Memories of Srila Prabhupada and Early Days of ISKCON Chennai—Part 02

Host: Dear devotees, we would like to welcome His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja for today’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations of Srila Prabhupada’s visit to Chennai in February 1972. Maharaja had already given the first part of his lecture on Sunday. On Monday, we heard from His Grace Hari Sauri Prabhu. Yesterday, we heard from His Grace Shyamasundara Prabhu. And today, we are again fortunate to hear a continuation of Maharaja’s lecture on his experiences during Srila Prabhupada visit in 1972, Part Two. Over to you, Maharaja. As on the other day, we will have Kalanidhi Prabhu to do the sentence-by-sentence translation of your lecture. And today, being a working day, we will go until nine o’clock and then thereafter we can take some comments and questions.

Giriraj Swami: So, to begin, as far as possible, I would like the participants on Zoom to put on their cameras so we can see your moon-like faces, and it will be more personal. Now, I will sing the maṅgalācaraṇa prayers and lead a short kirtan, and then speak about Srila Prabhupada and Madras. And again, just a small note to the translator, we use the name of the city as it existed at the time. So when Srila Prabhupada visited, it was called Madras and so we will refer to it as Madras.

[Prayers and kirtan]

So, we shall continue our discussion on preaching in Madras and Srila Prabhupada’s visit to Madras fifty years ago. I arranged for a big procession for Srila Prabhupada on the day that he arrived, with about a dozen other devotees, and so there was a grand procession with Srila Prabhupada down Mount Road, the main road. The parade was led by a decorated elephant and a marching band, and it was followed by the devotees performing kirtan. And it featured Srila Prabhupada riding in an old flower-covered American limousine. The procession ended at the Civic Center, and there, Srila Prabhupada addressed the dignitaries and other people who had assembled there.

I arranged for Srila Prabhupada to speak every night at the AVM Rajeswari Kalyana Mandapam on Sir Edward Elliott Road. One evening he told a story from Caitanya-caritāmṛta about an illiterate South Indian Brahmin who Lord Chaitanya recognized for his staunch devotion to his spiritual master and to the Bhagavad-gītā. The next morning and each subsequent morning, The Hindu, one of Madras’ two leading newspapers, printed a full summary of Srila Prabhupada’s lecture. And other principal papers gave more of general account of Srila Prabhupada’s arrival and the parade with his western followers.

[READING from Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, Chapter Thirty-eight, “No One Listens to a Poor Man”]

So, my dear devotees, thank you for joining us again to hear about our wonderful Srila Prabhupada and his merciful visit to Madras fifty years ago. Oh yes, I should mention one more thing related to my stay in Madras. I mention this in my book called “I will Build You a Temple: The Juhu Story.” Let me find it.

[READING from I Will Build You a Temple: The Juhu Story]

Hare Krishna.

So my dear devotees, before I even ask you to raise your hands, if you have any questions or comments, I see that Sumitra Krishna dasa has already raised his hand. Please.

Sumitra Krishna Prabhu: Thank you so much, Maharaja. I couldn’t help raising my hand, and the way you explained it transported us to fifty years back in Madras. And though you wanted to start a center in Chennai, but in 1976, when Prabhupada again came to Chennai, he had asked Shravananda Bhavabhuti, he wrote a very nice letter to them. “In Madras, I want a gorgeous temple. These American devotees are priceless. Oh Maharaja, where will we get the money?” And he said, “It will come from the gentleman of Madras.” So, that took about twenty, twenty-five years, and it got manifested in 2012, and we have a wonderful temple under the guidance of His Holiness Bhanu Maharaja. So you planted this seed, and coming here made some life members. Though we all agree that Chennai and Tamil Nadu is known for Mayavadism, impersonalism, Ramanujacharya came here. All of us were born here. It is another challenge we have, the government and the politicians, many of them are atheists here, Dravidam. So in spite of all the challenges, devotees from those days have slowly come up. And now we are able to have many devotees. We have one thousand five hundred initiated devotees, one hundred and twenty Bhakti Vriksha, and ten thousand life patrons, and still going on. It is all due to the mercy of you and your godbrothers and Srila Prabhupada coming here and handling this thing. Thank you so much.

Giriraj Swami: All right. Nice. Wonderful. Shall we translate his beautiful statement?

Sumitra Krishna Prabhu: Also, the priest was building a temple in Hyderabad. He has told his disciples to collect money from Madras. And he said, when Madras wants the money, Hyderabad can give. Somehow that didn’t happen.

Giriraj Swami: But Madras or Chennai is flourishing anyway, even without Hyderabad’s retrieval.

