In New York, Srila Prabhupada had nowhere to stay but the asrama of an impersonalist svami. To see students listening to a speaker who denied the Personality of Godhead was painful for the pure devotee. But was he to go homeless and beg in the streets?
In December of 1971, I arranged speaking program for Srila Prabhupada in Madras, India. Thousands of people came to hear him, and the leading newspaper carried a summary of his lecture every day.
When I first met Your Divine Grace in 1966, I was lost and fallen. It was my inestimable good fortune that I became your disciple. I did your typing tasks, donated my salary, and brought you a daily mango…
Man is surely great, and his real greatness lies in his ability to understand God’s message: that he is made in God’s image; that he is an eternal soul, part and parcel of God; and that God is the supreme.
Some Personal Recollections by His Disciples. In October of 1971, my parents came to see me in Calcutta. Srila Prabhupada was talking with some of his disciples in his quarters. As soon as my parents entered, Srila Prabhupada greeted them. After hearing him speak for some time, they finally came to the point—they wanted me […]
I can’t bear to think you are no longer here, But when I do I feel your hand upon me And your voice guiding me, as in the night the moon, Lights the wanderer’s way.
As long as all of his disciples constantly look to his instructions and remain faithful, there will not be any chaos. But if they look away from or neglect the teachings of their spiritual master, or if they fail to follow them, then there will be chaos.
Wherever Srila Prabhupada went, on fourteen journeys around the globe, he constantly spread the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra, and when he finally departed he was surrounded by disciples from around the world, loudly chanting these names of God he had given them.
When Srila Prabhupada walked in to begin kirtana, he looked at the newly decorated temple and showed surprise. “Ah, you are advancing,” he said. “This is very nice. This is Krsna consciousness.”
One of my fondest recollections of you is of how you were always uncompromising. During the late 1960s, for example, many of the young people around you were influenced by antiwar sentiments. Nevertheless, you explained that war was not always bad.
It was almost like following a Martian down the street. Somehow Srila Prabhupada floated through it all, seemingly unaware of the stares, comments and general sensation he was creating.
If you try to hear about Krishna Krishna will help to cleanse away these contaminated things, accumulated during years and years of darkness. Because the very hearing is piety, therefore it will act on your heart.
Swamiji has said that what is important is sincerity. Not the rules and regulations, but sincerity. To the sincere devotee, Krishna from within the heart reveals, and everything is taken care of.
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami once explained the transcendental situation of father-and-son: You have accepted me as father, so I have also accepted you as my dear and real son. This relationship of father and son on the spiritual platform is real and eternal.
Bhaktivedanta Swami was the inheritor of a revitalized Caitanyaite tradition as it came down from Bhaktivinoda and Bhaktisiddhanta. He was born in Calcutta in 1896 and received an English education at Scottish Churches’ College in Calcutta.
I’ll never forget the first night I went to see Prabhupad. Four of my friends were sufficiently interested to attend his “class.” When we began chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra for the first time that July night, I was reminded of the services of the monks up in Hardwar.
Srila Prabhupada was much more than the spiritual master of a few thousand disciples. He was truly a spiritual teacher for the millennium, because he revealed the pure spiritual path that humanity can follow for thousands of years to come.
ISKCON Cinema has just released a documentary on the life of Srila Prabhupada. Titled Your Ever Well-Wisher, the film traces Srila Prabhupada’s life from his birth in Calcutta in 1896 to his passing away in Vrndavana in 1977.
Just hearing that Swamiji was coming back to New York, the devotees, having felt separation from their Spiritual Master, were filled now with so much bliss. Their joyful shouts of “Haribol!” filled the temple at Kirtan.
With Krsna consciousness flourishing on New York’s Lower East Side, Srila Prabhupada felt he could entrust the New York center to his followers and expand the movement west.