Chapter One

June 21st, 1976

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s arrival caused quite a stir in the small Pittsburgh airport. Our fellow  passengers looked on with obvious bemusement as Kīrtanānanda Swami and a group of forty or fifty devotees gathered around the boarding gate, offering him beautiful flower garlands and fanning him with peacock feathers. Happily oblivious to anything but Śrīla Prabhupāda’s presence, the devotees chanted and danced all the way out to the waiting car. Their attire offered a hint of things to come with their dhotīs, kurtās and sārīs matched in some cases with large rubber farm work boots.  

Although it was a ninety minute drive to New Vrindaban, the ride was comfortable and as we progressed smoothly along the highway Prabhupāda kept up a running conversation. He reflected on the fallen condition of modern man, telling Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja his comparison of the dog’s running on four legs and man’s running on four wheels. He said that the only way to save them was to start with the basics and then after some time, when they become a little purified, give some philosophy. He reminded Kīrtanānanda that this had been his program right from the beginning. “You have all got this experience. This is the only way. I started this movement on this determination: I’ll give them prasādam, nice chanting, and they will not come? They must come. This was my determination. And I began with this. So this is the only way. Give them chance ‘No talk, please come. Chant and dance with us and take Kṛṣṇa prasādam and go home.’ ” 

Kīrtanānanda reflected that it was just ten years ago since he had first met Prabhupāda. 

Prabhupāda gave one of his endearing little sideways nods of assent. “Yes. I never said that ‘You have to give up this, you have to do this.’ Never said. Then gradually ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. When the heart becomes cleansed, then little. There is no hopelessness. So many people have come, and they are coming. Both black, white, everyone is coming. But you cannot expect that cent percent people will come; that is not possible. But even one-fourth percent people come to this, then it will be successful. Compared to the American population, what percentage we have got? Still they have made some impression, the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. Literatures are selling, and they are appreciating, the learned circle. It takes some time, but if we stick to our principles and do not make any compromise and push on—in this way, I have given you instruction, it will never stop; it will go on. It will never stop. At least for ten thousand years it will go on.  

“And this movement is meant for these fourth-class, fifth-class, tenth-class men. Not this movement is fourth-class, fifth-class. They are so fallen that they cannot be counted even third-class, fourth-class. Tenth-class of men. Deliver them. Patita-pāvana-hetu tava avatāra. Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s incarnation is for delivering these classes of men. Caitanya Mahāprabhu never meant to start this movement for high-class brāhmaṇas, sages, saintly persons. No. This class of men—for the all fallen. Don’t be disappointed. Go on, go on. Stick to the principles. When there was no response, I did not know where to live, where to eat. Sometimes at Dr. Misra’s, some time with some friend somewhere. And I was going to inquire the shipping company when the next ship returning to India. Still I was renewing my visa: ‘Let us hope. Let us hope.’ In this way, we started Second Avenue in month of July, I think?” 

He recalled the names of the first few young men to join him: Mukunda had been the first, then Hayagrīva and Kīrtanānanda. And there were others who have now left—Jagannātha, Ravīndra-svarūpa, Carl.  

As the car plied along the highway (America seems to me to be one continuous highway) Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja told Śrīla Prabhupāda that some devotee women selling books at the airport today, said that it had been the most demoniac day they had ever had. They were harassed as they sold books. As soon as a traveler stopped to talk to a devotee, some persons were causing problems by telling them not to buy. Mahārāja said we get confused with the followers of a Korean so-called spiritual master, Reverend Moon. “It is causing a big stir, these ‘Moon’ people. He has just bought a hotel in New York for five million dollars. But the public is sometimes equating us with him and these other rascals. He claims that Jesus Christ never lived to fulfill his mission, which was to establish the perfect family. They killed him before he got married. So he [Moon] has come, and he has all these wives. At least he used to, whenever any of his disciples would get married, first he would have their wife.” 

Prabhupāda shook his head in mild disgust.  

He settled back in his seat to chant on his beads, occasionally interspersing his soft murmur with conversation. He told Kīrtanānanda that he is now on the twelth chapter of the the Eight Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, exactly half way through. “There is no comparison of this literature,” he told him.  

Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja expressed his appreciation. “I think before you came, Bhāgavatam was unknown.” 

Prabhupāda agreed. “Unknown, yes. The Ramakrishna Mission published one Bhāgavatam commentary. You know that? Farce. These Ramakrishna Mission people have done the greatest harm to the Vedic culture. Of course it is not taken very seriously, Ramakrishna Mission.” 

I agreed that in the West they were practically unheard of. “You made a good point about why although now thousands of American boys and girls are coming to India, no one is going to the Ramakrishna Mission, so what kind of impact has he had?” 

Prabhupāda said, “But they publicized in India that they have made all, everyone [followers]. In India they were doing like that. ‘Vivekananda Road,’ ‘Vivekananda Square,’ and rascals, they do not inquire even what is Vivekananda’s contribution. In Vṛndāvana they have got hospital and Ramakrishna temple. Who is going there? This is practical example. In our temple, thousands and thousands of foreign boys and girls are coming, and who is going there? It is because actually, if they did something, they should at least gone there out of inquisitiveness: ‘Oh, where is Vivekananda?’ ” Then he made us laugh. “Nobody going,” he grinned. “Not even to pass urine there.” 

After a short while Kīrtanānanda produced some cartons of prasādam from the New Vrindaban kitchens—purīs, sabjīs, samosās and various milk sweets. I thought Prabhupāda would just try a morsel to oblige the devotees, but to our delight he had me spread out the preparations and he took a little of each. He enjoyed them and encouraged us to take some. He praised Kīrtanānanda as a good cook and told us, “So this was my dream, that a place should be there where we can get all nice foods, best foods, of milk. Kṛṣṇa is fulfilling our desire. Everything’s there. These rascals they do not know how to live or to eat. Intelligence is there, everything is there. Simply for want of training they have become rogues. Make them human beings, your countrymen.” 

As we drove the last few miles into the New Vrindaban countryside Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja mentioned that the local authorities, including the sheriff, were becoming very favorable. A judge who had seen Śrīla Prabhupāda on his last visit still keeps a picture of him on his desk. He said the local television had agreed to show Yadubara prabhu’s movie, Spiritual Frontier. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was happy to hear it but told him, “One thing you have missed: how we are preparing all these foodstuffs.” 

“In the movie?” Kīrtanānanda asked. “It was too short how to prepare it?” 

“Yes. How from milk in different stages you get this foodstuff, kachaurīs,singhara,sandeśa,rabrī.” He gave a little chuckle. “And this channā [dāl], if fried, if you prepare nicely with little hing and ginger, then it will exactly taste like meat. They’ll forget. If you give them without telling them, they will think that they’re eating meat. They prepare the semi-liquid meat like that. You give them little piece and they will not understand that it is not meat.” 

I told him that when we were in Los Angeles Pālikā had made some baḍa and it tasted so much like fish that Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja wouldn’t eat it. 

Prabhupāda smiled. “With uraḍ dāl, you can prepare fishy taste.” 

“Someone told me that your Guru Mahārāja said that?” I asked. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda laughed. “Yes. ‘Anyone who is not taking uraḍ dāl, he must be taking fish silently, secretly.’ ”  

As the car came into New Vrindaban’s precincts Kīrtanānanda pointed out some new buildings, including  one under construction next to the existing temple which will house workshops and a large hall for festivals, big enough to hold seven or eight hundred people. Prabhupāda was happy to see it. “Oh, much improvement,” he said. 

ISKCON New Vrindaban 

Moundsville, West Virginia 

At least a hundred adults and children welcomed him at the small, beautiful, temple of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra at Bahulavana. A marble floor, cut, polished and installed by the devotees, hand-crafted stained glass windows, and exquisitely carved wooden siṁhāsanas, all form a perfect setting for the full moon of Vṛndāvana, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and His eternal consort, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and in the spiritually vibrant atmosphere Prabhupāda took darśana of Their Lordships, Who were resplendently decorated with local wildflowers. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda then gracefully mounted his vyāsāsana, the centerpiece of some exquisitely carved wooden furniture that Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja has had specially made for Prabhupāda by artisans in Bombay. It has lions on either side, a lotus-flower shaped base, and a tiered wooden canopy. The back has small peacocks along its rim, and it is luxuriously upholstered in fine, multi-hued silk. Single strands of flowers tipped with red roses hung from the front edge of the canopy, enhancing its beauty.  

After a lively kīrtana during which Prabhupāda played a gong, he gave a short talk. With obvious affection he glanced out at his disciples. “So after two years I think, I have got the opportunity of seeing you and your Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra Who is so kind upon you. So real happiness is here. Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra is staying here, and He’s pleased with your service. This is the perfection of life. Keep Kṛṣṇa always with you and serve Him sincerely, then all happiness will come, without any endeavor.” 

He emphasized that economic development does not increase life’s pleasures. Dogs run and we run, but the pleasure is the same; sex on the street and sex in a luxurious apartment give the same level of enjoyment, so what is the need to make an extra endeavor to advance economically he asked. If a rich man gets typhoid it doesn’t mean that his suffering will be any less. So trying to improve one’s standard of living is not the way to happiness. 

“Actually there is no improvement,” he told us, “but we think that we have improved. Rather, we have taken so much risk. That requires knowledge, but anyone can understand. Suppose I can eat some quantity of food. Even if I am millionaire, I shall eat the same quantity. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja gave me so much nice foodstuff but I could take only according to my appetite. One purī, two samosās, that’s all.” Everyone laughed as he went on. “It is not that Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja has given so nice food I shall eat the whole plate; no, that is not possible. I’ll have to eat so much as I can eat. So by improving the so-called standard, I shall eat the same proportion as I am able to eat, not more, not less—and that is destined. When I came to your country I had no shelter, I had no food, no arrangement, but I was eating. And now I have got so many nice sons and daughters, but I am eating the same. So when there was nobody to help me, I was eating, and now you are so many to give me satisfaction, I am also eating. So eating is not stopped, in any condition. That is arranged by God.” 

He told us that the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant to give a new life to civilization—how to become a servant of Kṛṣṇa. If this is done then everything will come automatically. He thus encouraged the New Vrindaban devotees to continue serving Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra, saying that would make their lives successful. 

Amid the joyful tones of kīrtana Śrīla Prabhupāda departed the temple and was driven to a house that has been vacated especially for his use. It has a few basic amenities, like hot and cold running water and electricity, which are seemingly lacking in other residential buildings of the New Vrindaban community. 

June 22nd, 1976

New Vrindaban is spread out over a large area, and each section is called by a different name corresponding to the twelve different forests or vanas, of the original Vṛndāvana. Prabhupāda took his morning walk along a dirt road in Tālavana. The vale we walked in was a little dank and dark due to dense vegetation. A heavy mist hung low all across the valleys, but our immediate area was clear. Kīrtanānanda Swami pointed out various parcels of land which are becoming available. Glorifying the simple country life, Śrīla Prabhupāda encouraged him to buy as much as possible. 

The devotees are growing hay on land rented from neighbors and this is stored in silos for the cows’ winter feed. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja explained that they give only a third, or sometimes even just a quarter, of the produce in exchange for using the land. The neighbors would rather have this arrangement than leave the land untended because regular usage prevents trees from growing, which would ruin it. He told Prabhupāda that they are also now cutting their own lumber.  

Prabhupāda liked that. “That is the nature’s way. You cut the lumber and make cottage, and the land is clear, then cultivate, get your food, and cows, give them grass.” 

As we walked past some dogs on the roadside they began to bark. “Immigration department!” Prabhupāda joked. “We have got passport! That’s all right.” He chuckled. “Dog’s business. Without any fault, they’ll chastise. We have no fault, still they are chastising.” 

Kīrtanānanda said that although there is so much unused land, the government still says there is overpopulation. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that he has never accepted this assertion. “There is no overpopulation. If the Americans allow the Chinese and the Indians to come, they can develop all these. ‘No, this is our land, you cannot come.’ Immigration—gow gow! In Bhāgavatam we see that when Nanda Mahārāja felt some disturbances from the demons, they decided to change the place. And they immediately, from Gokula, they immediately went to Vṛndāvana. But we don’t find anything that they had to take permission. So that means formerly this was the system. If there is any vacant land, one can go and live there. There’s no question of permission. When you live there and you make your professional activities, then the king will come, take little tax.” 

Kīrtanānanda said that was formerly the system in America. “They called it ‘homesteaders.’ If you would go and make your home there, you could have the land.” 

“That is not for the foreigners,” Prabhupāda said. “If some Chinese men or Indian want to come . . . ” 

Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja replied that foreigners used to be allowed, but now they don’t allow anyone. 

“Just see,” Prabhupāda said. “Why?” 

“Because it has become very profitable for people to keep it. Because people are making money on it now.” 

“Money they must make,” Prabhupāda granted, “otherwise, why they should come? But what is the objection? Just like in the marketplace, still, in India, the system is, the marketplace, anyone can go and sell his goods, and when he’s selling, the proprietor takes some contribution. Not that he has to take permission. He’s selling there, that’s all right, ‘Give me some, a little contribution.’ The king has the right to tax for maintenance.” 

As we drove back to the temple for darśana of the Deities and class, Kīrtanānanda Swami pointed out different patches of land where the devotees are growing a big variety of vegetables—cauliflower, peas, beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach, potato, broccoli, cabbage and peppers. But he said that most of them are not yet fructified because this is early in the season.  

Prabhupāda was well satisfied that the devotees are working the land. He has said many times he wants us to learn how to be self-sufficient, gaining all our needs from the land. “Vegetables, ghee, milk, wheat, then what do you want more?” he asked. “We can grow all these things and eat very nicely. Where is economic problem?”  

* * * 

After greeting Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra, Who were bedecked with the natural opulence of fresh wild flowers from the pastures, Śrīla Prabhupāda received guru-pūjā. The temple room was packed, with a large contingent of young, saffron-clad gurukula boys all crowded around the front of the vyāsāsana. The sun was just coming up and its strengthening rays shone through the window behind Śrīla Prabhupāda, highlighting His Divine Grace in a splendorous orange-gold effulgence. Prabhupāda played the gong and the devotees jumped and shouted excitedly when he threw flowers high into the air and over their heads.  

After singing Jaya rādhā-mādhava, Prabhupāda spoke on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.6. Prahlāda Mahārāja makes the calculation in this verse that out of one hundred years duration of his human form, a person who cannot control his senses only has fifty years. This is because he sleeps twelve hours per day due to ignorance, and he thereby loses this time for the real business of spiritual development. 

Noting the good fortune of the young brahmacārīs at his feet in beginning their devotional service at the start of their lives, Prabhupāda explained that bhāgavata-dharma means to keep always engaged in the service of the Lord, without a second’s loss. He listed the nine different items by which one can serve the Lord.  

He especially focused on arcana, Deity worship. As he explained the value of it, he coupled it with a warning. “If you can contact Viṣṇu or His devotee, Vaiṣṇava, that is all right. Otherwise, you are simply wasting time. The Lord is called arcā-vigraha. He is also incarnation. Another incarnation, arcā-avatāra. He’s giving facility to the devotees to handle Him. If you do not get the opportunity to serve the Lord, how you can be perfect? So this arcā-vigraha is the Lord’s incarnation to give facilities to people like us who cannot see God everywhere. For the neophyte devotees, it is essential to worship the Deity. But if we simply worship the Deity without hearing about the Lord, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ—these things are essential—then the Deity worship will be a burden. At a certain point, it will be a burden, and gradually it will be neglected, and the whole thing will be spoiled.  

“So both things should continue: bhāgavata-mārga and pāñcarātrikī-mārga. Deity worship is pāñcarātrikī-viddhi, and bhāgavata-mārga is hearing, chanting, like that. Both of them should be accepted, parallel line. Otherwise, one without the other will be later on troublesome. So you must continue. This temple means not only we shall decorate the Deity very nicely, cleanse the temple; at the same time, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ of Viṣṇu must go on. Two things, parallel. Then it will be done very nicely. So actually this life is meant for this purpose.” 

Our experience in Kali-yuga shows that we do not even have one hundred years. Even then, he said, people are not serious about utilizing their time properly. “In our temple in New York, in the beginning when I was having classes in the morning at seven o’clock, still people from here and there they would come and protest and go to the police because we were disturbing their sleep. Yes. They want to sleep as much possible hours. I think that is very great gain in the Western country, to sleep.  

“So to sleep means simply waste of time. You must know it. The valuable life which you have got, immediately so many hours minus. Sleep is not good. Sleep, if we can do without sleep, that is perfection. Not that let me enjoy sleep twelve hours, fourteen hours, whole life. No. That is waste of time.” 

He cited the six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana as examples of perfection in the use of time. “So we should be very, very careful not to waste the duration of life even by a second. We shall eat less, then we shall sleep also less. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi: then our sex appetite also will be less. Unnecessarily eating, unnecessarily sleeping is not required at all. That is the practice by the Gosvāmīs. They conquered over eating, sleeping. Mating, there was no question, they were sannyāsīs, renounced order of life, and defense also, there was no question because they depended on Kṛṣṇa, the most powerful defender. Simply two things, eating and sleeping. And that they also conquered. So spiritual life means you have to control, that is called gosvāmī.” 

He told us that this level of control is not possible to achieve by artificially suppressing our senses, but can be had by attaining a higher spiritual taste. “There is another happiness. That is transcendental bliss. That we perceive a little bit while we are chanting. By chanting, chanting, chanting, when you’ll be purified, then you will have the opportunity of tasting that transcendental bliss. Otherwise, the so-called happiness derived from the senses, that is not happiness. That is crude, that is for the fools and rascals. That is not happiness. So we should utilize our time very carefully. You have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, take it a little more seriously and practice, follow the rules and regulations, chant regularly, then your life will be successful. Thank you very much.”  

* * * 

The day was quiet, and Prabhupāda settled comfortably into the simple, but pleasant, house amid the fields and hills of West Virginia. It is a prefabricated structure, one of the better ones in the area, and is owned by Vana dāsa and Hlādinī dāsī who have vacated it to allow Śrīla Prabhupāda its use. There are three bedrooms, a lounge and a kitchen. Prabhupāda is using the largest of the bedrooms for his work and darśana area, and sleeps on a modest bed in another. The third is occupied by Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa and myself, and Pradyumna and Rakṣaṇa sleep downstairs in the large basement. 

The house is furnished with more of the furniture from Bombay, which will eventually be placed in Prabhupāda’s future home at Guruvana—a marble-topped desk and matching āsana, a large wardrobe with the figures of the ten principal incarnations of Lord Viṣṇu carved in relief on the door panels, and a second large, raised vyāsāsana with a lion on either side and yellow satin upholstery. This seat has been placed on a large marble slab out in the garden for Prabhupāda to sit on during the afternoon. 

The one bathroom is reserved exclusively for Śrīla Prabhupāda, although Pradyumna prabhu, who still has a gaping wound in his side, is also allowed its use. The rest of us bathe in the back yard from four feet high plastic barrels of water brought on the back of a truck by the devotees. We pass stool in the fields. It is like being back in India, except West Virginia is not as warm.  

There is a small lawn sheltered from the road by a row of trees and bushes, the foliage being just thick enough to afford complete privacy. Today Śrīla Prabhupāda chose to have his noon massage outside, sitting in a shaded area of the garden. 

Pālikā and Viśākhā prabhus are staying across the road in the Madhuban temple, a house which shelters what seems to be, at five-feet high, the biggest Jagannātha Deities in ISKCON. They will be taken to Cleveland tomorrow, one hundred and seventy miles away, to benedict the American public with their Ratha-yātrā festival. 

* * * 

In mid-morning Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Swami presented Śrīla Prabhupāda the mail. He was happy to get a long, detailed report from Harikeśa Swami on the preaching in eastern Europe. At the time of writing, June 10th, he was in Koln, waiting to get a visa for Poland.  

His letter commenced with a full page of glorification of Śrīla Prabhupāda, comparing him to a famous Biblical figure. “You have become like Noah, who filled his ark with all kinds of living entities and saved them from the flood which engulfed the whole world, and then, as the story goes, when the deep seas subsided a little bit, created civilization again—so you have taken command of the modern day ark and are saving the most fortunate souls from this huge flood of material nescience and in your various centers you are recreating real civilization, although it seems to be an impossible task. You are the most worshipable personality amongst men, although you are not an ordinary man, but the leader of all men, the most perfect and supreme servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” 

Harikeśa, accompanied by Sumahat dāsa, has been traveling extensively through England, Germany, France, Sweden and other European countries. They have formed a preaching team with two other devotees, Akṣara dāsa and Avināśacandra dāsa. Rāvaṇāri dāsa, an Arab devotee who speaks fluent German, is collecting to support their activities. He is also actively preaching behind the Iron Curtain. 

Harikeśa expects their team to be in Poland until June 24th, and then in Hungary from June 25th until July 5th. After that, they plan to attend the London Ratha-yātrā, visit Greece for two weeks to meet up with the members of the Hungarian yoga club who will be on vacation there, and then come to visit Śrīla Prabhupāda in France. After that, they have plans to visit Bulgaria. 

He described some of their experiences preaching in the communist countries. In Yugoslavia, although it is not as hard-line as other eastern bloc states, the authorities warned them to leave Belgrade almost as soon as they arrived. They had several complications: a new bhakta they had taken along cracked under the pressure of their austere living (for two days they only ate roasted farina with salt) and went off on his own. When he returned they discovered he had been eating meat “which made him stink horribly,” and it became quite troublesome keeping him in order. Another problem was bad publicity generated the previous year by Laguḍi dāsa. A native Yugoslavian who joined our Movement in Australia, Laguḍi had returned to his home land in an attempt to preach. He held a press conference but because he is only semi-literate and cannot speak correctly, the press reported that followers of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement engage in human sacrifices and take drugs. Harikeśa heard this from some people in Zagreb. Also, while in Zagreb Sumahat lost his passport, obliging them to remain for six extra days because everything was closed for the May Day parade and celebrations.  

Despite these problems they took the offensive. “So we thought that what is there to lose, let’s go out on the street and distribute. So we did and after the first two people we were being watched by about 10 different authorities so we had to stop fast, but not before we had a few addresses to visit. At this point we were a little bold so we went to the center of town at the huge fountain and set up a book shop and started to sell books and records like anything. The police came but I started talking about how we were with the Sanskrit department at the University Indology department and how all the teachers were reading these books on Indian culture, etc. Somehow they were not so disturbed.” 

After returning to the West, they traveled with the president of the Munich center, Pṛthu dāsa, to East Berlin in the DDR. Although East Berlin is relatively easy to enter, no devotees had previously been there. The rest of the country is off limits to visitors. They stayed in an obligatory hotel, which was expensive, but they met with many interested people. “People are starving for Krsna. They have lists underground where one of our books will circulate all over the country, three days with each person, or sometimes over night, and the list is endless. One of our books is read thousands of times. So we smuggled in a whole large suitcase filled with Gitas, Bhagavatams, and records, and a few small books. These books are going like wildfire. We have devised a system for getting huge quantities into the country. To transit to W. Berlin is very easy and they do not check the auto. So one van went in by the entry with nothing in it. One van went in transit full. They met on a rest stop at night and changed suitcases, or if two identical vans are going one could change license plates and get a huge amount in at once. But we just changed the cases this time. We did home programs almost every night and many people are now very interested in Krsna consciousness. They love our records and play them constantly.” 

He said that in the DDR, things are run in such a way that people are deliberately isolated and cannot meet together in groups. Fruits and vegetables are very scarce. 

Harikeśa mentioned that his health is still quite bad. He has not recovered since he left our party in February in Māyāpur. A doctor told him he has a stone or blockage in the tube that makes bile go to the stomach. Yet somehow, while preaching, he said he forgets all this. “I can actually feel Krsna holding me up when I am out preaching.” 

The biggest problem they face though, is lack of funds. Only Rāvaṇāri is collecting money, but he is due to go to Egypt and try to establish something there. Bhagavān dāsa has promised help, but only in September, and most other centers are small and struggling with debts. “Therefore I am wondering what to do. I will have to stop this program after the Poland and Hungary trips for there will be no more money.” Still, he said he was confident that if Kṛṣṇa wants the program to go on the necessary support will come. 