Sumitra Krishna Prabhu: Somebody was joking, Hyderabad has become Hydera-good because Prabhupada has established a temple there.

Host: Yes. Before we take the comments or questions, we want us to share that video on the book trailer for I Will Build You a Temple. I think you had requested Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta Maharaja to say a few words about that book. But Ranga Krishna Prabhu said we could share the video.

Giriraj Swami: That would be nice.

Sumitra Krishna Prabhu: I will do that in my right test.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I haven’t seen it for a while.

Sumitra Krishna Prabhu: Kalanidhi Prabhu can confirm that you are able to see the video?

Host: Yes, Prabhu, I can see.

Giriraj Swami: You make it full screen?

[The video is being played]

Host: So the devotees can easily connect with this. Over the last three evenings, we have been having the old devotees of ISKCON Chennai, who were there in the 80s and 90s, and then recalling all those, the way the programs were developing in Chennai, how the temple came up. So it is easy to connect with how this particular Juhu, ‘I will build your temple,’ devotees can easily connect with this. We have heard about the three days of the Juhu temple. We have understood the struggles of the Juhu temple. Last three evenings were about Chennai developing. We are talking about Chennai and Kovil’s progress in the last three days. Even the devotees will be amazed at what happened in Bombay with this. This is one of the recent glorious offerings of His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja to Srila Prabhupada. And then His Holiness Bhakti Brihad Bhagavatamrta Swami Maharaja was supposed to be with us this morning to speak a few words about this. But Maharaja is traveling in the Govardhana parikramā. He is not able to connect. So he is not here. We are not fortunate to have him here. But Maharaja, a lot of efforts. We have these books in Chennai. I am not sure of the number of copies, but we will be able to get more copies here. It will be available at saṅkīrtana. Those who are fortunate can definitely take advantage of this book.

Bhakti Brihad Bhagavatamrta Swami Maharaja was supposed to speak with us. But he couldn’t because of other reasons. We will get some of the books from him. This book will be distributed through Chennai temple. There is no service that we can do to set up a book. I didn’t hear you. It is a simple service that we can do to Srila Prabhupada by procuring a copy and reading it, then understanding how the disciples of Prabhupada and Prabhupada struggled so much to get this. Also, Abhay Krishna Prabhu, usually when a book is launched, the author directly reads some passages. We’ve seen. We in Chennai are so fortunate that Maharaja directly launched this book. This was today he has launched it. Though he has launched it earlier for the benefit of Chennai devotees. And those devotees who don’t know, I copy, please take it from our bookstore in our temple. Thank you very much.

Devotee: Those who want to have a copy, please type out your name here, and because Maharaja should bless those wonderful souls online.

Host: So, only have the book also can tell ‘I have.’ I think many of them are having the book. We have Jyothi Sundar Balaji Mataji, Srinivasan Prabhu, Raseshwara Gopal Prabhu, Prema Vahey Parameshwari Mataji. Already the translator Prabhu-Kalanidhi Prabhu has already read the book. And we know, he is on Jayapataka Swami Guru Maharaja, wanted a copy of the book which is supposed to have reached by now. Rama Rupa Chaitanya Prabhu wants this book. Maharaja, I am reading all these names for you to bless these souls. Ramani Tunga Vidya Mataji. Kavita Mataji.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful. Wonderful. May Srila Prabhupada bless you all more and more. Beautiful.

Host: Maharaja, if you have time, can we take a few questions?

Giriraj Swami: Yes. And I think the book did reach to Sripad Jayapataka Swami Maharaja. Well, we presume.

Host: Maharaja, I was traveling last night. I couldn’t just confirm it. I will confirm it. It must have reached Maharaja. If we had a copy, we want to reach it. I will confirm shortly Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, because I spoke with him last night on Zoom. It was very nice. And I mentioned that I was communicating with Ranga Krishna Prabhu about the programs. And he said, ‘Oh, Ranga Krishna Prabhu, he is the leader of the congregation in Madras, in Chennai.

Host: Maharaja, my wife Thandina would relate a small story.

Mataji: Hare Krishna Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances. Thank you, Maharaja. I heard your class about twenty years ago in Vrindavan, and that class is every day in my memory, and there is no one to whom I don’t share what I heard in that class. You especially spoke about Prabhupada in Bombay, how after a program, he was sharing his own class, and he was telling that whatever he speaks is dictated by Krishna. And then the next. So inspiring Maharaja, everyday I remember that and everyday there is no one to whom I have not told this that I have met. So I want to thank you for that first. I wanted to share my experience with my uncle. He was one of the first Indian program which was arranged by Justice Virra Swami. He was walking down the lane, he saw something is going on, so he just walked in and he was listening to Prabhupada’s lecture.

