Your Ever Well Wisher — A Biography of HDG Srila Prabhupada
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- His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
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- The movement he started is now known to millions around the world.
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Yet he himself remained in the background.
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Without personal ambition he worked humbly to spread Krishna consciousness,
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devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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Yet his achievements and personal character did not go unnoticed.
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The worlds’ leading scholars and religionists praised his unique contribution.
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And thousands grew to love him as their dearmost friend and well-wisher.
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In his memory his disciples erected a stunning memorial in the hills of West Virginia,
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Now visited by half a million people a year.
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In this and many other ways around the world Srila Prabhupada is offered expressions
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- of love by those whose lives he most deeply touched.
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- Always remember Krishna, God, and never forget Him. This was the goal of the rich
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- spiritual culture that flourished in India for thousands of years.
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- Even today Lord Krishna is remembered and glorified through monumental
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- achievements in architecture, art, drama, music, dance and philosophy.
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- Calcutta, 1896, the capital of India, the crown jewel of the British empire.
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- An elegant city of wide avenues and spacious parks.
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- It is here that Abhay Caranaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami is born.
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- A pure devotee of Krishna from birth Abhay Charan is raised in a well-to-do mercantile family.
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- From infancy he goes with his father to the Radha-Krishna Temple and at age four the
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- child spontaneously begins worshipping similar Deities in his home.
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- When Abhay Charan hears of Ratha-yatra, a traditional festival in
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- honour of Lord Krishna, it further inspires his natural devotion.
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- With his fathers help every year he holds his own small celebration
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- drawing the neighbourhood children into the festivities.
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- At age eight Abhay Charan enters the nearby Matti Laul Seel school.
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- After graduation he attends Scottish Churches College, one of the most respected in Calcutta.
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- At the time Mahatma Gandhi is organizing his countrymen in a nationwide boycott of everything
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- British. Gandhism is surging through India, uniting her in a massive non-cooperation movement.
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- Sensitive to British subujation of India’s culture and people,
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- Abhay Charan becomes an early supporter of Gandhi’s movement.
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- But 1922 marks a turning point in Abhay Charan’s life.
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- He meets Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Saraswati Goswami, the greatest devotee of Krishna of his time.
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- Srila Bhaktsiddhanta belongs to the disciplic successon of spiritual masters extending back to Lord Krishna Himself.
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- He convinces Abhay Charan that Krishna’s spiritual message transcends India’s dependant position.
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- Nothing is more important.
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- He requests Abhay Charan to spread Krishna consciousness in the Western world.
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- Abhay Charan hears and is deeply impressed.
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- By this time Abhay Charan has a growing family.
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- He moves to Allhabhad and starts a successful pharmacy.
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- All the while his spiritual master’s words remain implanted in his heart.
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- In 1933 he becomes a disciple of Srila Bhaktsiddhanta who comments,
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- “He will do everything in due time.”
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- Three years later Srila Bhaktsiddhanta leaves this world,
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- after again requesting Abhay Charan to preach in English.
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- Abhay Charan takes his words to heart and starts writing prodigiously.
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- In 1944 he single-handedly begins publishing and distributing “Back to Godhead,” a fortnightly.
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- The first issue addresses the crisis of war.
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- The second world war within twenty years is scourging the Earth.
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- “Back to Godhead” points out that people throughout the world want an end to war
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- but so often they want God’s kingdom without God, and they can not have it.
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- “All our plans will be doomed to failure by our own selfishness unless we turn to God.”
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- After the war Abhay Charan moves to Jhansi and founds the “League of Devotees.”
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- He prepares a charter for an international organization, its members dedicated to a peaceful, God-centred life.
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- Aharaya Prabhaka, his first disciple remembers.
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- He was always teaching Krishna consciousness and people came to him for knowledge.
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- After hearing from him many wanted to become his disciple.
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- He told them, “I can make you my disciple, but first you please chant the names of God
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- And give up cigarettes, meat eating, illicit sex and gambling.
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- But few people would agree to give up these habits.
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- Then he said: “Indians are imitating the Westerners. I will make disciples in the West.”
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- Then, when the Indian people see Westerners following religious principles , they will also follow.
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- Following tradition, at age 58, Abhay Charan retires from family life
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- and five years later accepts the renounced order.
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- He is now known as “A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.”
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- He lives alone in the historic medieval temple of Radha-Damodar in Vrindavana
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- engaged in deep studies and writing.
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- It was in Vrindavana that Lord Krishna revealed His pastimes fifty centuraries ago
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- and saintly persons throughout the ages have worshipped this land as the most sacred on Earth.
