SB 3.2.23 – Bhakti Charu Swami Memorial Program, Prabhupada Memories

Giriraj Swami: So, we have gathered to observe the second anniversary of the disappearance of Srila Prabhupada’s beloved disciple, my dear god-brother, Sripada Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja. And in keeping with Maharaja’s mood of always glorifying Srila Prabhupada, we have been asked to offer some Prabhupada-Katha.

I will read a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter Two, Text Twenty-three. This verse is very significant. Not only is the verse beautiful, but it also has historical significance, because when Śukadeva Gosvami came out of the womb, after sixteen years, he left home immediately, and his father, Srila Vyasadeva, followed him into the forest. And when he came close enough to him, he recited two verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, one describing Krishna’s beauty, from the Tenth Canto, and one describing Krishna’s mercy, which is this verse.

When Śukadeva Gosvami heard these two verses—the one describing Krishna’s mercy and the one describing Krishna’s beauty, he became attracted. Although liberated, he became attracted by the transcendental qualities of Krishna, and he came back to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from his father, Vyasadeva.

So, I will read this verse, and I do so because it reminds me so much of Srila Prabhupada.

TEXT 23

aho bakī yaṁ stana-kāla-kūṭaṁ
jighāṁsayāpāyayad apy asādhvī
lebhe gatiṁ dhātry-ucitāṁ tato ‘nyaṁ
kaṁ vā dayāluṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajema

TRANSLATION

Alas, how shall I take shelter of one more merciful than He who granted the position of mother to a she-demon [Pūtanā] although she was unfaithful and she prepared deadly poison to be sucked from her breast?

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Here is an example of the extreme mercy of the Lord, even to His enemy. It is said that a noble man accepts the good qualities of a person of doubtful character, just as one accepts nectar from a stock of poison.

COMMENT

So, the Lord is absolute. He is all good for everyone, and He is neutral toward everyone. He is always thinking of how to do good for others. So even if one approaches Him as an enemy, He will try to do good for the person, as was the case with Putana. Although she came to kill Him by administering poison from her breast, He elevated her to the position of a nurse, like a mother, in the spiritual world.

Srila Prabhupada said it is a mark of a good man that he takes the good side, not the bad side, of others. He gave the example of his guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta had a disciple named Kunjabihari dasa—people used to call him Kunja Babu—who Srila Prabhupada said, came to do business with their guru Maharaja, to profit personally from his relationship with him and from his service in the Gaudiya Math. But Srila Prabhupada said their guru Maharaja didn’t take Kunja’s bad side, that he was coming to make business, but took the bright side, that he was coming to offer service.

As Srila Prabhupada said in his talk with Bob Cohen, now Brahma Tirtha Prabhu on February 28, 1972 in Mayapur, “Putana Raksasi—she offered Krishna poison. But Krishna is so nice that He thought, She took Me as My mother, so He took the poison and delivered her. Krishna does not take the bad side. A good man does not take the bad side, he takes only the good side. Just like one of my big god-brothers, he wanted to make business with my guru Maharaja, but my guru Maharaja did not take the bad side. He took the good side. He thought, He has come forward to give me some service.”

So, now we return to Srila Prabhupada’s purport.

PURPORT (continued)

In His babyhood, He was administered deadly poison by Pūtanā, a she-demon who tried to kill the wonderful baby. And because she was a demon, it was impossible for her to know that the Supreme Lord, even though playing the part of a baby, was no one less than the same Supreme Personality of Godhead.

COMMENT

So, on the occasion of the wedding of Vasudeva and Devaki, Kamsa, who was Devaki’s brother, was driving their chariot, and he heard a voice from the sky (ākāśavāṇī) saying that the eighth son of Devaki would kill him. And he was so selfish and egoistic and demonic that he didn’t wait for the eighth child; he killed all the sons of Devaki, one by one. Then, eventually, Krishna appeared, and He manifested His four-handed form of Vishnu to convince them that He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But still, out of parental affection, they were afraid for Him, and thus Vasudeva carried Krishna to Vrindavan.

Kamsa sent many demons to Vrindavan to kill Krishna, and Putana was one of them. And it is described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that when sucking Putana’s breast, Krishna sucked out her life air. It is also described that He closed His eyes, and commentators explain that He closed His eyes because He didn’t want to look at her because although she was a demon, she was a woman who appeared to be showing motherly affection.

