Chapter Three

July 9th, 1976

Prabhupāda arrived at La Guardia airport at 10:00 a.m. to a fantastic reception, equal in enthusiasm, if not in scale, to his Los Angeles arrival. Tamal Krishna Goswami, Tripurāri Swami and Rāmeśvara Swami garlanded him as he came off the plane, forming a saffron escort through the departure lounge. Then two hundred devotees greeted him with unbounded enthusiasm, which required the presence of  a special police contingent to disperse any congestion of the airport. Hemāṅga dāsa held a large, elaborately decorated ceremonial umbrella over Śrīla Prabhupāda’s head. The Bhakti-rasa Theater Group danced, and everyone else threw flowers and chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa as Prabhupāda made his way to the car, pausing only to answer a few questions from reporters. It was both colorful and exciting to watch His Divine Grace stride through the airport like a person returning home after a long absence, looking confident and happy, wreathed in multicolored roses. 

Heavy traffic made it a long drive to the temple. Jayānanda prabhu, who had supported the temple in San Francisco in its beginning days by driving a taxi, chauffeured the brown LTD. Prabhupāda was happy to see him, recalling how he was driving and chanting in San Francisco and how he had given him a $5,000 donation for printing his books. He said that Jayānanda was a “very good boy.”  

As we came into Manhattan over the Triborough Bridge and down FDR Drive, Prabhupāda recollected, “In New York I feel a little homely because first I came here. I was loitering on the street here and there. From 1965 September to ’67 July, continually I stayed in New York.” 

Rāmeśvara quoted Tamal Krishna Mahārāja’s comment in this morning’s class that the devotees cannot understand the good fortune of this city that Prabhupāda came here.  

Prabhupāda smiled. “Yes, when I decided I shall go to foreign countries, I never thought of going to London; I thought of coming here. Generally they go to London; but I thought, ‘No, I shall go to New York.’ ” 

“Very progressive,” Tamal Krishna said. 

Prabhupāda laughed. “I do not know. It is Kṛṣṇa’s dictation. I could have gone, London was nearer. But I thought, ‘No, I shall go to New York.’ ” He picked out different streets and places he used to visit as we drove past them. He said he was loitering, going to one place or another “aimlessly,” and sometimes sitting by the river beneath the Brooklyn Bridge thinking, “When will I return to India?”  

Rāmeśvara told him some of the book production and distribution news. Hridayānanda Mahārāja was sending another volume of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in Spanish to the printer today, and before Śrīla Prabhupāda leaves New York he will present him with the Spanish Kṛṣṇa book. On July fourth they sold over thirty thousand BTGs in Los Angeles. And Satsvarūpa Goswami has reported over seventy-five standing orders sold by the Library Party in America during June, despite the fact that the schools are closed. 

In the midtown traffic jam our car, or rather its occupants, attracted a little attention. More than once a taxi driver called out as they came along side. One leaned out his window and shouted, “That’s a nice car you got there.” It wasn’t meant to be a compliment, but we took it as such.  

Prabhupāda asked what the man had said, and Tamal Krishna laughingly replied, “He’s says you have a nice car.”  

Prabhupāda laughed. “Ask him why don’t you come here? Why you are driving taxi? Come here.” 

Prabhupāda inquired how the new temple was going, and he also asked how the newly-returned Bali-mardana, Ṛṣi-kumāra and Chāyāvana Swamis were faring. He had a few sympathetic words for Chāyāvana because he attributed his fall into māyā to a lack of association. “Just train him, he is good boy. He has fallen down, just take care of him. One may fall down, but you have to take care.” He cautioned Tamal Krishna to keep a watch out for Ṛṣi-kumāra, otherwise he felt he might be victimized by attraction for women. He advised that all three of them should have some qualified person living with them, then problems may be avoided.  

Tamal Krishna told him the devotees have been working day and night for the last month and a half to make sure everything was ready for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s arrival. In the last week some have practically not slept. Even some hired laborers worked for free yesterday and throughout last night. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that the devotees were very kind to him. “That is love. These things can be done only out of love.” 

ISKCON Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda Temple 

340 West 55th Street, New York 

As we turned onto 55th Street our building came into view. Solidly constructed of brown brick, ISKCON’s home in New York was a former Carmelite nursing home. It looked impressive. It’s eleven stories high, with large gold letters running down the front side saying simply “Hare Krishna.” A huge gold-colored satin banner had been hung over the street depicting a devotee chanting and dancing. The car pulled up at the entrance and Prabhupāda stepped out to be welcomed with flowers and kīrtana by literally hundreds of devotees. Mothers with children stepped forward with bouquets and garlands, as curious neighbors gathered across the street to see what the special event was. Sudāmā Swami led the way in, jubilantly pounding a mṛdaṅga, chanting at the top of his voice and grinning from ear to ear. 

As Prabhupāda walked through the corridors leading into the temple room devotees on all sides bowed low to the floor as he passed. Prabhupāda held his cane between his two hands then raised them to his chest in praṇāmas, gracefully accepting their obeisances. He stopped for a moment outside the temple entrance, admiring a beautiful diorama of Lord Kṛṣṇa seated on a rock with His arm around a calf the devotees had placed in the recess of the doorway. Then he entered the temple room to greet the most benevolent and wonderful Deities of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda and Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi. Lord Jagannātha along with His brother and sister were, of course, in convalescence prior to their Ratha-yātrā festival. The small brass Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities Whom Prabhupāda had worshiped when he first came West were also on the altar.   

Guru-pūjā was tumultuous. The sannyāsīs stepped forward and elaborately bathed Śrīla Prabhupāda’s feet while the devotees danced and chanted with terrific energy and happiness. Then Śrīla Prabhupāda addressed his ardent throng of admirers. “So first of all I must thank you all for bringing me in this new temple, because when I first came my ambition was to start a temple here in New York. I was seeking the opportunity living in the 72nd Street, there was a house, very small house, one part of this space. Twenty-five feet by one hundred feet. So they wanted one hundred thousand dollars. So I wrote one rich friend in India, industrialist, perhaps you know him, that Kanpurwalla, Singhania. So he agreed to pay me, but the Indian government did not allow to transfer money from India to here. Then I approached the Salvation Army, the chief man. I offered him that you are spending money in India. So I have got a friend, he’ll pay you, you pay me here. So he asked me what is the rate you want to pay me. So I told him the present rate is five dollars, five rupees, one dollar. So he remained silent. That means he wanted more. In this way I had no place. What to speak of temple, I had no residential place even. So in that condition I was thinking of returning back to India. So the shipping company, I was practically every week I was going. So it is a long history that I came here with determination to start a temple in New York first, but at that time, ten years before, in nineteen hundred and sixty-five, it was not possible. But by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, by the grace of my Guru Mahārāja, you have got this place. So I must thank you very much for organizing this temple.” 

He explained how the living entities are suffering, wandering throughout the universe, through different species and on different planets, without knowing the real aim of life. “The other day our Dr. Svarūpa Dāmodara was speaking that whatever scientific improvement or educational improvement they have made, two things are wanting. They do not know what are these different planets in the sky, they do not know; they’re simply imagining. They are trying to go to the moon planet, Mars planet. That is also not possible. Even if you go one or two planets, there are millions of planets, what do you know about them? There is no knowledge. And another knowledge they do not know what is the problems of life. Two things they are lacking. And we are dealing with these two things. 

“The problem of life is that we are bereft, we are away from Kṛṣṇa consciousness; therefore we are suffering. If you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness then the whole problem is solved. And so far planetary system is considered, so Kṛṣṇa is giving you opportunity, wherever you like you can go. But the intelligent person will select, mad-yājino ’pi yānti mām. ‘Those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, they come to Me.’ So what is the difference between these two, even if I go to the moon planet or Mars planet or Brahmaloka? Kṛṣṇa says you can go to the Brahmaloka, but kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti. You’ll have to come back again. And Kṛṣṇa also says yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama. So you have got this opportunity, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. 