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- Unlike other holy men who live there, Bhaktivedanta Swami is not thinking of retiring.
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- For him Vrindavana is a source of inspiration, an ideal place to chant, worship and write.
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- Here he begins work on his life’s masterpiece,
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- translation and commentary on the monumental devotional classic, “Srimad-Bhagavatam.”
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- Bhaktivedanta Swami calles it, “A cultural presentation for the respiritualization of the entire human society.
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- But often he leaves Vrindavana to print his magazine and books in nearby Delhi.
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- Travelling takes time and tolerance but Bhaktivedanta Swami accepts it as part of his spiritual
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- mission to broadcast devotional service to Lord Krishna.
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- He writes, “Our leaders have carefully set aside the treasure-house of India’s spiritual asset.
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- And they are imitating the Western material way of life.
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- But people are more unhappy than ever before because of exclusion of the most
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- important part of life-the spiritual aspect.
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- In Delhi, Bhaktivedanta Swami personally distributes copies of “Back to Godhead.
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- And with small donations struggles to maintain the publication.
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- He regularly sees Surendra Kumar Jain, a printer.
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- It was somewhere in the month of February 1956 that I first met Prabhupada.
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- He came to my press for getting the magazine printed, “Back to Godhead.”
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- I found that it was not very easy for him to collect money.
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- He would come to the press practically every day and after the printing was done
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- He would do everything himself. He was a very dedicated person. A very committed person.
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- And at the times when he was not in a position to pay the bills,
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- I would ask him, “Why are you running this? Stop it.
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- He would say, “No, it is my mission and one day Surrenra Kumar you will see that I will succeed in my mission.
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- By 1964 Bhaktivedanta Swami completes three volumes of Srimad-Bhagavatam.
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- Prime Misister Laul Bhadar Sastri lauds his accomplishment and recommends his books
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- For placement in India’s Public Libraries.
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- Sumati Morarji, chairman of the Scindia steamship company gives contributions for
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- printing Bhaktivedanta Swami’s books and arranges for his passage to America.
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- And he used to come every evening. And one day he said that he would like to go to America.
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- I was surprised. I said: “Swamiji, don’t go, there you are too old and it will be too cold for you.”
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- Still he insisted, so I said, “All right.”
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- So I made arrangement for him to go on Jaladuta.
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- On way while he was passing through Surat, that day was Lord Krishna’s birthday,
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- and he gathered all the people on board the ship. All the crew members, officers.
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- And recited some sloka and then some prasad was distributed to them and all that.
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- Bhaktivedanta Swami, a lone mendicant seventy years old, travelling half way across the world.
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- His only resources the message he carries and his unflinching faith.
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- The voyage on the Jaladuta proves a great trial. Bhaktivedanta Swami endures seasickness
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- And then suffers severe chest pains. In two days he has two heart attacks.
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- If another comes he thinks he would surely not survive.
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- But gradually he recovers.
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- He writes: “I feel today better, but I am feeling separation from Vrindavana.
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- “I have no qualification but I have taken up the risk just to carry out the order of my spiritual master.”
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- September 17th. 1965. The Jaladuta arrives in Boston Harbour.
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- Onboard Bhaktivedanta Swami writes:
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- My dear Lord Krishna you are so kind upon this useless soul
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- but I do not know why you have brought me here.”
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- Most of the poulation here is absorbed in material life.
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- How will I make them understand your message? I can simply repeat Your words and
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- if You like You can make my power of speaking suitable for their understanding.
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- I have no devotion, nor do I have any knowledge.
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- But I have strong faith in the holy name of Krishna.
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- I have been designated as Bhaktivedanta, “devotion with knowledge,” and now if You like
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- You can fulfil the real purport of Bhaktivedanta.
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- Signed, the most unfortunate, insignificant beggar, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.
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- Bhaktivedanta Swami first stays in Butler, Pennsylvania in the home of a friends son,
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- Gopal Agrawal and his wife Sally.
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- The swami was a friend of my husband’s father, Mr. Agrawal in Agra, India.
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- And he asked me to sponsor the Swami, and that’s what I did.
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- And that’s why he came to our house in the middle of the night one night.
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- He stayed with us for a month in Butler.
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- And I learned, over the time I learned to love him as I would a father inlaw.
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- He was a very sensitive and kindly type of person.
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- He was indeed one of the most unusual men I’ve ever met in my life.
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- The swami came with so few possessions. He came with the clothes he had on his back,
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- He had a typewriter and he had his books. And he had a bag of cereal.
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- Imagine coming to a country on the other side of the world with so little.