He requested advice on several points. He had an idea that, along with slide shows, a party of devotee actors and musicians could travel as an Indian Vedic Cultural Exhibition. He felt it would enable them to visit practically any country. It would be accepted as “nice wholesome and cultural entertainment” and they would legally be able to chant and distribute Indian snacks. He wanted to know if Prabhupāda thought it worth the endeavor for them to organize it. 

Rāvaṇāri has an idea to write bhakti commentaries verse for verse on the Koran—what he called The Vedic Koran. He said the book in its pure form is “rather Krsna conscious.” He also proposed to translate into Arabic the paper on communism that Harikeśa wrote while he was still with Prabhupāda early this year. Rāvaṇāri felt it would be well received in Egypt, where the president of the country is said to be looking for such material. 

Finally Harikeśa wanted to know if he should involve himself in smuggling books into the communist countries. He asked if Prabhupāda felt this was foolish or necessary. 

He then concluded with a prayer. “I am trying hard not to be a hypocritical sannyasi but I realize that I am a fool and I pray to your lotus feet for protection from the onslaughts of maya. I hope that you are well and your cook is good. I always have the feeling to come back with you at any moment, but I also want to be a good servant and do whatever is required. Simply always engage me in your service, I cannot remain sanatha jivitah but when will I simply be always satisfied to have such a good master? Please bless me with your causeless and boundless mercy.” 

Although he kept his reply short and to the point, Śrīla Prabhupāda was deeply satisfied to hear about their preaching efforts and the risks they have to undergo for both his and Kṛṣṇa’s sake. He answered Harikeśa’s questions point by point. “There is no need to give commentary on the Koran. There is no other religion in the world in truth than this Bhagavat-dharma. However, something is better than nothing. The communism book that you have written, they say that there are some words that may be irritating to the communists. We have just finished a book which Hayagriva is editing at present. It is called Dialectic Spiritualism and within that book, your comments can be added if need be for preaching in the Eastern European countries. 

“Don’t try for Vaikuntha players, etc. in Eastern Europe at this time. It will make too much encumbrance and you may not be able to manage it.”  

He also added a footnote about the publicity problems in Yugoslavia. “n.b. when there is such language difficulty as was found in Yugoslavia in that press interview, then we should not give interview. Stop all this bad practice. No interpretation. Otherwise what is the use?” 

* * * 

In the evening Prabhupāda was taken on a tour of Guruvana, where the devotees are constructing a small “palace” for him. It is situated atop one of the highest hills for many miles around, affording a glorious, panoramic view of the surrounding West Virginian countryside. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was impressed with their devotional efforts. With the transcendental vibration of the Krishna Consciousness Happening Album resonating in the background Prabhupāda followed Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja’s lead, carefully inspecting the entire work site. Most of the concrete work is done, and the finishing work started. There is a central hall, big enough to hold lectures in, with a small Deity room at the end. Down each side are rooms for Śrīla Prabhupāda and his servants. A dome at one end will be capped with a lotus flower shaped peak and reach twelve feet above the roof. Plastering work is about to begin and already some beautiful marble inlay has been fitted in what will be Prabhupāda’s sitting room. The rooms are completely surrounded by a veranda and decorative arches run all around the veranda’s outer edges. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja said they were planning to fill the arches in with stain glass windows. Śrīla Prabhupāda was pleased to hear that all the work has been done by our own men—Bhāgavatānanda dāsa did the design and Ātmabhū dāsa directed the construction. Devotees have also made many of the fittings, furnishings, and other paraphernalia.  

Prabhupāda was deeply appreciative of their dedication and he expressed this with a quote from the Bhagavad-gītā, “Sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. Little service in this connection, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, can protect one from the greatest danger.” 

“You are so kind to let us do it,” Kīrtanānanda Swami submitted. 

“Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa’s desire,” Śrīla Prabhupāda said, humbly accepting their offering. 

Kīrtanānanda invited him to visit another building further down the road where many of the fittings are being made. As he got into the car Prabhupāda turned to the devotees and said, “Thank you very much.” 

The men all broke out in big smiles and cheered. “Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!”  

Further down the road we parked in front of a large grey house. Inside Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja showed samples of the accoutrements that will be installed for Prabhupāda’s exclusive use in the palace—a large marble latrine, a marble wash basin with twenty-four carat gold fittings and rose quartz handles, carved wooden doors with colored glass set in lead, and many other items created and crafted by the New Vrindaban devotees.  

Their efforts were very satisfying to Śrīla Prabhupāda because, as he said, they are trying to please their spiritual master. When Kīrtanānanda remarked that they actually did not have any idea how to do any of it, Prabhupāda replied that they were working with the special inspiration of God. “ ‘Do like this.’ Buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi taṁ yena mām upayānti te. If one is sincere to serve the Lord, the Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, He’ll give him, ‘Do like this.’ It is special favor of God. Even if he’s less aware of everything to be arranged, He’ll give instruction, ‘Do like this.’ So there is no scarcity of instruction if one is sincere. Thank you very much.”  

As he left the house he delighted the devotees by using himself as an example of one who has received similar help. “I came to your country for preaching this, I had no idea how to do it.” He laughed. “But people are surprised how within so many short years this world movement has sprung. I had no idea how to do it.”  

As we drove back to our residence Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja pointed out some land they are gradually clearing. He said it was slow work, because they want to utilize the wood as they cut it and not waste any. Prabhupāda approved. “Yes. Unnecessarily you should not cut. When it is necessary for Kṛṣṇa, then you cut. This is also living entity. We cannot kill them without any sufficient reason.” 

On his return to the house, Prabhupāda decided to sit in the garden for a while. He doesn’t miss anything. Just behind and to the side of the vyāsāsana, tulasī plants are being kept in a plastic-sheeted greenhouse. He had seen  one of the ladies tending tulasī-devī in the morning. Now, as he entered the garden he commented that she was looking after tulasī-devī very nicely. He is always appreciative of service rendered, whether big or small, and is always ready to give recognition to those who render it.  

He was reluctant to take his own seat until he saw that all the devotees also had mats to sit on. As he relaxed against the padded back of his vyāsāsana, hand in bead bag, fifteen or twenty devotees gathered in a semicircle on the grass in front of him. He told Kīrtanānanda that many visitors would come to see the palace and that New Vrindaban should simply advertise, “Come and see palaces in New Vrindaban.” He noted that it will be “a combination of Eastern and Western culture for the profit of the whole human society.” 

By this time it was about six o’clock in the evening. The sun’s effulgent rays formed speckled patterns as they filtered through the leaves and branches of the trees, alighting on the golden fabric of the vyāsāsana and complimenting the transcendental radiance of His Divine Grace. Varieties of birds sang and chirped, adding to the comfortable ambiance of a warm summer evening. It was an idyllic setting for the ideal way to spend one’s valuable time—sitting at the lotus feet of the Lord’s pure devotee, receiving nectar from his lotus lips. 

Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja told Śrīla Prabhupāda, “We would like to install your mūrti in that temple.” 

Prabhupāda humbly responded. “Yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau. The Vedic secret is that—unto the Lord, similarly, to the guru—to them [who surrender to these two], the whole thing becomes revealed automatically. Vedic knowledge is grasped not by erudite scholarship; mundane scholarship has nothing to do. The secret is yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau. My Guru Mahārāja wanted that some books should be published. So I tried my best, and he’s giving success more than expectation. In the history nobody has sold religion, philosophical books in such large quantity.” 

“Or quality,” Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa added. 

“Yes,” Prabhupāda acknowledged. “These are all Guru Mahārāja’s blessings. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura is stressing on this point, guru-mukha-padma-vākya, cittete koriyā aikya, ār nā koriho mane āśā [My only wish is to have my consciousness purified by the words emanating from his lotus mouth.]  Simply execute that. You’ll get Kṛṣṇa.” 

Prabhupāda remained in the garden for a couple of hours. He instigated debate, repeatedly prompting the small gathering of devotees to discuss challenging issues. Heavily criticizing the United Nations as “barking dogs,” he opened the discussion up with a strong declaration that anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious is either sinful, grossly foolish, lowest of mankind, in illusion or demonic. “This our definition, that anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, he’s either in these four groups, bas, final. You just try to prove it. Hmm? Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja? You have any doubt about it?” 

Kīrtanānanda Swami said he had none and Prabhupāda asked if any of the others objected. No one did and he then challenged the devotees to defend this strong stance. “Do it very nicely. Push Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement vigorously. If you keep the people in ignorance like dogs and hogs, what is the value of advancement of knowledge? So many universities? But discuss this point. We don’t find any wrong. Because Kṛṣṇa said it, then it’s all right. They will say it is too sectarian, that anyone who is not Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he’s the most miscreant, sinful and ass and lowest of the mankind; he has lost his all knowledge. This is our accusation. Now defend. Any gentleman will protest that ‘I am such a respectable gentleman, and because I do not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then I’ll fall amidst these groups? What is this?’ They will say. Now you’ll have to prove, that ‘You are not a gentleman.’ ” 

The devotees raised various objections but as always, Śrīla Prabhupāda had irrefutable logic to defeat them. Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja questioned the idea of “In God We Trust.” If a man clears the land, plants crops, and harvests them by his hard work, how does faith in God have any practical value, he said. 

Prabhupāda refuted this immediately, saying that if God did not supply the ingredients, it would not be possible for the so-called practical man to work. “You are very practical, but where you get the land? Can you manufacture this land? Can you? Then God comes, immediately. Where you get this water? Can you manufacture water? Where you get this air? Can you manufacture? Where you get this fire? Everything, there is God.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa suggested that there was no real difference in the practical living of the atheist and that of the religious.  

Prabhupāda immediately disagreed. Anyone who does not recognize his dependence on God, he said, will have to suffer, just as a criminal is punished for violating the government laws. 

Puṣta Kṛṣṇa said that the Christians say that God is very merciful, which implies that even if one doesn’t follow His laws, God will not punish him. 

Prabhupāda replied with an elaborate explanation of what God’s mercy actually means, showing that it has nothing to do with our estimations. “That mercy depends on Him; you cannot dictate Him. Simply on the basis of ‘God is merciful’ I can do all unlawful things, this is not practical proposal. Merciful means it depends on me. Whether I shall show mercy or I shall be very strong and strict, that is my will, freedom. I may show you mercy, I may not show. You cannot force me, that ‘You must become merciful.’ That is not right.  

“When there is sunshine you see the sinful man and the pious man—both enjoy. That is His mercy. When He bestows His mercy, it is for all of them, either you are sinner or you are pious. That is God’s mercy. Just like the cloud when it pours water, it does not make any discrimination. On the sea, there is also rainfall; on the rocks also, there is rainfall. Where is necessity of rainfall on rock? What is the use? There is no use, it is simply waste. So God also wastes: ‘All right, you take. You don’t require; you also take.’ In the ocean there is no need of water, but cloud pours water on the ocean also. Only on the land we can utilize. But God is so merciful, exactly like the rain cloud. He is so merciful, where there is no necessity they are also getting rain, ‘Take rain.’ That is merciful. Without any discrimination, whether you want or not want, ‘Take it.’ That is mercy.” 

He said we have to come to appreciate the greatness of God, and he gave a number of practical examples. “God is so powerful, so great, that within a twinkling of, within a few minutes only, immediately He can overcast with cloud and overflood a whole tract of land. You have to  understand God’s greatness in that way. If the number of sinful men are great, God immediately starts one war, and within few years, all finished. Russia finished, America finished, everyone. That is greatness of God. In this way try to understand how God is great in every activity. In mercy He’s great, in cruelty He’s great. If He wants to show cruelty, He’s the greatest cruel. No discrimination, all finished. Never mind women, children or cats, dogs—all finished. That is cruelty, greatness of cruelty. Then there is greatness of mercy. So that is greatness. So you study, in God, how great He is.  

“At night you have so many lights for illuminating your city, home, and so many electric powerhouse going on; and God is so great that one sun—immediately, all light. There is no need of powerhouse, there is no need of matches, there is no need of this light, that light—take sunlight. That is His greatness. And within a second. When night is going on, we have seen.” Prabhupāda tipped his head and gave me a glance. I remembered when we had flown overnight from Singapore to Australia. Śrīla Prabhupāda had watched through the aircraft window as the sun came up over the horizon. It was striking. Within a few moments only we went from darkness to light; the blazing globe seemed to just pop into view.  

Prabhupāda had called my attention to the phenomenon then and he did so again now. “Immediately sun comes out, all darkness gone. That is His greatness. Do that like that. Then you compete with God. Can you do it? Then how can you avoid God? Rascals only, mūḍha,narādhama. They cannot appreciate the greatness of God. Mūḍha, they’re asses. Anyone who does not appreciate the greatness of God, they’re mūḍha—as good as the ass. And lowest of the mankind, narādhama. And their so-called scientific knowledge, useless. If by so-called scientific knowledge they want to defy God, then they are useless.” 

Later in the discussion Prabhupāda informed everyone how Harikeśa Mahārāja was circulating his books through the underground network in East Germany. Prabhupāda related his own experience of the oppressive nature of the communist regime. “When I was in Moscow airport, as soon as they found Bhagavad-gītā they called police, the customs checking. The foolish man was kind enough, he said, ‘Not serious offense. Don’t send him in the concentration camp.’ They can do. In Russia, even if you are foreigner, they can immediately send you to the concentration. Without any knowledge. They don’t care for your embassy or your. . . . Such a rascal state, there is no civilized method. They send their own men, such an important man like that Khrushchev. He was sent into oblivion; nobody knows where he is. Such a rascal government. Very difficult to live in. Simply under terrorism the government is going on.”  

So the question came up about what hope there is for people in countries like Russia and China. 

“Everyone will be benefited. Simply you have to preach,” Prabhupāda responded. “You have to preach in the same way that where there is no necessity, there also the preaching will go on. You have to become like cloud. Therefore you sing every day, saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka-trāṇāya kāruṇya-ghanāghanatvam.Ghanāghanatvam means deep cloud. You have to become deep cloud and pour water. This blazing fire will be extinguished. When there is blazing fire in the forest, the small fire brigade or bucketful of water will not help. It requires cloud, ghanāghanatvam, to pour water, finished. You have to do like that. Vande guroḥ śrī—one who can do this, he is guru. How one can become so? Prāptasya kalyāṇa, one who has received the mercy of the Supreme Lord, he can do it. A cloud is formed by receiving mercy of the ocean. Cloud is never formed by receiving the mercy of tap water. You can say, ‘Here is also water.’ ‘Not that water, the ocean water.’ What you will gain by receiving the mercy of tap water?” he laughed. “We have to receive the mercy of the ocean, guṇārṇava.Arṇava means ocean. So it will be possible. If the cloud is there, bona fide, he can pour water, finish all blazing fire.” 

As the conversation progressed, we discussed the idea of knowledge and whether, as some scholars and philosophers say, the pursuit of knowledge alone is enough. Prabhupāda gave yet another angle on the same theme of supreme mercy through guru and Kṛṣṇa. “Any knowledge, if you want to get it, you must receive it from a superior person. That is the law. That I already explained. If you want to steal, if you want to become a thief, you have to learn it from an expert thief. Knowledge means you have to learn it from a superior person. And what to speak of the knowledge of God, that is the ultimate knowledge. Yesterday we were speaking that Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja learned how to make samosās. Now that knowledge is distributed. So every knowledge, you have to learn it from an expert. That is called guru. Guru means expert, heavy, whose knowledge is heavier than your scanty knowledge. You have to learn knowledge. Guru means heavy. Therefore Vedic injunction is abhigacchet; this word is used when the sense is ‘must.’ Not optional, that I may go or I may not go. No, you must. This is Vedic injunction.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that any person who desires to know something about any subject, must approach an expert, just as a man who desires a son must have a wife. He cannot do it on his own. 

The temple president, Kulādri dāsa, questioned him from a slightly different angle. “But Śrīla Prabhupāda, without any desire we have been given the heaviest guru. How is that possible? Without our knowing about Kṛṣṇa, having any desire to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, still we have been given the knowledge.” 

Prabhupāda replied in the same vein as he started the conversation. It wasn’t just a question of what the recipient thinks. “No. Anyone who is Kṛṣṇa conscious, it is the duty to distribute it. It is his duty. When I came here, I never came here because American boys or people wanted me. They did not feel any need of my presence. But I came here, because it is my duty. My Guru Mahārāja ordered me. So one may think there is need or no need—it is the duty of Kṛṣṇa conscious persons to spread it. Just like the example I have already given. The cloud—the mountain does not want rain, the sea does not want, but the cloud throws water everywhere.” 

Another devotee then wondered why, if Prabhupāda has so freely given this mercy, some have come and some have not come. What was the difference? 

“Difference is it is Kṛṣṇa’s desire,” Prabhupāda told us. “He wants that ‘Don’t remain like cats and dogs. Be intelligent and come back to Me.’ Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. So it is the duty of a devotee of Kṛṣṇa to spread this knowledge so that they may take to Kṛṣṇa. The cats and dogs, they cannot understand, but those who are two-legged cats and dogs, they can understand.” He started laughing, smiling with gentle humor. “That is the advantage, because they have got two legs. So long they had four legs they could not understand. So here is a chance, two-legged. So give them some opportunity.”  

It was a thoroughly pleasing session, with Śrīla Prabhupāda living out his metaphor of the deep cloud even as he spoke it. Everyone was invigorated and inspired, ready recipients of as much mercy as Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to shower on their heads.  

Finally he brought the darśana to an end. He retired to his room for a cup of hot milk fresh from the cows, his evening massage and a little rest, before opening up the flood gates of his beneficence once more—this time to the entire world—through the pages of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. 

 

June 23rd, 1976

Ekādaśī. Prabhupāda said very little on his walk and the class was short. He is experiencing disturbing heart palpitations and his uremia has caused his legs and feet to swell again. It was a strain for him to even be out. Thankfully, his toothache seems to have disappeared and his face is no longer swollen. During the day he rested a lot and did not see anyone.  

However, by evening he seemed stronger and so went out into the garden to grace the eager devotees with another darśana. Sitting in the shade of the trees, he chanted on his large tulasī-mālā. He had Pradyumna prabhu read from the Bhagavad-gītā Chapter Six, stopping occasionally to ask if there were any questions, and then supplying his transcendental insights, both practical and philosophical. 

Kulādri prabhu wanted to solve a quandary that comes up occasionally in the course of preaching. “Śrīla Prabhupāda, when we explain that our activities are spiritual, what we are doing is spiritual . . .  Just like we say the quality of the tape recorder becomes spiritualized when it’s used in Kṛṣṇa’s service. So the materialists, they don’t understand. They say, ‘Well, the tape recorder will also break, the tapes will also be burned up.’ ” 

Prabhupāda saw nothing contradictory in that. “That’s all right. It will go to Kṛṣṇa. Breaking, where it will go? Hmm?” 

Kulādri replied, “They say the chemicals again become . . . ” 

“That chemical, where it will go?” Prabhupāda asked, immediately giving the answer. “Yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante . . . abhisaṁviśanti. Everything is created from Kṛṣṇa, again it returns to Kṛṣṇa.” 

“Then they say then we needn’t play Kṛṣṇa conscious music. We might as well play rock and roll if it is going back to Kṛṣṇa.” 

Prabhupāda shook his head. “That is māyā. This is meant for Kṛṣṇa’s service. As soon as you do anything else, then it is māyā.Māyā is also Kṛṣṇa’s māyā, but under māyā we suffer; under Kṛṣṇa we enjoy.” 

Kulādri understood, realizing the implications of their daily labors in devotional service. “So if we engage everything here in Kṛṣṇa’s service, then the atmosphere will change. They can notice the change in the atmosphere.” 

“Yes,” Prabhupāda said. “That is real atmosphere. Sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ.Mukti means to stay in the original form.” 

The mention of “original form” prompted one devotee to ask just what the spiritual form of the soul might be. He had heard Śrīla Prabhupāda’s example that a glove has its form because of the shape of the hand, but he wasn’t sure exactly what this meant. He wanted to know if it meant the soul within the tree’s body is shaped like a tree. 

Prabhupāda explained that in the material world form is fixed, but in the spiritual world it is not. Kṛṣṇa has many forms because everything is spiritual in that world. 

Another devotee asked, “So the form in the spiritual sky is not absolute either? We can take different forms in the spiritual sky?” 

“Yes,” Śrīla Prabhupāda assured him. “There are also many forms, but all of them are spiritual. The Vṛndāvana, there is tree, there is Yamunā water, there is land, there is cow, there is calf, there is gopas,gopīs—they are all spiritual. Just like from earth you make many forms. You make pots, you make dolls, but they are all earth. Similarly, spiritual world, there are many forms, they are all spiritual. What is the difficulty?” 

Pradyumna asked whether that form ever changed.  

Prabhupāda said yes, but added, “Generally, it does not change, if one likes this type of form—śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya, mādhurya.” He also added that such a change is not material. “The spiritual bliss is there, either in this form or that form.” 

Pradyumna prabhu continued with his recitation of Bhagavad-gītā, and everybody listened attentively as he read out verse 6.24. “One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with undeviating determination and faith. One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of false ego and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind.” 

After the purport Prabhupāda called for questions. A devotee asked, “For someone whose determination wavers and slackens here and there, is there ever a point where the neophyte devotee is in danger of just forgetting everything and falling, tumbling completely back?” 

Prabhupāda wasn’t strident in his reply but he made it clear that he did not expect such weakness in his disciples. He repeated more or less what he had told us in Hawaii. “Everyone is neophyte. He should practice with determination, that’s all. If he cannot practice, then why should he enter into this association? Let him remain aloof. One who has entered with the determination that ‘I must practice,’ so if he cannot practice, then why this make-show that ‘I belong to Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. I am initiated.’ Why this farce? He must practice with determination that ‘By practicing I’ll be success.’ That is wanted. He has no determination, why should he make a show? Dṛḍha-vrata, that is wanted, determination. Hmm? Go on. When one is determined, his success is assured. If he’s not determined, then success or failure.” 

“Can one develop determination gradually?” someone asked. 

“Why gradually?” Prabhupāda replied. “When you promise before your spiritual master that no illicit sex, no gambling, no meat-eating, why should you fall down? If you have no determination, why should you promise in presence of the Deity, fire, spiritual master, Vaiṣṇava? Why do you make this farce, if you have no determination? If you want to make it a farce, that depends on you. But you should not fall down, that is determination. That is gentleman’s determination, that ‘I have given my promise. Why shall I fall down?’ That is determination. ‘I must respect promise.’ That is called dṛḍha-vrata. 

“So he’ll success. Where is the difficulty? There is no difficulty. But if we want to cheat, that is another thing. If we have no determination, we should not take up this life. Therefore, chance is given that ‘Stay with us for six months or one year; be determined, then be initiated.’ If you are not determined, what is the use of false initiation?” 

By his response, the devotee seemed to imply that one does not always have control. “Sometimes this weakness seems to be . . . ” 

Prabhupāda cut him off. He was unsympathetic to excuses. “Weakness there, you should rectify weakness. Why you should give any importance to weakness? Weakness is weakness. Rectify it.” 

Kulādri observed that our promise to follow four regulative principles and chant sixteen rounds daily is the minimum level of determination. We must increase from there. 

Prabhupāda agreed. “Initiation means ‘minimum, just beginning.’ That is the dictionary meaning, initiation.” He elaborated on the progressive stages of devotional service as enunciated by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, emphasizing the stage of anartha-nivṛtti, the giving up of unwanted activities. He especially focused on the need to avoid meat-eating and illicit sex. In Vaikuṇṭhaloka he said, there is so much transcendental pleasure that the inhabitants are astonished that one might find pleasure in sex. “That stage is possible,” he assured us. “Everything depends on practice. That requires determination.” 