 “Everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, what is what. Do not lose this opportunity. Do not be foolish, misled by so-called scientists or philosophers or politicians. Take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And that is possible only by guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya. By the mercy of guru and by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa you can achieve all success. This is the secret. Yasya deve parā bhaktiryathā deve tathā gurau/ tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ prakāśante mahātmanaḥ. [Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed.] So this guru-pūjā which we are doing, it is not self-aggrandizement, it is real teaching. You sing daily, guru-mukha-padma-vākya, cittete koriyā aikya. [My only wish is to have my consciousness purified by the words emanating from his lotus mouth.] Bas, this is translation. I tell you frankly whatever little success is there in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, I simply believed what was spoken by my Guru Mahārāja. You also continue that. Then every success will come. Thank you very much.” 

The devotees shouted with delight, “Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda!” and to great fanfare Śrīla Prabhupāda left the temple and stepped into the elevator for the ride to his quarters on the top floor of the building. 

 He stepped out of the lift and was greeted by Jayagaurasundara dāsa and others—still dressed in paint-splattered overalls and surrounded by cans, ladders and paint trays. They had been up all night and were just finishing. Prabhupāda was very appreciative of their hard work. “My Guru Mahārāja left alone, so he has sent so many gurus to take care of me. You are all my Guru Mahārāja’s representatives. So you are taking care, I am very much obliged to you. In my childhood I was very, very pet son of my father. My father was not very rich man, but still whatever I wanted he would give me. He never chastised me, but full of love. Then of course I got friends and was married, so by Kṛṣṇa’s grace everyone loved me. I came to this foreign country without any acquaintance, so Kṛṣṇa sent me many fathers to love me. In that way I am fortunate. At the last stage if I live very peacefully that is a great mercy of Kṛṣṇa. By Kṛṣṇa’s mercy everything is possible. So we shall stick to Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet and everything is possible.” 

We quickly settled in, and I prepared to give Śrīla Prabhupāda his massage. Prabhupāda’s quarters are impressive. There are a series of twenty or so small rooms off a long corridor on this floor. Two of the rooms have been joined to make a pleasant bedroom for Śrīla Prabhupāda overlooking West 55th Street. His main darśana room is tiled with parquet, and furnished with a low wood desk trimmed with brass, a large comfortable āsana, and decorated with pleasant green floral wallpaper. From its many windows one can see the Empire State Building and the imposing skyline of midtown Manhattan. As in Los Angeles, the devotees have built a small altar at the end nearest the door, facing the āsana, so that Śrīla Prabhupāda can always see the beautiful small brass Deities of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi. 

Tamal Krishna, Ādi-keśava and Rāmeśvara Mahārājas explained to Prabhupāda that the rest of the floor is off limits to everyone except his personal servants during his stay. Having been an institutional building previously, each floor has only one central bathroom, so Prabhupāda has a choice of six sinks, toilets and showers to use. He, however, requested Ādi-keśava Swami to convert a large closet in his room into an ensuite bathroom and toilet because of the inconvenience of having to walk halfway down the corridor to use the current ones. Ādi-keśava promised it would be done for Prabhupāda’s next visit. There is also a small kitchen for the preparation of his prasādam. Tamal Krishna Mahārāja explained that for economic reasons only cold water is available during most of the day, but hot water will be switched on at noon in time for Prabhupāda’s bath. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was satisfied with everything. Before he sent everyone out so that he could have his massage, he had a few kind words for Chāyāvana Swami. “So Chāyāvana Mahārāja, you are making your mind fixed up?” 

“Yes, I’m feeling like my old self again.” 

“Yes, you are good boy. Whatever is done is done. Now remain with Vaiṣṇavas and fix up your mind. After all, it is a struggle between māyā and Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes due to our weakness we may fall down, but we should take again strength and stand up. Do that, and combinedly push this movement in America. It is a good field. And if you can establish this movement in America, whole world will take. That is my mission.” 

* * * 

New York is very noisy with motors, the grinding of machinery, the unabated roar of traffic and the emergency sirens of fire, ambulance and police vehicles sounding out all over the city. It seems to me to be a madhouse, but Prabhupāda is unperturbed. I escorted him to his bedroom after lunch for his rest and asked him if it was too noisy for him. He laid back on the bed and replied pleasantly, “Oh no, I lived here for two years.” 

* * * 

In the afternoon all the sannyāsīs plus Svarūpa Dāmodara, Bali-mardana, Yadubara dāsa and a few others escorted His Divine Grace on a tour of the building. The ever-present Viśākhā and Muralīvadana dāsa moved slightly ahead of the party, snapping photos at every opportunity. Tamal Krishna Mahārāja conducted the tour, beginning in the large restaurant on the basement level. It has a well-equipped kitchen, run by Maṇibandha dāsa and Ṛṣi-kumāra. He was satisfied and glad to see Ṛṣi-kumāra busily engaged. Prabhupāda stopped to inspect some large bowls of salad made ready for the evening serve-out. 

On the first floor he revisited the temple room and saw the reception area and the Deity paraphernalia rooms.  Without the large crowd he was able to inspect the many large wall murals of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes which Viṣṇu dāsa had drawn by airbrush. Although very wide, the ceiling height is very low, giving a confined feel to the place. The Deity room is separated from the darśana area with thick columned supporting arches decorated in a South Indian style architecture. They are the work of an Australian devotee, Bhāskara dāsa.  

The second floor is used for the administration, and has Ādi-keśava’s temple president’s office as well as others. The third floor has a small theater and a shop selling various items from India—incense, jewelry, sārīs, dhotīs, and of course, all of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books displayed in a well-lit glass cabinet. On that floor there is also a lounge for visitors and life members.  

On the fourth floor little work has been done, although plans include a diorama display. The fifth and sixth floors are reserved as brahmacārī and sannyāsī quarters, the seventh is for new bhaktas and guests. The eighth floor has been refurbished and is being managed by Bali-mardana’s wife as a guest house for life members. Married couples occupy the ninth floor, and the brahmacāriṇīs live on the tenth.  

It was all clean and fresh, and Śrīla Prabhupāda was very pleased at both the facility and the responsible way it is being run. Tamal Krishna Mahārāja has organized the administration into different departments with responsible senior devotees in charge of them—Ādi-keśava Mahārāja is temple president, Bali-mardan is in charge of public relations, Sudāma Swami is back from Māyāpur to organize the Bhakti-rasa Theater Group, Toṣaṇa Kṛṣṇa prabhu and Dhṛṣṭadyumna Swami are organizing Ratha-yātrā, and Jayānanda prabhu is overseeing the building of the three chariots. 

Prabhupāda concluded his tour on the roof, which affords a virtually unimpeded view across the Hudson River. It was a relief to emerge from the confines of the narrow corridors and low ceilings of the interior and sit high in the air, aloof from the hustle of the streets, surrounded at a distance by Manhattan’s innumerable steel, glass and concrete monoliths piercing the fragile sky.  

The sun was beginning to dip below the western horizon, its waning rays glowing red-golden, as Prabhupāda sat relaxed on a lotus-flower shaped āsana. His disciples formed a semicircular audience at his feet. It seemed to us most idyllic, but Prabhupāda’s practical knowledge rose above our sentiment. He asked Chāyāvana Swami to stand and block the sun. “It is very disturbing,” he said, “but the early morning sun is very nice.” We all laughed at ourselves, giving deference to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s superior knowledge.  

Tamal Krishna Mahārāja commented that this single building contained all the different features of Kṛṣṇa consciousness that Śrīla Prabhupāda had previously planned and meditated on—a theater, a prasādam restaurant, a large temple and kīrtana hall, nice facilities for life members, a guest house, diorama displays, and devotee quarters. Prabhupāda had conceived of all this years ago, but could not realize it due to a lack of capital and manpower.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda smiled in agreement, and Tamal Krishna asked if he had yet more strategies for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness that were still to be revealed. “Oh, yes,” Prabhupāda said, smiling broadly, but he remained silent before his expectant audience.  

Tamal asked him if he was going tell us what they were.  

Prabhupāda shook his head and chuckled, “No.” Then he quoted Cāṇakya Paṇḍita saying that one should not reveal his future plans because someone will come along and spoil them.  

All we could do is laugh. Śrīla Prabhupāda is like a cloud—sometimes there is rain, and sometimes there isn’t; but there is nothing you can do to force it. It is clear that Prabhupāda has unlimited and far-reaching ideas and that the only stumbling block is our individual and collective inability to execute them. For the present he is emphasizing book distribution. In Los Angeles he told us that he is planting the seeds in his books for the Kṛṣṇa conscious government of the future. He certainly foresees a time when the populations of entire countries will be devotees of Kṛṣṇa, but for now his program is to lay the groundwork with massive book distribution, establishment of temples and the training of qualified men. 

