Prabhupada On Tour — Only He Could Lead Them

Subtitles

[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?