So, now back to the purport, conclusion of the purport.

PURPORT (continued)

Because she was a demon, it was impossible for her to know that the Supreme Lord, even though playing the part of a baby, was no one less than the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. His value as the Supreme Lord did not diminish upon His becoming a baby to please His devotee Yaśodā. The Lord may assume the form of a baby or a shape other than that of a human being, but it doesn’t make the slightest difference; He is always the same Supreme. A living creature, however powerful he may become by dint of severe penance, can never become equal to the Supreme Lord.

Lord Kṛṣṇa accepted the motherhood of Pūtanā because she pretended to be an affectionate mother, allowing Kṛṣṇa to suck her breast. The Lord accepts the least qualification of the living entity and awards him the highest reward. That is the standard of His character. Therefore, who but the Lord can be the ultimate shelter?

COMMENT

So, this verse reminds me of Srila Prabhupada: How shall I take shelter of one more merciful than he? There was no one more merciful than Srila Prabhupada. Lord Nityananda is most merciful, and Srila Prabhupada manifested the same quality of mercy as Nityananda Prabhu.

When Srila Prabhupada was in Bombay he received a phone call from the temple president in Calcutta, who reported that one of Prabhupada’s earliest disciples from America had come to Calcutta and was smoking ganja, marijuana, and asked what to do. Prabhupada told his secretary to relay his response: “Tell him that if he doesn’t stop smoking ganja, I will reject him.” Afterwards, Tamal Krishna Goswami asked, “Is it true that if he doesn’t stop smoking ganja you will reject him?” And Prabhupada replied, “No—I cannot reject anyone. The mercy of Lord Nityananda has no limit.”

Then maybe two years later, we were in Juhu, and Srila Prabhupada had a disciple who fell into bad company and was living on Juhu Beach and doing yogic tricks. He was doing things like putting a penny or paisa in his ear and then making it come out somewhere else—different strange things to collect money—and he was known as a disciple of Prabhupada and a member of ISKCON. So, Tamal Krishna Goswami approached Srila Prabhupada and said, “This is happening, and he is giving you a bad name and giving ISKCON a bad name. You should reject him.” And again, Srila Prabhupada replied, “I cannot reject anyone.” Tamal Krishna Goswami asked, “But don’t you have to draw the line somewhere?” And again, Srila Prabhupada said, “The mercy of Lord Nityananda has no limits.”

How shall I take shelter of one more merciful than he—Srila Prabhupada?

Another related quality of Srila Prabhupada’s is that he was always willing to give someone a chance. Around 1976, a strange person with a PhD came to the Juhu temple and said he wanted to join, and Srila Prabhupada invited him to stay upstairs with him. At that time there were six tenement buildings, which came with the Juhu land, and Srila Prabhupada had us build an additional floor on the top of each of those six buildings (though in the end we added an additional floor on only five of the six). In the bigger buildings each floor had two apartments, and in Srila Prabhupada’s building he had one side for himself and the other side for his personal staff. So, he let this sort of strange character stay upstairs with his personal staff next door to his own quarters. And Prabhupada was spending quite a bit of time with him. Hamsaduta Prabhu was visiting at the time, and he told Srila Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, you are just wasting your time with this man. He is never going to amount to anything.” But Prabhupada kept spending time with him. And in the end, the man left; he never did amount to anything. But when Hamsaduta mentioned that to Srila Prabhupada—“I could see that he never was going to amount to anything”—Prabhupada replied, “I wanted to give him a chance.”

Another person whom Srila Prabhupada encouraged was Dr. C. P. Patel, who would almost always accompany him on his morning walks on Juhu Beach. They had a friendly relationship, but Dr. Patel would sometimes speak like a Mayavadi. Prabhupada would accuse him, “You are a Mayavadi!” and Dr. Patel would reply, “No sir, I am a Vaishnava, a pure Vaishnava.”