After all the talk of the potential difficulty in just following the basic practices, it probably wasn’t so wise for one of the devotees to then ask what happens when one returns to his svarūpa, his natural form. After the recent episode in Los Angeles he was clearly alert to the dangers of devotees leaping ahead of themselves. He didn’t even let the boy finish. “First of all, anartha-nivṛtti. You are accustomed to so many bad habits. First of all try to rectify it, then talk of svarūpa. Where is your svarūpa? Simply wasting time. A man is diseased, he’s thinking, ‘When I shall be cured I shall go to this hotel, I shall eat like this.’ First of all cure, then talk of eating this and that. Svarūpa, when you are cured, that is svarūpa. So long you are not cured, what is the use of talking svarūpa? First business is cure yourself. Anartha-nivṛtti, then svarūpa will come.”  

Prabhupāda spoke firmly. “That is the bābājīs. In Vṛndāvana, you have seen? Siddha-praṇālī. They are smoking and having illicit sex with one dozen women—svarūpa. Rascal! This is called sahajiyā, a rascal. Condemned. Where is your svarūpa? Don’t talk unnecessarily. First of all come to svarūpa, then talk of svarūpa.” 

“So our motivation should be to get free from birth, disease, old age and death,” the devotee said. 

“That is already explained.” Prabhupāda repeated the stages of advancement he outlined previously and told him, “But you must be determined how to execute devotional service. Without determined devotional service, how we can attain that position? So what is the use of talking utopian? First business is you adopt this means that you have got full faith that ‘Kṛṣṇa consciousness will save me.’ Then you live with devotees who are similarly determined. Then you execute devotional service. Then anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt, you’ll be free from all these. These are the stages. Up to anartha-nivṛtti, you have to struggle very hard with determination, and then automatically everything will come—tato niṣṭhā tato rucis tataḥ śaktis tato bhāvaḥ. So before svarūpa,anartha-nivṛtti, don’t expect all these.”  

During the whole period of the darśana some local youths, who live just down the road, roared back and forth on motorcycles, even stopping on occasion at our driveway entrance to turn and go back. The howl and whine of their engines, though an intrusion on our peaceful gathering, was nothing more than a mild annoyance and Prabhupāda didn’t allow it to disturb his preaching. He wondered with a chuckle whether they were doing it on purpose. Kulādri said they were, although he said they are better behaved now than before.  

“Demons,” Prabhupāda declared. “Everywhere in this world is like that. Even the father will give trouble—Prahlāda Mahārāja—what to speak of others. Demon father is giving trouble to a Vaiṣṇava son. And not grown-up son, five years old, innocent, but he’s giving trouble.” 

Still, the consensus is that local relationships are definitely improving. One devotee said that today a state policeman stopped him to inquire whether Śrīla Prabhupāda was here yet.  

Prabhupāda smiled. “However demon he may be, they can appreciate that these are ideal characters.” 

June 24th, 1976

Because of his continued heart palpitations Śrīla Prabhupāda did not feel well enough to take his daily walk. Instead he remained in his room and talked for a while with myself, Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa and Kīrtanānanda Mahārājas. Still, for the sake of the devotees he greeted the Deities and received guru-pūjā.  

He also gave class, but it was short. One interesting point he made during his lecture concerned the transmission of knowledge. He told us that even when God Himself comes, He does not change anything. “Kṛṣṇa is personally coming and teaching so that people may take advantage and go back to home, back to Godhead. Still, people could not understand. Therefore Kṛṣṇa came as devotee, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, teaching the same thing. Although He’s Kṛṣṇa, He never invented anything. That is called paramparā system. Although He’s God Himself, God also does not invent anything. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, He’s giving reference to the Vedānta-sūtra. So our line is like that, even God Himself, He can say something new, no. He said to Arjuna that I am speaking to you same old philosophy, purātanaṁ yogam, which I spoke to the sun-god. We must stick to this, that a spiritual understanding is never changed. ‘Now the modern days, we have to adjust things.’ No, that is not spiritual. There is no question of modern and old. That is nitya, eternal. We should always remember that.” 

* * * 

At noon Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja sent Gaṇendra dasa to administer a special massage to Prabhupāda’s feet and hands, while I continued with his standard massage. The method consisted of pressing nerve points in the hands and feet. Supposedly this was to stimulate the internal bodily organs. Prabhupāda remarked that it was painful, but allowed him to continue.  

* * * 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja brought in a stack of mail from around the world and Prabhupāda answered them one after another. 

Chāyāvana Swami, who was so disturbed when we saw him in Delhi last March, is now living in the Chicago temple. He wrote a letter expressing deep regret for his past inability to strictly follow the regulative principles, and he pleaded for Prabhupāda’s mercy to save him from further attacks of māyā. He requested some service, declaring he was prepared to do anything to atone for his falldowns.  

Prabhupāda was pleased that Chāyāvana is still trying to remain within devotional service, and he asked him to come to New York when he visits there next month. 

Vegavān dāsa, president of the Stockholm center, sent a brief one page report. He informed Prabhupāda that the Bhagavad-gītā is translated into Swedish and is now being checked by two professional translators before being typeset. He said many schools are eagerly awaiting its publication so that they can use it as a text in their courses, and they have already received many orders. Once this is out, they plan to approach the Nobel Prize committee, based in Sweden. He said a now deceased member was reported to have said, “Of everything pious, bhakti is the most pious.” They intend to find out who his friends were on the committee and approach them with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda replied with a request that they try to get all fifty-four of his books accepted in the universities, either in English or in any other language. 

Jayatīrtha prabhu sent a response from London to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s last letter, in which Prabhupāda suggested that he get a loan from the European BBTs to finance the purchase of the building he wanted to buy near Regents Park. Jayatīrtha explained that the German BBT was in great debt, owing $60,000 to creditors, principally to the Los Angeles BBT, and the general state of affairs in Germany is not good. Although they have a large stock of books worth about $200,000, they are mainly large, hard-bound books, which no one knows how to sell. On top of this, most of the saṅkīrtana devotees joined Haṁsadūta Swami’s India party, and the fifteen remaining are only collecting about $6,000 per week. The main temple there, the Schloss Reterschoff, owes $20,000 to the BBT and Jayatīrtha has had to radically adjust their budget to prevent excessive spending. In the light of all this, he didn’t think it possible that the German BBT could give a loan for the England temple purchase. 

As far as the trouble in Germany with the authorities was concerned, the government continues to hold $300,000 which they will not release without a court fight. They are now trying to make us pay an additional $250,000. Jayatīrtha said it was questionable whether we would get a fair trial in Germany because “they have a bad reputation throughout the world for being unfair in matters of civil rights.” 

As far as England is concerned, the Regents Park building was withdrawn from the market, so now they are looking for something else. He said he felt a place that would allow us to run a restaurant alongside a temple would be ideal, but he wanted to know Śrīla Prabhupāda’s opinion on this.  

Finally, he asked Śrīla Prabhupāda to send a letter to George Harrison, inviting him to come when Prabhupāda visits in July. George is reported to be unhappy about the way the Manor is being run, and is therefore holding off completing a lease agreement. Jayatīrtha felt that if he comes to the Manor and sees some improvement he may then be more inclined. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s reply informed him that the idea for a restaurant was possible, but only if it is completely separate from the temple, with its own entrance. The activities of the two should not mix. 

Prabhupāda didn’t comment on the German situation, save to express his disturbance at their inability to sell the big books. “I am informing Tamal Krsna Goswami in New York to try to arrange to send some men to Germany to help train the men and distribute these books.”  

He also enclosed a short letter of invitation to be delivered to George Harrison. 

 “My dear Sriman George,  

“Please accept my blessings. I would be very much pleased if you can meet me the next time that I am in London. I am scheduled to be there from July 20th to July 26th, 1976, and for further details you can contact Mukunda das. I am looking forward to seeing you again. 

“Hoping that this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.” 

From Vṛndāvana, India, Akṣayānanda Swami reported some promising developments. His traveling party has collected twenty-five thousand rupees during the month of May. With donations given at the temple, they are now self-sufficient. He also gave a good account of the temple activities. At least one thousand people visit daily, and from books and prasādam sales they raise three hundred and fifty rupees per day. Akṣayānanda Mahārāja praised Haihaya’s efforts as the temple manager. His letter had an upbeat tone. “Now that so many more people are coming we must now attract them to stay with us in the Guesthouse.” 

He also said Bhagatajī (Viśvambar Dayal), who donated the land for the new gurukula building, is happy with a company from Kanpur which has now begun construction. 

Akṣayānanda Swami also reported on efforts by Kīrtanānanda Swami to bring Indian workers to America, something which Śrīla Prabhupāda and Kīrtanānanda have discussed since we have been here. Although there is no objection from the American side, the Indian government will not issue passports to the workers because they cannot speak English.  

Prabhupāda was pleased to hear of the management improvements. “I am very pleased to hear that Haihaya is doing nicely as manager. He is a good boy. Now train him to be first class manager.” But he went on, “You mention attracting more people to stay in our guesthouse . . . yes, but when will that attraction be made? First attraction is to clear all children out of the guesthouse, otherwise no one will come. It is very much botheration.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda left it to the local management to deal with the workers’ immigration problems. “Concerning the 4 men who were supposed to have come to New Vrindaban for constructing purposes, Kirtanananda Swami will correspond with you directly in the event the need may arise.” 

Despite Akṣayānanda’s assurance that he was just about to send Fiji the altar measurements for their construction work, Prabhupāda reminded him once more to do it, since the work in Fiji is about to begin and he has just heard from Vāsudeva dāsa there that they still haven’t received anything from India. 

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa prabhu sent a lengthy letter, reporting on various happenings in India. He also gave a few details of his trip to eastern Europe. “I went to East Berlin for two days. The border police caught me with the books but I, after a one hour debate, was allowed to take the books into East Berlin. In East Berlin, Humbolt University, one of the biggest in Eastern Europe, is ordering Your books. They are ordering Bhagavad-gita, a few volumes of Caitanya-caritamrta, Krishna Book, Krishna Book paperback, and a few other books. In 1978 they are starting a course in Sanskrit and for that they will order Your Srimad Bhagavatam next year. I have established very good relations with the head of the Asian Study Department. She is sending me a review of Your books also.” 

Gopāla also reported that the East Berlin Library put in an order for a full set of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛtas and the Academy of Sciences also wants to order. However, because their foreign exchange allocation is used up they cannot order until next year. They suggested a book exchange program, and Gopāla suggested to Śrīla Prabhupāda that an exchange program with Russian institutes would be all right, since their literature is of a high quality. East German products however, are of inferior quality, and he is not inclined to exchange with them. 

Gopāla also mentioned that when he was in Russia the only negative reaction he got was from Professor Kotovsky, the academic who had invited Śrīla Prabhupāda to Moscow in June 1971. He was the only person there who knew that the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and ISKCON were affiliated. Gopāla said he was able to change the professor’s opinion, getting him to agree to recommend our books to the Russian libraries. 

Gopāla expressed his enthusiasm to preach in all the eastern European countries. Having heard about Tamal Krishna Mahārāja’s worldwide book distribution project, he wrote, “I have developed a special sales pitch that I use that I am going to write Tamal Krishna Goswami. I am very glad that someone is looking into the area of increasing book sales. I am very interested in working or helping him on this project. As You know, I had my post-graduate studies in marketing and marketing research which is nothing but learning the art of increasing sales of your product and of thinking sales appeals and other methods that will make the customer buy our product.” 

He also sent a disturbing news clipping about the activities of an organization in Delhi. “Yesterday I read in the papers that the Indian Council for Cultural Research is agreeing to American requests to certifying which yogis are bona fide and which are not so that the American public does not get bluffed by so many bogus yogis. However, the secretary said this will discourage bogus people like; Bal Yogi (Guru Maharaji), the Transcendental Meditationist (Maharishi Yogi), and the Hare Krishna culturalist. I am now going to meet the secretary of this organization, Mrs. Kochar, in Delhi. They obviously don’t know the difference between day and night, or genuine and false.” 

Unfortunately, he informed Śrīla Prabhupāda of more agitation between himself and Yaśodānandana Swami’s party. Although they are reported to be selling a lot of books and making good collections, Yaśodānandana’s party owes the Bombay BBT Rs. 83,000. Gopāla asked for permission to stop supplying them books until they pay their bill. He also complained that instead of selling full sets of books to the libraries, they are merely offering Patron Membership and then giving the books as part of the membership package. Gopāla said he felt this would undermine the work of the BBT Library Party as well as create problems for the BBT because the membership fee does not cover the full cost of the books.  

Regarding New Delhi, his report centered on Tejīyas prabhu. Gopāla said he personally had no difficulty with Tejīyas, and the new temple is going well. The problem is that no devotee will stay in Delhi for any period of time because he is too difficult to get along with. Gopāla has therefore put a Bengali devotee who was educated in Germany, Sarvabhāvana dāsa, in charge of the daily management. Tejīyas is remaining as a figurehead temple president, and Gopāla has asked him to concentrate on collecting funds, with minimal interaction with the other devotees. 

Now that a few new local bhaktas are joining in India Gopāla told Prabhupāda that he wants to start a special program. He proposed that for the first few months they should concentrate their attention on studying Prabhupāda’s books, with little practical service. He feels this will help them properly understand the philosophy and enable them to distinguish between us and the many bogus groups. 

Gopāla also suggested that Yaśomatīnandana prabhu, who is still preaching in Gujarat, be brought back to either Bombay or Vṛndāvana. He feels he is not being fully utilized in Ahmedabad. They have only a few devotees and are struggling to maintain, whereas in Bombay he could head up the Gujarati translation program and make occasional trips to Ahmedabad, or he could head the new bhakta program in Vṛndāvana .  

Śrīla Prabhupāda carefully heard the whole of his report and replied to each point. He had already expressed his desire regarding the book exchange program in a previous letter, but he reiterated himself, this time voicing his frank opinion of their literature. “Concerning the book exchange from Russia or wherever, first of all see if they can be exchanged, sold, in India. Otherwise we do not want to trouble ourselves with their rubbish literature.” 

He encouraged Gopāla Kṛṣṇa prabhu to utilize his talents for selling his books as widely as possible. “Now you can utilize your knowledge of marketing for Krishna’s service. Idam hi pumsas tapasya srntasya va, svistasya suktasya ca buddhi dattayo, etc. This is the perfection of education.” 

Prabhupāda gave a clear mandate to the South Indian party. “This business of Yasodanandan’s party giving life membership to libraries should be stopped. I am also informing him in Hyderabad that the program must be standard all over India, just as they have had so much success in America and are very respected also.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was pleased to hear that new Indian devotees are joining. This is something he has wanted for a long time. Still, he doesn’t want to admit just anyone who comes along; in India many are simply attracted by the superficial material opulence of the western devotees.   Prabhupāda therefore informed Gopāla how he could ensure a good standard of new recruits. “Concerning the new bhakta program, unless one is educated, we should not admit anyone and everyone without discrimination. One who has got culture and education, he can be accepted.” 

He also agreed with the idea of pulling Yaśomatīnandana prabhu out of Ahmedabad, saying he preferred that he return to Bombay to work on publications. 

Prabhupāda was particularly annoyed by the news article and told Gopāla Kṛṣṇa to take strong action. “That Mrs. Kochar, she should be brought in to court, immediately. The Hare Krishna Cult is bonafide, why she should say otherwise. She must withdraw this statement publically. It is Vedic culture. We have so many letters from professors, parents, other swamis, and even in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. All the Gaudiya Maths and Vaishnava Goswamis should join us in fighting this. This must be done very seriously. She should be removed from her post and a responsible person should be there. Therefore, I have wanted to have this Bajaj meeting. In India we have so many things to do.” In his reply he included some favorable statements attesting to the bona fides of ISKCON, made by the leaders of other sampradāyas in South India, for Gopāla to use as support in counteracting Mrs. Kochar. 

The testaments were gathered by Yaśodānandana and Acyutānanda swamis on their recent tour through Bangalore. They had included them with a report of successful preaching, with huge crowds attending two four-day programs. Guests of honor were His Holiness Viśveśa Tīrtha Swami of the Pejāvar Maṭha, Uḍupī, who is one of the heads of the Madhva sampradāya, and His Holiness Parakāla Swami of Parakāla Maṭha, Mysore, from the Rāmānuja sampradāya. Yaśodānandana Mahārāja wrote that both men gave opening speeches praising Śrīla Prabhupāda and his foreign devotees. On the last day of their festivals, they all assembled together on stage for a grand finale. “Huge crowds came and heard discourses by the guest speakers and Achyutananda Swami and myself. Later we showed the Hare Krishna Movie and As Brilliant as the Sun. Everyone was amazed by the extremely modern methods of producing and publishing your transcendental books. Overall we made a deep impression on the people of Bangalore.” 

Not everyone was as favorable though. Yaśodānandana added a footnote: “NB. We were called one day by one Madhva sannyasi and had a 2 hours long discussion with him and his leading pundit about Vaishnava jati buddhi and caste. They maintained that only born brahmins could take Vaishnava diksha but we defeated them before a group of 100 of their disciples and the public took our side. We want to publish a pamphlet containing all the slokas and arguements. . . .” 

Their letter also contained photos of leading members of society buying Prabhupāda’s books.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda was very happy with their preaching efforts, especially with the endorsements they have gathered. He liked the photos “especially the one taken in Bangalore of the Bar Association members taking my books was best of all.” 

Not everyone welcomes his disciples in India and several important temples even refuse us admission, so Śrīla Prabhupāda encouraged his sannyāsīs to continue with their propaganda work. “The people of Bangalore have again shown nice response to our coming, so keep the relationship very friendly, and deal carefully. I am very pleased to read the letter of commendation from the other sanyasis in South India. Now you can make copies of all these letters and send them to both the Jagannath Temple in Puri, and the Ranganath Temple in Vrindaban and get their official reply. Our movement is for everyone. It is not sectarian. . . . 

“The devotee is great and the nondevotee is downtrodden. And in the matter of devotional service of Krishna, there is no concern of caste and creed. Krsna also says, mam hi partha vyapasritya ye’pi syuh papa-yonayah. Even the papa-yonayah, if he takes to devotional service, he also goes back to Home, Back-to-Godhead. This conception of caste on the basis of birthright has killed Vedic culture. Also in the Srimad Bhagavatam it is said: yasya yallaksanam proktam puso varnabhivyanjakam, yadanyatrapi drsyeta tat tenaiva vinirdiset 7.11.35. So despite all these things, these people are still insisting that one can only be vaishnava if born in a brahmin family. That is not a very learned position.” 

As a final paragraph he added a question about their payments to the BBT. “Also, the BBT Bombay says that you owe Rs. 83,000 to them. So why haven’t you paid yet? You are such a big preacher, why you shall remain in debt?” 

Not all the correspondence Prabhupāda received was welcome news. A small package was sent on to him from the BBT offices in Los Angeles addressed to “The Secretary To HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swamiji.” It was from Śrīvatsa Goswami of the Rādhā-ramaṇa temple in Vṛndāvana who is currently studying for his Ph.D. in Varāṇasī. His cover letter detailed an arrangement between himself and one of our devotees, Santoṣa dāsa, for a book exchange. From the documentation he enclosed, it was evident that Santoṣa had gone to visit him in Vṛndāvana during the opening ceremonies of our Krishna-Balaram Mandir in March 1975. Santoṣa, who was working with the BBT at that time as a part of the editorial department, had requested a complete set of “Gosvāmī literature,” edited by Śrī Purīdāsa and distributed exclusively by the Rādhā-Ramaṇa temple. Śrīvatsa Goswami stated in his cover letter that “The published works in that series are over 60 and are the best editions so far.” In return, Santoṣa offered a full set of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books.  

From the documents now enclosed it was evident that Santoṣa had returned to America with a set of their books, giving a couple of Śrīla Prabhupāda volumes as an immediate swap. Santoṣa then wrote Śrīvatsa Goswami in July of 1975, confirming that a standing order of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books had been assigned to him and that several volumes had been sent out. After mentioning his recent experience at a festival in San Francisco, Santoṣa glorified the books he had received from India. “We just returned from our Rath Yatra celebrations in San Francisco (New Jagannatha Puri) where Srila Prabhupada spoke to over 10,000 people in this golden gate park on the subject of simply chanting Hare Krsna and eating prasada. There was a nice program of kirtana, plays, and feasts so that everyone was satisfied. Even the candidate for Mayor of San Francisco spoke on behalf of Krsna Consciousness. It is all due to the mercy of HDG Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura and all the previous acaryas. 

“So now A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami has requested us to complete the entire Caitanya-Caritamrta within 2 months time. Therefore I have been extremely busy doing the Sanskrit and Bengali proofreading and editing. . . . The books I have received from you have proven to be of immense value in this work and so I am sending what books of ours are available in separate cover. This is very much appreciated by us. Of course we feel that any encouragement we receive from the Vrndavana community in preaching activities is most enlivening.” 

There was another level of exchange revealed in Santoṣa’s letter to Śrīvatsa Goswami that did not escape Śrīla Prabhupāda’s attention, especially after the recent events in Los Angeles. “I have a small personal request. Recently Nitai dasa returned from Vrndavana where he attended a function of appearance day of Gopala Bhatta Goswami at Sri Radha Ramana Mandira. There he made a recording of a marvelous bhajana or musical kirtana. I was hoping you might have access to the words (Hindi?) of the songs performed there; and thus perhaps send a copy and/or tell the story of Radha Ramana again or of Gopala Bhatta Goswami.” 

Another letter dated December 1975 from Santoṣa again confirmed to Śrīvatsa Goswami his standing order for all of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, and Śrīvatsa’s reply a few days later confirmed his receipt of two volumes of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta in the mail. However, on January 9th, 1976 Raṇadhīra dāsa, from the BBT mailorder, sent a letter to Śrīvatsa Goswami informing him that “it is our policy not to give these books away, unless specifically authorised by our Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, in writing. If you wish to pay for these volumes and continue to receive new ones, you may arrange payment with Gopal Krishna dasa Adhikari, Hare Krishna Land, Juhu Road, Juhu, Bombay 400054, upon his notification I would be glad to ship the paid for books. Otherwise, I shall only be at liberty to restore your standing order upon the direct authorization of His Divine Grace, Srila Prabhupada, or his secretary. I invite you to correspond with them at your earliest convenience.” 

In February Śrīvatsa Goswami wrote to Santoṣa dāsa, who by this time was no longer with the BBT, to inform him of the cancellation. After getting no reply from Santoṣa, he sent the package which Śrīla Prabhupāda received today. He concluded his cover letter, “Because of his [Santoṣa’s] silence I am writing to you as you have the authority to direct BBT warehouse to immediately restore the shipment of books. The value and importance of the books I gave to BBT has been acknowledged by Sri Santosa Dasa. . . . 

“It is clear that the books I gave to BBT through Sri Santosa Dasa ji in exchange for their publication, proved extremely useful for them. I have no occasion to doubt the sincerity and integrity of a BBT staff and above all a devotee of Sri Bhaktivedanta Swamiji. Please see that the agreement is honored.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was very disturbed to hear of the transaction. He was not pleased at all that his BBT man had acted without his authorization. He first of all dictated a reply to Śrīvatsa Goswami. “Dear Sir: Please accept my greetings. With reference to your letter of June 5, 1976, I regret to inform you that this transaction has taken place without my sanction. We are not interested in book exchange. If you want our books you should purchase them from our Bombay centre: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Hare Krishna Land, Juhu Rd., Juhu, Bombay 400-054, India. Our Los Angeles office has been notified to return all your volumes to you. I hope that you have not been too much inconvenienced.” 

Then he dictated a letter to Rāmeśvara Mahārāja. “Please accept my blessings. I am in receipt of one letter from Srivatsa Goswami, 45 Dumrao Bagh Colony, Assi, Varanasi 221 005, India. He has written that Santosa das met him at his residence in Vrindaban and proposed to give Srivatsa Goswami all of my books in exchange for a set of “Goswami literature” edited by Sri Puridasa; all this was done without my sanction. Why has Santosa asked him for this? No one told him to do so. Write to him and ask him who gave him permission to do this! 