July 10th, 1976

Tamal Krishna Mahārāja came into Śrīla Prabhupāda’s sitting room for a few minutes as Prabhupāda prepared for his morning walk. Prabhupāda told him about the cheating scientists who declare that life comes from chemicals, and he gave him his views on the recent space shot to Mars. “Why these rascals compare it with Arizona? As if there is no other place in the world. Everything they are doing in Arizona. All photograph in this place. Now they have been caught. I was always protesting, ‘These rascals have never gone.’ For the last ten years I’ve protested. Whenever they asked me, I say straightly, ‘It is all childish. They have never gone, neither they’ll be able to go.’ That has been proof available. Now they do not talk about it. All propaganda, finished. Now they have taken another, Mars, to keep their service in order. This is going on, all cheating. To keep people in darkness and exploit them. The so-called swamis exploiting, yogis exploiting, politician exploiting, scientists exploiting, philosophers exploiting. What is the position of the world? This is the opportunity, human life, to know everything, to solve all the problems. They are not given the opportunity, they are kept in darkness. The demons, ‘There is no God, science is everything, life is produced from chemicals, and there is no living entities on other planets.’ They are simply show. And we have to believe that. Perhaps for the first time I am raising protest against all this nonsense.” 

He told Tamal Krishna about Dr. Sharma. “He has got some international name. So he says that ‘It’s great fortune I have met you.’ He’s now realizing his mistakes. He has still some respect for Vivekananda; that I did not disturb; he might misunderstand.” 

 Then Prabhupāda digressed for a few moments. “Actually this Vivekananda rascal, what he has done? What is his contribution? He has ruined the Vedic culture. And the Bon Mahārāja is his follower. He is in name a disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, but he’s a servant of Vivekananda. He’s a great appreciator of Vivekananda. He has put in his curriculum Vivekananda philosophy, Gandhi philosophy. Rascal, what philosophy they have got?” 

Recalling his recent pamphlet, I said. “He mentioned all the nonsense people. He put a circular out, he mentioned Rāma Tīrtha, Vivekananda, all these nonsense.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us his most frank appraisal of his Godbrother. “Now I am convinced he’s a rascal. He’s nothing but a great rascal. My Guru Mahārāja rejected him. Therefore he was called back [from England]. He has given so much trouble to Guru Mahārāja. He called him back, ‘Call this rascal back.’ Every month he was being sent seven hundred rupees. That, in those days [1930s] seven hundred rupees is a big amount. So at least ten time value has gone up. Seven hundred means seven thousand. He was spending for nothing, and he was publishing report, ‘Svāmījī is playing on harmonium.’ And photo. This is first year, second, like that.” 

He also told us that the Mission of Vivekananda’s guru, Ramakrishna, serves out chicken flesh as “prasādam.” “Another Godbrother used to say, ‘Murgee Mission,’ ‘Chicken Mission.’ He was so much against this Ramakrishna Mission and Vivekananda, so much. He knew all history of Ramakrishna. He became impotent. He was woman-hunter and therefore uneducated. In the village he was simply hunting after this low-class woman. Therefore his brother got him married. When he was married he was impotent. So therefore he planned, ‘Oh, I see everyone mother. You are my mother.’ And people said, ‘Oh, he’s so realized that even his wife is his mother.’ Rascal. Where is that, another person in the Vedic culture, Vyāsadeva, or others, they are also married, who has called his wife mother? Is that very great advancement? But this rascal was impotent, he had no other alternative, so he manufactured some idea, and people thought, ‘Oh, he’s so devotee of goddess of Kālī that he sees even his wife as mother.’  

“This story is told to me by my Guru Mahārāja personally. He was talking with me privately sometimes.” Then Prabhupāda added ironically, “Although I was a ‘bad’ householder, he was very kind upon me. And whatever is being done by his blessing, that’s all.” 

Before taking his walk in Central Park Prabhupāda went to a rented area on 60th Street and 11th Avenue to see the Ratha-yātrā carts being built under Jayānanda prabhu’s supervision. Jayānanda is known throughout ISKCON as “Mr. Ratha-yātrā” for his dedicated involvement ever since the very first Ratha-yātrā in San Francisco. He showed Śrīla Prabhupāda each of the three chariots, two new ones and a third from Chicago. Full-sized, with canopies over fifty feet tall and sporting  brightly colored beams they run on spoked metal wheels. Jayānanda has paid particular attention to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s concern over the wheels, and Prabhupāda was happy to see that they were especially strong and well constructed.  

Then Ādi-keśava drove us down the entire parade route, which begins at 59th Street and runs fifty-two blocks to Washington Square Park.  

As we took a short walk in Central Park, we saw garbage strewn everywhere. Homeless men lay here and there, proof of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s oft-repeated statement that no matter what the seeming material advancement of a country may be, three classes of men will always exist—the poor, the middle class and the rich. He told us that money and social services cannot alleviate suffering; suffering is due to destiny. The only hope is to engage everyone in Kṛṣṇa conscious activities, for this alone destroys karma and fully liberates one from all sufferings, delivering him home, back to Godhead. 

* * * 

In the course of his class, which continued with Caitanya-caritāmṛta,Madhya-līlā 20.104 Prabhupāda mentioned the purpose and benefit of bodily massage. “Tri-dhātuke, this body is made of, according to Āyur-vedic knowledge, it is body development of three dhātus, kapha [mucus], pitta [bile], vāyu [air]. The vāyu is there, air. It is very scientific. Whatever we are eating it is becoming secretion. Then by vāyu, when there is less ventilation, in old age, the vāyu becomes slow, and therefore so many diseases overcome. This massaging means just to help the air within the body to ventilate. So it is actually made of kapha, pitta, vāyu. The vāyu is making the secretion dried up, and so on, so on. So we are not this kapha, pitta, vāyu. We are not this skin, bone, blood or whatever it may be. You analyze it. I am not this. But life is not there.” 

* * * 

After his afternoon nap, Śrīla Prabhupāda hosted a group of the senior devotees in his room. Tamal Krishna Mahārāja told him about a very favorable article a new magazine called Transcendental Meditation Today published about us. The magazine had segments on many different spiritual groups, but our section was the biggest and most favorable. Out of fifty-five pages used for editorial content, twelve detailed Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Rādhāballabha prabhu read out most of the article. It described in detail every aspect of Kṛṣṇa conscious temple life—how to shave one’s head, how to chant, how to cook, the significance of prasādam, who Śrīla Prabhupāda is, a full page on Prabhupāda’s books, and who is Kṛṣṇa. Much to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s satisfaction it was much less sympathetic to many of the other groups, especially Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s “TM” movement. One subheading in that section described their selling of mantras as “Profit Without Honor.” It described an experiment done at Stanford University where two groups were tested, one that meditated on mantras given by Maharishi’s men, and the other meditating on mantras made up by the university people. The results from both groups were exactly the same.  

The publisher had quoted verbatim the South African newspaper interview we had seen in Detroit. “Swami Prabhupāda, spiritual leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and Bill Faill, Durban, South Africa, of the Natal Mercury Reporter, had the following dialogue: Bill Faill: Do you think that Transcendental Meditation is helping people? Prabhupāda: They do not know what real meditation is. Their meditation is simply a farce, another cheating process by the so-called swamis and yogis. So everyone is talking about meditation, but no one knows what meditation really is. These bluffers use the word meditation, but they do not know the proper subject for meditation. They are simply talking bogus propaganda. Bill Faill: But isn’t meditation helpful in getting people to think straight? Prabhupāda: No, real meditation means to achieve a state in which the mind is saturated by God consciousness.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda liked the whole article, although there was one description which caused him some concern. Tamal Krishna read out a section describing the evening ārati: “ ‘The kīrtana begins with the chanting of the mahā-mantra, slowly at first and melodiously. Later the chant will speed up as the spirit of the devotion spreads. Often the most rapid and intense chanting is done by a hard-core knot of dhotī-ed men before the curtains of the shrine.’ ” Tamal added his own comment. “The devotees get in one group and start . . . ‘Hard-core devotees.’ ” He read on. “ ‘The rhythm approaches that of an express train, and the atmosphere is apt to remind a lay visitor of an old-fashioned football rally. Some of the onlookers try to keep up with the central group, clapping their hands, swaying their bodies, throwing arms upwards and, among the younger, adapting modern dance steps to the rhythm. When the shrine curtains are drawn back, devotees kneel and press their foreheads . . . ’ ” 

Prabhupāda frowned a little. “Who has introduced this peculiar dancing?” 