One morning Dr. Patel and Srila Prabhupada had a huge argument. Dr. Patel would bring up different so-called holy men of India, and if they were not up to standard, Srila Prabhupada would criticize them. So, one morning Srila Prabhupada was criticizing one of Dr. Patel’s favorite revered so-called saints of India and Dr. Patel and he had a huge argument. Dr. Patel raised his voice to Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada raised his voice to Dr. Patel—they were literally shouting at each other. And Dr. Patel’s friends (he had his cronies) were trying to pull him away, saying, “Don’t upset Swamiji; he has a heart condition.” And eventually they pulled him away.

Back at Hare Krishna Land, Tamal Krishna Goswami approached Srila Prabhupada in his room and asked him, “What is Dr. Patel’s position? Is he a Vaishnava or a Mayavadi, an impersonalist?”

In response, Prabhupada told a story about a man who could speak many languages. In whatever language people addressed him, he could respond fluently. No one could figure out where the man was actually from.

After much discussion, a neighbor said, “I will find out.” So, one day, when the man was preoccupied, the neighbor came up behind him and gave him a big whack. And when the man started to curse in his native tongue, his origin was disclosed.

“Dr. Patel is like that,” Prabhupada said. “He can speak very expertly. He can sound like a devotee, sound like a Vaishnava, sound like a Mayavadi, sound like anything. But when I gave a slap where it really hurt—this so-called saintly person that he revered—his real language came out.”

Tamal Krishna asked, “So, why do you put up with him? He is so offensive.”

“It is our duty to engage everyone,” Prabhupada said. He wanted to give Dr. Patel a chance. And as the years passed, Dr. Patel developed great affection for Srila Prabhupada and after Prabhupada left this world, Dr. Patel wrote a beautiful article for Back to Godhead about his relationship with Prabhupada. The article was titled “My Life’s Most Precious Moments,” with the subtitle “A Bombay doctor wins the title ‘big fool’ and loves it”—because Prabhupada would always call Dr. Patel a mūḍha. He would say, “I am not saying—Krishna is saying: na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ.” Anyone who doesn’t surrender to Krishna is a mūḍha, fool.

So, how shall I take shelter of one more merciful than he? Srila Prabhupada had so many wonderful qualities, but his most important quality, for us especially, was his extreme mercifulness.

Srila Prabhupada had a good friend in Bombay named Bhogilal Patel. Bhogilal was elder to Srila Prabhupada by about three years, and he was extremely pious. The first devotee to meet him was Gargamuni, and when Gargamuni was explaining Srila Prabhupada’s work, Bhogilal Patel wept profuse tears of appreciation.

One day some years later, Bhogilal Patel came to meet Srila Prabhupada at Prabhupada’s flat at the back of Hare Krishna Land. I had a close relationship with Seth Bhogilal, so I brought him up to meet Prabhupada. They were talking and, as is natural in a conversation, when Prabhupada was speaking, I would look at him, and when Bhogilal was speaking, I would look at him. But at one stage, while Bhogilal was speaking, I looked at Srila Prabhupada, which Prabhupada wasn’t expecting, and he was looking at me with such love and affection, like a doting father or a grandfather. By age, Srila Prabhupada was more like a grandfather. I was surprised that he was looking at me with so much love. But as soon as Srila Prabhupada saw me look at him, he changed his expression and became very grave and serious. I think it was some special mercy that I got a glimpse of how much love he had for us, which he didn’t usually show very openly. His love for us was manifest in his care for us and his giving us the knowledge of Krishna consciousness and engaging us in Krishna’s service.

Srila Prabhupada was very reserved about touching people, including even disciples. In 1971 in Gorakhpur, as guests of Hanuman Prasad Poddar of Gītā Press, we were staying in his large estate, Sri Krishna Niketan, which had previously been his personal residence.

Srila Prabhupada was traveling with his small Radha-Krishna Deities, and he wanted to establish an altar for Them in Sri Krishna Niketan. He wanted some foliage for the altar, so he sent a couple of devotees, including me, to collect some. I went out to a thicket and was collecting branches with leaves. I wasn’t tearing them live; I was looking for branches and leaves that had fallen. I just kept going deeper into the woods and collecting more and more foliage, and eventually I had a huge bundle, as much as I could possibly carry.