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- And yet he came with so much in himself.
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- The Swami brought a pan with him in which he cooked his food and in fact cooked our lunch too.
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- Our little boy was only six months old when he came and the Swami was there when Bridge first stood.
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- And he laughed and laughed to see him stand up. When he left he was just oceanic, oceanic.
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- He just seemed to take in the entire universe when he left and he left a lot.
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- I enjoyed my association for that one month with him about as much as I have enjoyed anything in my life.
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- Although comfortable in Butler, Bhaktivedanta Swami thought,
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- The most important philosophy in the world, Krishna consciousness,
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- should be spread in one of the most important cities in the world, New York.
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- He moves to 100 West 72nd Street.
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- Three months later his typewriter and tape recorder for translating were stolen.
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- Bhaktivedanta Swami later said: I came to America risking my life.
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- I was physically unfit and at the fag end of my days. Sometimes I did not know where to live,
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- nor was I used to the severe cold. Seemingly I was alone for one year, but I never felt alone,
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- I always felt the presence of my spiritual master. So I did not loose my enthusiasm despite all difficulties.
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- Bhaktivedanta Swami arrived in America during a decade of discontent.
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- There’s widespread dissatisfaction with America’s war in Vietnam
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- and with what some consider her racist exploitative dealings at home.
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- Disillusioned by the establishment the youth create a counter-culture of their own.
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- Around the time Bhaktivedanta Swami came waves of Americans are
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- breaking away from the status-quo, searching for an alternative.
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- For a short time Bhaktivedanta Swami lives in the Bowery in a loft given by a friend.
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- Mukunda Goswami, who was attending his classes at this time, tells of their first meeting.
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- He wore very thick glasses and had a big Sanskrit book spread out before him.
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- His voice was very deep and resonant. He spoke with great authority
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- and the Sanskrit slokas he spoke very beautiful, very melodious.
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- He was obviously a very distinguished scholar. I became very curious, almost astonished,
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- As to how someone of his stature, he looked very much like an aristocrat,
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- could be living in the Bowery, the skid-row of New York.
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- And afterwards I approached him to speak. I was standing and he was sitting on his small dais.
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- So he was looking up at me. And he had the look of a very happy, innocent young child.
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- And I could see that he actually had all the time in the world for me. He wasn’t short of time.
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- I asked questions, he would answer.
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- Then after some time he moved to a somewhat better neighbourhood on Second Avenue.
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- We helped him rent a small storefront there and he had an apartment in the back.
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- And within a few weeks time this little storefront on Second Avenue,
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- on the lower-east side of New York, which was then populated by thousands of young hippies,
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- had been transformed into a beautiful Krishna temple.
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- Alan Ginsberg, I remember, began to come at that time.
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- When he moved down the lower east side I thought that was a stroke of brilliant social judgement.
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- Because traditionally swamis, yogis and masters all moved uptown to the rich.
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- And were sponsored and funded by the rich. And you would find Krishna Murti living
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- in elegant apartments on the upper east side with drawing rooms and French furniture,
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- and here was Bhaktivedanta like in the depths of Calcutta. Where the hippies were.
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- Where the acid-heads were, the freaks and the amphetamine-heads and the meth-monsters.
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- So it seemed some kind of ray of song and light to the right place.
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- The lower depths where it was needed.
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- And of course the lower east side was the intellectual centre in certain respects.
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- In art and in advanced spiritual vibrations, particularly in the sixties.
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- So it seemed a historically just move on his part.
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- A friend of mine told me about a love celebration at Tompkins Square Park which was last Thursday,
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- the Thursday before last and I knew I had been seeking a guru for a while.
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- So Krishna sent me there, and I was there and after meeting some of the initiates I knew that
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- the swami really had to be into something.
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- I came here in America in the September 1965. I was wandering the street.
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- And some of the boys saw me. And gradually they came to me.
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- My mission is to preach the philosophy of Lord Caitanya, chanting Hare Krishna
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- Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
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- This transcendental vibration will cleanse the dirty things of the mind.
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- It doesn’t matter what he is. This transcendental vibration is equally appealing to everyone.
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- Without any question of language, nationality, creed or caste.
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- Because it is coming forth from the depth of the soul.
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- Krishna was all along preparing something, Bhaktivedanta Swami later wrote.
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- And He brought me to you one by one. Sincere boys and girls to be trained in Krishna consciousness.
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- Now I can see that it is a miracle. Otherwise one old man with only a few books to sell for barely getting food.
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- How could he survive, what to speak of introducing a God conscious movement in a materialistic society.
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- For Bhaktivedanta Swami these are happy days, singing and speaking with the vigour of a young man.