“What is this swop??? Why haven’t they asked me first??? We have nothing to do with any publication by these people. Those books should be returned at once. Do the needful. Already they have sent several of my books to Srivatsa Goswami and Srivatsa Goswami mentions that he received 2 volumes of Chaitanya Caritamrta from Los Angeles BBT Warehouse. Who is doing this?” 

* * * 

During the afternoon Dhṛṣṭadyumna Swami arrived on a Rādhā-Dāmodara saṅkīrtana bus. Śrīla Prabhupāda received him in his darśana room after his afternoon nap, at about four thirty. He immediately asked him for a report. Dhṛṣṭadyumna Swami told him the Rādhā-Dāmodara parties have already sold seventy thousand magazines this month and are aiming for one hundred thousand before the month’s end. In addition to this he said that twenty thousand big books have been sold, and there is still another week to go. 

In a slightly jocular mood, designed to bring out the competitive spirit in his disciples, Śrīla Prabhupāda asked Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja what the figures were for his distribution. But when Kīrtanānanda replied that he didn’t know what the figures were, Śrīla Prabhupāda changed his tone to conciliatory. “No, your line is this farming.” And then when Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja responded that per man, he thought his party distributed more books than anybody in ISKCON, Prabhupāda was appreciative. “And still they are maintaining this farm,” he said to Dhṛṣṭadyumna. 

Prabhupāda began to extol the virtues of plain living and high thinking, as opposed to what he termed a “nasty civilization” which unnecessarily increases the necessities of life. He compared the electric light to the castor oil lamp. Both products, the oil and the castor seeds, come from the earth. But to get the oil requires so much endeavor, drilling into the ocean, simply to improve the lighting system. “In this way your real business of life is finished. The energy and the intelligence you got for your self-realization—this precarious position, constantly dying and taking birth in various species of life, this is your problem, this was to be solved in human life—you have got advanced intelligence, but that intelligence is utilized from castor seed lamp to the electric lamp. That’s all. Just try to understand. What is that improvement? And for this improving from castor seed oil lamp to electricity lamp, you forget your real business. You lost yourself. This civilization is going on. This is called māyā. For some fictitious happiness you lose your whole purpose of life. It is difficult to understand, but the fact is there.” 

Kulaśekhara dāsa, formerly of London, was also present. Śrīla Prabhupāda recalled how Kulaśekhara’s father, a London docker, was driving for him during one of his visits. Kulaśekhara told Prabhupāda that he was finding country life to be so much more peaceful and less anxiety-ridden than living in the city. 

“Yes,” Prabhupāda said. “Less disease. Less braintaxing. Everything is less. And if you have temple, it is very happy life. Just for your food work a little, and balance time engage yourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is ideal life.” 

Gently holding one of the vased flowers on his desk he said, “Just see the minute fibers on the flower. Can anyone manufacture this? So small fibers. And how brilliant it is. If you study only one flower, you become God conscious. There is a machine which we call nature. From that machine, everything is coming.” 

Remembering something Śrīla Prabhupāda had said in London about Kṛṣṇa’s artistry Kulaśekhara offered, “You said they do not know that the butterflies and flowers are painted, but Kṛṣṇa paints them with thought.” 

Prabhupāda smiled. “Yes. How you can expect without painting it has come so beautiful? This is foolishness, ‘nature.’ What is this nature? Everything is being done by the machine of Kṛṣṇa. Parasya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate. Anyway, improve this mode of life. Live in open place, produce your food grains, produce your milk, save time, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Plain living, high thinking, ideal life. Artificial necessities of life do increase your so-called comforts, but if you forget your real business, that is suicidal. We want to stop this suicidal policy. We don’t want to stop the modern advancement of technology, although the so-called advancement of technology is suicidal.” He laughed. “But we don’t talk of this. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has therefore given a simple formula—chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Even in your technological factories, you can chant. What is the wrong there? You go on pulling on with your machine and chant, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa.” 

Turning to Kīrtanānanda Swami he asked if everyone was getting sufficient milk. When Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja said “as much as they want,” Prabhupāda laughed. “As much as they want, then jaundice. Too much is not good. They may take minimum half pound per head, and maximum one pound. Not more than that. But ‘Because there is enough, let us eat,’ no. That is not good. But children must get at least one pound milk. If they drink more milk they become stout and strong. Then their life is built up strong, and nice brain to understand.  

“Do they not see the benefit of the Society, that we are not killing children, we are maintaining them with sufficient milk? Is it not better civilization? And they are, for fear of overpopulation, they are killing. The mother is killing the child. Is that civilization? We welcome, and they kill. So why do they not find the distinction between this civilization, that civilization?” 

Dhṛṣṭadyumna Swami said they have no arguments except that they want to be free.  

“But they are not free,” Prabhupāda said. “That means they are fools. Where is your freedom? Nature is working. If you are free, then do not die. Nobody wants to die. What is the answer? The people’s general tendency is, unless he’s a madman, nobody is prepared to die. But he has to die.” 

Presenting the same impractical liberalism that the young reporter in Los Angeles had, Dhṛṣṭadyumna answered, “But I accept death as part of life. It’s natural. So I’m not afraid.” 

“Then when there is some sign of death, why do you go away?” Prabhupāda challenged him. “Sit down and die.” Everyone laughed at his exposure of the obvious. He went on to explain the actual psychology. “You don’t accept. You don’t want to die. That is a fact. You are talking foolishly, that ‘I accept it;’ but you don’t accept it. The real fact is this, that you do not wish to die, but because you find that there is no other alternative, ‘Then I accept it. All right.’ So you can talk like that, foolishly, but the intelligent man, you do not want to die.” 

Kulādri prabhu presented another criticism directed at the devotees. “They say why do you worry so much about death? We are living. We are enjoying life, why do you worry about death?” 

“Because we are intelligent,” Śrīla Prabhupāda responded. “I love you. Therefore you’ll die and you’ll become a dog, so I am taking sympathy on you that ‘Don’t become a dog.’ Every human being is anxious. The example is given just like a child flying kite and is going this way, this way, on the roof. Now on the edge of the roof, so one gentleman standing, ‘Hey, you’ll fall down.’ That is his duty.  

“He [the child] says, ‘Why you are checking me?’  

“ ‘Because I am human being. You are foolish boy. Therefore I am checking you.’ That is natural. The boy is not his son, but because he is gentleman, he wants to give him some protection. It is the duty of gentleman.  

“Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to the Indians, that ‘You become perfect and go and give this knowledge to the rest of the world. They are all rascals. It is para-upakāra, humanitarian. You may say, ‘Why do you bother?’ But as a human being I bother. Every human being will do that. Kṛṣṇa comes, bothering Himself. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata. ‘When these have become rascals, fools, I come, again advise them.’ So those who are servants of God, they are also doing the same thing, on behalf of God. Their position is therefore exalted. They should be worshiped as God because they are doing the work of God. They are not cheating the public.  

“So improve this farming very nicely. So the cows, they should be given as much pasturing as possible. If you simply drink little milk, and little vegetables, that will supply all vitamins. You do not require to take vitamin pills. No, there is no need, it has got all the vitamins. That is admitted. Vitamin A, D, in milk. And fruits, vitamin C. In this way, in fruits, vegetables, grains, milk, all vitamins are there.” 

Even meat-eaters can be catered to, Prabhupāda suggested, by giving them the cow’s flesh after it dies a natural death. Whenever a cow dies, they can simply be informed, and be allowed to take away the carcass for free. 

Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja raised the objection that what might be practical for devotees might not be so for the rest of society.  

Prabhupāda retorted, “So what is not practical for you, our system, your system is also not practical for us. We cannot live in this way. Anyway, if you can maintain a perfect community of plain living, high thinking, that is sufficient. We do not canvass but naturally they’ll see that this is convenient. After all, they are human being. They are learning. So that is part of our business—to preach. But to practice personally, that is our main business. Not that everyone will be preacher, but at least his own life be perfect.” 

Kulaśekhara is now producing Brijbasi Spirit, a magazine about New Vrindaban. Advance copies are sent to His Divine Grace and the last issue came while we were in Hawaii. Kulaśekhara bore the latest, which he laid on Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desk. It featured a beautiful picture of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Vṛndāvananātha, the Deities of the original New Vrindaban farm. Seeing Them on the cover, Prabhupāda asked Kīrtanānanda Swami to make arrangements for him to go up to the old farmhouse.  

Kulaśekhara prabhu expressed his feeling that the main Deities of New Vrindaban, Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra, were even more beautiful than Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Londonīśvara, the first large set of Deities to be installed in the Society. But it seemed he had a partisan purpose, and wanted Prabhupāda’s support. 

 “Oh, yes,” Śrīla Prabhupāda readily agreed. But it was clear he said it more to maintain Kulaśekhara’s enthusiasm rather than from his own conviction, because he then immediately modified it. “London differently. Vṛndāvanacandra is village beauty, and He is London beauty. He’s town beauty.” 

Encouraged, Kulaśekhara pursued his line of thought. “I have not seen more beautiful anywhere than Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra. The jewelry . . . ” 

“No,” Prabhupāda told him evenly. “Every one is beautiful; but everyone praises our London Deity.”  

“They have not seen yet Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra,” Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja suggested. 

Prabhupāda smiled, but wouldn’t be drawn. “No, they have seen the picture.”  

* * * 

Śrīla Prabhupāda gave his evening darśana inside the house. As he sat relaxing in a reclining chair in the main lounge, a small group of attentive devotees gathered at his feet. A large painted cloth mural of Hanumān hung on the wall to his right, and the daśa-avatāras of the Lord in relief on the wardrobe stood to his left, adding to the transcendental atmosphere.  

Some new book reviews have come from India and Śrīla Prabhupāda had me read out aloud what must be the best one so far. Signed by Śrī R. Subramaniam, the Deputy Director of Research in the Lok Sabha Secretariat of India’s National Parliament, it glorified the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and Śrīla Prabhupāda personally, in glowing terms. “A strange feature of the modern world is that in spite of vast advances in science and technology and the establishment of a good number of institutions for human welfare, mankind has not found true peace and happiness. Knowledge of material sciences and arts has increased tremendously in recent times, and millions of volumes on each fill the libraries the world over. People and leaders in every country are generally well versed in these arts and sciences, but despite their efforts human society everywhere continues to be in turmoil and distress. The reason is not far to seek. It is that they have not learned the science of God, the most fundamental of every other art and science, and fail to apply it to the facts of life. The need of the hour is, therefore, to do it if mankind is not only to survive but flower into a glorious existence.  

“To teach this science of God to people everywhere and to aid them in their progress and development towards the real goal of life, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is most eminently fitted. In fact, this great ancient work of Vyāsa will fill this need of the modern times, for it is a cultural presentation for the respiritualization of the entire human society. His Divine Grace, Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the Founder-Ācārya of the ISKCON movement, has taken it upon himself, in addition to his ceaseless travels and other multifarious activities in the service of the Lord, the stupendous task of translating this Sanskrit work into English in about sixty volumes for the welfare and happiness of mankind. It is really astonishing how he is able to do this single-handed, and when one comes to think of this, apart from his other great literary works, one is tempted to wonder if he is not the same Vyāsa Muni reborn today to adapt his own old work into a universal language of this age for the spiritual upliftment of the modern man. 

“So far eighteen volumes of this most beautiful literature on God have been brought out by ISKCON and the rest are under preparation. Needless to say, that in keeping with the excellence of their other publications, the publishers have seen to it that the printing, get-up, and pictures in these volumes are also of the highest quality, as though to serve as an ornament to the divine contents of the books. This is a rare opportunity to people and leaders of every country, race and community in the world to know and understand the glorious science of God and work for their perfection. I would say that this encyclopedia of spiritual knowledge is more important and fundamental than the encyclopedia of any other branch of knowledge and should, therefore, find a rightful place not only in the public and private libraries, big and small, of educational and other institutions, as also of every household, but above all in the hearts and minds of every man and woman.” 

Prabhupāda received this high praise with humility and great pleasure, especially the comparison to Vyāsadeva. He is encouraged that such a learned man has understood his mission and appreciated his work to such a degree and he has had the review placed in the standing file.  

During the darśana Prabhupāda was content to hear Pradyumna read some fairly long segments from the First Canto, occasionally interjecting comments to emphasize a point. By about seven twenty it seemed that Prabhupāda would end the meeting, as he threw it open for questions.  

One of the devotees asked about Śrīla Vyāsadeva: if he was tri-kāla-jña, a knower of past, present, and future, how could we understand that he actually foresaw future events?  

This brought an unexpectedly elaborate response from Prabhupāda. He had Pradyumna bring the Sanskrit edition of the Twelfth Canto and had him read through its long list of predictions for the Kali-yuga—lawlessness, heavy taxation, lack of justice, reduced mercy, untruthfulness, lack of cleanliness, reduced duration of life and strength, and so on. Item by item Prabhupāda elucidated on the text, entertaining everyone with sharp observations and witticisms on how all these features have manifested themselves in modern culture. He offered modern examples to show how the prophecy is being fulfilled. “Dayā, mercifulness. People will have no mercy. It has already begun. If somebody is attacked, being killed, nobody takes care, he goes in his own way. What to speak of no mercy for the animals—all right, you are not so advanced. But the mother’s mercy to the child will be diminished. This is foretelling. This is called tri-kāla-jña. Who expected that mother will kill the child? But Vyāsadeva, five thousand years ago said, ‘Yes, mercy will be reduced.’ Then?” 

 “Āyur,” Pradyumna read out. 

“Āyur, duration of life. The maximum duration of life in Kali-yuga is hundred years, but who is living hundred years? It is being reduced, and it will be so reduced that if a man would live twenty years he is an old man. It will come to that stage. Now it is reducing, from hundred years to ninety years to eighty years. Seventy, then sixty then fifty, in this way, if a man lives from twenty to thirty years he will be considered grand old man. These are the symptoms. Then?” 

“Balam.” 

“And bodily strength. In India in our childhood, I have seen when British rule was there, all the Europeans were coming, very tall and stout and strong. Now such Europeans are not coming. Even bodily strength reduced. Then?” 

Pradyumna read out a whole verse and Prabhupāda analyzed it word by word. “So vittam, money. Money is the criterion, not family. Formerly, there was respectable family, aristocratic family, brāhmaṇa family, kṣatriya family. All these things are gone now, never mind what you are. That is Kali-yuga symptom that, position in society, if you want to be respectable man, you somehow or other gather money, never mind how. Get money and you become respectable.  

“Janmācāra, first of all, janma, the family, heredity, was taken into consideration but that is now forgotten. Get money. Just like in England the British empire’s policy was that you bring money from outside and deposit in the government treasury and you become a lord. Is it not? Bring money, some way or other. So that was going on, exploiting, they used to go to the foreign countries and somehow or other accumulate money. Just like Lord Clive. He was a street boy, but he made some policy. In this way, diplomacy, he entered into Bengal and got some money, and he became Lord Clive. So money is the criterion. These are the symptoms. Try to understand. Guṇa. You are most qualified man. You may be a drunkard, you may be a prostitute hunter, whatever you may be, but because of money you are a qualified man. Then? 

“Abhiruci, yes. Now, formerly marriage was a religious ceremony where the father, mother will see their horoscope and see if they are compatible, they will agree, they will live peacefully—so many things are there. Still, in India such things are calculated by the parents of the boy and the girl. But in this Kali-yuga, dāmpatye abhiruciḥ. Means the boy and the girl, if he likes, if he says, that’s all. No other calculation. And after three days after marriage, there is divorce.”  

The devotees laughed at what seemed a deliberate exaggeration by Śrīla Prabhupāda to emphasize his point. But he remained serious. “Because abhiruci, I like, I don’t like, that’s all. Now I like, and after three days I don’t like, finished, business. In Chicago I saw a newspaper. One girl, within three weeks she has divorced two husbands.” Now everyone laughed again, but this time at the ludicrousness of modern people.  

“Yes, I saw it in the newspaper,” Prabhupāda told us. “So formerly the father, mother used to see that this boy and this girl are going to be married. So by horoscope, by other circumstances, by family, cultural, by education, so many things, whether they will live peacefully. That was the understanding. Husband-wife means a man requires a woman, a woman requires a man. They should be combined in such a way that they can live peacefully. If there is no disturbance of the mind, then they can make further progress in spiritual life. Therefore marriage is also necessary, and that must be properly done. Now there is no such consideration. The boys and girls are free, and if one likes the other . . . ” 

As Pradyumna continued to read on, Śrīla Prabhupāda offered more observations, each time just to the point. From the predictions it seemed that everything in Kali-yuga would become simply a question of show, with no real substance. Prabhupāda’s examples confirmed this, the liberal bite of sarcasm with which he expressed them making everyone laugh. “Vipratve sūtram eva hi. And there is a brāhmaṇa. ‘What is the proof that he is a brāhmaṇa?’ ‘He has got a sacred thread,’ that’s all. Or thread. It may not be sacred, purchased on the market. So at least we try to give a sacred thread by ceremony. But anyone can purchase a thread from the market, two paisā worth or one cent worth, and become a brāhmaṇa. ‘You are a brāhmaṇa?’ ‘Yes, you see my sacred thread?’ ” He chuckled at the rascaldom. “Finished. ‘What you are doing?’ ‘Never mind.’ ” Then he added a serious note. “Don’t be such brāhmaṇas, at least in our camp. You must follow the rules and regulations. Don’t show that I am now doubly initiated, sacred thread. Don’t cheat in that way.” 

Pradyumna read on. “Pāṇḍitye cāpalaṁ vacaḥ.” 

“Paṇḍita, if you can speak very vehemently, any subject matter, people may or may not understand, and they will certify you: ‘Oh, this man is very learned.’ What you have learned from him? ‘Oh, I could not understand, but he’s spoke very nicely.’ He spoke very nicely. What is that nicely? That cāpala.” Prabhupāda threw out a rapid string of gibberish—“Habadvasyenamdoaguwaddogbignikulaigondulaivaidilaktismai!” Then he laughed along with the devotees. “You go on speaking like that, and people will appreciate, ‘Oh, he’s a big speaker!’ ” 

On the next item he described the plight of the poor. “When the poor man comes, you’ll not give place. If he wants to stay, you’ll refuse. No. Because he’s poor, he’s immediately accepted as dishonest. He may be honest or dishonest, but poverty is a sign for accepting a man as dishonest. Then?” 

“Tīrtham. Just like there is Vṛndāvana and here is New Vrindaban. But if you spend ten thousand dollars and go to Vṛndāvana, then it is pilgrimage. And here is Vṛndāvanacandra, so that is not very important. Dūre vāry-ayanam. You have to go far, far away, then it will be pilgrimage. In India, there is Ganges in Calcutta. But they go to Hardwar. Then it is pilgrimage. The same Ganges, coming from Hardwar. Then?” 

Pradyumna read out the Sanskrit. “Lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam.” 

At this, Prabhupāda gave a hearty laugh. “Hmm. Lāvaṇyam, now you know very well in the Western country. Beauty increases by having long hair. Now see how it is current. Who expected that this foretelling is there in the Bhāgavatam? To increase beauty, have long hair. Is it not? Just see. How five thousand years this thing was foretold. That is the proof.” He grinned at us and declared, “There was no hippie movement then. But Vyāsadeva foretold that in the Kali-yuga if one keeps long hair he will think himself as very beautiful. There are so many things.” 

Then he gave a round-up of the future of this age. “Ultimately, with the advancement of Kali-yuga you’ll have no food. Food means there will be no food grains, there will be no milk, no sugar, like that. No fruits. If you get fruits, there will be no pulp, it is simply seeds. These things are there. You get a mango, but a mango means simply the big seed, that’s all. So how can you check it? If nature’s way, things are going to happen like that, what the scientists will do? If there is no rice, no wheat, will the scientists . . . ? They can say replace with a pill, but they cannot produce wheat or rice or dāl or milk, sugar. That is not possible.” 

Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja interjected that the scientists have fashioned a way for the spacemen to drink their own urine and eat their own stool. 

“Yes, that is the most scientific improvement,” Śrīla Prabhupāda announced cuttingly. “Yes. That they can do. By scientific improvement, they can drink their own urine—very tasty!” 

 One of the devotees wanted to know how the general mass of people could take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the face of all these disqualifications. 

Maintaining his good humor Śrīla Prabhupāda replied that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the only remedy. “In the Kali-yuga, it is an ocean of faults. How . . . ? Suppose all over your body there are boils. So where you will apply ointment? You just dip down!” 

It was a wonderful evening’s meeting. Prabhupāda’s congenial mood and warmth offered many of the devotees a chance to see him in a much more intimate way than they are used to. Most disciples only see him in the very formal setting of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class, and a few are fortunate to accompany him on his walks. But circumstances like this, with such free and happy exchanges, draw on the hearts and minds of us all, increasing our love and affection for him unlimitedly. 

June 25th, 1976

No morning walk today. It seems that mornings are the worst for His Divine Grace’s health. Nevertheless, he attended the program in the temple and gave class. 

* * * 

At eleven thirty Gaṇendra prabhu came and massaged Prabhupāda’s hands and feet again. Śrīla Prabhupāda decided it would be the last time. He smilingly told him that the treatment was more painful than the disease.  

* * * 

The advance copies of the July edition of Back to Godhead magazine have just arrived. The BBT has printed a record one million copies and the articles are all excellent. The cover highlights the American Bicentennial celebration and shows a devotee chanting in front of a large, circular festoon colored red, white and blue and bearing in its center an American flag with “1776” written in red underneath. Śrīla Prabhupāda especially liked the editorial caption, “Declaring Our Dependence on God.” Prabhupāda is very pleased with the whole magazine.  

The layout of the main article shows finely detailed illustrations of two coins blown up to about six inches diameter on which the words “IN GOD WE TRUST” can clearly be seen. The following pages show some beautiful shots of His Divine Grace taken in his room in Māyāpur. The article, in interview format, focuses mainly on good government and the need for a varṇāśrama society. The interview was taken during the March festival in Māyāpur, between Śrīla Prabhupāda, Ravīndra-svarūpa and Jagannātha-suta, the chief editor of BTG. Ravīndra-svarūpa prabhu had prepared for the interview by researching the American constitution and the Declaration of Independence at the U.S. Information Services Library in Calcutta. His intelligent questions regarding the current American political system had prepared the ground for some excellent responses from Prabhupāda.  

At about five thirty in the afternoon Śrīla Prabhupāda asked Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja to read it out to him. Prabhupāda had criticized the United Nations and the nationalistic mentality, suggesting a new philosophy for the whole world. “ ‘There should be one nation under God,’ ” Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa read out, “ ‘and one world government under God as well. Everything belongs to God and we are all His sons. That philosophy is wanted.’ ” 

Ravīndra-svarūpa had suggested that Americans might be wary of a central government because of the danger of tyranny. As well as this, he feared that division of labor would create envy between the classes. Prabhupāda’s reply was that by implementation of varṇāśrama, the division of society into proper social and spiritual sectors, a person could be properly trained who would not be a tyrant, and thus a suitable government be set up. He said the point was to establish a common cause. If everyone saw themselves as servants of God there would be no envy or exploitation. Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa read, “ ‘But if you do not know the common cause, then there will always be fighting. Just like in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness society. You come to consult me about every activity because I can give you the common cause. Otherwise there will be fighting. The government should be very expert to know the aim of life, the common cause, and they should train the people to work for the common cause. Then they will be happy and peaceful.’ ”  

Modern democracy was a stumbling block to the cause of unity, Prabhupāda had indicated. Of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s criticisms of what he often calls “demon-cracy” are well known to the devotees, and he outlined them in the interview. “ ‘If people simply elect rascals like Nixon, they will never find a common cause. Any rascal can secure votes by some arrangement, and then he becomes the head of the government. The candidates are bribing. They are cheating. They are making propaganda to win votes. Somehow or other they get votes and capture the prime posts. This system is bad.’ ” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja continued to read on. “BTG: So if we don’t choose our leaders by popular election, how will society be governed? Śrīla Prabhupāda: You require brāhmaṇas,kṣatriyas,vaiśyas and śūdras. Just as when you want to construct a building you require engineers. You don’t want sweepers. Isn’t that so? What will the sweeper do? No. There must be engineers. If you follow the division of varṇāśrama, only kṣatriyas are allowed to govern. And for the legislative assembly, the senators, only qualified brāhmaṇas. Now the butcher is in the legislative assembly. What does he know about making laws? He is a butcher. But by winning votes he becomes a senator. At the present moment, by the principle of vox populi, a butcher goes to the legislature. So everything depends on training. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness society we are actually doing that. But in the case of politics they forget it. There cannot be just one class. That is foolishness.’ ”  

In the article Prabhupāda went on to say that the purpose of the government is to know God and to implement God’s laws for the benefit of the people. Ravīndra-svarūpa had asked, “But suppose the government is atheistic?” and Śrīla Prabhupāda had responded, “Then there cannot be good government. Americans say they trust in God, but without the science of God, that trust is simply fictitious. First take the science of God very seriously, then put your trust in Him. They do not know what God is, but we do. We actually trust in God. They are manufacturing their own way of governing, and that is their defect. They will never be successful. They are imperfect, and if they go on manufacturing their own ways and means they will remain imperfect. There will always be revolutions, one after another. There will be no peace.” 