“It just evolved,” I suggested.  

Rūpānuga prabhu spoke up. “We were speaking about that the other day. It’s changed from the original dancing that you showed us, to something else. Too much like the modern dancing.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda agreed with him. “Hmm. I think this is not good.” 

Tamal Krishna began to read on, and then stopped again. “What way should we dance, Śrīla Prabhupāda? With our hands outstretched? Sometimes the devotees like to jump around. Is that all right?” 

“In ecstasy one can do anything,” Prabhupāda said. “That is another, but artificially to do something is not good.” 

“But if one feels like jumping, it is all right?” 

“Anything artificial is not required,” Prabhupāda said. 

“So running back and forth is not . . . ” 

“No, no,” he said, not wanting to completely condemn them. He obviously didn’t want to squelch their enthusiasm. Yet at the same time, he added, “that should not be an artificial [show].” 

Apart from this, which was not a comment on the article but on our own activities, Śrīla Prabhupāda thought the editor of the magazine had done an excellent job. “One letter should be written to him that ‘You have taken so much trouble to describe Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, so thank you for your patience. Now we shall request you to read our books and review it. That will be real presentation of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. Now you have studied superficially, and if you seriously study our books, you’ll get more knowledge and you’ll be able to give description of the movement more definitely.” 

* * * 

In the evening Prabhupāda gave a short darśana.  

July 11th, 1976

Today isGuru-pūrṇimā, and also the disappearance of Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī. On the walk Tamal Krishna Mahārāja asked what was the significance of Guru-pūrṇimā, and Śrīla Prabhupāda replied simply, “Guru-pūjā, that you are doing daily.” 

We walked in a better area of Central Park, around a lake, with Śrīla Prabhupāda in the center front, surrounded by a group of about twenty men, all eager for his association and keen to hear any comments he might make. Walking easily along the wide pathways surrounding the lake he discussed with us the inevitability of death and the scientists’ folly in struggling to avoid it.  

Rādhāballabha repeated something his mother had told him. “She was a nurse, and she’s seen many people die, and they all look very peaceful when they die.” 

Prabhupāda gave a little laugh. “Nobody dies peacefully. They shall cry.” 

He told us about some of his former relatives and their experiences with death. “I have seen one of our relatives, she’s dying, and her second son . . .  She’s calling, ‘My dear such and such, I give you in charge, I could not do.’ Like that, and died.” 

“She was attached,” Bali-mardana said. 

“Everyone is attached,” Prabhupāda said. “I have seen one of my nephews, young man. So his young wife and children, when he was . . . He began to strike his head like that, that ‘I am dying without any provision for my wife.’ ” 

“What is his future?” Tamal Krishna wanted to know. 

“Future means he’ll have to come back again, either in the same family or in the dog’s family, dog’s life. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate. In this way, he’ll take birth and die. Yes.” 

Svarūpa Dāmodara prabhu mentioned a new branch of medicine called “biomedical ethics.” Its concerns include how long doctors should sustain the attempt to keep a person alive, but Prabhupāda didn’t accept that they could keep anyone alive any longer than a person is destined. 

Rāmeśvara Mahārāja said people were very hopeful that modern medicine could keep them alive. 

“They are hopeful of everything,” Prabhupāda said. “That is their foolishness. Hope against hope, that’s all. The hope will never be fulfilled. Therefore they are called pramatta. Pramatta means mad, crazy. Their hopefulness means that is a proof that crazy, mad.” 

“Some of the rich men, they buy a cabinet that their body is put into, and they hope that they will wake up in a thousand years,” Bali-mardana informed him. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda came to a halt and everyone gathered around closer to hear his response. Prabhupāda’s example was so apropos, so filled with wit and intelligence, it could hardly be matched anywhere by anyone, and it contained one of the most apt and graphic comparisons I have heard from him to date. “This is called bakāṇḍa-nyāya,” he said with a smile. “Baka, the duck, and aṇḍa, the testicle. So the bull, he has a testicle hanging, and the baka is thinking it is a fish.” 

Taking the duck’s eye view, Prabhupāda leaned a little forward and looked up expectantly. “So he’s going, he’s hoping, ‘This fish will drop and . . . ’ ” To the peals of our laughter he went on. “This is called bakāṇḍa-nyāya. Everyone knows, this is a common thing in India. You’ll see, the baka is going on. Therefore they are baka. Baka means rascal, in India we say any fool, bokā or baka. Means that the duck is a fool. Very appropriate, this bakāṇḍa-nyāya. Logic of duck and testicle.” 

As we walked on, Svarūpa Dāmodara explored Śrīla Prabhupāda’s reactions to biomedical ethics. “There’s a problem arising. The person, the family of the person who is suffering, says that ‘Please don’t apply these machines. Let the person die.’ But the medical doctors say, ‘No, we’ll keep him alive as long as we can go on.’ So this is a problem. So who’s right? Is the family right, or . . . ” 

“The family is right,” Prabhupāda said definitively. “Family is intelligent, that ‘You are rascal, why you are trying? Let him die peacefully. After all, you cannot protect. Why you give trouble at the time of death? You cannot protect; your foolish attempt will not help him.’ This is the same philosophy, that the animal is suffering, to kill him. So this is nonsense—mercy killing, killing mercy.” He laughed. “Just see. The action is killing, and that is his mercy. All contradictory. Killing by mercy? Mercy is killing?” 

I related a controversial case I had recently read of in the newspaper. “There’s an example that’s just going up to the courts now. There’s one family, their daughter was being supported by one machine. So one day they went in early and pulled out the plugs. So now they are being taken to court. They stopped the machine because she’d been in a coma for so long. So that’s what they call mercy killing. They don’t like the doctors just to keep them there uselessly.” 

Rāmeśvara brought yet another perspective. “But then they want to kill the old people. This mercy killing, they think that ‘An old man is suffering, so let us kill him.’ ” 

Prabhupāda shook his head. “It is dangerous to die here.” 

Sometimes the devotees like to mention outlandish things just to see Śrīla Prabhupāda’s reactions. Today Tamal Krishna chipped in with something he had seen in a movie. “Not as dangerous as in Africa. There’s one tribe, that when a man becomes very old they throw him on the roof and then eat him.” 

Prabhupāda said he also had heard of it. “That is a feast,” he said sardonically. 

And as if to top that, Rāmeśvara said, “Also the Eskimos. When a man gets old, if he is an Eskimo, then he has to go out into the icelands and wait for some animal to kill him. He cannot stay at home and be supported by the family, too much burden.” 

Bali-mardana added, “Because he’s eating, and he is not able to go and hunt, they send them out to die.” 

Prabhupāda’s final comment was perhaps the most chilling. “The Communists also, they’ll do: all old men should be killed. That time is coming.” Turning to us with a smile he added, “Don’t become old.”  

Changing the subject, Chāyāvana Swami asked about the resettlement of the Indian community all over the world. “Is this part of Lord Caitanya’s plan to help spread this Vedic culture?” 

“Yes,” Śrīla Prabhupāda said. “That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s order, that you speak the Vedic culture. That is India’s mission. But these rascals are speaking technology.” 

Still, he noted that because it is their culture, whenever a swami arrives, Indians gather to hear. Unfortunately, unscrupulous men take advantage of this for their own ends. “They know that ‘These people they are wanting something, so let us go and cheat.’ This is going on.” 

Bali-mardana acknowledged that they were simply businessmen. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda looked humbly over to us. “So far I am concerned, I have not come here to cheat you nor to gain; I’ve come to execute the order of my Guru Mahārāja. I have no business to cheat you, neither to get something from you.” 

As we moved around the lakeside we met a woman and her dog walking the opposite way. Running freely, the muzzled dog barked in a threatening way. Rakṣaṇa, Prabhupāda’s traveling bodyguard, was a little ahead of us in his saffron judo suit, with his bead bag in one hand and a cane in the other. He steered the dog away from Śrīla Prabhupāda. At this the woman shouted that he should leave the dog alone.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda observed to us that she wasn’t even supposed to have a dog in the park. Rādhāballabha sarcastically commented that the dog was her family, and Prabhupāda added, “ ‘Dog’s mother.’ Why don’t you call in one word, ‘I am dog’s mother.’ ”  

I told him about a friend of my mother’s who had kept a pig as a pet, carrying it everywhere in her arms and dressing it in a bow. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda explained that psychology. “The natural tendency is to get child. But child is killed, and a pig is taken, dog is taken. This is their civilization.” 