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- He brings the Hare Krishna movement into the public eye, by chanting in the parks.
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- By distributing Back To Godhead magazine, by holding free Sunday love feasts.
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- Many are attracted. His hopes for the future expand without limit.
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- The Hare Krishna movement has taken root.
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- Some time in the spring of 1967 people handed me clippings from New York
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- newspapers saying that there was a swami in New York city.
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- So I went to New York to look up this person and his movement.
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- My first contact was with disciples apart from Bhaktivedanta Swami.
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- And I was frankly somewhat disappointed by the disciples.
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- They seemed to be not very informed about what they were doing.
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- They were a little unclear about the whole thing.
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- And yet they were terribly serious and terribly devoted to what they were about.
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- And I couldn’t put those two pieces together.
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- You know, their confusion and uncertainty on the one hand and .
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- their commitment on the other until I met Bhaktivedanta Swami.
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- And as soon as I met him, which was after several visits to the temple,
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- I realized that this was the person who really made the whole thing go.
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- But the impressive thing about him was it was never himself in the center.
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- He never said you should do this because of me.
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- He always said you should do this, and I should do this, because of Krishna.
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- When he gave them instructions to do what they thought were impossible things.
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- Like he told one of the early disciples, “go start a magazine.”
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- The guy had never had any contact with a magazine before in his life, except to read one.
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- And he said: “How am I to do that?” And Bhaktivedanta Swami said: “Krishna will help you.”
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- He was just astonishing in terms of the personal impact he had on people.
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- The way that he was able to give them confidence in themselves.
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- But more importantly give them confidence that there was a guide who was leading them
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- And would give them the strength they needed.
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- Bhaktivedanta Swami does not belong to New York. He belongs to Krishna.
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- So when a few of his followers invite him to San Francisco he goes and introduces the free-wheeling youth to Krishna.
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- His ancient culture, His spiritual food, His eternal chant.
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- The way to stay high forever.
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- In the heart of the hippy movement, Height Ashbury, Golden Gate Park,
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- and in the hearts of the hippies, the Hare Krishna mantra resounds with unimagined potency.
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- As in New York Bhaktivedanta Swami gathers sincere followers.
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- The Hare Krishna movement begins to grow.
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- Bhaktivedanta Swami becomes respectfully known as “Prabhupada,” meaning
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- “one at whose feet the masters sit.”
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- From Montreal Prabhupada sends six disciples to open a temple in London.
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- Yamuna devi dasi remembers.
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- So we went to London that fall and although we had no permanent place of residence
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- And we were completely dependent on Krishna, somehow or another
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- By the enthusiasm that Srila Prabhupada had given us in Montreal
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- We were able to make contact with George Harrison
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- who was a member of the Beetles at the time.
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- And he was such a pleasant person to be with. He so much appreciated the Hare Krishna mantra
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- That he immediately said, “Lets make a 45 record.”
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- So we cut a record and he was very pleased with it.
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- He did a little background music on it and it was released and Apple organized tours for us.
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- We went to Germany and France and had television coverage.
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- And in this way the London Times, the Sunday Times, wanted to do a feature on us.
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- And we were able to send the report back to Srila Prabhupada with the headlines,
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- “Krishna consciousness startles London.”
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- As people come to him convinced of the Krishna conscious philosophy Srila Prabhupada
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- accepts them for initiation. Not on the basis of birth, as in the rigid Hindu caste system,
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- but on the basis of qualification and sincerity. In the whole history of Indian spiritual life
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- no one has ever attempted something as bold and seemingly impossible.
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- To transform Westerners into full-fledged devotees of Lord Krishna.
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- But by his intense spiritual energy and compassion,
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- Srila Prabhupada is successful beyond his own expectations.
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- How old is the movement.
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- But from historical point of view it is about five thousand years old.
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- Why has it just begun to really catch on in the Western world?
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- I mean just recently, you know in recent years it has began to sweep the Western world.
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- Why is this?
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- The Western world, younger generation were being frustrated, the hippie movement.
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- So when they saw something tangible they accepted it.
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- What things… if everyone in the United States believed in Krishna and to the extent that you do
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- What would happen to this country, how would it be transformed?
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- They would be very happy and peaceful.
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- There will be no more hippies.
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- What would you describe as a hippy? Someone who smokes…
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- You know better than me.
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- Something extraordinary.
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- The thing that really inspired me the most about Srila Prabhupada was his
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- complete dedication to his devotees.
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- The thing that Prabhupada liked the best was to be with his disciples.
