# Only He Could Lead Them **Duration:** 21:10 <div class="video-container" style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%;"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LEMldEkLHek" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; pointer-events: auto; z-index: 10;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEMldEkLHek) --- ## Transcript **[00:35]** This man led a worldwide revolution in consciousness in the sixties. **[00:39]** Wherever he went, thousands of people were there to greet and honor him. **[00:43]** His name was A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, **[00:47]** and he brought the Hare Krsna religion to American shores. **[00:51]** He even influenced the Beatles and they helped spark interest in Krsna. **[00:56]** Hi, I'm Monya Sergi. **[00:59]** And I'm Larry Laurent. **[01:00]** Today we're going to explore the life and character of the man who influenced the **[01:03]** lives of millions and made 'Hare Krsna' a household word. **[01:08]** At different times, Swami Prabhupada was known as a scholar, a philosopher, a cultural **[01:16]** ambassador, a prolific author, religious leader, spiritual teacher, social critic, and a holy man. **[01:22]** He was not one of those modern entrepreneurial gurus who come to the West **[01:26]** with slickly packaged, watered-down versions of eastern spirituality. **[01:31]** Swami Prabhupada was, rather, a true holy man, a person who is called 'Acharya', **[01:37]** which means a master who teaches by his own example. **[01:42]** After arriving in the United States in 1965 at the age of sixty-nine, **[01:47]** Swami Prabhupada formed the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. **[01:51]** This later developed into a worldwide spiritual community with hundreds of centers, **[01:56]** schools, temples, and farms, with thousands of dedicated disciples. **[02:01]** To have achieved all this in only twelve years was a remarkable achievement, **[02:07]** but in addition, Swami Prabhupada also wrote and published over eighty **[02:12]** volumes of translation and commentary on the great classics of ancient India. **[02:20]** His books were welcomed with great critical acclaim by the academic community **[02:24]** and they were soon accepted in many universities and libraries around the world. **[02:29]** Before passing away in 1977, Swami Prabhupada had succeeded in transmitting **[02:37]** the profound wisdom of the ancient Vedic culture in a way that **[02:41]** was clearly understandable to the modern man. **[02:43]** He could explain difficult philosophical concepts to people **[02:47]** who were totally unfamiliar with the complex Indian religious tradition. **[02:57]** Between 1966 and 1977, Swami Prabhupada circled the globe eleven times. **[03:03]** Whenever he traveled he would emerge daily into the chill and quiet of the early morning, **[03:08]** and he would take a lengthy stroll with an entourage of students, disciples, and guests. **[03:14]** Swami Prabhupada also appeared very frequently on American television. **[03:21]** Lets take a look at one of those interviews. **[03:25]** San Francisco, CA **[03:26]** 1974 **[03:27]** You founded the Hare Krsna movement some seven years ago in 1967, did you not? **[03:30]** Yes. **[03:31]** In a capsule, what is the movement? **[03:35]** The movement is to awaken God consciousness of the human being. **[03:42]** The human being is distinct, distinguished from the animals. **[03:48]** The animals cannot understand what is God. **[03:52]** And if the human being also does not understand what is God, then he is animal. **[04:00]** I see. So your movement is to bring about an understanding of God among human beings. **[04:05]** And 'Hare Krsna' means what? **[04:08]** 'Hare Krsna' means addressing the energy of God. **[04:14]** 'Hare' means the energy of God, and 'Krsna' means God. **[04:19]** You were here yesterday to attend your annual festival that was held here **[04:27]** in Golden Gate park, and we were there too. In fact, here it is. **[04:31]** A few thousand people came out to hear it. **[04:35]** How many people are now disciples of the Krsna Consciousness movement? **[04:40]** Dedicated life, about ten thousand. **[04:44]** About ten thousand dedicated ones. **[04:46]** In the western world. **[04:48]** Your grace, is there any significance at all in the shaved head? Why are heads shaved? **[04:53]** We keep ourselves very clean. **[04:59]** It's just a cleanliness thing? **[05:00]** Yes. **[05:01]** Is there any significance in the color of the robes? **[05:03]** At least, at the present moment, people think that by keeping long hair, **[05:10]** you become very beautiful. So we are against this. **[05:14]** Just as simple as that? Is there any significance in the yellow robes? **[05:19]** Yellow robe is the dress of those who are dedicated. **[05:26]** It could have very well been a blue robe, it's just something that was arrived at. **[05:32]** This saffron. **[05:34]** Your grace, why do you feel that so many people are pulling away from the **[05:42]** traditional religions in this country such as Christianity and so forth, **[05:45]** and going for the…trying to understand the eastern religions? **[05:49]** We hear