Giriraj Swami: That is amazing.

Mataji: So at the end of the class, my uncle asked Prabhupada, “Why should I believe that Krishna is the Supreme Personality?” Because throughout the class, Prabhupada was talking about that. And Prabhupada said, “Because I say so.” Then my uncle told me that when Prabhupada said that, “I didn’t feel that there was an iota of arrogance in his answer. I could only perceive conviction. There was no arrogance in that statement.” He got the copy of Bhagavad-gītā, actually it was Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

Thank you so much, Maharaja for your association. For a long time, I have desired that you must come to Chennai and speak to us about your early days. Today, it is fulfilled. I am very grateful, Maharaja. Thank you. Because actually, I made a collection of, from the Vedabase, Prabhupada and Madras. I put a search and all the hits I put together to make a document. But then after some years, my computer crashed and it was lost and I didn’t do it again. So at that time, I saw about your involvement in Madras and I was very eager that you should come and visit here.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful. So we have Jyoti Sundar Balaji.

Host: By the way, the book has reached His Holiness Jaya Pataka Maharaja, already confirmed. Thank you very much.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful. Jaya!

Mataji: Maharaja, we feel really fortunate to talk directly to you. Thank you so much, Maharaja. I have a question. Today is coincidentally, Sri Krishna Vasant-rāsa-līlā. I just were very, very auspicious. Like you gave us a talk on this day. Maharaja, I just want to know if Prabhupada and you people celebrated Vasant-rāsa-līlā also? Did you celebrate the spring rāsa-līlā also, Maharaja? Just like the autumn rāsa-līlā? Like Sharad Purnima?

Giriraj Swami: It is in the books, but we didn’t observe it with Srila Prabhupada as such like we did with the Sharad Purnima one. But yes, it is very auspicious.

Host: Thank you, Maharaja. I request Srinath Prabhu, would you like to unmute and ask your question?

Srinath Prabhu: Hare Krishna. Daṇḍavat-praṇāmās Maharaja. ISKCON has faced a lot of problems with Juhu land owners. At that time, almost all the devotees had the thought that look for some other land instead of trying to acquire this problematic land. But Prabhupada is so determined to acquire this land in spite of all the difficulties. So, at those critical times, what was your feeling as a young person in that project?

Giriraj Swami: What was the last thing you said? I missed it.

Translator: What was your feeling when Srila Prabhupada was insistent that we should have the land while other devotees were not so keen? They wanted to shift elsewhere?

Giriraj Swami: I was fully supportive of what Srila Prabhupada wanted. I was completely surrendered. At one stage, Srila Prabhupada said that, “Giriraj is the only one who completely understood what I want to do here.” We persevered, Srila Prabhupada persevered, and we were blessed by his mercy to assist him.

Host: This question from someone by the name Vivo that is Navdeep Chandra Prabhu. I will kindly unmute and ask this question.

Navdeep Chandra Prabhu: Hare Krishna guru Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, all glories to your divine grace. Guru Maharaja, I wanted to know like the question is that usually when we sleep late at night, it is difficult to keep one awake in the morning while chanting or hearing the lecture. So in the course of the lecture, I wanted to say, so how was Srila Prabhupada able to maintain that kind of energy throughout the day? And obviously we can’t imitate him, but is something like this possible for a conditioned soul like me also?

Giriraj Swami: As mentioned in Madras, even if Srila Prabhupada was up late for preaching engagements, which happened quite often there, but still, he would only sleep for a couple of hours, not even sleep, take rest for a couple of hours, and then he would be up again translating and then have his morning program. Of course, we can’t imitate but we can take inspiration from his example and try to follow him in his footsteps. Well, one thing is to arrange our schedules so that we get sufficient sleep. This brings to mind a discussion with Srila Prabhupada. And it is an item in this book, Watering the Seed, and the title is Why Do You Sleep?

READING from Watering the Seed, “Why Do You Sleep?”

So in Gorakhpur in 1971, Srila Prabhupada was speaking from the Bhāgavatam on the history of Ajamila and the significance of the holy name. Reading from the original Sanskrit commentary of Sripad Sridhar Swami. After one class, Hansadutta said to Srila Prabhupada, “That was a wonderful lecture.” Srila Prabhupada remarked, “Do you think so? What do the other devotees think?” Hansadutta replied, “Well, frankly speaking, Srila Prabhupada, most of the devotees were asleep in the class.” Prabhupada said, “Yes, I know. Practically, I am speaking to only a few sincere disciples.”