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- It wasn’t that he took on large amounts of disciples
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- and then sat backed and then just pushed them to do this and that and the other for himself.
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- He did more for us than we ever did for him.
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- And travelling with him personally I got to see what a tremendous sacrifice he made for us.
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- And even when he was ill he would still preach. He would still be concerned.
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- He would still be asking after how things were going in the society that he created.
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- How were individual disciples doing.
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- He always had time also to look to our personal needs.
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- He was very concerned. Prabhupada wasn’t aloof.
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- All he really wanted was us to reciprocate the love that he gave to us.
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- And if we reciprocated he would give us more.
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- So my personal experience with Srila Prabhupada was that I found in him a person
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- that I could actually genuinely fully give myself to.
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- In Srila Prabhupada’s eyes Krishna consciousness is not an armchair philosophy or a part-time religion.
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- It is a way of life. A transcendental culture that can end mans political, economic and social problems.
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- To realize his vision Srila Prabhupada circles the globe fourteen times in twelve years.
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- Inspiring his followers and discussing Krishna consciousness with all interested persons.
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- His door is open to everyone.
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- Actually nothing is private property. Everything belongs to God.
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- Rather we have stolen God’s property and claiming, “my property.”
- [29:15]
- There is Australia, the English man came here, but is that the property of English man?
- [29:19]
- It was there, America, it was there and when everything will be finished it will be there also.
- [29:38]
- In the middle we come and claim, “It is my property,” and fight.
- [29:43]
- To revive the Krishna conscious tradition in its full richness,
- [29:48]
- Prabhupada envisions God-centred, self-sufficient farm communities
- [29:53]
- based on the principle of plain living and high thinking.
- [29:57]
- The first such community begins on 133 acres in the hills of West Virginia.
- [30:02]
- Prabhupada calls it “New Vrindavana” after Krishna’s place of pastimes in India.
- [30:08]
- In 1972 Srila Prabhupada begins a Krishna conscious primary school system in Dallas, Texas.
- [30:19]
- Srila Prabhupada very practically introduced a primary school system to teach children
- [30:26]
- self-realization along with regular study.
- [30:27]
- This means that the Gurukul system is unique in that the educators are themselves free of vices.
- [30:33]
- We could hardly find an institution where the faculty members are free of loose sexual relationships,
- [30:43]
- intoxication, smoking, although they may have good credentials academically.
- [30:51]
- That would be rare to find.
- [30:53]
- But in Krishna consciousness the teacher must also be on the platform of pure devotional service.
- [30:59]
- Because the children are very impressionable and they learn what their educators are
- [31:06]
- actually doing, not just what they are saying.
- [31:08]
- So these are some of the principles that Srila Prabhupada introduced in Gurukula.
- [31:14]
- Srila Prabhupada gradually trains his disciples in the time-honoured tradition of deity worship
- [31:20]
- to help them advance spiritually. He explains, “I have introduced this system of deity worship
- [31:27]
- “among the non-belivers, the atheists. Krishna can not be understood with our present senses.
- [31:33]
- But by His kindness he agrees to personally appear as the Deity to accept our service.
- [31:38]
- When we are attracted to the beautiful form of the Deity we will forget our attraction for material things.
- [31:45]
- And as we serve the Deity we will develop pure love of God.
- [31:50]
- Then our lives will be successful.
- [32:07]
- In Melbourne, Australia Srila Prabhupada worships Lord Caitanya, a divine incarnation of Krishna.
- [32:13]
- By Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy we have installed the Deity here in your country.
- [32:23]
- You are very fortunate that Caitanya Mahaprabhu has come to your country.
- [32:31]
- To teach you how you become free of all anxieties. This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission.
- [32:43]
- Everyone is full of anxiety but everyone can be free from all anxieties
- [32:54]
- if he follows the path chalked out by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
- [33:00]
- As people are fallen in this age, the method also has been offered-very simple.
- [33:10]
- They have been recommended simply to chant the holy name of God, that’s all.
- [33:19]
- For five years after first arriving in America, Srila Prabhupada presents Krishna consciousness
- [33:26]
- primarly to Westerners. From housewives to hippies to heads of state.
- [33:31]
- Then, in November 1971, after a world tour, he returns to Delhi with some of his followers.
- [33:39]
- The Mayor receives him with the fanfare that greets a homecoming patriot.
- [33:44]
- Prabhupada quotes Lord Caitanya.
- [33:47]
- It is the duty of those born in India to benefit others by spreading Krishna consciousness.
- [33:53]
- This is India’s greatest glory. Her unique gift to the world.
