.

So, my father said that he wanted to establish a trust for me and give me a million dollars and he wanted me to come back to America to sign the documents and Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes. You can send the documents and he will Sign.” And then Srila Prabhupada said that he will be coming to America, I think, in May and so I said to my father, “just see how intelligent Srila Prabhupada is, that when it’s pleasant in America and it’s too hot in India, he goes to America and when it’s cold in America and hot in India, he arranges to be in India.”

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Hmm. . .

Giriraj Swami: And by this point my father was getting really enlivened by Srila Prabhupada and he said, “Actually your master is very intelligent” and Srila Prabhupada said, “Your son is intelligent because he has understood my strategy to be always where the weather is good” and then my father said, “No. Actually you are very intelligent,” he said and then Prabhupada said, “Well, I guess I must be intelligent otherwise how could I attract so many intelligent young men like your son.”

So yeah, they had that exchange. And my mother, her concern was about my health and in those days, people had the idea that if you didn’t eat meat, you couldn’t get enough protein and Srila Prabhupada would always keep sweets on his table to distribute as prasāda and in Calcutta, he had rasagullā and sandeśa. So, he said he distributed to my parents and he said that this is made of cheese, paneer and it’s very high in protein and then he said to me, “Giriraj, you must eat two dozen rasagullā and sandeśa every day.”

But he was very kind and from Calcutta, I went to Madras and in Madras, I gained a lot of weight. Its true when my parents visited, I was quite thin but in Madras, staying at different people’s homes and, whatever, idly and dosa, sambar and everything. So, I put on weight and then when Prabhupada came to Madras he said I should take a picture of myself and send it to my mother. So yeah, he hadn’t forgotten her concern about my health. He wanted to reassure her. Very nice.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Okay. Next question is Nitya Radha dasi. She asking, how many total days it took to build and rebuild the temple of Juhu.

Giriraj Swami: Oh well, we did it on the weekend.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Oh really.

Giriraj Swami: That was the whole point. Mrs. Nair went to the court on Friday, to ask the judge to give an injunction to stop us from rebuilding and then the judge said, No. I won’t give any injunction, even a temporary one unless I hear from the other side, which was Monday morning. So, we rebuilt it over the weekend. We had from Friday night till Monday morning and they did it.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: [unintelligible 00:59:42]

Giriraj Swami: They did it. Yeah.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yeah, so this Juhu story is like small Mahābhārata, Kurukshetra and it is good fight. So, what is actually your role there this, is Arjuna or something?

Giriraj Swami: Well, Srila Prabhupada said that. Prabhupada said that Bombay is like Kurukshetra and Giriraj is our Arjuna.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Oh, that’s great. That’s great. That’s great. Wonderful. So, in this prospect what is Prabhupada’s advice that how to handle this all-demonic people because nowadays also so much problem, different way.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. Well, there is always a fight- devotees and the Demons and how we deal with them would depend on the situation. I mean in Juhu, it was like a war exactly. It was like a war. But the same thing, sometimes the demons try to stop us from getting permission to build our projects and yeah. We have to fight [Inaudible 01:01:10] and how we fight will depend on the situation. It could be legally, it could be diplomatically trying to use influence. Yeah. But Prabhupada was a fighter.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yeah. Fight for right.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yes. Good. So, in this circumstance how you now. . . in time of Srila Prabhupada if anybody joined ISKCON, they directly go the temple and live in the temple. But now time people are not living the temple, outside. So, what is your opinion about these things.

Giriraj Swami: Well, it’s true that now the majority of devotees, what we say are congregation members, yeah, they live outside. But we always need full-time dedicated devotees to enliven the congregation and it’s true, in some places we don’t have many temple devotees. Mostly we have congregation. But in other places, we do have and it’s necessary. I’m referring to North America. Of course, in India, there are so many brahmacharis. It’s whole different situation. But in North America, there are not many but there are some. And they are very important for our society. Yeah.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: So, what your advice in the new generation because you have a lot of experiences with Srila Prabhupada and you experienced fifty years in Hare Krishna movement.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. Well, devotees who can remain brahmachari are rare. Most devotees will marry and then if they marry, they have to be able to provide for their wife and family. So, they may require to learn some skill or whatever, occupation. But the main thing is to never forget Krishna and to be, not to get carried away with the material side of family life and maintaining the family, but to keep the focus on Krishna consciousness.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Thank you. One another question is asking the Mr. Nair, he passed away at that time. How it is he died? Can you explain more? This is something like little bit interesting.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. That was very significant. I was walking on the day, the day after he died. I was walking in a part of Bombay called Metro; it was near the Metro cinema and they would have vendors sitting on the footpath, on the sidewalk, selling newspapers and magazines. I didn’t usually look but that day I just happened to look down and I saw a big headline on the front page of one of the newspapers. “A.B. Nair is dead.” Because he was a big man in Bombay, he was the editor of the free press journal and he had been the sheriff of Bombay.