Puṣṭa stopped to show Śrīla Prabhupāda the caption box next to one of his photos. “On this side it says ‘Leaders of government have to consult God, then they will rule perfectly.’ ” Then he read the last section. “BTG: Has God also devised the most perfect government? Śrīla Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. The kṣatriyas ruled the government in Vedic times. When there was a war, the king was the first to fight. Just like your George Washington. He fought when there was a war. But what kind of president is ruling now? When there is a war he sits very securely and telephones orders. He’s not fit to be president. When there is war the president should be the first to come forward and lead the battle. BTG: So good government means first of all to accept the Supreme Being as the real ruler of the government. Śrīla Prabhupāda: You cannot directly accept the Supreme Being. You must accept the servants of the Supreme Being, the brāhmaṇas or Vaiṣṇavas, devotees of the Lord, as your guides. The government men are the kṣatriyas, the second class. The kṣatriyas should take advice from the brāhmaṇas or Vaiṣṇavas and make laws accordingly. The vaiśyas should carry out the kṣatriyas’ orders in practice, and śūdras should work under these three orders, then society will be perfect.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda sat back in satisfaction at the conclusion of the article. It was a strong and direct statement on organization in human society and it would be distributed to millions. He asked us, “You like this?” 

We all agreed. It was very good and right to the point. 

Other articles include the excellent essay Prabhupāda saw in Hawaii entitled Simple Living and High Thinking, by Dharmādhyakṣa dāsa, which details the idea of varṇāśrama society; a one-page commentary by Jagajīvana dāsa titled Then and Now—The Right to Distribute the American Dream, which examines the original purpose of the first American settlers, their pursuit of a God conscious way of life and a ruling of the Supreme Court from 1943 affirming the right to sell religious tracts and literature; a one-page editorial under the section ISKCON NEWS on the tenth anniversary of ISKCON, which occurs on July 6th; a pictorial essay entitled Kṛṣṇa Consciousness: The Spirit of ’76! (Prabhupāda liked this heading very much); and an article entitled Curing the Crimes of a Lifetime by Bibhāvatī devi dāsī, some of which Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa also read out for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s pleasure. 

Just after 6:00 p.m. Prabhupāda retired to his bedroom for a short rest, but he came out again at 7:00 to meet the devotees, who had gathered for his darśana.  

June 26th, 1976

No morning walk again today. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s heart is still giving him trouble, but he is determined to go to the temple every day and give a short class.  

Before leaving for the temple we talked for a few minutes in his room about the simplicity of farm life and the futility of endeavors for sense gratification. He said that Lord Kṛṣṇa is already providing whatever facility is required for satisfaction of the senses. There is no need for extra effort, such as provided by science, and he used one of his favorite examples, the mosquito. “Here is airplane—everything complete with a pilot. Create by your scientific brain, rascal. You are so proud of your scientific advancement.” 

I reminded him of what he had told me in Māyāpur. “You said that the mosquito’s body is so perfect that although with one slap it’s finished, still it has a syringe so strong that immediately upon landing on the skin it can penetrate and extract blood.” 

“Immediately! Just see! And if you allow one second, he’ll fill the whole body up by sucking. Just see what is that nozzle. There is no intelligence? The mosquito has better intelligence than any human being about his business. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja said, sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā deha-yogena dehinām. That particular body, he is destined to enjoy a certain amount of sense gratification according to his body. Sarvatra labhyate daivāt. God’s arrangement is nice. He can get it. The mosquito is getting. He wanted to suck blood, so he has been given a teeny body; he can suck blood, very little quantity. So arrangement is there; he’ll satisfy his senses, daivāt, by arrangement of God.  So why you are endeavoring? Even it is there in the mosquito, even it is there in the tiger, or any animal, or man. It is already arranged. Why you are wasting time simply for sense gratification? 

“Who will understand this philosophy? The fact is explained. That gentleman, Subramaniam, is very much appreciative. Those who are sane men, they are appreciating that here is a movement actually for the benefit. It is not sentimental, cheating, bluffing, economic development. Why forget your real business? Vyayaḥ param, simply wasting the valuable time of our life. If you want to suck blood, just become a mosquito!”  

The car arrived to take him to the temple. As he rose from behind his desk he laughed. “Pray to God, ‘Give me the body of a mosquito!’ Quickly you will get.” Stepping out of the house into the fresh morning air, he gave the solution for a better life: “Hare Kṛṣṇa. Simply expand this idea: kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam [protect the cows].” 

* * * 

In the Bhāgavatam class, on 7.6.10, he made extensive use of the same point, that we should not waste time trying to satisfy our senses. He offered the same example of the mosquito and its desire to drink blood; it gets what it wants, but according to God’s arrangement. He explained that there are one million one hundred thousand types of insects, and each and every one of them is getting their needs according to their bodies. 

The verse described different classes of men who, simply for money, risk their valuable lives. Prabhupāda gave several examples—the miners who go deep into the earth, the laborers who tolerate hellish conditions in the factories, the merchants of old who traveled to undeveloped places like America—all are risking death at any moment. But for what? “So the best thing is that we have to minimize our wants. We should be satisfied with yāvad artha-prayojanam, as little as possible. Not that we shall starve, that is not recommended. But don’t increase. So here in New Vrindaban we are trying to establish an ideal life, plain living and advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is real business. People, they do not know that Kṛṣṇa consciousness business is essential, imperative. We must take to it.” 

He recommended a balanced approach, with spiritual advancement as the focus of all activity. “Don’t be attached to the sense gratification. Just like eating, it is also a kind of sense gratification, to satisfy the tongue, satisfy the belly. But eating is also necessary if we want to maintain our body, and with the body you have to execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Without maintaining the body, or disturbing the body, we cannot. So everything can be adjusted. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness education. And we are trying to establish an ideal colony in New Vrindaban and other places. So I’m glad that in spite of all difficulties you are trying to, but do it nicely. Plain living, high thinking, that is required. It is not necessary that unnecessarily we increase objectives of sense gratification and be entangled. Minimize it and live peacefully, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you very much.” 

 * * * 

As soon as he came out of the temple, Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja led Śrīla Prabhupāda and a large entourage of devotees on a visit to the marble shop. It is part of a complex of workshops on the ground floor of a large and as yet, unfinished, building the devotees are constructing adjacent to the temple. The area includes a marble shop, construction, carpentry and printing facilities. A large hall on the second floor and another two floors of guest rooms complete the facilities. 

The marble cutting and polishing machines were purchased for only nine thousand dollars from a bankrupt business, and large amounts of marble came from the defunct Wheeling Railway Station. The devotees have mastered the necessary arts and crafts, and using Indian designs they have created exceptional results. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja showed Śrīla Prabhupāda the latest piece of inlay, which has been cut for his study floor. Prabhupāda was impressed. 

When he emerged into the open, the devotees accompanied him with a kīrtana as he briefly inspected a nearby vegetable patch where mung beans are grown. He was inquisitive of everything, asking about some logs of wood he saw lying in a heap and a large metal tank used for gas. And he laughed when he saw the young boys running along with the car as we set off back to the house. He said Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma used to race with the birds in the fields, therefore the same propensity is present in the human beings. 

* * * 

At least Śrīla Prabhupāda’s cooking has not been a problem. Pālikā dāsī’s dedicated efforts have provided him with a consistently high standard of prasādam. She has been making upmā (diced vegetables cooked with dry-roasted semolina) for his breakfast, and a variety of vegetable dishes, rice, dāl,capātīs and milk sweets for his lunch.  

However the devotee prasādam here in New Vrindaban is not very palatable, and Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Swami has arranged supplements of yogurt, freshly made cheese and fruit for us. We are fortunate, of course, that we can share Śrīla Prabhupāda’s remnants. Pālikā cooks enough extra that we can be satisfied from what is left in the pots. And every afternoon we get a tub of homemade ice cream, made from the farm’s own milk. But the devotees in general do not enjoy such amenities, usually getting only skim milk and yogurt as extras. Today we were startled when I broke open a fresh lump of cheese to eat—a big, black shelled bug popped out and crawled off across the table! 

* * * 

In mid-morning Śrīla Prabhupāda answered more mail, all from India. Jayapatāka Swami sent a detailed report on recent events in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur. Our application for the acquisition of land has now been sent to Calcutta to the Commissioner of the Presidency Division, Mr. Pentanthony, an Anglo-Indian Christian. Confidentially Jayapatāka Mahārāja has heard that the commissioner has raised three objections: 1) that ISKCON converts Christians into Vaiṣṇavas, which is not appropriate for a non-sectarian state such as India; 2) that the project is budgeted for one hundred and five crores[one hundred and five million dollars] which is such a fabulous amount of money that the government should investigate how we came by it; and 3) that the local land owners are mostly Mohammedans and therefore some racial strife may result. 

Jayapatāka Mahārāja outlined his response for Prabhupāda: “I suggested that a) members from all communities belong to ISKCON; b) no question of conversion, everyone remains what they are but becomes perfect in their outlook; c) Auroville and Ramakrishna haven’t been disqualified due to interculture membership, this is proof of freedom from prejudicial attitude; d) Distribution of free food to all people without restriction . . . is proof of the non-sectarian attitude and structure of ISKCON.” 

He explained that considering the amount of literature we have sold and the number of life members we have made in the last five years, the proposed expenditure is not unreasonable. He also said that the local Muslims stand to gain the most from our development. In fact, any opposition may come from “orthodox Hindoos [who] may oppose us as we cater to Muslims etc. with equal interest. This point I developed in several ways in great length.” 

Aside from the land acquisition news, he reported that the building was going steadily but there was a shortage of funds, and the boat program and Dolā-pūrṇimā festival have attracted several new men to come and join us, including a young Bengali man, educated in Germany with a B.S. or M.S. who used to be a freelance writer in Bengali. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda liked Jayapatāka’s answers but added his own further comments in his reply. “Concerning the doubts of the commission: 1). Christians also convert. It is not conversion from Christian to Hindu. We convert atheist class of men to take God-consciousness. God is one. It is not the question of Christianity, Hindu, Muslim; any religion that teaches to love God is genuine. It has nothing to do with Hinduism, Mohammedanism, etc. 2). Sources (of funds) means we get contributions from all over the world. All of our branches will gladly contribute. Practically this institution is the real U.N. We have the co-operation from all nations, all religions, all communities, etc. It will be an international institute. To see the planetarium and how things are universally situated has nothing to do with sectarian ideas. It is a scientific presentation of spiritual life. 3). The local Mohammedans have already agreed.”  

As a footnote he added an inquiry about our host in Haridāsapur at the end of the Māyāpur festival. “Why Prabhu Swarup das from Haridaspur is now living with us? He was supposed to arrange for the transfer of the land to us, but now no further word? I understand that he is a disciple of Bon Maharaj and he may have ulterior motives; inquire and inform me.”  

Mahābuddhi dāsa, Bhūgarbha dāsa and Mahāviṣṇu dāsa sent an inspiring report on their Library Party activities, along with some reviews. They recently finished the north of India, concentrating their efforts in Delhi. Books have been left for approval in several government institutions. The Ministry of External Affairs, which buys books and sends them abroad to all their embassies, took all the foreign language editions. The Ministry of Education and Social Welfare took the full set of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Bhagavad-gītā and other single volume books. This was especially of interest to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Our men were aware that Śrīla Prabhupāda had placed fifty of his 1962 edition Śrīmad-Bhāgavatams with that Ministry and so they tried to get them to take up the rest of the books as a continuation of that original sale. The attendant there remembered Prabhupāda personally making the sale. Our men left more full sets with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Ministry of Defense, and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (Ministry for External Affairs).  

Their letter mentioned that several other libraries and institutes have confirmed their standing orders, with thirteen colleges and universities purchasing full sets. They have also visited Simla and Chandigarh with similar success, even though the colleges are closed for holidays. With sixty-four orders taken in the three weeks prior to the writing of the letter, the grand total between theirs and Gargamuni Mahārāja’s party since the month of April comes to one hundred and thirty-nine. All of this has been achieved despite the fact they have to travel by bus and train.  

Their only problem is the impending expiry of Mahābhuddhi’s and Bhūgarbha’s visas. To compensate for this, they are training Prabhaviṣṇu dāsa, and he will form a team with Mahāviṣṇu. As holders of Commonwealth passports they don’t need visas and can stay indefinitely.  

They ended with a request for information on the territory Śrīla Prabhupāda has assigned to his son, Vrindaban De, who owns the Vrinda Book Company. Prabhupāda is encouraging him to sell his books on the eastern side of India, but the Library Party was unsure exactly where. 

Prabhupāda was enthusiastic about their work and the reviews they sent, which he called “particularly important.” 

He encouraged them to try and somehow or other extend their visas. He wrote, “Indeed, the field is as good or better than the U.S.A. for this type of work. I remember when I sold the first one volume personally to the Archeological University. I sold them personally long ago. Now you must work conjointly with the other library men in India. Don’t let there be undue competition amongst our men. Do combinedly, it is very much encouraging to me. 

“You can let Vrindaban De work Orissa and W. Bengal and Bihar, and when I go back I shall see how he’s working. I am giving him a chance so let me see how he’s done. For the time being at least, let him do it until I return.” 

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa prabhu sent a report on his printing operations. Along with his letter he included photocopies of some handwritten reviews he collected in Russia. He requested that they not be published for at least six months to a year. He was a little secretive about this even in his letter to Śrīla Prabhupāda—“I will tell you the reason when I meet You next.”  

In his letter Gopāla proposed to relocate the book printing from Delhi to Bombay, where he said he could get better prices and higher quality. However, the printing of the Hindi magazine and all the composition work will still be done in Delhi. 

Gopāla proposed printing one thousand hardbound Śrīmad-Bhāgavatams on high quality paper which he said would be comparable to books printed in the West. These will be reserved for life members and libraries, and be sold for a retail price of forty-five rupees. He will also print four thousand softbound Śrīmad-Bhāgavatams on government concessional paper, and these will sell to the general public for fifteen rupees. He also mentioned that the Indian government concessional paper is now tinted green to prevent black marketeering.  

Another plan he has is to print ten thousand Bhagavad-gītā abridged editions, four thousand of which he wanted to produce as what he called “half-bound.” This means the hardbound jacket covers will simply be stuck to the board. This would save sixty paisa per copy.  

He had more news from South India. He has been asked to mediate a dispute between Yaśodānandana Swami and Mahāṁsa Swami. It seems Mahāṁsa received some money sent by Śrīla Prabhupāda to Yaśodānandana for book printing and spent it on his temple construction. Gopāla said that collections for the Hyderabad temple had dropped and he was doubtful that it would be ready to open on Janmāṣṭamī in August. 

He said that the Library Party has sold twenty standing orders in four days in Madras and is now moving to other parts of the South. He wants Mahābuddhi and Bhūgarbha to stay on in India and will try to get their visas extended. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda is very pleased with Gopāla Kṛṣṇa’s efforts to establish the BBT in India and he approved of his expanding the printing operation, but not all of his ideas. “I think that the idea of pasting the jacket cover picture on the front of the book is [not] a good idea (the half-bound books which you mentioned). It will not be very respectable. I don’t like the idea. Make it hardbound and softbound, that’s all. 

“You can also get good composition and good prices in Mathura. They have many hindi presses there as well.” 

He wasn’t too happy with the news from Hyderabad. “The Rs. 15,000 was sent personally by me to Yasodanandan Swami for printing books. What right had Mahamsa Swami to spend this money? He is spoiling. 

“South India is a good field for our books. The library party of Mahabuddhi and Bhugarbha are doing very nicely. Indeed there is a good potential or better for our books in Indian libraries and universities. Try to get them visa extension or do the needful in this connection to see that this program goes on increasing. This program is very much encouraging to me.” 

Ever mindful of the whole preaching field in India, he added a footnote. “n.b. enclosed you will find some copies of reviews sent to us by Mahabudhhi’s library party. They are very important reviews and they can be used in dealing with that Mrs. Kochar. I wanted to bring this rascal woman in the public eyes, that she is worthless and still she is posted in a responsible position.” 

* * * 

Prabhupāda spent nearly two hours in the green and leafy environs of the garden this evening, quite happy to sit back and hear Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja read verses and purports from the Sixteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. The chapter describes the symptoms and behavior of the demonic nature,  and it made for an interesting interchange. Occasionally Prabhupāda interrupted, adding further wisdom or stopped the reading to invite his disciples to discuss a particular point.  

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa picked out something interesting from verse nine. He said that in the word-for-word translation the demonic are described as prabhavanti, they flourish, and at the same time, kṣayāya, which means for destruction. So this seemed to be a contradiction. 

Prabhupāda explained that it means materially. “Just like when you go to a modern city and say, ‘Oh, how developed,’ prabhavanti. But what kind of prabhavanti? That is next word, jagato ’hitāḥ, to destroy this world. So their prabhavanti is in the opposite direction. That is not prabhavanti actually. Prabhavanti in the material sense, but what is the purpose, what is the end? There are two kinds of progress, to hell, to heaven.” 

I mentioned that fifty years ago people were thinking that it was progress to build big skyscrapers, but now it’s so hellish in the cities that everybody is moving out. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda agreed. “Yes. Actually, when there are so many skyscraper buildings, it is hell. The natural air is obstructed. In Bombay you’ll see. If you are in the top floor you have got little facility, in the lower floor it is hell. If there are several skyscraper buildings, in the first floor, second floor, it is simply hell. No air. Simply you have to run on this electric fan. You cannot see the sky. Therefore it is meant skyscraper? What is scraper? What is the meaning?” 

“It touches the sky,” I said. 

“So you have touched the sky in such a way I cannot see even. This is the result. You demon, you have captured the sky, so I have no opportunity to see even. Always electric light.” He looked around the beautiful garden, through the trees and across the valleys beyond. “Now we see the sky, the sun, how nice it is. This is life. Green, down and up, clear sky, sun, this is life. We get rejuvenation in this atmosphere. What is this nonsense, all skyscraper building, no air, no light. Jagato ’hitāḥ. The mind becomes crippled, the health becomes deteriorated, children cannot see even the sky, everything is spoiled.” 

Dhṛṣṭadyumna read on, coming to verses eleven and twelve: “They believe that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no end to their anxiety. Being bound by hundreds and thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification.” 

After hearing the purport (which mentions Śrīla Prabhupāda’s acquaintance in Allahabad who wanted four more years of life) Prabhupāda invited us to discuss. 

Kulādri prabhu had a fitting match for the description of the demonic man. “One of the richest men in the United States, Howard Hughes, he just recently died, and he had sores all over his body. With all of his money, he died in a very miserable condition. He had so many millions and millions of dollars.”  

Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja added that at the time of his death he reportedly said, “I think I’ve made a mistake.” 

Prabhupāda asked for a description of Hughes and his activities and several of us chipped in bits of information we had gleaned from the many recent news reports. Dhṛṣṭadyumna said, “He was one of the richest men in the world. He was a movie star in his youth, and he had many beautiful women, fabulous wealth, he owned hotels all over the world, airplanes, airports. . . .” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja added, “At the end of his life he didn’t even mix with women so much though. He became very despondent and depressed. He was like a hermit; he withdrew into himself. No one knew very much about him, he was very mysterious so far as his life with the public was concerned. But toward the end of his life he didn’t live a very elaborate life of sense gratification at all, no one knew much about him at all.” 

I suggested that the description in the Bhagavad-gītā was perfect. “Most of his fortunes they calculate he amassed by many illegal methods, like paying off police and fixing so many things up. With his money, he was always able to buy government officials and get so many contracts to further the development of his aircraft companies. And also he had a lot of land in Las Vegas, this gambling city. He was involved in many mysterious maneuvers. It’s open in the newspapers, they said that he got most of his money from illegal methods.” 

Dhṛṣṭadyumna said, “In his old age he was very afraid of germs. He didn’t want to catch any disease. He would live in perfectly sealed rooms with all artificial air and light, so no germs could exist and he would wear these . . . ” 

Prabhupāda interrupted. “He did not know that he’s creating germs within his body. If there was no germs how he died? So at last he said?”  

Dhṛṣṭadyumna repeated his earlier statement. “He said something to the effect that ‘I don’t know what this life was about. I think I’ve made a mistake.’ Just at the end.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda gave one of his wry smiles. “Yes, it was mistake.” 

Shortly after eight thirty he brought the meeting to an end. As he prepared to retire to the house, he looked at one of the women, Gopālāśyapriyā dāsī, who was rather under dressed considering the chill of the evening. He was concerned and he turned to Kulādri, the temple president. “Um hmm. This girl? This cloth is sufficient? So you have no covering? They do not require covering?” 

Kulādri was casual about it, trying to explain it away to assuage Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disquiet. “It is warm for us, Śrīla Prabhupāda.” 

But Śrīla Prabhupāda wouldn’t allow it to be passed off lightly. “No, if they require, they must be supplied. You must ask them what you need, and provide them. Because they do not say, you’ll also keep silent—that’s not good. Every month they should be asked what they need. Necessities, they must be supplied. We have already discussed this point. The women, they require protection, children, women.” 

These evening darśanas are truly satisfying. Hearing the descriptions of materialistic life, we could contrast that with what Prabhupāda has created for us here. It is idyllic, a beautiful setting of trees, cool night air, serious students—and a perfect spiritual master. 

* * * 

As Śrīla Prabhupāda lay to rest on his bed and I stood by his side gently massaging his legs, he mused a little on the situation in Detroit. The locale of our temple there is quite debased and rough and he has several times brought it up in conversation how, although the black population have the facility of jobs to earn their livelihoods, still they tend to remain in a degraded condition. He had noted on his drives out and back from Belle Isle the queues of men waiting at seven in the morning for the liquor stores to open.  

He asked me if there had been any disturbance in the local neighborhood since the devotees moved there. I told him that our men had not reported any and I said I thought it was because the devotees are not prejudiced in any way. “We have white devotees and we have black devotees also. And if the neighbors want to come and see the place, then they are allowed in and shown around. We are about the only ones who could possibly live there.” 

He asked me a question. “What is the reason they are given equal facility, still they are so wretched, poor, ruffian?” 

I suggested it was a lack of real culture. “Just low class. There’s no intelligence how to utilize their wealth correctly. I think you gave that example. If there’s a dog and you put him on a king’s throne, he’ll still come and lick your feet.” 

Prabhupāda chuckled. “Yes, he’ll lick up shoes.” He quoted one of his Bengali sayings. “Another example is given: If you take a piece of coal, you can wash it hundreds and thousands of times, it never becomes white.” Then he pointed out that this was a material analysis, and it differed from our point of view. “But spiritually you can reform. It doesn’t matter. If one comes to the spiritual platform then everything possible. Otherwise not.” 

June 27th, 1976

Śrīla Prabhupāda felt a little better this morning and went on his walk. The devotees drove him to a more open stretch of countryside, rather than return to the dark vale we first visited.  