- [33:57]
- Thirty thousand Indians gather nightly at the Delhi fair grounds to see the
- [34:03]
- Western devotees and hear Prabhupada speak.
- [34:06]
- To bring about this change in India, the revival of Krishna consciousness,
- [34:22]
- Prabhupada’s plan was to bring his dancing white elephants.
- [34:29]
- He told us that, When I bring my Western disciples to India, they will all come to see
- [34:36]
- my dancing white elephants, he said.
- [34:39]
- So we were actually very fond of being Prabhupada’s dancing white elephants.
- [34:46]
- We took that as the special mercy of Prabhupad on us, that we could be his dancing white elephants
- [34:54]
- and help him in any way we could to preach Krishna consciousness in India.
- [35:01]
- Prabhupada was told by an astrologer in Navadvipa, in West Bengal,
- [35:10]
- when he saw a photo of Prabhupada’s face, he said that this man, he has the ability
- [35:18]
- to make a house in which the whole world can live peacefully.
- [35:20]
- To make a house in which the whole world can live very peacefully.
- [35:26]
- And when I told Prabhupada that, he said, “Yes, that is my mission.”
- [35:30]
- That within Krishna consciousness the whole world can live peacefully.
- [35:36]
- While the Hare Krishna movement spreads worldwide
- [35:40]
- Srila Prabhupada wants to nurture its roots in India.
- [35:44]
- He journeys to Maypur, West Bengal, the birthplace of Lord Caitanya.
- [35:49]
- It was Lord Caitanya who inaugurated, five hundred years ago,
- [35:55]
- the congregational chanting of the God’s holy names.
- [35:58]
- In Mayapur devotees purchase a small tract of land and start constructing an international guest house.
- [36:05]
- For a handful of devotees who know nothing about construction, this is not an easy task.
- [36:13]
- Srila Prabhupada directs and encourages them.
- [36:16]
- For ourselves, he says, we are happy and satisfied living in a grass hut.
- [36:21]
- But if we simply have a hut, who will come here?
- [36:25]
- The more we develop our land, the more people will be attracted.
- [36:29]
- Prabhupada plans to build a temple of understanding to house the world’s largest planetarium.
- [36:34]
- and around it a spiritual city with schools, shops, farms.
- [36:40]
- And many temples for worshipping Lord Krishna.
- [36:43]
- Within the hearts of India’s people is a natural respect for the eternal Krishna conscious culture.
- [36:51]
- Many come forward to take part in Srila Prabhupda’s movement and accept initiation from him.
- [36:58]
- No one should go hungry within a ten mile radius of the temple, Prabhupada instructs.
- [37:06]
- In March 1972 devotees start the ISKCON food relief program, distributing prasad,
- [37:11]
- vegetarian food offered to Lord Krishna.
- [37:15]
- As the Mayapur project develops Prabhupada invites his disciples from six continents
- [37:21]
- to join together yearly on the anniversary of Lord Caitanya’s appearance.
- [37:26]
- Prabhupada wants them to be purified and inspired by remembrance of the Lord in His holy land.
- [37:32]
- In Vrindavana Srila Prabhupada treats his followers to a guided tour of the holy places
- [37:40]
- and personally relates Lord Krishna’s pastimes.
- [37:43]
- The devotees relish a bath in the sacred waters of the Yamuna river.
- [37:52]
- Prabhupada acquires land in Bombay, India’s most cosmopolitan city.
- [38:24]
- Although he has only a hut for a temple Prabhupada envisions an international cultural centre.
- [38:30]
- His ambition is to give as many people as possible access to the nectar of transcendental life,
- [38:37]
- whether through philosophy, service or spiritual food.
- [38:42]
- So that everyone can become happy, hopeful and peaceful.
- [38:45]
- Doctor N.D. Deasi, a leading Bombay industrialist recalls.
- [38:50]
- From 1971 through 1977 I must have met Prabhupada many, many times.
- [38:57]
- And each time I met Prabhupada I would try to find fault with him.
- [39:01]
- And even I would try to make him angry, or I once even tried find out whether was greedy.
- [39:11]
- I just couldn’t find any fault with him.
- [39:14]
- And in fact in matter of business life or daily life we do try to see the weekness of the other person
- [39:24]
- And sometimes, as a businessman, we try to take advantage.
- [39:28]
- But here was a person who just wouldn’t become agitated.
- [39:33]
- There was absolutely no lust in him, there was no greed in him.
- [39:37]
- There was… I couldn’t see a spot of jealousy in him.
- [39:42]
- And then I realized, after six year of, that he was a very empowered, divine person.