So, when I saw that headline, I felt jubilant. I felt like dancing on the street. But then I thought to myself is this proper? We are trying to be saintly persons. Is it okay for a saintly person to feel jubilant when someone dies? So, meanwhile. . . means we phoned Srila Prabhupada. . . Bali Mardan, he was visiting Bombay and he had more experience with Srila Prabhupada in that way. So, Bali Mardan phoned Srila Prabhupada, who was in New Zealand, and gave him the news that Nair was dead. I mean, ostensibly he died of a heart attack. He suddenly had a heart attack. But there is more to it.

So, when Srila Prabhupada. . . So Srutakirti Prabhu, who was Srila Prabhupada’s servant, he took the call and he came and informed Srila Prabhupada that it was Bali Mardan and he said that Nair is dead. And Prabhupada folded his hands above his head and said, “Thank you Krishna. Thank you. I was praying for this. He caused too much trouble to the devotees and the Deities.” And then Srila Prabhupada wrote a letter to me. . . It was addressed to me and some of our other supporters and he said that today I have received one message, one telephonic message, from Bali Mardan that Nair is dead and if this is a fact, it is an occasion of great jubilation and then he quoted Prahlada Maharaja, that even saintly persons take pleasure when a snake or a scorpion is killed. And he said that Nair was a big snake. So, it’s good that Krishna killed him.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Very nice. So, another question is Prabhu asking, so Mrs. Nair saw her husband in a dream to tell her not to fight.

Giriraj Swami: Who appeared?  Someone appeared in Mrs. Nair’s dream?

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yeah. Mrs. Nair’s dream, that her husband said don’t fight.

Giriraj Swami: Oh. . . that’s very nice.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: So, something like anything, dream coming with she expressed her.

Giriraj Swami: Oh. . ., I don’t remember but she regretted what happened and she surrendered to Srila Prabhupada and apologized and Srila Prabhupada said, that’s all right that if you go off the path in the morning and then you come back on the path in the afternoon and then it’s okay. Yeah. He was very kind to her, very compassionate to her. Yeah.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Okay. So, one more question is Srila Prabhupada asking somebody write the book.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: And after forty years later, you starting book. Why so late and why this?

Giriraj Swami: Well, no. I started. Let’s see. Yeah. I guess you could say I was preparing. I mean, I gathered a lot of material and the actual writing itself went on for about three years. I mean not that I’m in the same category but someone asked Srila Prabhupada a similar question that in 1936, your Guru Maharaja told you to go to the west and preach and you came in 1965, thirty years later, and Srila Prabhupada said he was preparing.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: That’s good.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. I was also preparing, and in the meantime, I wrote other books.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Okay.

Giriraj Swami: In a way were more urgent and they were smaller projects so I could do them more quickly. Yeah. So, I wrote Watering the Seed and that also had bits about Juhu.  So I wrote Watering the Seed, then Many Moons and then Life’s Final Exam.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: So, when we expecting that this latest book, I Will Build a Temple: The Juhu Story is published totally for people, general public to get it?

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. Well, it’s published.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Okay.

Giriraj Swami: It’s published. So, the book is out.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Ahmm. . . So, we can get in general.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. So, yeah. It was printed in India. So, it’s available in India and then copies are being sent by ship.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: [unintelligible 01:11:45]

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. So, yeah. So, the ship is coming from Mumbai to Los Angeles and then from Los Angeles copies will be sent all over the North America.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: And how can get? How can order this copy?

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. There is a site where you can go to pre-order.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Okay.

Giriraj Swami: In fact, it was in that video you showed.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yeah. They are [unintelligible 01:13:04].

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. I don’t remember offhand but it’s. . .

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yeah. Video have link.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. So, yeah. You can order. You can do pre-order, books come we will service the order.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Can we use Amazon to buy from there?

Giriraj Swami: Sorry, Amazon?

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yeah. Amazon.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah. Yeah, eventually it will go to Amazon also. Not immediately.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Yes, easy to get it.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, and then there is Krishna culture. I don’t know if you are aware of Krishna culture but they used to be in Houston, now they are in Dallas. So, you can order books from them.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Okay.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Okay. So, the time is running out. So, thank you so much for your wonderful explanation about this nice story and experience with Srila Prabhupada. So, all glories to Srila Prabhupada, all glories to you and please bless to us and we can continue our service. Thank you so much.

Giriraj Swami: Thank you for organizing the program and, yeah, I wish you all a success in your Krishna consciousness.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Thank you. We’ll see you next time. Hare Krishna. Thank you everyone. So, we humbly request this new book is coming soon. It’s a wonderful book, I Will Build You a Temple: The Juhu Story. It is a like small Mahābhārata. It is called ISKCON Mahābhārata with demon. . . devotee and non-devotee and we can learn many things from that and book is nicely explains all nice topics. We can learn from that. So, thank you so much again Maharaja. Thank you. Thank you.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I think we are ending now. We can conclude with Vaishnava praṇāma.

[Prayers]

Giriraj Swami: Thank you.

Sacipran Gauranga dasa: Thank you.