He walked at an easy gait, accompanied by a small handful of devotees. He spoke only intermittently, strolling along with a quiet serenity. Śrīla Prabhupāda has a wonderfully aristocratic bearing—erect stature, upwardly tilted head, cane firmly wielded, his hand clasping the silver handle with the forefinger extended, sharp eyes, penetrating and clear—yet at the same time he is completely approachable and never aloof from his surroundings and his followers. He has weight. He is a presence one cannot ignore. Even when he is silent you know he has a lot to say. And when he does speak he reveals a wealth of information. As he told us in Bombay, a devotee is expert, which means that “he knows everything about something, and something about everything.” Śrīla Prabhupāda is certainly the most expert.  

As he sauntered along the road he noticed some patches of herbs growing along the side. “There is a class of men, they are called beḍiyās. They know all these herb, which herb is medicine for certain disease, and they sell in the market. Every one of these is meant for some medicine. They know it.”  

I asked if that kind of information was in the Vedas. 

Prabhupāda said, “Āyur-veda. There is a book. Dravya-guṇa. All kinds of herbs, metals, even different kinds of flesh of different animals, they are mentioned. Hundreds of different kinds of animals’ flesh, how it can be utilized for certain disease, the descriptions are there.” 

This was a little surprising to me. “They use flesh for curing diseases?” 

“Yes.” Prabhupāda said matter-of-factly, adding, “Animal killing is only allowed when it is absolutely necessary, for medicine. Suppose by killing one animal, hundreds of lives are saved, so that is allowed. One preparation is chāgalāgdha-ghṛta. A live goat is put into the ghee with other ingredients, and that is a good medicine for tuberculosis.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa was also a bit incredulous. “They actually cook the live goat in the ghee? Maybe we should withhold this science from the Western world for a while,” he said half-jokingly. 

Prabhupāda grinned. “No, you are expert already.” 

I asked if it was done in the same mood as Vedic animal sacrifices where mantras were chanted to give new life to the animal. 

Prabhupāda shook his head. He said animals were sacrificed and reborn to test the potency of the mantra. But in this case the animal was used for medicine. 

Śyāmakuṇḍa dāsa mentioned a book he had recently read wherein the author said that old cows with no milk and rotten teeth should be slaughtered as a matter of economy, rather than waste their flesh. 

Prabhupāda had a suggestion of his own for the author. “When he’ll die, who will take his meat? That is also economical. Why don’t you give it to the animal-eaters instead of wasting it? Why they bury in the ground? Why? Let it be thrown to be eaten by the jackals or anybody else.”  

Śrīla Prabhupāda argued that when a man is dead they should make the same economic calculation because, after all, when they are dead, there is no difference in value between an animal’s body and a man’s body. 

We suggested it would be too horrifying for them to contemplate that they may start eating each other, their own grandmother or even their family dog. 

“But if it was wrapped up in a package and they didn’t know it was the dog or their mother, they could probably eat it,” Śyāmakuṇḍa said. 

“Yes,” Prabhupāda agreed. “They can eat by packing.” 

It reminded me of an incident from my childhood. When I related it, Śrīla Prabhupāda stopped for a moment to listen. “They eat their pets sometimes. I used to have a pet rabbit, and one day I came home from school and my father had killed it and eaten it for dinner.” The devotees shook their heads and laughed. “He said I wasn’t looking after it properly, so he . . . ” 

Prabhupāda pulled a face and walked on. He didn’t want to hear. “Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa!” 

* * * 

Right after his short class Prabhupāda visited the cow barn. Four new calves have been born since his arrival, and as he stood next to their stall chatting with Kīrtanānanda Swami, he let one lick his hand. The New Vrindaban cow protection program is impressive. The devotees derive about one thousand pounds of milk per day which they turn into various products like ghee, cheese and buttermilk. Śrīla Prabhupāda enjoyed the visit. 

* * * 

 The weather has been sunny and warm so Śrīla Prabhupāda takes his mid-day massage sitting out on the lawn. Today he noted a constant coming and going of cars and small trucks on the road and inquired if they were our men. When I informed him that they were, he laughed and quoted a Bengali saying:  “ ‘I live in the forest and eat grass, but for going to pass stool I ride a white horse!’ This is your Western renunciation and simple living. They are living in the hills and forests, but still they drive big trucks and cars around! Anyway, that is all right, as long as we do not grow dependent on them.” 

* * * 

In the afternoon Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa and myself went to swim in a large, man-made pond named Rādhā-kuṇḍa. We went with Kulādri, Nārada Muni dāsa and a few other prabhus. We had water sports and raft fights. After some time the gurukula boys arrived, most of whom are under five years old. They are pure and innocent and seemed content and happy. We had an hour long battle, “demons versus devotees.” I was told that Prabhupāda has approved wrestling for youths because it helps strengthen their metabolism and keeps the semen intact for going to the brain. 

* * * 

Prabhupāda held another long darśana in the garden, at about five thirty. Although the drone of our neighbors’ motorcycles could be heard in the distance, they did not venture up as far as our house, so we sat on the grass in peace to hear His Divine Grace.  

Prabhupāda initiated the discussion by asking the devotees a question. “If you go somewhere, you must know first of all why you have gone there. That is the first question. If you go to a store, the first business is that you have gone to purchase some particular thing from the store. That is understood. Similarly, why one should go to a spiritual master? What is the purpose? Answer any one of you.” 

That set the tone for much of the next two hours. Prabhupāda encouraged the devotees to examine the fundamental principle of spiritual life—one’s relationship with the spiritual master. 

Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja immediately provided the answer he was looking for. “When one is confused and frustrated by this material existence, he wants to find an answer to his problem. So there are different authorities in the world offering solutions, but one has to find the actual authority.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda expanded his statement. “One has to go to guru when one is inquisitive. Child also wants to know. He asks his parents, ‘What is this, father? What is this, mother?’ That inquisitiveness is there in everyone. So when one wants to know about the Supreme, then he requires a guru, or spiritual master. It is not a fashion that ‘Everyone keeps a guru; let me also have a guru.’ Not like that. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet. ‘In order to understand the transcendental science, one has to go to guru.’ Just like one generally, naturally, goes to temple, church . . .  Four classes of men. One is needy: ‘O God, give us our daily bread.’ Actually, that is the fact. God gives us bread. So traditionally we are trained up. Similarly, one who wants to know what is God.  

“Just like in our Society, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they see that these boys, young boys, they have given up everything, they are after Kṛṣṇa. What is this Kṛṣṇa? That is intelligent. Why they are after this Kṛṣṇa? Then he has to go to a person, guru. In this way, there are many circumstances. But the real purpose is to know the Supreme.” 

“So if one is looking for a guru,” Dhṛṣṭadyumna Swami asked, “but there are many people they are proclaiming themselves guru, and they are speaking ‘Supreme,’ ‘God,’ how may one tell the actual guru?” 

Prabhupāda firmly condemned both those who declare themselves to be God, as well as those who believe them. A person should know what he is looking for in order to avoid being cheated. He gave a simple practical test by which any layman could expose a rogue. “If one accepts some cheap God, that means he has no understanding about God. He’s a rascal. If I say I’m God and somebody accepts me as God, then he’s a foolish man. They do not know what is meaning of God. If one wants God, he must know at least what is meant by God. Every scripture, just like in Bible it is said, ‘God has created this universe.’ So if you come to me and accept me as God, why don’t you test whether I have created another universe like this? Why you accept a cheap God who hasn’t done anything? Simply he’s bluff, and he says that ‘I am God.’  

“Everything requires intelligence. If you are not intelligent, then in every transaction you may be cheated. Everyone has heard God is great. So great means there should be nobody equal to Him and nobody greater than Him. So test that man whether he has no competitor, another God. Nowadays there are so many Gods. So God is great, why is there another competitor? This is intelligence.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa also stated that it was a common occurrence in the Western countries for people to say that anyone can be guru. “In fact, one Westerner who went to India and came back—he’s very popular in the United States today—he says that everyone is guru and everyone is God.” 

“And people accept that?” Prabhupāda asked him. 

“Yes.” 

Prabhupāda motioned to the small group before him.“Now you discuss this point.” 

Several quotes and philosophical pronouncements came forth but Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted something other than mere repetition of scripture. “No, this is a common sense. If everyone is God, then what is the necessity of finding out a guru? Guru means who explains about God. If everyone is God, then what is the use of explanation? There is no need of guru.” 

His purpose for the evening was clear. He wanted to hear the personal realizations of his disciples. His questions, prompts and instigations of debate were both to train us and reveal what we have actually understood. He is writing so many books which he requests us repeatedly to read. He does not want blind, sentimental followers. He wants competent preachers who can go out and save the world. Defeating the Māyāvādīs is high on the list of priorities. Thus a question from one of the men found Śrīla Prabhupāda as much irritated with the man as he was with the faulty philosophy he inquired about. 

The man asked, “Śrīla Prabhupāda, there is one common philosophy, also held by a lot of religious groups, that God can be understood directly from within, and that no guru or spiritual master is necessary. If I desire to approach God, and if He’s all-powerful, He can instruct me from within. They feel like this. Therefore they dispute our claim that we understand God in a different way, that you need a genuine spiritual master. And yet when we approach them, one man will say he has God within his heart and he understands God in this way, and another man is receiving instruction from God from within the heart, and yet he’s saying another thing.” 

Prabhupāda stated clearly the position of such a proponent, but he was as concerned about the questioner. “He’s a rascal, and who accepts him, he’s a rascal. How do you think that God is speaking to him? How do you accept it?”  

The devotee said he didn’t accept it but Prabhupāda wasn’t satisfied with that assurance. He had detected a problem in the mere fact that the man had brought it up. 

“But you are advocating. Why do you accept this?” he wanted to know. “He would say, but you must know that he’s talking foolish. How God can talk with him? What is the condition? Therefore you have to read books. 

“God talks with whom? That is said. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam. Those who have already become devotee of God and engaged in His service, He talks with him. Not a third-class fool. He doesn’t talk with him. It is clearly stated, one who is twenty-four-hours engaged in the service of the Lord, with love and faith, God talks with him. How do you understand that God is talking with him? A rascal fool, who has no business with God?  

“So first of all see whether he’s twenty-four-hours engaged in God’s service with love and faith. Then you can understand, ‘Yes, God is talking with him.’ But [when] he has no preliminary qualification, if he says, ‘I can talk with God,’ he’s a nonsense. You accept him, ‘Yes, he may be talking with God.’ How he can talk? That means you are also nonsense. You do not know with whom God talks. Why do you accept such proposition? If some storekeeper says ‘I have passed M.A., L.L.D.,’ and I have to accept that? You must know with whom God talks. That means you are nonsense. You are accepting nonsensically. And the person who is constantly engaged in God’s service, unless he’s trained up by a spiritual master, how can he be engaged? So without spiritual master, one cannot be engaged in devotional service, and without devotional service, nobody’s eligible to talk with God. So that nonsense talking, that without spiritual master, God talking, and he has become perfect, this is all nonsense. One who believes, he is also nonsense. He does not know God.  

“To raise such question means nonsense. You do not know with whom God talks, therefore you have brought this question. Otherwise, you would have kicked immediately, ‘It is impossible.’ What do you think?” 

The boy again tried to reassure Śrīla Prabhupāda. “I understand what you are saying.” 

“Then why do you raise this question?”  

“It’s a matter of argument also,” the boy replied. 

Prabhupāda was irked. “Argument? Why do you bring such nonsense argument, waste time? Don’t waste time. You are ignorant, you are accepting. Don’t remain ignorant. It is common sense. Is it so easy that one can talk with God? If some common man says, ‘Just now I went to Mr. Ford, the President, and talked with him. I’m coming back from him.’ So any gentleman will believe that? So these are our insufficiency that we believe such things. We are not properly trained up. Simply waste time. That’s not good. He may talk nonsense. Why I shall accept nonsense? Shall I have to believe? He’s a common man. How he can talk with President Ford? If I believe, then I am also nonsense.”  

The devotee’s next question really brought out Śrīla   Prabhupāda’s annoyance. “Does this mean that we should not speak with those who ask such questions?” 

“But you must know how to answer it!” Prabhupāda riled. “Otherwise, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Why there are so many books? You do not read it, you do not know how to answer it even. That means you do not read. If you knew that God does not speak with rascals or anyone ordinary, then you would have immediately replied, ‘God does not speak to you. It is not possible. It requires qualification.’ Why should you believe it and waste your time?” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was in a lively disposition. Rather than have sections of his books read out, as in previous nights, he preached directly the philosophy, and dealt with his audience directly also. The mood was one of dynamic exchange and everyone was invigorated. 

At one point, Prabhupāda told everyone the story of Nārada Muni, the cobbler and the brāhmaṇa. 

Hearing this made one of the men puzzled. Thinking about a statement Kṛṣṇa makes in the Bhagavad-gītā he asked Prabhupāda to clarify it. “In that story, the cobbler actually was more advanced than the brāhmaṇa, and yet in Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa explains that ‘Even the strī-śūdra-dvijabandhu,’ they can all approach the supreme destination. Then in the next verse He says, ‘How much greater, then, are the brāhmaṇas, the righteous, the devotees, the saintly kings.’ I was wondering how are they greater? I do not understand how they are greater than the lower person who surrenders.” 

Prabhupāda gave him a simple but wonderful comparison. “Suppose you have got your spiritual master and if somebody says that any one of you can come in this car. So spiritual master goes, you also go. Does it mean that spiritual master is not greater than you? Do you think like that?” 

It was immediately clear to the boy. “No.” 

“Then? It is the same thing. Suppose Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja has brought this car, so he says, ‘All of you can come.’ So I go, you go, does it mean that you and your spiritual master are equal?  

“Everyone can go to Godhead, there is no doubt, but still there is difference between brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas,śūdras. So far going into the car, the equal right is there, but it does not mean that your spiritual master or the next group, they are not greater than you. Don’t think like that. The same car, Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja is driving, I am also there, you are also there. Does it mean that we are all equal? There must be gradation. The right is given to everyone. It does not mean that immediately they become all one.  

“It is Kṛṣṇa’s mercy that He accepted everyone, ‘Come on.’ But the distinction is there. We are inviting everyone to partake kṛṣṇa-prasādam. That does not mean that immediately all of them have become of the equal rank. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He was so kind, but still there was distinction. When He was taking prasādam, personal associates, they were sitting with Him. Is it not?  

“This is called honor. Varieties must be there. Otherwise we become Māyāvādīs—everything is equal, all one. This is Māyāvādā philosophy—no varieties. There must be variety. That is Vaiṣṇava philosophy. And as soon as you make it variety-less, all equal, that is Māyāvāda.” 

He offered another beautiful example from the colorful garland he was wearing. “Just see even in this flower.” He pointed out the blossom and then the leaf. “This is flower and this is also flower. Does it mean they are of the same rank? This is understanding. Together they look very beautiful, but if you take separate value, then it is valuable than this flower. That distinction must be there. If somebody says, ‘I am accepting even the leaf in this garland,’ then what to speak of rose? It is like that. Kṛṣṇa says that. That does not mean leaf and rose have the same value. One is making a beautiful garland, ‘I am accepting everything.’ Mixed together it looks very nice, but individually the leaf has value, the rose has value, the flower has value. Not that because they are put together they have equal value. This is Vaiṣṇava philosophy.” 

There was another claim to God consciousness that we put before him for comment. He had mentioned the United Nations and someone said there was now a Māyāvādī guru who conducts meditation sessions there. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s expository response came in typical fashion, with cutting humor and śāstric reference. “That is another cheating. Meditation . . . Whatever nonsense they are doing, you don’t know, nobody knows. That’s all. ‘If you become dumb, you have no enemy.’ Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkho yāvat kiñcin na bhāṣate. ‘A rascal is beautiful so long he does not speak.’ So better meditation; don’t speak. Nobody will detect you. This is going on. If you speak, then you’ll be detected what you are. And if you sleep by posing meditation, then nobody will ask, ‘What you are doing nonsense?’ This is meditation. Meditation is another cheating. That Prahlāda Mahārāja has detected. Huh? Find out this verse, Seventh Canto.” 

As Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja looked it up I recalled a news article about the man. “This Shri Chinmoy is supposed to be this resident guru at the United Nations. He did a practical demonstration of what he said a person who is in touch with God can be capable of doing if he allows himself to become an instrument of God. For eight months he painted continually, and he produced twenty seven thousand paintings. He said that this was proof that he was God realized.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda waited to respond until the verse he wanted was read out. Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa read the translation. “O Supreme Personality of Godhead, there are ten prescribed methods on the path to liberation—to remain silent, not to speak to anyone, to observe vows, to amass all kinds of Vedic knowledge, to undergo austerities, to study the Vedas and other Vedic literatures, to execute the duties of varṇāśrama-dharma, to explain the śāstras, to stay in a solitary place, to chant mantras silently, and to be absorbed in trance. These different methods for liberation are generally only a professional practice and means of livelihood . . . ” 

Prabhupāda interrupted and repeated the last phrase. “Means of livelihood.” 

Then Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa continued, “ . . . means of livelihood for those who have not conquered their senses. Because such persons are falsely proud, these procedures may not be successful.” 

After hearing the short purport, Prabhupāda gave further explication. “Take, for example, mauna.Mauna means don’t talk rubbish. It is better not to talk than to talk foolish. So mauna is meant for them who cannot talk about Kṛṣṇa. Better stop talking. Because he does not know Kṛṣṇa, he’ll talk all nonsense. So sometimes the spiritual master says that ‘You remain silent for twelve years.’ ” Midst our laughter he went on, “Instead of talking nonsense, you remain silent for twelve years. That is mauna. Because as soon as you’ll talk, you’ll be captured where you are. Better not to talk. But one who is devotee, why he’ll not . . . ? He’ll talk about Kṛṣṇa. Why he should be silent? If he remains silent, then people will not get the benefit. Let him speak always of Kṛṣṇa.  

“Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that whomever you meet, you simply talk about Kṛṣṇa, what He has taught in the Bhagavad-gītā. You become guru. So why guru will stop? Guru will speak. But what kind of speaking? What Kṛṣṇa has spoken. Not nonsense. Not like that: ‘I have painted so many pictures, therefore I have become God realized.’ Where Bhagavān says, ‘By painting pictures one may . . . ’ Kṛṣṇa does not say. He [Shri Chinmoy] has invented this. So therefore our test is, whether he’s a bona fide guru, whether he’s talking what Kṛṣṇa has said. Then he’s guru. Otherwise a rascal. That’s all, finished. Why should we bother? If you know this art, how to detect the rascal and guru, the test is already there. Where is the difficulty?” 

Finally at the end of a very informative and entertaining meeting Śrīla Prabhupāda called a halt and retired to his rooms.  

* * * 

On his way into his bedroom to take rest tonight he glanced over to a painting of baby Kṛṣṇa carrying Nanda Mahārāja’s shoes on His head which was hanging on the wall. He stopped and stared intently for a few moments, his face softening with love and appreciation. Then as he lay in the darkness he spoke fondly of how wonderful Kṛṣṇa is, that He can enact such pastimes and still be the Supreme Godhead.  

Because of our dullness Prabhupāda generally has to preach about the difference between the body and spirit, but now and then he reveals, just for a few moments, the intimacy of his realization of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. 

June 28th, 1976

This morning Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja arrived in his pickup to drive Śrīla Prabhupāda up to the original New Vrindaban farm where the community first started. Śrīla Prabhupāda sat in the cab while devotees scrambled up into the back or ran up the trail after it. It was a long and bumpy drive up the dirt road, and afterward Śrīla Prabhupāda complained about heart strain.  

He had Kīrtanānanda stop some distance from the house and walked the rest of the way, accompanied by twenty or thirty devotees. The sun was just rising over the distant hills, its rays gently diffusing through the light morning mist. Prabhupāda walked steadily up the track, preceded by one of New Vrindaban’s four-legged residents, a large black cow.  

At the house the rest of the devotees, including the gurukula children, lined up along the pathway to greet him. Prabhupāda looked obviously content to return to the original house in which he had stayed in 1969 when he first came to New Vrindaban. Now it serves as the brahmacārī āśrama and the residence of the beautiful brass forms of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Vṛndāvananātha. After his darśana of the Deities, Prabhupāda gave class there at the house on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.14. 

His talk lasted only about fifteen minutes. The verse described how a man who is too attached to family life cannot understand that by such activities he is wasting his time. Indeed, he does not develop a distaste for material existence even though he undergoes three kinds of suffering.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda explained there are two classes of men, the bhogī, who is always trying to enjoy his mind and senses, and the yogī, who tries to give up his entanglement. Among the yogīs, that person who engages in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa is the best. He said that by yoga, one achieves siddhi, perfection.  

As an example of yogic siddhi he cited something he had heard in his school days. “In my childhood there was my teacher. He said that he had his guru, a yogī. So he told me that his spiritual master, yogī, he inquired from his disciple, ‘What do you want to eat?’ So he said that ‘We want to eat some pomegranate from Kabul.’ So he said, ‘Yes, you can get it. Go into the room and you’ll find.’ So they found a bunch of pomegranate just fresh taken from the tree. This is called prāpti-siddhi.” Of course, he told us, this kind of siddhi is material. It is not for the devotee, who alone can attain perfect satisfaction by surrender to Kṛṣṇa. 

At the conclusion of class Śrīla Prabhupāda returned in the truck to the house for breakfast and a short rest. 

* * * 

Rādhāballabha dāsa arrived in the afternoon after a visit to the printers in New York. Śrīla Prabhupāda was happily surprised to see Ṛṣi-kumāra dāsa with him, complete with shaven head. About a week after he had visited Prabhupāda in Los Angeles, Ṛṣi-kumāra moved into the Laguna Beach temple, and now he has come to visit His Divine Grace again. So Prabhupāda’s serious words did have some effect.  

Prabhupāda was very pleased to see him. “I was surprised that ‘How Ṛṣi-kumāra can fall down like this? I had so confidence of this boy from the very beginning. He was so nice, so pure. And māyā is so strong. But could not do very well, māyā, very long. Thank Kṛṣṇa and stay with us. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati [‘Declare it boldly that My devotee will never perish.’] This is Krsna’s mercy, special mercy. So always be calm and chant and pray to Kṛṣṇa. Don’t spoil this life. It is so valuable. The sense gratification can be available in every life, cats and dogs also. Why should we sacrifice the greatest boon of human life? Hare Kṛṣṇa.”  

Ṛṣi-kumāra told Prabhupāda that although he had tried everything, he could not find any satisfaction equal to chanting. He had become bored with material life. 

Prabhupāda told him the best thing would be to preach for some time with the saṅkīrtana party. He used his traveling companion as an example. “Rādhāballabha, just see, young boy, how he’s working hard. You were doing also. You were doing so many things at a time. In Bombay you were doing herculean task, everywhere. He knows how to cook, how to give massage, how to keep accounts, yes. Qualified. How to cook. Everything. So, may Kṛṣṇa save you. What can I say more?” 

Prabhupāda gave him positive encouragement but when Ṛṣi-kumāra asked if he could take up his sannyāsa again Śrīla Prabhupāda, while not discouraging him, advised him to wait for some time and he would see.  

Rādhāballabha and he were scheduled to return together to Los Angeles, but Śrīla Prabhupāda suggested New York. Ṛṣi-kumāra decided to accept that and he will remain and go on the bus with Dhṛṣṭadyumna Swami to New York after tomorrow’s initiation ceremony.  

With the return of one of his former personal assistants, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mind immediately dwelt on another. “I am thinking of that boy also, Paramahaṁsa. He was a nice boy.” 

Paramahaṁsa was another sannyāsī secretary of His Divine Grace who left less than a year ago. Prabhupāda asked Rādhāballabha if his whereabouts was known. 

Rādhāballabha did know. “He’s in Denver, Colorado. He’s not doing so good.” 

“Is it not possible to see him?” Prabhupāda asked. 

“Trivikrama Mahārāja went to see him, but he was too much in illusion.” 

Prabhupāda wasn’t concerned about his present temporary state. “No, that’s all right. Still, I want to see.” 