- [39:51]
- Gradually, Srila Prabhupada says, I am seeing all my dreams being fulfilled.
- [40:01]
- In Bombay a spacious marble temple, a theatre, a restaurant,
- [40:03]
- a library and a twin-towered seven story hotel.
- [40:06]
- In Mayapur the planned spiritual city develops.
- [40:11]
- In Vrindavana the popular Krishna Balarama temple,
- [40:18]
- and international guest house and a secondary school.
- [40:25]
- Prabhupada sees his society grow into a world-wide confederation
- [40:32]
- with more than one hundred temples, restraints, institutes, schools and farm communities.
- [40:37]
- Five hundred years ago Lord Caitanya predicted that one day the holy name of Krishna
- [40:43]
- would be heard in every town and village of the world.
- [40:46]
- By the mid seventies Hare Krishna becomes a household word.
- [40:52]
- When I first met the first Hare Krishnas I can remember how surprised I was
- [40:58]
- And really I wondered what this meant.
- [41:02]
- The costumes and the chanting and the shaved heads appeared a little strange, a little bizarre to me.
- [41:08]
- But the more I came to know the movement, I came to find that there was
- [41:14]
- a striking similarity in the essence of what they were teaching and saying
- [41:18]
- and in my understanding of the original core of Christianity.
- [41:21]
- That is living simply, not trying to accumulate worldly goods or profit.
- [41:27]
- Living with compassion toward all creatures. Sharing, loving and living joyfully.
- [41:33]
- I am impressed with how much the teaching of one man
- [41:38]
- in the spiritual tradition that he brought has impacted itself into the lives of so many people.
- [41:43]
- So in my own view his contribution is a very important one and will be a lasting one.
- [41:50]
- As a child Srila Prabhupada celebrated Ratha-yatra near his home in Calcutta with his playmates.
- [41:58]
- Years later he is still celebrating the Ratha-yatra festival–
- [42:02]
- but now on the main streets of twenty large cities around the world.
- [42:06]
- And with hundreds of thousands of disciples and guests.
- [42:09]
- People follow, imitate Americans. I am travelling all over the world.
- [42:26]
- Everywhere I see they are trying to manufacture the skyscraper building.
- [42:40]
- Imitating your country.
- [42:42]
- So, if you kindly become Krishna conscious and chant and dance in ecstasy,
- [42:46]
- emotional love of God, the whole world will follow you,
- [42:51]
- and it will be Vaikuntha, there will be no more trouble.
- [42:54]
- Thank you very much.
- [43:51]
- Whether before huge crowds or a few disciples or alone, Srila Prabhupada’s mood of devotion prevails.
- [45:03]
- Wherever in the world he happens to be Srila Prabhupada follows a regular daily schedule.
- [45:07]
- In the quietude of the early mornings he goes out for lengthy strolls and
- [45:13]
- shares intimate moments with a small group of students and guests.
- [45:16]
- Rejecting superficial and dogmatic thinking he carefully guides his students
- [45:22]
- to increased insight and understanding.
- [45:24]
- After his walk Srila Prabhupada greets the Deities of the Supreme Lord,
- [45:30]
- offers obeisances and lectures on a verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam.
- [46:10]
- So you may have two million dollars, I may have ten dollars, you may have hundred dollars.
- [46:16]
- Everyone has got some riches.
- [46:19]
- That is admitted.
- [46:23]
- But nobody can say that I have got all the riches.
- [46:26]
- That is not possible.
- [46:30]
- If somebody can say that I have got all the riches, he is God.
- [46:35]
- That is spoken by Krishna. Nobody has said in the history of the world.
- [46:45]
- Krishna said, bhoktaram yajna-tapasam sarva loka mahesvaram.
- [46:49]
- I am the enjoyer of everything. And I am the proprietor of all the universe.
- [46:58]
- Who can say that?
- [46:59]
- That is God.
- [47:02]
- In the afternoons Prabhupada meets with guests. Here in Los Angeles with scholars of religion.
- [47:09]
- Your pride, your property, your family, your bank balance, your skyscraper buildings,
- [47:17]
- all taken away. Bas, finished, gone away.
- [47:19]
- This is God. Now understand God?
- [47:25]
- If you believe or do not believe God will come one day, will take you, will take your everything
- [47:30]
- And get out. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita.
- [47:35]
- That those who are not believer in God,
- [47:40]
- to them I come as death and take away everything, finished.
- [47:48]
- That one has to believe. Yes. As sure as death. Then God is sure.
- [47:55]
- So unless one is mad man, he cannot say there is no God.
- [48:03]
- Anyone who denies the existence of God, he is a mad man.