Tripurāri Swami said, “They say animal has no soul; therefore they can kill the cow and eat the meat. But when we say, ‘What if I cut your dog’s head off?’ they become very upset.” 

“Acchā?” Prabhupāda said. “Why upset? It has no soul, kill it.” 

Tamal Krishna couldn’t resist telling a rather macabre story about a family and their pet dog. “They were touring the world, and they came to Hong Kong, and they were carrying their pet dog with them also. So they went to one restaurant and they left their dog tied up on a leash outside the restaurant, because that is the custom in America. So they told the doorman, they pointed to the dog, just to take care of the dog. So anyway, then they went in and they had their dinner and they came out, and the dog was gone.” Anticipating the punch line, everyone was laughing, including Śrīla Prabhupāda. “They said, ‘Where’s my dog?’ ” Tamal himself could hardly finish, and we were virtually howling with laughter. “And the man said, ‘Well, you pointed to him, we have prepared him for you.’ ” 

“Yes, they do that,” Prabhupāda laughed. “He thought that he has pointed out this dog.” 

We made our way back to the car, and as we returned to the temple Tamal Krishna Mahārāja asked if it was possible to open more than one temple in New York. “Just like if there’s a good building on the East Side, if we can manage, what about the possibility of that?” 

Prabhupāda liked the idea and tipped his head.“If you can manage, very good. In a city like New York you can have ten, twelve centers.” 

As we entered West 55th Street and pulled up at the temple, Rāmeśvara asked something of a more personal nature. “Prabhupāda, if the spiritual master has a mission, is it proper for the disciple to think that he can take many births to help the mission of the spiritual master?” 

“When the spiritual master goes there, somewhere, his nearest assistants, they automatically go there to assist him,” Prabhupāda replied. “When Kṛṣṇa comes, the demigods also come to help Him. That is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. All the Yadu family, they came from heaven. So before Kṛṣṇa’s disappearance, by some trick they were all killed and they returned to their original place. It is nicely described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta.” 

* * * 

Because Prabhupāda has already been lecturing on the Caitanya-caritāmṛta’s discussion between Sanātana Gosvāmī and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu since Potomac, class was very appropriate to the significance of the day. Surveying his packed audience Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Sanātana Gosvāmī is guru. Caitanya Mahāprabhu is authorizing him to become guru. This is paramparā system. Nobody can become guru all of a sudden. Self-made guru, that is not guru. Here Sanātana Gosvāmī is presented as the ideal disciple. Caitanya Mahāprabhu is authorizing him. Therefore He says, kṛṣṇa-śakti dhara tumi. Unless he has got the power to receive the instruction, Caitanya Mahāprabhu is not going to waste His time. He has the power. He is empowered. Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mission is that to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world. So He is empowering Sanātana Gosvāmī to take this task and spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” 

“Without getting the power of attorney . . . Just like even one is qualified lawyer, he must get power of attorney from his client, and then he can speak. That is the law. Similarly, without being endowed with the power of attorney from Kṛṣṇa, it is not possible to preach. So our business is . . . Because we are preparing ourselves to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we must be qualified to get the power of attorney. Sometimes we speak that “I’ll preach.” What you will preach? First of all get the power of attorney, then preach. Preaching is not so easy that anyone and anyone can preach without . . . Kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nahe tāra pravartana. So to get that power of attorney one has to qualify himself, not that the power of attorney is hanging in the tree and you can take it. No. So how this power of attorney can be achieved? That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You are singing daily [to] guru. Now, today is Guru-pūrṇimā. Especially we should understand what is the power of attorney.”  

Then, prompted line-by-line by Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja, he elaborately gave the meaning of the entire Śrī Guru-vandana, the prayers we sing every morning in glorification of the spiritual master. He stressed the relationship of guru and disciple, giving a good example of how it develops. “Vede gāya yāhāra carito. You should understand this. By the mercy and favor of guru, we get prema-bhakti. There is viddhi-bhakti. In the beginning we have to discharge devotional service according to the rules and regulations of the śāstra, the instruction of guru, śāstra-viddhi. Yaḥ śāstra-viddhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ, na sa siddhim avāpnoti . . . Kṛṣṇa says, ‘If one gives up the śāstra-viddhi and manufactures his own way, na sa siddhim avāpnoti, he does not get success, na sukham, neither happiness, na parāṁ gatim, and what to speak of going back to Godhead? Forget all this.’ So when we are practiced to viddhi-mārga, then we gradually get love of Godhead. That is ultimate. Prema pum-artho mahān. Just like in India formerly, very small, minor aged boy and girl are married, especially the girl, ten, twelve years, married. So how she can love her husband? She does not know. But there is viddhi-mārga. The elderly people of the village—‘Now, just to give your husband this refreshment.’ So she gives. In this way, gradually, when she’s grown-up, she does not require any instruction. She knows how to serve her husband. That is prema. But the beginning must be regulative principle. Prema-bhakti yāhā hoite, avidyā vināśa yāte. Prema-bhakti, avidyā . . . Unless we are free from this nescience of material existence, there is question of kṛṣṇa-prema. Two things cannot go.” 

He concluded by asking everyone to study the relationship between Lord Caitanya and Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī and become advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. 

* * * 

There was already some mail awaiting Prabhupāda when he arrived, most all of it from India, and he answered it during his massage yesterday and today. As Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja read out each letter Prabhupāda replied point by point, speaking in his apostrophic style, as if the sender was personally before him. 

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa prabhu sent a three page report on his west and south Indian zone. He wrote most about Delhi, which still has problems. A feud developed between the head pūjārī, Oṁkāra dāsa, and Tejīyas, the president. It resulted in Tejīyas moving out for a while. After Gopāla spoke with him, he moved back in, but he wants a change in service. He would like to distribute books and do some limited amount of fund raising. Gopāla therefore proposed to Śrīla Prabhupāda that Jagat-puruṣa dāsa from Bombay, who is an American married to an Indian, become the new temple president. Despite the internal problems, Gopāla’s description of the Delhi temple was filled with hope. “The new Delhi temple is a big hit. Every day at least 50 to 60 people come for Sundar Artiks. Even for Mangal Artik few people come. The neighbors just love us. Women bring us food. They even want to cook for us. No one is complaining about our Kirtans. In Artiks, the Temple room is completely full. People are standing in the lawn. We have a very big front lawn. I have spoken to the landlord and he has allowed us to put a Shamiana on the top. In the lawn 30 to 40 people come for the evening lecture. . . . All the people who come are from Lajpat Nagar. There are three other temples nearby, but they still like us the most. Our Deity worship is top class, and the visitors admit never seeing such beautiful deities.” 

He told Prabhupāda he is having two new vyāsāsanas made and he was planning to spend five thousand rupees to fix up a guest room for life members and his letter was full of enthusiastic plans to develop Delhi. “Tejiyas sometimes tells devotees that you did not want Delhi to be big. I will never disobey you but my understanding is that if we can make it big, you will be pleased.” 

He had a question about the local women cooking. “Few of the women who come are strict Vaishnavas at home. They have offered to cook for the devotees in our kitchen. Is this O.K?” 

He also proposed a new scheme for supporting the temple whereby one thousand individuals will be made members at eleven rupees per month payment. The members will get a BTG and a newsletter each month plus a membership card. 

Gopāla also gave an update on Hyderabad. He approved a loan of two lakhs, and Mahāṁsa Swami has promised to collect the remaining one and a half lakhs needed to complete the temple. Gopāla felt it would now be ready for opening on Janmāṣṭamī, and he suggested a schedule for Prabhupāda’s approval.  

He said that the BBT library party had continued to do well, taking fifty more standing orders in the South in one week. Gargamuni Mahārāja’s party also gained thirty in Punjab and Haryana. Mahābuddhi dāsa was still due to leave on July 6th, and Bhūgarbha will stay until the end of July. Gopāla said he was trying to start another local party to complement Prabhaviṣṇu and Mahāviṣṇu prabhus’ team. 