Prabhupāda repeated twice more that “he is a very nice boy,” and they decided to contact him and invite him to come to New York for the Ratha-yātrā and to see Śrīla Prabhupāda.  

Rādhāballabha prabhu has just delivered Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Seventh Canto, Part Three, to the printer. Now the BBT is working on the first part of the Eight Canto. Rādhāballabha had several sketches from the artists for Śrīla Prabhupāda to comment on. He asked Prabhupāda if he would like to see them. Prabhupāda tipped his head. “Yes, that is the only life, to think of publication and distribution. Even in this weak [condition] . . .  I am very weak nowadays. Still, I am working.” 

“Nicely,” Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa added. He knows because he spends most of the day transcribing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s output. 

“I think I shall not be able to go for walks. This morning my heart was beating too much,” Prabhupāda told us. 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa suggested he wait until we get to Washington and see how he feels then. The roads here are rough he said, and we are at a higher altitude also. 

Prabhupāda accepted his idea. “Yes. That we will do.” 

After offering his input on the sketches Prabhupāda referred back to the other night when we went through all the predictions contained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. “Who knew five thousand years ago that people will keep long hairs and think of themselves as very beautiful? It is mentioned in the Bhāgavata. How is it possible unless they can actually see what is going to happen? That is foretelling. . . . It is not difficult. Just like tomorrow for my daily routine, what I shall do from morning to evening, I can say. Is it very difficult for me? So it is a question of Brahmā’s one day. So it can be said by them, not by us.” 

* * * 

The devotees bring the large vyāsāsana out each day for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s darśana in the garden, and take it away again at the end of the evening’s meeting. When everything was set up tonight Śrīla Prabhupāda came out. The devotees were already assembled on the lawn and he held court for about an hour, discussing points of philosophy, based on readings from Bhagavad-gītā.  

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja took up where we left off yesterday, at 16.17, describing the demonic nature. “Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they sometimes perform sacrifices in name only, without following any rules or regulations.” 

Prabhupāda didn’t wait until the purport to make a comment. The description perfectly fit the pseudo-spiritualists of today. “Modern yogic society. ‘Transcendental Meditation.’ Whatever nonsense they like, they do. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that yogīs should sit down in a secluded, sacred place—and they find out yogic class in America’s big, big cities, hotels. This is their program. The prescription is that one should sit down in a solitary, sacred place, alone—and these rascals are holding class. All smokers, drunkard, woman-hunters—they are yogis. Hmm? What do you think? Is it all right? This is going on. And they are accepted, ‘Yogi this,’ ‘Yogi that.’ In India they cannot find out because people are not so fool as yet that in big, big cities, in a big, big hotel, ‘yoga practice.’ India, although so fallen, they will not accept. They will at once detect, ‘Here is a rascal.’ But here, their dambha-māna, their qualification . . . They have got money. So whatever they accept, that is all right, because they have got money. No other qualification required. They can pay. That’s all.” 

There were other cheaters also. Prabhupāda exposed the fraud of paper currency. In his childhood, he said, if you went to the bank, the teller would ask if you wanted silver coins, gold coins or paper. There was a choice. Now, even though it says on the notes, “I promise to pay the bearer . . . ” if you actually ask for gold the paper represents, you won’t be allowed to have it.  Prabhupāda said the cheating therefore begins with the government. 

Of course, the scientists also came under Prabhupāda’s critical scrutiny. Now the latest thing is the Mars probe. Since the moon is no longer interesting, after so much expenditure for no result, Śrīla Prabhupāda asked why such scientific exploration at the expense of these taxpayers was allowed to go on. 

Rādhāballabha suggested it was because they consider it “a very noble cause to increase knowledge.” 

By use of a short fable Prabhupāda illustrated the plight of the taxpayers. “Some frogs were there, and children were throwing stones. Then the frogs appealed, ‘Sir, why you are throwing stone upon us?’ ‘No, we are playing.’ ‘So what is play for you, it is death to us.’ So these rascals are playing, and we have to pay heavy tax for that. This is going on. We are playing, making some scientific research, and who will pay for that? You. You work hard in the factory and pay tax. This is civilization. ‘You pay tax, and we spend it as we like.’ Frivolity. This is going on. This is the government of Kali-yuga. What can you do? 

“ ‘What is play to you is death to us.’ And ‘Never mind. You die. We play.’ They have already spent so much money, moon exploration. And that has stopped now, no benefit. They brought some sand and some rock—satisfied. Again the same thing with Mars. But we can say from our poor knowledge that as they have failed in the moon planet, they will fail also in the Mars. Take it down. Note now. Do you know this is all bluff?” 

Rādhāballabha told him that after the interviews in Los Angeles the newspapers quoted him as saying that they did not go to the moon. They also printed his Sunday–Moon-day logic. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was happy to hear it. He issued his challenge afresh. “Nobody can answer that. The common sense. Can any one of you answer why Sunday first and Monday next? Even Svarūpa Dāmodara has not answered. Any scientist here who can answer why Sunday first and Monday second?” 

Janāhlāda dāsa hazarded a guess. “I’m not a scientist, but I always thought that the ancients thought that the sun was first because without telescopes or light-measuring instruments it was bigger and it looked closer.” 

“That’s a fact.” Prabhupāda’s affirmative response told him that it wasn’t just because it looked that way. “Sunday is first, and Monday—moon is beyond sun. If they accept that nobody can approach sun, then how they can approach moon? In calculation, eighteen thousand miles per hour, and if the moon is situated ninety five million miles, then how they can go in four days? These are my questions. They have not been answered. It takes at least seven months. And they went in four days, and the man’s mother . . . His photograph was there. She said, ‘At last my son has gone there.’ You have seen that photograph? I have seen it. Mother was satisfied. This is going on.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja read on. When he got to text nineteen Śrīla Prabhupāda had a few more things to say about the materialistic scientists. The verse described the fate of the demons. “Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life.” 

Prabhupāda explained that even if one doesn’t accept there is a God, he is still subject to a superior force. “This body is a machine. The machine is given by material nature. Today you may be a very big man, and by your activities, āsuric activities, you are so condemned that you have to accept a lower-grade life, a fox, sly fox. ‘You are very sly to spend others’ money in moon excursion. Now you become a fox.’ So who can check it? Here it is stated, tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān. So you cannot check it. You are not so great scientist. You cannot check God’s law, so how you can say that there is no God? 

“Nobody endeavors for mishappenings, but you know there is some superior force who’ll enforce mishappening. And they are unable to counteract. Just like a scientist knows that he’ll die, but he’s so expert scientist that he cannot counteract. He knows that he’ll die. He’s talking all nonsense while living, but he does not make any arrangement that he’ll not die. That he is unable. They are making arrangement, going to the Mars planet at the expense of taxpayer, so if we request the rascal scientists that ‘You discover something so that we will not die. Take any amount of money,’ will they be able?” 

Rādhāballabha said, “They’ll die while they are trying to find out.” 

“Then? What is the use of this scientist?” Prabhupāda asked. “That ‘Take any amount. Here is my beloved son. My scientist, physician, you take any amount. Just give life to my son.’ Is it able? These are practical. False, bogus bluffing—that is another thing.” 

“They get angry if we tell them that,” Rādhāballabha said. 

To Prabhupāda, that was another confirmation of their position. “Yes, that means they are rascal. When there is argument between you and me, if one becomes angry, that means he’s a rascal. That is the proof. He cannot reply anymore. He has become angry. That is his defeat. Upadeśo hi mūrkhānāṁ prakopāya na śāntaye.Mūrkha, if a rascal is given good instruction, he’ll be angry. So that is the proof that he’s rascal.  

“The example is given, just like if you give milk, very nourishing food, to a human being, he’ll get strength, but if you give to a snake, it will increase poison. So that is the proof that ‘here is a snake.’ One day he’ll: ‘Ohnn!’ He’ll ready to bite you. You have given milk, it has increased poison, and it will show his fangs, hood. That is asura. So therefore they become snakes, scorpion, so low-grade life. Snake life is so degraded that at once you see a snake, immediately every one of us will be ready to kill it. Everyone, without any mercy. Nobody will say, ‘No, no, let this go.’ So he is put into that life that he cannot come in the light. As soon as he comes in the vision of somebody, everyone is ready to kill. And nobody is sorry. Prahlāda Mahārāja said that: Even one is saintly person, he’ll be satisfied if a snake is killed. Saintly person doesn’t want that anyone should be killed, but if a snake is killed, he’s happy: ‘Oh, you have done right.’ So Prahlāda Mahārāja said [to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva] ‘My father is killed; nobody is unhappy. But he was just like a snake and scorpion. Now You be satisfied. There is no cause of becoming angry. Everyone is satisfied.’ ” 

Prabhupāda asked the devotees to look up the verse. Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa and Rādhāballabha both searched but failed to find it even though Prabhupāda gave the Sanskrit. Finally Prabhupāda took the book himself. As he asked for his spectacles he opened it—right at the very verse. It was almost magical. He laughed himself and everyone else did too.  

After Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa read out the translation and purport Prabhupāda added, “Snake or scorpion . . . Of course, sometimes snakes, they eat their own children. He has tried to kill his own child. Modeta sādhur api vṛścika-sarpa-hatyā. Very good example. The saintly persons, they also want the killing of living entities like the snake.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa read out the next couple of verses which gave descriptions of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva in His mood of ferocity which were delightful to the ear. Śrīla Prabhupāda smiled and repeated a line from the prayer that we sing to the Lord each ārati. “Nail is sufficient to kill an enemy like Hiraṇyakaśipu. No other weapon required. Simply tava kara- kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-śṛṅgam. Wonderful nails. Dalita-hiraṇyakaśipu-tanu-bhṛṅgam. Just like we sometimes press some insects; immediately dies. So this Hiraṇyakaśipu, simply by nails pressed and finished.” 

* * *  

Prabhupāda had requested a repeat showing of Yadubara’s film on New Vrindaban, Spiritual Frontier, and he ended the darśana earlier than usual so that he could see it. He enjoyed it all over again. On our way here to New Vrindaban he had told Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja he felt they should have included more information about New Vrindaban’s milk preparations in the film, but on second viewing he decided that it was all right.  

When it was over he told Kīrtanānanda, “In nutshell everything is there. Our agriculture, our temple, and food growing, and everything is there. Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa worship. The sum and substance, everything . . . And you are living practically for the last . . . Eight years? Here? You have no difficulty. You are happy more and more. Immense land. You can come, hundreds. We can provide. There is food. There is shelter.” 

Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja said that ordinary people think that by protecting the cow it will not be economic, that they would lose. “But actually we have proof,” he told Śrīla Prabhupāda, “the more we protect cows, the more we gain in opulence.”  

Śrīla Prabhupāda heartily agreed. “Yes. If you have got grain, then you are rich. And if you have got cows, then you are rich. This is the standard of Vedic richness. Dhanyena dhanavān gavyena dhanavān. They don’t say, ‘Keep some papers and you become rich.’ All rascal, one thousand dollar I promise to pay, a piece of paper. Practical—we have got enough food grains. We have got enough milk. That is richness. What is use of paper? Even gold you have got, you have to exchange.  

“If you have grain, immediate food. Just boil with milk, and it is nectarean, paramānna, immediately. Take some wood collected from the woods and have fire, put the milk and the grains—oh, you’ll get so nice food, nutritious, full of vitamin, and so easily made. It is practical. So tasteful. . . . If you simply boil little milk and little grain, whole day, so much sweet rice, you take—bas. You don’t require any more. And if you add little apples and fruits, oh, it is heavenly! Your whole day free from any food anxiety, and you can work. You can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Make this ideal life here. America has got good potency. We have got so much land here. We can have hundreds of New Vrindabans or farms like that. And people will be happy. And invite all the world, ‘Please come and live with us. Why you are suffering congestion, overpopulation? Welcome here. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.’ Make that.  

“Indian culture and American strength make the whole world happy. That logic I have given? India could not improve on account of poverty, lame. And America? Blind for want of culture. So let the blind man carry the lame man on the head, and the lame man give direction that ‘Go this way,’ and he walks. So both men’s work is done. There is no hampering because one is blind and one is lame. Combined together, they get the benefit. Andha-paṅgor nyāya. Do it very sincerely. Don’t spoil life. Be very sober and do this work. Whole world will be happy. After all, they are seeking after happiness. So there is happiness here.” 

He said Ṛṣi-kumāra was a very intelligent boy with great capability. As far as his recent past goes, “Whatever is done is done,” he said. “Sometimes māyā is strong. She bewilders even Lord Śiva.” Prabhupāda has recently been working on the section of the Eighth Canto describing how Lord Śiva was bewildered by the vivacious form of Mohinī-mūrti. “But Śiva immediately came to his senses, ‘What I am doing?’ 

“So things are going on nice. Continue this program. People will be happy. And I think America is the only place who can spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement happily for the benefit of the whole world. You have got everything sufficient. Now get the Kṛṣṇa intelligence.” 

When we were in Toronto he had told Śubhavilāsa that a cold place is a symptom of sinful life. He made a practical observation about the weather in West Virginia. “Now here, in this quarter, sun also rising very nicely. Formerly it was not so bright. Due to this Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting, sun is giving light. Is it not?” 

Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja confirmed it. “It is a fact.” 

“The more people will be sinful, the place will be dark with cloudy. Nature will always disturb. They will not be happy. It is not possible. This is the only way to become happy. So, so far as possible, I have given you some framework. Now you fill up. Make it a nice building.” 

Even when I mentioned to Śrīla Prabhupāda a little dubiously that the New Vrindaban devotees still buy their vegetable bhoga from the local markets and it did not seem that they very self-sufficient, Prabhupāda maintained his positive mood. He said it was all right—they have the intention, and that is what  is required. He repeated what he said in Los Angeles, that Kīrtanānanda is putting into practice all the ideas he has given. 

We began discussing the scientists and their bluffing again and Prabhupāda told us a funny story about Gopāla Ban, a court jester in West Bengal during the reign of Rājā Kṛṣṇacandra. By it, Prabhupāda cleverly illustrated how scientists obtained their grants. “The Mohammedan Governor of the day had asked him, ‘Now, Gopāla Ban, I have heard you are very expert. Can you write a similar book as the Mahābhārata about my kingdom?’ 

“ ‘Oh yes, why not? That is not difficult.’ 

“So he took with him some hundreds of thousands of rupees and again came. ‘Give me another ten thousand,’ and another ten . . . in this way. 

“ ‘When will the book be finished? You have taken so much money.’ 

“ ‘It is just on the verge of being finished.’ 

Then when he saw that no more money can be taken, ‘I have taken so much money . . . ’ he said, ‘Now sir, one information is very essential. Give me and Mahābhārata will be finished. Everything is there.’ 

“ ‘What is that information?’ 

“ ‘Now, your wife, how many husbands she has got?’ 

“ ‘This is nonsense!’ 

“ ‘Eh?  Well, that is the main subject matter of Mahābhārata. Draupadī had five husbands [the Pāṇdavas], and you are such a great person your wife must have at least one dozen. Otherwise, how Mahābhārata will be written?’ 

“ ‘It is the subject matter of . . . ?’ 

“ ‘Yes, that is the only subject matter—that Draupadī had five husbands. So you are such a big Nawab, your wife must at least have one dozen. So give me their names.’ 

“So he became very angry. ‘Don’t talk this nonsense!’ 

“ ‘Then I cannot finish your Mahābhārata. I have already invested!’ 

“So he took another ten thousand rupees and [the Nawab] he said, ‘Stop all this nonsense. That’s all right.’ ” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was laughing all the way through his telling of it, making comical gestures as he relayed the foolishness of the Nawab and the sharp wit of Gopāla Ban in taking advantage of his combined ignorance and pride.  

“So these rascals,” Prabhupāda said, meaning the scientists, “they are writing Gopāla Ban’s Mahābhārata, and the rascal government is paying them. They will never be able to produce anything. Challenge them. As soon as you say, ‘Make an egg’—‘That we cannot say!’ And they’ll chant ‘Chemical evolution, chemical evolution’ and get Nobel Prize. Rascals. But how the people are so foolish that they believe in this?  

Prabhupāda repeated his challenge to the scientists to make an egg and produce life. It is something he has said many times. “This is very simple. You see everything, white and yellow. Produce. Chemicals are white. Some chemicals are yellow also. Just like hydroform . . . It is yellow. And soda bicarb, white, or potash cyanide is white. So you have got so many chemicals, combine and pack it in a cell, and put underneath the incubator. Why rascal do not do this?” 

 He emphasized the great fraud they are engaged in. “Beat them with shoes. ‘Rascal, you are cheating in this way.’ Beat them with shoes. That’s all. That is the only punishment. Hundreds of men demand them, that ‘Do it, otherwise don’t talk nonsense. If you talk nonsense, then we will beat you with all our shoes.’ Then they’ll stop all this nonsense talk. There is no punishment for their cheating and taking money.” 

Although his rhetoric was very strong, his tone was devoid of any envy or hatred. In one sense, as a self-realized soul, he is a neutral observer. But in another sense, as Kṛṣṇa’s representative, out of compassion for the suffering conditioned souls, he cannot refrain from condemning the perpetration of illusion which keeps them firmly bound to the material world. 

A little later Prabhupāda and I talked about the moon landing. I made the point that they will always try to claim some success or benefit because they have to get grants. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was very clear about it despite the propaganda in the newspapers. “From our estimation it is failure. They have not gone there.” 

I said, “They have to say it’s a success. Just like this Mars thing. If they can land a spaceship that takes a few photographs, supposedly of Mars, then that’s considered a success.” 

“Photograph you can take anywhere,” Prabhupāda said dismissively. 

I agreed “Yes.” But still I was puzzled, and so I asked him what he thought was really going on. “Could they, or are they actually sending these spaceships to another planet, or . . . ?” 

“That they know,” Prabhupāda told me, not wanting to speculate. “According to our calculations, they have not gone. Therefore false propaganda. They cannot go.” 

June 29th, 1976

Despite his complaint of heart strain yesterday Śrīla Prabhupāda did go out on a walk today. He didn’t speak much and he kept it short. At the end of his walk he visited Rādhā-kuṇḍa. Then after greeting the Deities and receiving guru-pūjā he went to the large hall in the new building. Although there are no doors or windows fitted—just gaping holes—the marble floor is laid and the devotees had hung flags and festoons from the thick wooden roof beams, ready for a grand initiation ceremony.  

Prabhupāda’s āsana was set up at one side with a fire pit in front. From there he gave a very brief class on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.16.  Prahlāda Mahārāja criticizes those whose only goal in life is to accumulate money. In support of this Śrīla Prabhupāda reiterated one of the sections of Bhagavad-gītā we read during evening darśana. Then he told us that our philosophy is communism—but a different type than the politically-based one. 

“If we become too much attached for getting money, that is the material world. There is no satiation. Idaṁ prāptaḥ, that Bhagavad-gītā word: ‘I have got so much money, now my bank balance is so much, and I shall get further money and my bank balance will be like this.’ This is the demonic mentality. We shall require money, whatever is absolutely necessary, that much money I must get. That is an order.  

“We cannot take more than what is necessary. This is actually spiritual communism. If everyone thinks that ‘Everything belongs to God and I am son of God, so I have got right to enjoy the property of my Father—but as much as I require, not more than that,’ this is spiritual communism, bhāgavata communism. 

“So a gṛhastha, of course, required to accumulate some money because he’s living with family, but so far brahmacārī,vānaprastha and sannyāsī is concerned, they should not keep any money. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was so strict that His personal servant, one day he was taking after eating a little, haritakī. So one day he was giving and Caitanya Mahāprabhu inquired, ‘Where you got this?’ So he said, ‘I kept it from yesterday.’ ‘Oh, you are stocking?’ He immediately criticized him. ‘This is not good.’ ”  

Śrīla Prabhupāda is not a theoretician, espousing impractical ideals. He lives according to what he speaks. “Of course, even if we do not stock, don’t think that we’ll starve. Kṛṣṇa has provided. But we should be depending on Kṛṣṇa. There is no anxiety. We have experienced this. I was alone for many years but not a single day I was starving. No, there was food.” 

Right after his discourse, he awarded initiation to the waiting candidates grouped around the fire arena. Devotees from many temples were in attendance—St. Louis, Buffalo, Cleveland, Baltimore—and there are seven Rādhā-Dāmodara buses and vans. As the initiates began to come forward one by one to receive their japa beads, Prabhupāda stopped the proceedings and wanted to know why they did not have new neck beads on. He said that they should have been put on at the beginning. Then he paused a second time and chided a boy for wearing only one strand, saying that there should ideally be three and at least two. He reproached the temple presidents for not knowing this.  

* * * 

Cleveland Ratha-yātrā was held in the middle of last week and was a big success. The parade route took Their Lordships and Their entourage through the main business districts and many people crowded the windows of the buildings to see Them. Viśākhā had gone to take photos and do an article on it for BTG and the day after Prabhupāda called her in for a detailed report on it. 

* * * 

Pradyumna’s wife Arundhatī dāsī and son Aniruddha arrived a day or two ago. They were en route to India from Los Angeles but will now join Śrīla Prabhupāda’s party. Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja has been complaining of too great a work-load, what with his secretarial duties and tape transcribing. Because Arundhatī is an expert typist and experienced in transcribing Prabhupāda’s tapes, Śrīla Prabhupāda has agreed that she should travel with us and assist her husband.  

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Swami appears to be having some personal problems. He half-jokes about “being in māyā” and makes oblique remarks as to how difficult it is to control the senses and the mind. His sādhana has become very irregular, and he is oversleeping and still not chanting all his rounds. He had excused himself to Balarāma in Melbourne that he was overworked. Now it appears that there is more to it. He has approached Pradyumna for advice and today Pradyumna prabhu discussed his situation with me. We both agreed that something practical must be done and so we decided that the best thing, rather than disturb Prabhupāda, was to get Tamal Krishna Goswami to talk to him when we arrive in New York.  

* * * 

Girirāja prabhu wrote from Bombay. He informed Śrīla Prabhupāda that the Gita Pratisthan meeting has been postponed until later in the year to enable Śrīla Prabhupāda and others to attend. He reported some progress with the construction efforts. In fundraising several important men have pledged large donations for the construction of the gurukula and the library. As far as the building work itself goes, the twin towers are scheduled to be finished by December but Śrīla Prabhupāda’s rooms on the top floor could be ready to use in August. However, he said the elevators would not be ready until February next year because they have to be custom-made and installed. 

On other matters, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa is going to pursue having our case raised before the Parliament in Delhi. 

He also enclosed a lengthy questionnaire, sent by Bhavan’s Journal, the most prestigious and popular of India’s religious magazines. They posed twenty-one questions, which they are presenting to every major guru and holy man, soliciting their opinions on the decline of religion, the current state of Hinduism, how can it be revived, etc. He said Bhavan’s is eager to receive Śrīla Prabhupāda’s response and they will print it as the last in the series of interviews.  

Prabhupāda is keen for the visa problem to be dealt with and he outlined once again to Girirāja some of the arguments to use. “Concerning our proposal to be presented to the Parliament, anyone coming from ISKCON should be given permanent residence. India’s original culture and religion is being spread all over the world, and out of their religious feeling if they come to stay in Vrindaban especially, why the government should harass them. 

“Our Goswamis have said: nama-gane sada rucih, pritis tad-vasatisthale. (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.3.25).  

“A devotee is very much anxious to chant Hare Krishna and to live in that place where Krishna has His pastimes, generally Vrindaban, Mathura, Dvaraka, like that. All of our men who are coming to India for this purpose, they are properly initiated and following the regulative principles. In this connection, the certificates of the S. Indian authorities gotten by Yasodanandan Swami can be used, where in they certify that our ISKCON men are proper vaishnavas, decorated with tilaka in twelve places, etc., etc.” 

As for the fundraising he stated his pleasure that Mr. Brijratan Mohatta is willing to help. Apart from his own wealth, Prabhupāda said he could help us in other ways also. “Personally he may give what he wants but let him help collect funds. He is such a big man in Bombay. What I know is that if he likes he can help us, and he is favorably inclined to our movement. Rs. 25,000, he can collect from at least 100 men in Bombay. So he can collect and help raise 25 lacs very easily, although we require about 10 lacs. To pay Rs. 25,000, there are thousands and thousands of men in Bombay who can very easily do it. Bombay is the richest city in India.” 