- [48:14]
- Prabhupada, wouldn’t it be better to say he is bind, he is stupid.
- [48:15]
- Yes. The same thing.
- [48:16]
- Mad is the sum total of all stupidity.
- [48:21]
- Festival takes place
- [48:26]
- Whereever Srila Prabhupada is he continues to write prolifically. Rising long before dawn
- [48:32]
- he spends hours translating and commenting on original Sanskrit and Bengali texts.
- [48:38]
- Sometimes they wash their hands and feet before entering the temple.
- [48:44]
- His most significant contribution is his books.
- [48:48]
- Srila Prabhupada sees sixty million distributed in twenty-eight languages.
- [48:57]
- Professors from dozens of major universities use them as standard texts and write appreciative reviews.
- [49:03]
- He also did a very important work in introducing to the Western world for the first time
- [49:10]
- the devotional philosophy of Sri Krishna Caitanya.
- [49:14]
- Not only did he introduce these texts,
- [49:18]
- but he introduced them in a way that was quite different from the other translations
- [49:24]
- that had been made. I’ve read so many different translations for example of the Bhagavad-gita.
- [49:29]
- Which had all been interpreted from the impersonalist type of philosophy of the Advaita school.
- [49:37]
- And here you might say for the first time was a truly devotional translation,
- [49:41]
- a spiritual translation of the text which I felt really came
- [49:45]
- much closer to the true meaning and the purpose of the Bhagavad-gita.
- [49:50]
- Established in 1972 the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust exclusively publishes Srila Prabhupada’s works.
- [49:57]
- It becomes the world’s largest distributor of books in the field of Indian religion and philosophy.
- [50:03]
- For Srila Prabhupada the transcendental knowledge in these books forms the basis of the
- [50:09]
- Hare Krishna movement. A movement prophesised to grow for the next ten thousand years.
- [50:14]
- In 1977, dispite his failing health, Srila Prabhupada continues travelling and teaching.
- [50:23]
- February, 1977, the world’s largest pilgrimage, Kumba Mela in Allahabad, India.
- [50:30]
- Millions gathered to bathe in the holy Ganges.
- [50:33]
- Although physically weak, Srila Prabhupada attends.
- [50:38]
- His disciples perform kirtan and distribute books and “Back to Godhead” magazines.
- [50:43]
- Practically from the very beginning Srila Prabhupada gave us notice that he would not always be with us.
- [50:54]
- Of course it was only a few months after he opened the storefront on 26 2nd Avenue and he became very ill
- [51:02]
- and he had that heart attack or whatever it was and it seemed even at that time that he might leave then.
- [51:07]
- And he warned us. He said, “I am an old man, I may leave at any moment.”
- [51:11]
- Notice is already given, three score and ten, that is already passed.
- [51:15]
- So Prabhupada was never under any illusion that he would remain forever in this world with us.
- [51:23]
- But he said, “My instruction will remain.”
- [51:25]
- And he trained us from the very beginning to follow his instruction and to use our individuality
- [51:32]
- to execute his instructions for the glorification of Krishna.
- [51:37]
- Although his illness steadily worsens, Srila Prabhupada speaks nightly at a program in Bombay.
- [51:44]
- In May he journeys to Hrsikesa at the foot of the Himalayas to try to regain his health.
- [51:51]
- There he continues to instruct his intimate disciples.
- [51:56]
- Then in October Srila Prabhupada returns to his old home, Vrindavana, to spend his final days.
- [52:05]
- Even though he is physically incapacitated, Srila Prabhupada’s intellect remains clear.
- [52:27]
- He continues dictating translations and comments on his life’s work, Srimad-Bhagavatam,
- [52:34]
- until days before he departs from this world.
- [52:37]
- Everything is acting, moving, by the supreme desire of Krishna.
- [52:45]
- This consciousness is Krishna consciousness.
- [52:53]
- November 14th, 1977, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada passes on.
- [53:03]
- That divine personality who spoke on different subjects with thousands of meanings,
- [53:25]
- who imparted knowledge in thousands of ways, and who inspired thousands of devotees
- [53:31]
- has now returned to his Lord, Sri Krishna.
- [53:35]
- Being kind to his devotees, Lord Krishna gave them the association of Srila Prabhupada,
- [53:42]
- being independent in his desires, the Lord has now broken that association.
- [53:50]
- Yet Srila Prabhupada remains.
- [53:52]
- He lives forever in his teachings and he lives forever in the hearts of His followers.
- [54:37]
- As their ever well-wisher.
Guide to Self Realization - The Acharya Part 5
The Science of God