Prabhupāda replied at length. He was glad to hear that many people are attracted in Delhi and he told him to keep the standard of Deity worship up. He was, however, not at all in favor of spending any money on the building’s facilities. “Why should we invest money in a guest room for the New Delhi Temple? After all the house is rented and is someone else’s property, so why we should invest money in the house? We cannot receive guests in the New Delhi Temple. It is not possible. Only our own workers should remain. Unpaid guests should be discouraged in New Delhi. This should be discussed in the GBC meetings. No investment should be made. In a rented house we should not spend unreasonable amounts for alterations. To be ‘big’ you must have a dhamsalla. One room guest house does not make Delhi ‘big.’ So far as possible, guests should be avoided in New Delhi and only workers should remain.” 

Similarly he did not like the idea of moving Jagat-puruṣa. “This change of Presidents is to be made in the GBC meeting. In the middle of the year there is no question of change. Tejyas can continue as President. Three times changing president is not good. It should first be conjointly considered by the GBC.” 

And he was equally negative in his reply about the local women cooking. ”Unless one is initiated they cannot cook. They must be regular disciples then they can do Deity worship. So there is no question of the outsiders cooking in the New Delhi temple.” 

Gopāla had spoken of developing Delhi into a big project, but Prabhupāda was more cautious in sharing his enthusiasm. “Let us continue in the rented house and see how things develop. If local people come and join and take initiation, then we can consider developing. Simply lip-sympathy will not do. They must be regular disciple, follow the regulative principles, and they will develop it themselves. Besides that book distribution and preaching is our most important activity. Opening temples is subordinate. We have to see how books are being distributed and how people are joining wholeheartedly. That is actual development.” 

Prabhupāda was equally unenthusiastic about Gopāla’s new membership scheme. “The Rs. 11-membership is imagination. What is that membership card? And how will you regularly collect such a small sum from the members? It will engage so much money just to collect this. In any case, this is to be discussed with the GBC. Don’t discuss anything new haphazardly. I have no experience of the idea.” 

As far as Hyderabad was concerned, Prabhupāda approved of the main ceremonies being held on Janmāṣṭamī, August 18th, and said that the opening should be at noon, followed by the regular Janmāṣṭamī program up to the midnight ārati. 

Prabhupāda had already received a telegram from Gargamuni complaining that five library parties were idle all over India because Gopāla would not supply them books. So he told Gopāla he must immediately supply them. He also wrote to Gargamuni asking him to gradually pay off his BBT debt. 

Finally, Gopāla had asked whether Śrīdhara Swami, whom Prabhupāda told to go preach with Trivikrāma Mahārāja in China, could return to Bombay. He said it was likely Śrīdhara could not stay more than two weeks in China and he was badly needed in Bombay. Śrīla Prabhupāda replied in favor of him staying in the Far East. He is very keen on the China preaching attempt now that the Chinese Gītā, is out, having me carry copies of it when we travel. He told Gopāla,“Sridhar Maharaj, if he is in Hong Kong, there is great need of introducing our Chinese literature. Chinese people are interested in India, and Vedic literatures. It is understood that they are purchasing other editions of Bhagavatam from India . . . why not approach the Chinese representative in Bombay for introducing our books. They are establishing good relations with India. In case Sridhar Maharaj cannot stay long in China, that will have to be discussed with Trivikrama Maharaj. But the Chinese Distribution is required.” 

There was a letter from Bhagatjī, Śrī Viśvambhar Dayal, bringing Śrīla Prabhupāda up to date with the Vṛndāvana temple affairs. Śrīla Prabhupāda is extremely pleased he has come forward to help us. Śrīla Prabhupāda has gradually induced him to take a more active role in the temple affairs, telling him, “So kindly help the management as Krishna Balaram is your worshipable Deity.” He spoke very encouragingly to him, revealing a glimpse of his own intimate relationship with Śrī Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. “Kindly guide our foreign disciples to manage nicely and increasingly you will be able to please Their Lordships Krishna and Balaram. Although I’ve established Their temple, Their Lordships want me to keep outside the temple for touring. So in my absence you kindly manage nicely. Akshayananda Maharaj and yourself are tested devotees and I fully depend on you. I always think of how you are selflessly working for the temple. Please see that the accounts are kept and that no money is wasted. That’s my only request. After all money is collected with great hardship. Not a single paise should be wasted.” 

Yaśomatīnandana prabhu wrote describing a highly successful Ratha-yātrā in Ahmedabad. The local temples organized it and the Mahant of the Jagannātha temple presided over it. The devotees had a kīrtana on the back of a truck during the parade, which the whole city populace witnessed. By simply leaning over the truck’s side, they sold fifteen hundred of the newly printed Gujarati magazine Bhāgavat Darshana, without even getting off the truck. Yaśomatīnandana said he felt it was a record for Indian book distribution. However, because they aimed at making sure everyone got one, they charged only one rupee a piece; they only made twenty paisa profit per magazine.   

Yaśomatīnandana’s description of how they got to participate was interesting. “It was by Your direct mercy that we got a place on the truck because when we met the Mahant of Jagannath temple, he refused to see us because he thought we were hippies. Then there was another ‘Sadhu’ standing there and he knew Your Divine Grace very well. So he said, ‘You are disciples of Bhaktivedanta Swami?’ We said ‘Yes,’ so he went to the Mahant and introduced us. Then Mahant said ‘O.K. they can come Tuesday and join in the temple truck with a few other sadhus of their own.’ That is how we got in. This sadhu’s name was Narayan das and he is a Mahant of Nilkanth Mahadev (Ranji Mandir) in Vadigam. He said that Your Divine Grace had stayed with him for almost six months in his ashrama fifteen twenty years ago. He was nice and said that ‘Swamījī was a great scholar and was giving lectures in the ashrama everyday. All day he was writing on Bhagavatam. He was eating only once and in the evening just taking milk.’ ” 

Yaśomatīnandana has collected over four hundred subscriptions for their new magazine. They have printed five thousand copies and will publish it bimonthly, increasing to a monthly periodical when the subscribers increase. His only concern was that Bombay BBT had not fulfilled any overseas orders for Gujarati literature, even though there is potential for thousands of sales. 

Yaśomatīnandana also mentioned that there is a chance to get land from the government at one-sixth the market price. He wanted to know if Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted him to try to purchase some.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda was pleased with the news. He didn’t respond to the meeting with Nārāyaṇa dāsa, but concentrated on the preaching activities. Despite what he had recently told Gopāla Kṛṣṇa about having Yaśomatīnandana base himself in Bombay, he now encouraged Yaśomatīnandana to go on with his preaching. “Your program in Ahmedabad is very encouraging. Do it. Why not take the government land immediately. If you can publish these magazines you will get many supporters and sympathizers. If the order department in Bombay is not dispatching the orders on literature to the foreign temples then you can sometimes go to Bombay and organize things. You are one of the trustees. You can organize or have some professional shipping agent do it. Ahmedabad is such a big city. Aren’t there any shipping agents there? Why from Bombay, why not from Ahmedabad? The distribution results from the Rathayatra are very nice. There is no question of profit. Distribution is the first consideration.” 

Caitya-guru dāsa wrote from Chandigarh, where they are staying at the house of Mr. P. L. Sethi, one of our earliest life members in Bombay. Many local people attend the early morning classes, and sixty or seventy students and others come in the evenings.  

Caitya-guru told Śrīla Prabhupāda that he had complied with his instruction to write a letter of apology to the member in Africa who had complained about his behavior there. However, he felt Brahmānanda Mahārāja had exaggerated things.  

Prabhupāda replied positively, telling him, “Do everything conscientiously and my blessings are always with you.” Despite his denial of wrongdoing, Prabhupāda still cautioned him. “However, don’t create any awkward situation that may be criticized. Caesar’s wife must be above criticism. Up to now as I have got respectable situation, I wish that all my disciples will have similar respectable position in society. That will keep my name good. Like father, like son.” 