Day after day, the problem persisted. So many devotees, including me, were falling asleep during class. During one morning class, when Srila Prabhupada noticed a devotee dozing, he stopped speaking from the Bhāgavatam and told him, “You can go and lie down. Why are you sitting and sleeping? This is not good. Sleeping from ten to four is not sufficient? What is this? Every one of you, more or less, what is the reason? Yamuna devi ventured, “Inattentive.” But Srila Prabhupada responded, “Inattentive means like this? No. Unless one is tired or has no sufficient sleep, one will not do like that. It is not inattentiveness.”

Then, Guru dasa suggested, “Not enough sleep.” But Srila Prabhupada retorted, “Enough sleep. You require twenty-four hours sleep? If you sleep for ten hours, that is not sufficient? Your business is to sleep only. So ten hours or eight hours sleep is not sufficient. Kumbhakarna, just like Kumbhakarna. He was sleeping six months.” Tamal Krishna interjected, “Hibernation.” So then he says, “You should not sleep more than seven hours at most. That is sufficient. You can sleep six hours at night and one hour to rest in the daytime. That is sufficient. We are followers of the Gosvamis. Their whole time, twenty-four hours was used in Krishna consciousness.” And he spoke like that. And then Prabhupada said, “When one is engaged in some serious business, he sleeps less. One should be engaged in serious business, then sleeping will be less. When one has a serious job, his sleep will decrease. We have taken a very serious job. The work we are doing is very important and serious. If you take responsibility in this way, everything will be adjusted. So, we should adjust things. You have got a very responsible business, this Krishna consciousness. Things should be adjusted to keep us always alive to our responsibility. That is missionary life.”

Srila Prabhupada was speaking so strongly, so ferociously, like a lion, like Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, that we were practically forced to stay awake and be attentive to his words. So yes, we should feel that we have such an important responsibility that we cannot waste time unnecessarily sleeping.

Host: Thank you, Maharaja. I think we will take one last question from Aarti Mishra.

Aarti Mishra: Hare Krishna guru Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances. Guru Maharaja, I always keep waiting for your detailed program and I try to save the dates and the time to attend this. It has been so fortunate to hear you directly, to get your association directly on Zoom. So guru Maharaja, I just wanted to know a little, from the book, Watering the Seed. We have been reading this book in a small congregation headed by Deena Mataji here in Amritsar. And we have come across this chapter of prayer. So it has been so beautifully expressed, guru Maharaja, by you, the mood of prayer in this chapter, where you wrote a prayer to Srila Prabhupada and then you wanted to read that prayer to him. So if you may allow, I would like to read a little paragraph from this prayer, if you may allow, guru Maharaja.

So guru Maharaja, after glorifying Krishna, you came to glorify Sri Prabhupada, where you wrote, when Sri Prabhupada sat with $7 under a tree in Tomspin Square Park, you transferred that tree into so many regal palaces, and you expanded that $7 into millions. When Sri Prabhupada spoke your message, you turned the mlechchhas and Chandalas who heard him into your devotees. And when Sri Prabhupada went all by himself to sell his Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam sets, you expanded him into ten thousand loving salesmen who worked day and night without asking any salary. And you expanded his suitcase of books into fifty-five million pieces of literature in twenty-three different languages. And then when Hare Krishna land was lost to the demons, He returned it to His Divine Grace. From these examples, we can understand that for you, the impossible is not difficult. Rather, you have performed so many impossible feats for your devotees. Therefore, if you desire, please give Srila Prabhupada a new body. So beautiful, Hare Krishna.

To this, Sri Prabhupada was pleased to encourage me. “Excellent print and back to Godhead. I am getting a little glimpse. He may agree to your prayer.” Yes. So your love, your intense love for Sri Prabhupada is like so rightly portrayed in this prayer, guru Maharaja. I just wanted to know guru Maharaja in the last you said that if you so desire, please give Sri Prabhupada a new body. If you could just, explain this a little

Giriraj Swami: I am reading this now or rereading it, hearing it from you and rereading it, I was thinking about my choice of words “Gives you the Srila Prabhupada new body.”

What I meant at the time was that Krishna should make Srila Prabhupada’s body as if it was new, healthy. That was my intention. Prabhupada took it that way. But that wasn’t what I had in mind, but giving him a new body could be taken the other way. I asked Him for a new body. And in the end, he did get a new body. Not a material body, but a spiritual body. Anyway, thank you for reading that prayer and appreciating it.