of a lot of Swamis and Gurus and other type of yogi and so forth. **[05:54]** Why do you feel that people are pulling away from the traditional Christian standards here? **[05:59]** Because we see that the Christian churches, especially I have seen in London, mostly closed. **[06:08]** People are not interested or the Christian leaders, they cannot make them interested. **[06:15]** Why? Did Christianity fail the people, which is why they're turning to other things? **[06:19]** I think so. **[06:20]** You say that Hare Krsna Consciousness pretty much takes the absolute truths **[06:30]** from the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, and the Vedic. **[06:31]** Everywhere. Religion means to understand God. **[06:36]** I understand, but do you feel that in getting truths from various places **[06:42]** like the Bible and the Koran and so forth, don't you run into conflicts at all, **[06:44]** or contradictions in those particular philosophies? **[06:47]** No, I don't find any conflict because the ultimate goal is God. **[06:50]** So, we have to understand God and try to love him. **[06:56]** So you can go through any religious process. If the goal is attained, **[07:02]** that you understand what is God, and you try to love him, then your life is perfect. **[07:07]** Why do we see so many of your followers chanting almost all the time? **[07:12]** The chanting means to keep association with God, always. **[07:19]** So you have to audibly chant 'Hare Krsna?' **[07:20]** Yes. This is transcendental vibration. Just like a radio message, **[07:27]** if you keep contact with the radio message, then you know everything that is going on outside. **[07:34]** Similarly, this transcendental sound, 'Hare Krsna,' **[07:38]** if you chant, then you keep connection with God directly. **[07:43]** Thank you very much, your divine grace, it's been our privelige to talk with you **[07:48]** and to meet you, and hope that we can see you again when you return. **[07:51]** We'll be back with more news in just a moment. **[07:59]** We were also able to obtain some candid footage of Swami Prabhupada **[08:04]** going about his daily activities, and we found that there is a remarkable consistency **[08:08]** between his private life, and his public life. **[10:11]** We are receiving the transcendental knowledge through guru parampara succession. **[10:15]** So we have to simply take instruction from guru, and if we execute that to our heart and soul, **[10:34]** that is success. That is practical. I have no personal qualification but I simply try to satisfy **[10:49]** my guru. That's all. My Guru Maharaja asked me that, **[10:56]** "If you get some money, you print books." Therefore I am stressing this point. **[11:04]** So kindly help me. This is my request. **[11:10]** Print as many books in as many languages and distribute throughout the whole world. **[11:20]** Then Krsna Consciousness movement will automatically increase. **[11:25]** That Supreme Lord, he is omnipotent, omniscient, he knows everything. **[11:35]** But the living being does not know actually what is the position **[11:44]** of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. **[11:47]** That is the difference between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and ordinary living beings. **[12:05]** My father wanted me to become like this. Know everything, what is going on. **[12:12]** He never wanted me to be a worldly man, earning money. He never wanted. **[14:34]** That is explained in Narada-pancharatra. **[14:49]** When we become free from this artificial designations, American consciousness, **[14:58]** Indian consciousness, African consciousness, there is no such thing this is artificial. **[15:03]** Even bird and beast, they also feel consciousness, pains and pleasures. **[15:13]** When there is scorching heat you feel some pain. **[15:20]** Is it American or Indian or African? Scorching heat is everywhere. **[15:26]** If you say that I am feeling scorching heat American way… **[15:40]** Simply these are artificial. **[15:42]** There western world, the younger generation were becoming frustrated, the hippie movement. **[15:53]** So, when they saw something tangible, they accepted it. **[16:02]** What things…If everyone in the United States believed in Krsna, and to the extent that you do, **[16:12]** what would happen to this country? How would it be transformed? **[16:15]** They would be very happy and peaceful. There would be no more hippies. **[16:28]** What would you describe as a hippie? **[16:30]** You know better than me. Something extraordinary. **[16:41]** So you may love humanity, but because you do not love Krsna, therefore do not love the cows **[16:48]** you send them to slaughterhouse. So your love will remain defective. It will never be complete. **[16:59]** And if you love Krsna, then you love even the small ant. **[17:07]** You are not interested to kill even a small ant. That is real love. **[17:20]** Gopal Krishna, in India, requested that BBT give him a loan of 160,000 dollars. **[17:30]** In India, during the Mayapur festival, he requested a loan from the U.S. BBT for **[17:39]** 160,000 dollars, which would be used to construct the second residence building. **[17:47]** How will he pay