Yaśodānandana Mahārāja sent a one page letter from Bangalore—another headache of conflict between preachers. Yaśodānandana complained about Gopāla Kṛṣṇa prabhu’s arrangements with Bhavabhūti dāsa, the Madras temple president. He said that previously all collections in South India went to help the construction in Hyderabad. But Gopāla had allowed Madras to keep the greater portion of their collections over the last year, even though there are only two devotees there. They have saved fifty thousand rupees for a temple project, but there is no prospect of doing anything as yet. Therefore, Yaśodānandana asked Bhavabhūti to release his funds for the completion of Hyderabad temple, volunteering the services of Hyderabad’s collectors for the construction of a Madras temple once the Hyderabad project was finished. He asked for Prabhupāda’s advice on the matter. 

Prabhupāda’s reply was two sentences long: “It is a good idea to use the money which had been collected in Madras to complete the Hyderabad Temple. The immediate necessity must be met first.” 

The only letter he received from outside India was a heartfelt plea from Ambarīṣa prabhu who is now back in Boston. He politely expressed a dilemma, asking Śrīla Prabhupāda to resolve it. Since he has been in Boston many devotees have asked him for money, and being generous, he doesn’t like to refuse. Yet at the same time, he said he is beginning to feel “more like a bank than a bhakta.” He explained that if he is not asked he is more inclined to give where it is needed. But he explained that repeated requests were not having a good effect on his spiritual life. “The result is that sometimes I am hesitant to go to the temple and my heart has become a little bit hardened. This is not good at all, and I am not sure how to handle this matter without being offensive. I am sorry to trouble you with this matter, but you are expert at resolving all problems, and you are my only shelter.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda wasn’t happy to hear that Ambarīṣa was being pestered for money. His reply was calculated to remove any ambiguity Ambarīṣa might be feeling and to relieve him of any disturbance. “You should not pay anything without my permission. Who has requested you to give them money? What is this nonsense? Now, you don’t give a single paise without first asking my permission.” 

* * * 

The devotees estimate that over five hundred guests, a little more than half of them from the Indian community, have turned out for the feast. In the afternoon Prabhupāda held a darśana for over two hours, meeting mainly with the many Indians who had come for the feast. The main topics discussed centered on Bhagavad-gītā, the reluctance of many of the Indians domiciled in New York to participate in our temple programs, and meat-eating. It was eight o’clock when Śrīla Prabhupāda called a halt.  

* * * 

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s servant’s bell rang at 2:15 a.m. I jumped out of my sleeping bag, entered his sitting room and offered my obeisances. I looked up at Prabhupāda sitting at his desk, but he wasn’t working; he looked very ill. He was gaunt and complained of severe chest pains and an inability to either rest or work. He had already changed his diet to simple kicharī because of these symptoms, but the problem has persisted. Seeing Prabhupāda in this condition is very trying because there is nothing that any of us can do to alleviate his difficulty. Although he called me in to tell me something was wrong, I could not suggest any remedy, nor did he ask me to do anything to try to relieve the condition. After a few minutes he sent me out again to take rest. 

We are helpless in this situation. Prabhupāda has little faith that a doctor can do anything, and he prefers to simply rely on Lord Kṛṣṇa. That is a special relationship to which we can only be observers.  

July 12th, 1976

Despite his illness during the night, Śrīla Prabhupāda still went on his walk this morning. Tamal Krishna Mahārāja, Rāmeśvara Swami and Bali-mardana prabhu spent a few minutes with him in his room as he put on tilaka. Typically, Prabhupāda was criticizing the cheating of modern science. In so doing he revealed why he is so good at making up the long jumble of words that he puts together in imitation of scientific jargon. The room filled with laughter as he let out a stream of gibberish. “Aparkulasvena-vargolajagunda- kuligondoli-ojalilavale. You can talk like that, what is the meaning? That intelligence they have got, to manufacture. I know, I was in the medical business. So any petty medicine, and you inquire medical man, and he’ll present it in such a scientific way that people will think that it is very important thing. I know it well. In Bose’s laboratory we used to do that. Aparkulavena-vargolajdgunda. This is, simply soda bicarb and little this and that. So the modern world means how to befool persons, that’s all. Not to enlighten, but to keep them in ignorance and befool them more and more. And they like it. Under the influence of māyā they like to be cheated.” 

The loud wail of fire sirens pierced the atmosphere, and Prabhupāda seized the moment to strengthen his argument. “Now just see, the whole night there is blazing fire, and they are thinking they are happy. And if we sing saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka, ‘the material world is blazing fire,’ that is sentiment, and this is not practical. Whole day and night, simply fire. Such a big important city, and they are disturbing always twenty-four hours, gongongongongongongon.  

“Another side is that nobody wants this fire, and why it is coming? Prahlāda Mahārāja, long, long years ago [said]: yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ. As this fire business is coming without my endeavor, similarly the other part, happiness also will come. Why shall I endeavor for it? So my energies should be utilized only for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is civilization. And whole life, day and night, they are trying for material happiness; and that is not happening. The problems are increasing. No intelligence, mūḍha. They admit, the scientists they admit that they are in ignorance. Simply bluff.” 

He told them that the Mars expedition was another bluff. “The business is going on in the Arizona, that’s all. And after few years they will present some stone, ‘Now we went to Mars. There is no possibility of living there. Take this stone and sand and be satisfied for your millions of dollars that you have spent.’ And they will say, ‘Oh, we have made scientific progress. I have got this stone.’ ”  

To brilliantly expose their mentality he quoted yet another saying from his seemingly unlimited stock.“There is a song in Bengal that formerly anything European, sāhib, that is good. So one person is selling meat, flesh of dog. Flesh of dog nobody takes, at least in India. So he said that ‘This is not ordinary dog. This is the dog which was killed by Viceroy, that dog. And because Viceroy killed it, therefore it has become nice dog. You can eat it.’ So, anything these so-called scientists said, that is to be accepted, without any common sense. This is your intelligence.” He started laughing. “But I am fool Indian, I don’t believe it. I immediately capture the point, why this rascal is talking of Arizona? That means that the whole business is going on in Arizona.”  

Bali-mardana had just traveled through Arizona and had noticed that much of the land is under government control. He said, “So there is good facility for them to make secretly.” 

“Yes. The moon business was done there,” Śrīla Prabhupāda said. 

Tamal Krishna’s analytical mind was quick to grasp the import.“This means it’s definitely a very calculated plot to cheat the public.” 

Prabhupāda was sure of it. “That’s all. Just to convince people that our, this rascal civilization, is advanced.” 

Both Rāmeśvara and Tamal thought it must be an international conspiracy. They were keen to see how pervasive Śrīla Prabhupāda felt the cheating was. Tamal Krishna said, “That means all the nations are cooperating in this project.”  

“All the so-called scientists,” Prabhupāda confirmed. 

“Do they know that they are?” Tamal asked. “Are they talking with each other, or are they just . . . ?” 

“No, they are knowing,” Prabhupāda assured him. “They talk. Caurī caurī mātṛkā-bhāi. All thieves, they are cousin brothers: ‘Don’t expose me and I’ll not expose you. Let us keep peace.’ Two thieves, he knows he is a thief, but if he wants to reveal a thief, then his business will suffer.” 

Rāmeśvara, Tamal Krishna and Bali-mardana smiled, a bit amazed at the revelation of the cheating, appreciating  Śrīla Prabhupāda’s boldness in exposing it. “Except for you, no one is blowing the whistle on these people. You are like a transcendental detective,” Tamal Krishna said. 

Prabhupāda took a leisurely exercise during the walk in Central Park talking on the variety of topics the devotees presented for discussion. On the way back we drove past 100 West 72nd Street where Śrīla Prabhupāda had stayed for six months in 1966 before moving to the Bowery. Tamal Krishna and Rāmeśvara Mahārājas pumped him for details and Prabhupāda happily obliged them. He rented it for seventy-two dollars per month. He told us how he had lived there even though it was only an office, and he had to bathe at the station and cook at Dr. Misra’s apartment. He bought provisions at the Westend Superette, a small corner store. When the caretaker stole his tape recorder and typewriter, he decided to leave.  

A young friend, Paul Murray, invited him to share a loft in the Bowery. But that also ended in near disaster when Paul, who was an LSD user, suddenly showed “a ferocious mood.”  

One of the devotees interjected that he had recently met Paul in Amherst, where he now owns a boutique.  

Prabhupāda went on to explain that because of this incident he had to immediately move his things out. He left them with a boy called Michael, who later helped him find the storefront at 26 Second Avenue. Soon afterward Michael became his disciple Mukunda. 