For the questionnaire, Prabhupāda told Girirāja he was in the process of answering the questions and he would send it as soon as it is completed.  

* * *  

Prabhupāda decided to present his answers to Bhavan’s Journal in the evening darśanas. He is giving it serious attention and today Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa, taking the role of interviewer, put the first seven questions to him, in front of an audience of devotees. Prabhupāda’s answers were a lengthy, critical analysis, not just of the population in general, which is the subject of most of the questions, but of the questionnaire itself. It speaks in terms of “Hinduism,” a concept of recent origin which is foreign to the Vedas. The real religion he said, is sanātana-dharma, which is for everyone, not just the so-called Hindus. 

June 30th, 1976

Śrīla Prabhupāda was not well again today and had an ashen pallor when he came out of his room. He took only a very short walk, and for class simply had Pradyumna read the verse and purport and then speak on it.  

The verse was a good descriptive of the typical materialist. “O my friends, sons of demons! In this material world, even those who are apparently advanced in education have the propensity to consider, ‘This is mine, and that is for others.’ Thus they are always engaged in providing the necessities of life to their families in a limited conception of family life, just like uneducated cats and dogs. They are unable to take to spiritual knowledge; instead, they are bewildered and overcome by ignorance.” 

After hearing Pradyumna give his explanation Śrīla Prabhupāda added just a few comments. He said he had personal experience of how foolish people become when they claim ownership of their surroundings. “We have seen practically in India. During the partition days, when the Britishers left India, they gave a parting kick by dividing Pakistan and India. So I have seen in my own eyes there was fighting between the Hindus and Muslims for at least one week in Calcutta and heaps of dead bodies there were. So the fighting was between Hindu and Muslim, but when they died the body is piled up and it was taken for burning or to throw away. So the land remained there and these people fighting between themselves, that ‘this is mine, this is mine,’ they finished their life. The land remained where it was. So this is called illusion. Ahaṁ mameti, ‘it is mine, it is yours.’ ”  

He spoke for only five minutes and returned to the house. When Śrīla Prabhupāda is unable to discourse on Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy, it is a serious matter indeed. 

* * * 

There have been confusing reports about the ownership of the temple in Fiji. Upendra has written expressing his concern and he enclosed a draft copy of a trust document and constitution. Money is being collected in ISKCON’s name, but it is unclear whether the deed of the land is actually in ISKCON’s name or privately held by Mr. Deoji Punja, Vāsudeva dāsa. Dealings between the GBC and Vāsudeva prabhu are said to be strained, and there is talk of a separate board of trustees being set up.  

Prabhupāda does not like what he calls “phish, phish, phish,” whispered rumors and idle talk, with nothing clearly stated. He therefore wrote directly to Vāsudeva stating how things are managed in his ISKCON society and requesting him to clarify what his intentions are. 

“My dear Vasudeva das, 

“Please accept my blessings. In connection with our ISKCON project in Fiji, I beg to inform you that we are managing our Krsna consciousness movement by the Governing Body Commission, GBC. We have got about 20 GBCs looking after the whole world affair, and above the GBC I am there. Below the GBC there are the temple president, secretary, treasurer in every centre. So the temple president is responsible to the GBC and the GBC is responsible to me. In this way we are managing. But why you are proposing a separate trustee for Fiji? We have up to now no separate trustee. If this is for security purposes, that we can discuss. 

“If you have got some new idea please explain to me how you want to manage. But I think Fiji temple cannot be managed in a separate way. But still I will entertain some idea. If you have difference you can write me explaining.” 

He told Vāsudeva that the deed to the property should be in favor of himself, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and could not be dedicated to any office bearer. Suggesting that Vāsudeva could be president and Upendra secretary, he firmly stated there was no need for trustees. 

“In any circumstance,” he said, “there cannot be a private property in the name of ISKCON. If you want to keep it a private property then the ISKCON name should not be utilised. 

“I am very much anxious to get your clear reply to this thing. So many things are unclear, so let it be cleared up.” He requested that a copy of the deed be sent to him in New York. 

To Upendra Prabhupāda wrote, “Unless the temple is fully under our control, we are not interested. Then we shall call it back. I will decide on receipt of the reply to this letter to Vasudeva dasa (Mr. Punja). So far the Fiji constitution is concerned, where it says: ‘supplying needs to the sick, poor, and orphans, etc.’ That is not our program. We distribute prasadam to everyone, not particularly to the needy. We make no discrimination, rich or poor.” 

* * * 

After resting most of the morning Śrīla Prabhupāda took his massage, and seemed to recover somewhat. Thus in the afternoon he gave an interview to Mike Darby, a young reporter and good friend of ISKCON, from the Wheeling Intelligencer. Mike had written to Śrīla Prabhupāda in mid-February when he was still at high school for this interview. A thick set young man wearing a sleeveless vest and long sideburns, he was very respectful, genuine and had obviously been reading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Their short discussion touched on Christianity and material scientists, both of whom Prabhupāda said were cheating—the so-called Christians by changing the instructions of Christ and the Bible, and the scientists for making false claims about chemicals producing life. Soft-spoken Mike fully agreed with him.  

Mike asked Śrīla Prabhupāda if he would tell him something about his spiritual master. Prabhupāda didn’t reveal much, except to say in a very straightforward way, “This is spiritual master, one who is representative of God. And one who speaks what God has said, then he’s spiritual master.”  

Mike was hoping for something more specific. “But I have never heard anything of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta, and I wondered if you would tell me a little bit about him, if you would.” 

Prabhupāda was reserved. “What shall I say? He was my spiritual master, and whatever he taught, we are speaking, that’s all. We don’t talk any nonsense.” 

When Mike said that he had waited a long time to have this opportunity to meet, Śrīla Prabhupāda was very touched and humbly thanked him. At the end of the interview Mike respectfully asked to have his photogragh taken with His Divine Grace and Prabhupāda happily obliged. He had Mike come and sit next to his āsana while Viśākhā clicked away with her camera. Prabhupāda liked him and encouraged him to continue visiting New Vrindaban. 

Prabhupāda decided not to go out and allowed Mike to stay on while Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa continued with the Bhavan’s Journal interview. They covered two more of the questions. One asked why many “savants” focus on jñāna when the scriptures declare bhakti as the simplest and most direct way to attain spiritual realization. The other was on whether a guru was necessary for spiritual life and how can one recognize his guru. Prabhupāda spoke extensively on both points before bringing the meeting to a close at eight o’clock. 

July 1st, 1976

Prabhupāda didn’t take a walk today and his Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam discourse lasted only fifteen minutes. He is still weak and congested with mucus. But whether he speaks for a long time or a short one, he is potent and effective. He can make his point in a few words or extensively. His meaning is always clear. 

The verses stated that no person bereft of knowledge of God has ever been able to free himself of material bondage. Prahlāda therefore advised his young school friends to avoid the association of such persons and live only with the devotees of Nārāyaṇa because their only goal of life is liberation from material existence. 

Prabhupāda told us that although the goal is to go back home, back to Godhead, if we have even a slight material desire then we may have to take birth on some higher planet. He said these were described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and he disparaged the scientists once again for their mechanical attempts to reach such places. “Very, very opulent, we cannot imagine even how they are opulent. The roads are made of pearls, diamonds, coral. And at the same time, no sinful man is admitted there. Everyone highly elevated, pious, there is no crookedness. There is no enviousness. You’ll find this description in the Eighth Canto, of Svargaloka.We cannot imagine even. But that is also within this material world. We can go there if we want to go. Just like they are trying, the modern so-called scientist, to go to the moon planet, Mars. According to śāstra, these planets are bedecked with such descriptive facilities. They are also within the heavenly planets. But these rascals are going, and they find nobody there, and they take some dust and come back. This is their success. They do not know that they cannot enter even there. They are not meant for ordinary persons.” 

Despite this opulence Prabhupāda told us, the devotees are not at all interested to go there. They have a much higher destination. “They are interested to go to Vṛndāvana and become a grass there. This is devotee. Just like Uddhava, as soon as he entered Vṛndāvana, he immediately fell down on the road thinking that ‘On this street Kṛṣṇa has walked, His friends have walked, there are footprints.’ So this is the ambition of a devotee. They are not interested for diamond roads or pearl roads, no.” 

Therefore he said, a devotee avoids the association of those attracted to sense enjoyment, especially those who are attached to sex. He gave a one word summary of material existence and said that by correct association one becomes free of it. “We have several times explained. Pavarga, means material suffering. Pa means pariśrama, always working hard, day and night. And pha,phena, foam coming out of my mouth. Pa, pha, ba, still baffled. Bha is fearfulness. Pa, pha, ba, bha and ma, mṛtyu, at last, death. This is called pavarga. And apavarga means just to counteract this pavarga. So in one life if we try to associate with the devotees and engage in Nārāyaṇa’s service sincerely. . . . Maybe a little difficult. There is no difficulty. Where is the difficulty? We can see practically. To chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra and take prasādam, is there any difficulty? There is no difficulty. It is so pleasing.” 

His conclusion was that we should finish our business immediately in this life. “Kṛṣṇa consciousness means fully become detached with this material enjoyment, simply become engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service. Your life will be successful. Thank you very much.” 

* * * 

I brought some mango ice cream, made by the devotees, and Śrīla Prabhupāda decided to have some. He doesn’t eat much of anything, and didn’t take a lot, but he liked it and he, Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa, Pradyumna and myself chatted as he ate. 

The conversation started out with more critique on the Mars probe. We supplied some details, culled from the newspapers and as always, Śrīla Prabhupāda was entirely skeptical about what he termed as a childish attempt and a complete waste of money. He had said as much ten years ago, he told us, when they so-called went to the moon. Now, he said, there is no more talk of the moon yet so much money was spent. As far as he was concerned, they never went. He was only surprised that people so readily accept the scientists’ speculations. He laughed and said we were fools and rascals for believing them. 

We had to agree that what they are doing is entirely pointless. I said there was no proper reason for any of it because they aren’t improving their actual living standards by their effort. I compared it to the jñānī, who thinks advancement is just to simply acquire any amount of knowledge but without any practical use. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda agreed and immediately supplied a Sanskrit verse. “They are described: Kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye. Simply works hard simply to know things. No benefit. These rascals are like that.” He wasn’t just talking about the scientists either. “Yes, it is mentioned in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Any process you accept, rejecting devotional service, the result will be that there is no profit.” He said it was like beating the empty husks of rice. “You simply labor for nothing, as much as to beat the husk, you’ll never get the rice, it will simply be tiresome, that’s all. Just like so-called religion. There is no faith in God. There is no need of God, and ‘religion.’ This is nonsense. Religion means without God? This is going on. God, you can accept anyone—Ramakrishna Mission. He was a fool, illiterate rascal, Ramakrishna—he became ‘God.’ They have no standard, and they are propagating Ramakrishna Mission. As we are preaching Kṛṣṇa is God, they are preaching Ramakrishna. And who’s accepting them? For the last hundred years, they are preaching. So who has become a devotee of Ramakrishna?” 

Prabhupāda said that when there is no idea of real religion, anything, even atheism, can be passed off as religion. He tipped his head toward the dictionary and told me to look up the meaning of religion. 

I read out the definitions. “It says, ‘Religion. One. Monastic condition, being a monk or a nun, enter into a monastic order. Two. Practice of sacred rites. Three. One of the prevalent systems of faith and worship, i.e. Christian, Mohammedan, etc. Four. Human recognition of superhuman controlling power and especially of a personal God entitled to obedience; effect of such recognition on conduct and mental attitude.’ ” 

Prabhupāda nodded at this. “This is religion—personal conception of God.” 

Then I read the final entry. “Action that one is bound to do.” 

Prabhupāda liked that also. “Yes. Everything is there. Anyone of them you take. ‘One is bound to do.’ Dharmena hīnā paśubhiḥ samānāḥ. If he does not do, then he’s animal. It must be done. There is no question of optional. If you are human being, you must be religious, you must recognize the supreme controller. Otherwise, you are animal. . . . Without reference to God, what is the meaning of sacred rites? Accepting the supreme controller. That is the real meaning. At least, Christian religion accepts God. Mohammedan religion accepts God, or Hindu religion accepts God. So without God how it can be religion? If there is no understanding of God, the conclusion comes that there is no religion. Fictitious. We ‘trust in God,’ but do not know what is God. This is going on.  

“So we have to fight against all this nonsense. Nonsense scientists, nonsense religionists. What do you think? It is not easygoing, sleeping business. We have to fight with so many demons.” 

In this, his criticism stretched to his own Godbrothers. According to his spiritual master, Prabhupāda said, if one does not go out and preach, he will simply beg, eat and sleep. “As all our Godbrothers are doing. They have got a little temple, and a few devotees go and beg rice and cook it and eat and sleep, that’s all.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa said it was like being dead. 

“No fighting spirit,” Prabhupāda said. He was neither facetious nor cynical, just quietly matter-of-fact. “Ṭhākura dekhiyā. Just make a Deity, and show. Our Tīrtha Mahārāja is doing that. His whole idea was, that ‘I have now captured the birthplace of Caitanya Mahāprabhu by high court favor. Now I have got everything. People will come and they will pay something and that will be my income for my family.’ A means of livelihood. He has no devotion. He wanted as a means of income, like the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmīs, Navadvīpa Gosvāmīs do. Little devotion, automatically, there is. They are, after all, worshiping the Deity. But their purpose is different.” 

He used New Vrindaban as a fitting comparison. “Just like we have established Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra, not that people will come and pay something. Who will come here? In this foreign country or in this secluded place? So our aim is to make the devotees, real devotees. Not for earning money. When we establish a center in a place like this, where is the idea of getting money?” He laughed. “Who will come here? One, it is a foreign country, nobody knows what is Kṛṣṇa. And one has to come with so great difficulty, on the mountain. And who is coming to pay for it? After spending so much money, they will come here to pay?  

“Our process is that wherever we stay we worship Kṛṣṇa. As far as possible. That we are doing. Not for earning money but for spending money. Now Tīrtha Mahārāja is seeing that without getting Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s birthsite, Swami Mahārāja [Prabhupāda], he is attracting lakhs of people. Without the favor of high court, he is attracting. That is his envy. This year, you were not present [in Māyāpur]?” 

I thought he was referring to the outrageous tract Tīrtha Mahārāja had put out to proclaim his own success in attracting people from all over the world to Lord Caitanya’s birthsite.  

Prabhupāda though, wasn’t thinking of trivialities. He was thinking of the substance. “No, no,” Prabhupāda said. “Apart from that leaflet—let him do whatever nonsense—but actually, on the birthday of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, there was the greatest crowd in our temple.” 

He also recalled our visit in April to Mādhava Mahārāja’s temple in Vṛndāvana. It was deserted. There were no visitors nor even any residents and when one man did come he had to unlock the Deity doors to allow us to have darśana. “And that is on the prominent roadside,” Prabhupāda pointed out. “And our temple is off. Still, so many people are coming. Neither there were inhabitants nor their outsider, visitors. Gate was closed, we had to open and enter. And he constructed temple at least for the last twenty years.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa suggested it was because they have no vision for expanding their preaching.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda put it down to something more mundane. “They make this moneymaking machine. They do not know the money will automatically come if you are sincere. You haven’t got to make it a machine. Money Kṛṣṇa will send. But they have no faith in Kṛṣṇa. They have faith in their own ability. ‘Yes, we shall earn money in this way, by showing the Deity.’ They don’t recognize Kṛṣṇa’s everything. They think, ‘By high court judgment, if we capture this place, then money will come.’ ” 

He also had the same observation to make about the Ramakrishna Mission. He disapproves not only their concocted Māyāvādī philosophy “all paths lead to the same goal [yata mat, tata path]” but also the false propaganda they put out in India that Vivekānanda conquered the West with his preaching. “They are working here for the last hundred years. What they have done? So many American boys and gentlemen are coming to our temple, we cannot give them place. We have to find out some other . . .  and who is going to the Ramakrishna temple? If actually Vivekānanda preached something, out of inquisitiveness they would have gone there—‘We have heard so much about Ramakrishna and Vivekānanda. Let us see what is there.’ Nobody goes. They do not know even the name. And we are already advertised all over the world, Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. At least, everyone knows. Who knows Ramakrishna, Vivekānanda?  

“Just stick to this principle, then you will be successful. Bhaktiṁ śreyaḥ-sṛtim. That is the real welfare. Śreyaḥ-sṛtim means ‘expands auspicity.’ ” He turned to the beautiful painting of baby Kṛṣṇa and Nanda Mahārāja. “And they want to become one with God. And here is not one, but God is so lower that He carries the shoe of His devotee.” He smiled. “Have they got any conception like this?” 

* * * 

As per his regular routine, when Śrīla Prabhupāda awakens from his afternoon nap, we are offering him a fresh flower garland, some fruit juice and sandalwood paste for his forehead. The garlands are made from local wildflowers, which His Divine Grace likes a lot. Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Swami and I had a short chat with him today after he went into his study room. He mused a little on the questions he answered yesterday about the jñānīs and the bhaktas. He was frank about all the gurus and swamis who have become so prominent in the West recently. “They do not know what is bhakti, what is Vedānta. They do not know. Simply aspiring, all after women and money, that’s all. I know all of them, all first-class rogues, after money and women.” 

Because they are popular, he said, it was difficult to speak the truth about them because the public are also foolish rascals. 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa said he thought all of the others are trying to make some compromise. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda chuckled. “I don’t make any compromise. All my speaking is also no compromise. Here is guru, here is Kṛṣṇa, here is God, here is Vedānta. Real version they neglect, and they stick to the rascal’s version, Śaṅkara’s version, Śārīraka-bhāṣya. All over India, they are reading Śārīraka-bhāṣya.” 

I asked him that since Rāmānujācārya is well known in India, why don’t people read his commentary on Vedānta. 

“They hate Rāmānujācārya because he’s Vaiṣṇava,” Prabhupāda said. 

“Because he doesn’t allow them to speculate,” I said.  

Prabhupāda nodded. “He is very strict. He is a stubborn enemy of Śaṅkarācārya. All the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, declare it: ‘If you hear the interpretation of Māyāvādīs, then you are doomed.’ You have no hope for spiritual advancement. This is the statement. finished, your spiritual life is finished.” He told Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa, “You can write this also, that Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s instruction is strictly to avoid the so-called Vedāntists.” 

Prabhupāda remained in his room and finished the questions and answers from Bhavan’s Journal. The first one of the session, question ten, caught my attention. It asked, “Will mantras lose their sanctity or holiness if they are not in the Sanskrit language?” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda explained that they are transcendental sounds and cannot be changed. “The sound must be vibrated. You cannot translate it. The sound as it is . . . Just like Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, the sound must be produced. You cannot translate. Then it will be artha-vāda [speculative interpretation]. That is prohibited. You cannot interpret or do other way . . .  The sound vibration must be there. Then it will continue in sanctity.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa asked for clarification. “Is that to say the mantras can be written in Devanāgarī script or in Roman letters, but the sound must be the same?” 

“Yes,” Prabhupāda said. “The sound is important.” 

It was another lengthy session. Altogether there are five hours of recordings. Now Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa has to transcribe and edit them before sending them back to India.  

July 2nd, 1976

Prabhupāda didn’t take his walk, but he did give a final class on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.19, a beautiful verse which indicates the natural bond between the Supreme Lord and the living beings.  

“My dear sons of demons, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa is the original Supersoul, the father of all living entities. Consequently there are no impediments to pleasing Him or worshiping Him under any conditions, whether one be a child or an old man. The relationship between the living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is always a fact, and therefore there is no difficulty in pleasing the Lord.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda stated that our relationship with the Lord is the most natural thing. Even though it may appear that we are separated from Him, he said, actually we are not; He is so kind He is residing within our hearts, just waiting for the moment when we will turn to Him. Prabhupāda described the ease with which we can worship Kṛṣṇa and develop our relationship with Him through the simple process of hearing. 

“Just like the children, they are also hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Don’t think it is going in vain. Because they are hearing, it will have some effect. They are human child. Even the mosquitoes or small germs who are within this boundary of temple, because they are hearing Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, it will never go in vain. It is so nice.” 

Prabhupāda said that although our hearts are filled with the dirt of material desires, Kṛṣṇa within can cleanse away the contamination. We only have to perform some simple service. “Just like mahā-prasādam, not eating—the exact term is sevā. Kṛṣṇa has sent him mahā-prasādam. So by taking it, it is sevā, it is service to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa likes it, that you take the prasādam. Therefore it is sevā. The service begins from the tongue. Not with the hand but with the tongue. If you simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, this is sevā, and if you take prasādam, then your business begins immediately. And if you simply continue this sevā, then Kṛṣṇa will reveal Himself and gradually He will give you intelligence how you can make advance to go back to home, back to Godhead.” 

He cited the example of Yamunācarya who realized the prone position of the soul in the material world. “He’s praying, ‘My dear Lord, I am loitering in this material world without any guardian. So when the time will come that I shall be jolly always that ‘There is my guardian, Kṛṣṇa.’ Everyone in this material world, is anātha—means without any protection. We are thinking, ‘My family, my wife, my children, my society men, my nation will give me protection.’ No. Nobody can give you protection. It is false hope. Just like the birds, when they fly in the sky, everyone has to take his own care. Nobody can help anyone. One can help only in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not in the material way. Nobody can help. This is called destiny. I have given that example that in our country Mahatma Gandhi, he was a big man, he was in the meeting. In your country also, President Kennedy. So nobody could help him when he was killed. So this is the position. What is destined, it must happen. Nobody can help us. That’s a fact. 

“Therefore our real business is: do not be bothered about things which are destined. Let us take advantage of this human form of life, to endeavor for making Kṛṣṇa consciousness fulfilled.” 

He said that we simply have to surrender. No one is a master, we are all servants, but now we are serving our lusty desires. “Lusty desires are so strong, I do not want to do it but it is forcing. In this way, we are being forced to serve the senses. So one who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he understands that ‘I have become servant of my senses. Unfortunately, these senses are not satisfied. I am still servant. So there is no profit. So why not become Krsna’s servant.’ This is good intelligence. Simply change the position. Instead of becoming servant of the senses, agree to become servant of Kṛṣṇa.” 

It was pointless, he said, to serve anyone other than Kṛṣṇa, because no one will be grateful. “We have got the experience that Mahatma Gandhi, he served whole life. Still, he was killed by his countrymen. So you may go on giving service in the material world, but nobody will be satisfied. So this service is useless. Turn to the service of Kṛṣṇa immediately. If I am trained up to become a faithful servant, just become a faithful servant of Kṛṣṇa, then your business is complete. There is no question of learning, much endeavor. We are already accustomed to give service. Simply turn it toward Kṛṣṇa and your life is successful. Thank you very much.” 

The devotees held one last rousing kīrtana, the gurukula boys dancing with delight in front, and Śrīla Prabhupāda gave everyone the opportunity to render some more service by passing out cookies. 

* * *  

After a quiet day Śrīla Prabhupāda was driven in the late afternoon to the Pittsburgh airport to embark on the next stage of his tour. Before we left we brought Vana dāsa, the owner of the house, in for a very brief darśana with Śrīla Prabhupāda. To his credit, he was reluctant to come before his spiritual master because he has not been following the principles for quite some time. Prabhupāda appreciated his embarrassment and also his willingness to make his house available for his stay. He thanked him and gave him a garland and a few words of encouragement. 

The devotees gave Prabhupāda a worthy send off, not at the house, but outside the temple. They gathered in the middle of the road and showered flowers as the car slowed to a halt. One stepped forward and offered him a beautiful cake and another devotee presented him with a check. Kīrtanānanda Swami, who did not travel with us, gave him several thousand dollars dakṣiṇā. Then to loud cries of “Jaya Prabhupāda!” we pulled away to drive to Pittsburg. 

We arrived at the airport without incident, departing for Washington at 8:05 p.m.