back? **[17:49]** His plan was that the American temples would purchase rooms, **[17:53]** and over a period of four or five years they would pay that money back. **[17:58]** So is that still approved by your Divine Grace? **[18:03]** Yes, I have no objection. **[18:06]** The only thing is that we will have to delay the loan because for the next three months, **[18:12]** all our money will be used to print these 17 books. **[18:14]** First of all books, then loan. We cannot hold up printing, that is not possible. **[18:25]** This you must always keep in view. We are not going to… **[18:29]** The surplus money we are going to pay. Not that at the cost of stopping printing. **[18:38]** You must always keep it (in view). When you require money for printing, **[18:42]** there is no question of loan or temple building. This should be our principle. **[19:21]** Our guest today was the personal servant to A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada **[19:27]** for almost two and a half years. He also traveled with him all over the world **[19:31]** and got to know him on a very intimate basis. **[19:34]** Please welcome His Holiness, Prabhupada Kripa Swami. What may I call you, Swami? **[19:39]** Maharaja is more common. **[19:41]** How did you get your name? It's similar to Prabhupada's name. You were his secretary. **[19:48]** Yes. I traveled with Srila Prabhupada for the last two years of his life. **[19:52]** Later on after Srila Prabhupada's disappearance I took the renounced order of life **[19:57]** from one of my god-brothers. Because of my elevation in Krsna Consciousness due to **[20:05]** that intimate contact with Srila Prabhupada, then I was given the name Prabhupada Kripa Swami, **[20:10]** which means "one who has got the mercy of Prabhupada." **[20:14]** What was the one most striking thing that impressed you most about Prabhupada? **[20:20]** The most striking thing, I think was Prabhupada's tremendous compassion and **[20:25]** determination to do something to help the suffering of the world's population. **[20:30]** He had a very genuine desire to want to help others. **[20:36]** This is the nature of pure devotional service. When one becomes a devotee, **[20:40]** and he becomes Krsna conscious or fully God conscious himself, **[20:45]** then he has no problems for himself. He knows that at the end of this life, **[20:50]** he'll go back to Godhead, or he'll go back to the spiritual world. **[20:53]** Even in this lifetime he experiences no real difficulties because his consciousness is fixed. **[20:58]** But he sees that so many others, due to their ignorance of their spiritual nature, **[21:05]** they are suffering. They're suffering from old age, they're suffering from disease, **[21:10]** they're suffering from so many minor distractions, etcetera. **[21:15]** And he wants to help them to be freed from their suffering. **[21:19]** The only ambition that a devotee has is to try to help others, **[21:24]** and he becomes distressed if he sees others in distress. That's his nature. **[21:28]** Did he reveal any intimate thoughts to you or any other GBC members? **[21:36]** Everything that Prabhupada wanted to say, he put in his books. It's an open secret. **[21:41]** It's not that Prabhupada just kept some knowledge or some ideas just to an intimate few. **[21:48]** Those who were intimately connected with Srila Prabhupada got the same instruction **[21:52]** as those who may have never even met Srila Prabhupada. Everything is there. **[21:57]** He's written eighty volumes of books. Prabhupada often told us that, **[22:02]** "Everything that I wanted to say is there in my books." **[22:04]** Anyone who has read those books thoroughly can become just as qualified. **[22:09]** How many volumes again? **[22:10]** Over eighty volumes. **[22:11]** How long did it take him to write those? **[22:12]** Prabhupada began seriously writing in 1960 and then when he came to the west in 1965 **[22:19]** he began a very intensive program of writing. **[22:24]** You worked very closely with him. Did he write those himself? **[22:27]** Oh yes. When we were taking rest, that was when Prabhupada was up, writing. **[22:31]** I would give him a massage in the evening time. About nine, ten o'clock at night. **[22:37]** Then I would go and take rest, and then immediately, practically, **[22:41]** Srila Prabhupada would rise, he would chant on his beads, and then he would sit down **[22:46]** and all night long from midnight practically to five o'clock in the morning, **[22:49]** he was translating from original Sanskrit volumes into English. **[22:55]** How many hours did he sleep a day? **[22:58]** Probably three or four at most. **[23:02]** Seven days a week. Just kept on going. **[23:04]** Yes. Yes. Same program every day, wherever we were. **[23:05]** He was what, seventy, eighty years old? **[23:10]** At the time that I was traveling with Srila Prabhupada, he was seventy-nine years old. **[23:13]** How did he get the energy? **[23:14]** Spiritual energy. Prabhupada was inspired by the spiritual platform, **[23:18]** and despite the fact that due to old age his body was giving him so many problems, **[23:23]** it never affected his ability to work. He had a tremendous amount of