Host: Thank you, Maharaja. Nanda Madhav Prabhu, you had a question I think, would you like to ask? Then after that I request Asmita Krishna Prabhu and Arun Krishna Prabhu to thank Maharaja.

Nanda Madhav Prabhu: Thank you for your wonderful taking us back to Rukti. It is like Asif Girdhe. One small question Maharaja, you have lot of love and attachment for Prabhupada. We are his grandchildren, grand disciples. How do we get that same attachment and love for Prabhupada? You have direct experience, direct association with Prabhupada. So, just give us some advice on how to develop that attachment and love for Prabhupada. Thank you, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: I have two suggestions. One is to learn about Srila Prabhupada. First, learn about the Lord. Of course. You can learn about him by reading his books. And you can learn about him by reading about him. There are many nice books about him by his disciples. First and foremost, Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta by Satsvarupa dasa Gosvami. There are many nice books. Then there is this one, I Will Build You a Temple: The Juhu’s Story. And then seeing the videos, Yadubara Prabhu has put together a video series called Following Srila Prabhupada, which is all the footage of Srila Prabhupada. And I strongly recommend that you and every devotee should see Following Srila Prabhupada.

And the other way is to serve Srila Prabhupada, to work hard and as required make sacrifices to please Srila Prabhupada. Another, as I read, Srila Prabhupada wrote to me when I was in Madras about book distribution. Srila Prabhupada wrote, “Go on increasing books and go on increasing my pleasure.” So, by serving Srila Prabhupada, by distributing his books, by working hard and making sacrifices to spread his mission, he will reciprocate with you. He will be pleased with you and bring you closer to him. That was an excellent question.

Host: Thank you very much Maharaja. Hare Krishna. I request Asmita Krishna Prabhu and Arun Krishna Prabhu to say words of thanks.

Asmita Krishna Prabhu: So, on behalf of the Wisconsin A management, we are also very fortunate to have your sweet godbrother, Bhanu Swami Maharaja, who is always giving us guidance. He has been writing books, translating the works of acharyas, and we had a very good two days of association from you. If you all got transported to fifty years back, it was as if Prabhupada was there before us. The narration was so beautiful. And we hope that you please come to Chennai one day and directly, not online, offline, so we can directly interact with you and share more experiences. So, once again, I thank all the devotees who have been patiently hearing these wonderful lectures without sleeping. It is very important. We all know that during lectures, many sleep. Today we found out many are very awake, just listen to the reception of the Prabhupada. Thank you once again, Maharaja.

Host: I would like to add to Asmita Krishna Prabhu’s remarks and out of thanks. We realized about this celebration just a couple of weeks back at a very short notice. And when we appealed to Maharaja, Maharaja was very, very kind enough to accept our invitation at such a short notice. And then, at the end of the first class, we also appealed to him for a second class, for which he was also very, very kind to be with us. And because what I can see is that, Maharaja relishes the Thirteenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam more than the Twelfth Canto, speaking about the Thirteenth Canto which is about Srila Prabhupada. That was so amazing. We relished it so nicely, Maharaja. And please forgive our any shortcomings. We are extremely grateful to you. As Asmita Krishna Prabhupada said, if your next visit to India, we would be more than happy to have you with us. Offline kathā is even more wonderful, Maharaja. Thank you so much.

Host: This was one of the longest sessions we had in this festival. We are very grateful to you. You have inspired us a lot, and we hope we help fulfill the mission of Sri Prabhupada. So, regarding the book, I Will Build You a Temple, so those who are devotees who had wanted this book, you had put on your names and mobile numbers, and Srinath Prabhu will coordinate the distribution. Let us chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra thrice as a gratitude for His Holiness.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Thank you, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Thank you. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. So, how do we end this?

Devotee: We don’t want the end.

Host: What are your last bit of advice to all the devotees of Chennai so that we can continue the services for many, many years and please the Prabhupada?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, wish you are all the best in your service, Srila Prabhupada and his mission. And yes, chant good rounds. And Srila Prabhupada says that the chanting is a prayer for service. “Oh Lord, oh energy of the Lord, please engage me in your service.” So if you chant good rounds, preferably early in the morning, attentively, that will be a good foundation for your ongoing service.

Host: Thank you, Maharaja. We need to keep having these advices again and again so that we don’t slip up. Thank you so much.

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja. With your permission, I would like to end the session. Today evening we have His Holiness Bhaktivinoda Swami Maharaja giving the last session of this festival. Kindly, devotees, please join us in the evening seven to eight o’clock with Tamil translation.

Giriraj Swami: Thank you all. Thanks. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to your service.

Devotee:

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Narottam dasa Thakura ki jaya!

Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda ki jaya!