So, I was lugging the bundle up the stairs, and when I reached the temple room, Srila Prabhupada was there and the altar was being set up. I just dropped the bundle on the floor and offered my obeisances. And while I was on the floor, Prabhupada patted me on the back. It was one of the only times—maybe the only time—that he physically touched me. I looked up, and he was smiling broadly. I didn’t know if he even needed any more foliage, but he was pleased by my effort.

Now I ask you: How shall I take shelter of one more merciful than he?

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Sripad Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja ki jaya!

So, this program was originally scheduled for a half hour, from 9:30 to 10:00, (pacific?) specific time. But Shubhra Mataji was kind and said I could take an extra fifteen minutes, and I have now used up my extra fifteen minutes. But I thank you for inviting me on this special occasion to speak about Srila Prabhupada. Yes. I mean, ordinarily, I would have asked if there are any questions or comment or reflections, but I think we have used our quota of time, and I am very happy for the time I had to spend with all of you. Hare Krishna.

Indira devi dasi, you look very enthusiastic, but unfortunately, you are muted and I cannot hear what you are saying. Two devotees have their hands raised, but I don’t know if we have time to call on them. Yes, we do? Alright, we will begin with Prananatha dasa. Please unmute yourself and speak. You are still muted. Prananatha dasa, you are still muted, please unmute yourself. Oh, Shubhra Mataji says that the host has muted everyone, and that you should type your questions or comments in the chat.

Indira devi dasi: Haribol! I am sorry, the host needs to unmute Prananatha dasa. Can he do that, please? The one who has raised his hand?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that would be nice.

Prananatha dasa: Hare Krishna, daṇḍavat praṇāma Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Prananatha dasa: Guru Maharaja, actually, about the Gorakhpur, even I had heard from a very exalted saying, that a guru perks on the back of his disciple. It means you have to take forward my mission, and it is my blessing.

Giriraj Swami: Okay.

Prananatha dasa: So, I wanted to share this.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, thank you.

Prananatha dasa: It specifically said that it is a pat, that means, you have to take care of my mission, it is a blessing from Prabhupada.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful, beautiful. Thank you for sharing that with me.

Prananatha dasa: Thank you, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Prananatha dasa: Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Then there was one more from Hari Priya from Tehran, Iran. Hari Priya, are you still with us?

Hari Priya: Yes, Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Hari Priya: All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to you. Please accept my humble obeisances. And just, I wanted to say thanks for these beautiful memories you shared with us. And you, each word, your words are like honey you put in our mind, and you bring light to our life more and more. Just wanted to say thanks to you.

Giriraj Swami: Well, thank you for that kind appreciation.

Hari Priya: Thank you to you and for always your kindness to bring our light. Thank you to you. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Thank you, Hare Krishna. ki jaya!

Hari Priya: Ki jaya!

Indira devi dasi: Is there anyone else who has a question or comment for Gurudeva? Please raise your hand, and hopefully, our host will be able to unmute you. Alright. Well, thank you so much, Maharaja, for your patience with our technical difficulties. We are new to the Zoom, and they’ve changed the format on me, personally. So, I know that I am not as quick on this as I used to be. But I really, really appreciate all of our speakers. They all gave us such nice, sweet memories to take away with us to think about when we are struggling. And I just really, really appreciated Siddhartha for jumping on whenever we needed him to, that was also really, really appreciated and I know you know how much. But I am just so happy, and I love your book, I started reading it, it is so nice to read stories from different people at the same time. So, I am reading Chasing Rhinos, and I am reading yours, and I have read Yamuna’s. And so, all these stories, it is interesting to get them from everyone’s perspective. It is really, really sweet. I want to encourage everyone who hasn’t gotten this book to please get “I’ll Build You a Temple, the Juhu story.” Yes, there it is.

Thank you, thank you so much, Maharaja. Our next session will start at 4:30 p.m. So, I hope everyone can join us again for that one. Thank you so much.

Giriraj Swami: And given that we are ending now, I suggest we conclude with Vaishnava praṇāma.

Indira devi dasi: Sure.

Let us offer our respectful obeisances unto the Vaishnava devotees of the Lord. They are just like desire trees and can fulfill the desires of everyone, and they are full of compassion for the fallen conditioned souls.

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca 

patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

Anant koti Vaishnava vrinda ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Sripad Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja ki jaya!

Gaura bhakta vrinda ki jaya!

Hare Krishna.