energy. **[23:30]** Actually, he could outpace all of his disciples, and we were all young men. **[23:36]** How would Prabhupada react to the resistance of the Hare Krsnas? **[23:41]** The Hare Krsnas have been ridiculed and made fun of, called cults, **[23:45]** and been the object of a lot of opposition and persecution. **[23:50]** How would Prabhupada react to it? **[23:52]** Prabhupada was very strong about that kind of misnomer, cult, etcetera. **[24:00]** He knew that this movement was pure, and the highest form of religious practice. **[24:06]** So whenever there would be any accusation he would, his reaction would be to **[24:10]** immediately preach very strongly as to what the actual situation was. **[24:16]** He would tell us to go out and utilize the media and utilize the opportunity of controversy **[24:23]** for telling people what Krsna consciousness was actually all about. **[24:28]** So he actually became very enthused sometimes when there was some controversy **[24:34]** because he knew that this is an opportunity. He saw it this way. **[24:38]** It was an opportunity sent by Krsna to enable us to become more prominent. **[24:43]** To get more people's attention to Krsna consciousness, and asking questions. **[24:48]** This is one of the processes, that we want people to ask about Krsna consciousness. **[24:54]** So there's a little controversy, we don't mind. **[24:57]** And Prabhupada was always very enthusiastic whenever the opportunity came to preach. **[25:01]** Maharaja, there are a lot of gurus or spiritual leaders of some movements, claim to be God. **[25:08]** Did Prabhupada ever claim to be God? **[25:11]** No, never. Prabhupada was very disturbed by these false claims, **[25:15]** bogus people, who claimed to be the supreme person, **[25:19]** but actually have no power that the Supreme Lord has. **[25:23]** Prabhupada always made it very clear to us that his position **[25:27]** and the position of any living entity is that we are servants of God. **[25:32]** Krsna is all-powerful, omniscient. **[25:35]** That humans are not the master and he was not the master. **[25:39]** Yes. That we're simply servants of the Supreme Lord. **[25:42]** And the natural position for any living entity is to serve the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna. **[25:47]** Prabhupada was a very amazing man, working eighteen, twenty hours a day, seven days a week. **[25:55]** What was the one most amazing thing you've seen him do? **[25:58]** The most amazing thing about Prabhupada was the way that he was **[26:03]** completely unaffected by all of the adoration that he got from his disciples, from all of the **[26:08]** material facility that Krsna supplied to him for spreading Krsna consciousness. **[26:13]** The way that he was able to remain the same humble simple personality. **[26:18]** That was the most amazing thing. **[26:22]** Prabhupada was not a man who was displaying magical feats. **[26:27]** He attracted us by his purity, by his simplicity, and by his genuine honesty and compassion. **[26:35]** And that was actually…In this world, that is amazing. **[26:39]** To find a person who is actually pure. **[26:41]** Completely unmotivated, who simply wants to help you. **[26:45]** And the more that we took advantage of that help from Prabhupada, **[26:50]** the more help he wanted to give us. That was always very amazing. **[26:53]** There was no flaw in Prabhupada's character. **[26:56]** Now, a man like that, how are you able to tell people who are joining your movement now, **[27:02]** five, six years after his death, how are you able to really fully describe him? **[27:07]** It's very difficult to fully describe a pure devotee of the Lord. **[27:13]** What we can do is try to give people what Prabhupada has given us. **[27:18]** The pure, unadulterated standard of Krsna consciousness that he displayed. **[27:23]** This is what we want to give to others. **[27:25]** And then when people experience real Krsna consciousness, real God consciousness, **[27:30]** they'll know something about Srila Prabhupada. **[27:32]** Wish we could talk a few more minutes about Prabhupada, but we've run out of time. **[27:37]** So we'll have to go back to the anchor desk and Monya. **[27:39]** Dr. Stilson Judah is a professor of emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. **[27:45]** His field is the history of religion. **[27:47]** We asked Dr. Judah to tell us about his association with Swami Prabhupada. **[27:52]** The International Society for Krsna Consciousness is a bona fide movement. **[27:58]** It is a movement which is actually older than that of Christianity. **[28:04]** The worship of Krsna is one which is extremely popular in India and is one of the **[28:10]** great religions of India at the present time as it has been throughout all of the years of history. **[28:17]** One of the questions most asked by people is whether 'Hare Krsna' is just a passing fad **[28:23]** or is it really here to stay. Next week, we're going to try and get all the answers. **[28:27]** Will 'Hare Krsna' survive through the eighties? **[28:30]** What happened to the movement after the passing of their leader Swami Prabhupada, **[28:34]** and what kinds of worship do they have?