“Wow!” Tamal Krishna exclaimed. “Your Godbrothers could never believe this.”  

Hearing anything about Śrīla Prabhupāda’s past, especially how he began this movement, is always relishable. Tamal Krishna Mahārāja perfectly summed up our feelings. “I think, Prabhupāda, that your exploits here are no less great than Lord Caitanya going into the Jhārikhaṇḍa forest and making the animals dance. You are the modern-day representative of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda modestly accepted his praise. His simple “Yes” said a lot. It acknowledged that it really was tough for a simple, humble and scholarly sannyāsī from the pure devotional abode of Vṛndāvana to come into the brutal nether regions of a ferocious city like New York, with no assets other than his own compassion, to create a worldwide movement for saving fallen souls. It is certainly remarkable, and unrepeatable.  

* * * 

Class continued with Madhya-līlā 20.106. Prabhupāda explained that human life begins when we can distinguish between sat [reality] and asat [illusion]. “If we remain in darkness without understanding what is sat and asat then we are no better than dogs and cats. So the modern civilization, not only nowadays very big problem, people are very much attached to asat-dharma. Because they are so dull-headed, they cannot understand what is sat and what is asat. Therefore brain requires to be clarified. The two words are used in the śāstra, alpa-medhasaḥ.Medhas means brain substance. So those who have got brain substance, they are called su-medhasaḥ; and those who have no brain substance, filled up with cow dung, they are called alpa-medhasaḥ.” 

 Aware that using such strong words is not always agreeable to the materially attached persons, Śrīla Prabhupāda recalled his visit to America last year. “This is distinction I made in Chicago. It made a very great agitation because I discriminated that men are found to have more brain substance than the woman. So there was a great agitation. But this is fact psychologically that brain substance in man is greater than the brain substance in woman. But in spiritual understanding there is no such distinction because sad-dharma, spiritual understanding, has nothing to do with this body. The brain substance more or less is in connection with body; but the sat, the spirit soul, it has nothing to do with the body. So long it has to do something with the body, that is called māyā. He’s sat, but he absorbed in the thought of asat. That is called māyā, what he is not.” 

* * * 

During his noon massage, as he sat on a straw mat in his bedroom, Prabhupāda complained to me again about his chest pains. When I asked him what was the cause, he said simply, “Too much anxiety.” He explained that the problems in management have created too much stress. He called for Tamal Krishna Mahārāja and repeated his diagnosis to him. Tamal Krishna suggested that he stop receiving mail for two months as an experiment. That way he could remain undisturbed and concentrate on his work of translation and commentary.  

Prabhupāda considered the idea initially; but a little later, while we were in his room discussing it again, he said no. He said he wouldn’t become completely uninvolved because he was afraid ISKCON would become like the Gaudiya Math. Prabhupāda wants relief from management, but he told me that unless he can be convinced that the GBC is able work maturely, without personal motivation, he is not willing to give it up. “I want to see whatever I have begun go on nicely.” 

* * * 

In the afternoon a pain developed in his foot. He called for me to massage it while he lay in bed. I didn’t use any oil as I thought I would be needed for only ten or fifteen minutes and I also didn’t want to stain the bed sheets. One hour and fifty minutes later Śrīla Prabhupāda finally let me go. I had massaged the same spot the whole time. To my great dismay, I saw a patch of skin the size of my thumb on the top of his foot had slightly blistered. Prabhupāda seemed unaware of it, and didn’t mention it at all. He then rested until very late.  

* * * 

In the evening the Bhakti-rasa Theater staged a play based on the dialogue between Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna from the Bhagavad-gītā. It was directed by Sudāmā Mahārāja, with Lohitākṣa dāsa and Naṭarāja dāsa in the lead roles of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna. The set in the auditorium was simple, just a large cutout like a chariot;  the costumes were basic; painted backdrop depicted the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. The performers’ actions were mimed to Prajāpati dāsa’s narrative. But it was approached seriously and well-performed. Prabhupāda watched intently throughout the twenty-five minute production. He thought it very good. 

I knew Natarāja from our early days in Australia. He had joined the Melbourne temple in 1972 while on tour as a lead dancer with the Nederlands Dance Theater. Later he left, returning to his native New York to start his own choreography and dance enterprise. He gave Madhudviṣa a place to stay two months ago. Recently Naṭarāja has been coming every day; and since Prabhupāda’s arrival he has been staying at the temple. 

Prabhupāda was very pleased with his disciples’ performances. He applauded strongly to show his appreciation, his bright eyes and face confirming his pride in them and conveying his wish that they continue their endeavors. At the end he gave a short speech to the assembled devotees who packed out the small theaterette. He described how Kṛṣṇa comes personally to enlighten dull-headed persons and free them from ignorance. But because they don’t take advantage of His instructions because they are engrossed materially. “Māyā is also Kṛṣṇa’s energy, so it is her duty to punish the conditioned soul because they have decided to forget Kṛṣṇa. Still, Kṛṣṇa is so merciful—He comes personally, He authorizes His devotees, servants, to enlighten these conditioned souls. Now our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is a humble attempt to raise the standard of these conditioned souls to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those who are engaged in this business, they should personally behave as devotee, and by their example they should teach others and elevate them from this gross ignorance of materialistic life. Thank you very much.” 

The devotees gave a great cheer and Śrīla Prabhupāda departed to his room accompanied by Sudāmā Mahārāja and other senior men. 

While in India in January, Nitāi dāsa had sent Prabhupāda a translation of a play by a famous Bengali playwright, Girish Chandra Ghosh. Prabhupāda had given the manuscript to Sudāmā Mahārāja, and now Tamal Krishna Mahārāja told him that Sudāmā and his troupe were ready to show him the first two acts. Prabhupāda agreed to see it two nights from today.  

Sudāmā wanted to impress upon him that the play was incomplete. “It is only the first two scenes, and the rest of the drama is four acts of caitanya-līlā. So we are waiting anxiously for the rest of the drama to come.”  He said that they have nonetheless worked on the opening scenes which depict the age of Kali personified along with his friends: lust, anger and greed.  

Tamal Krishna enthusiastically described the reaction the public have given their performances. “They have made a very accurate portrayal of the material world. Actually, the guests who come on Sundays, they very much appreciate these performances. I’ve seen myself sometimes at the end of the performance, they will give a very big ovation of applause. For even one, two minutes in a row, they continue to applaud. They very much appreciate it. People are fond of seeing things enacted, theater and dance.” 

Sudāmā added, “New York is very much a theatrical city, entertainment, Broadway. Our theater downstairs is as high a standard in its interior as any other off-Broadway theater house.” 

“There are two different classifications,” Tamal Krishna Mahārāja explained. “Broadway is very costly, big productions, very elaborate; and off-Broadway is more simple, but also very often there are good plays there. So this particular temple is located in an off-Broadway location. And actually it’s very prestigious. We can advertise, and people will attend and they’ll even pay for the performances.” However, he said they didn’t feel they could charge yet because they don’t have a full two-hour performance. 

Prabhupāda didn’t think that charging was important. “Pay or not pay, doesn’t matter. They should understand the meaning.” 

Tamal asked him, “Did you feel that the message of the Gītā came through?” 

Prabhupāda tipped his head in a definite sign of approval. “Hmm. Yes.” 

Sudāmā Mahārāja sought Prabhupāda’s certification of the their group’s aims. “The precedence of our work Śrīla Prabhupāda, should definitely be that the message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is clearly understood by all, is that correct?” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was thoughtful. Feeling that the simplicity of the sets could be enhanced to make things more attractive to the public, he told him,“Along with it, if you, the same thing, more demonstrative. If you put some movies, slide or movie, that will be . . . ” 

Sudāmā nodded. “Mixed media. That is also very much appealing to the public. Our future projection plan is to work on ‘The Advent of Lord Kṛṣṇa’ for Janmāṣṭamī, which is about an hour production, to an hour and a half. And then we were planning to work on the Rāmāyaṇa, if it was suiting or agreeable by Your Divine Grace.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda replied by explaining the underlying purpose of their presentations, at the same time telling him what the qualification of the performers should be. “The whole basic principle is this, that people should understand, as I was explaining this morning, the sat and asat. So at the present moment we are living in the way that is asat. But there is another life, sat. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is an educational movement to raise a person from the asat platform to the sat. Under illusion they are, what is called, amok? They have gone amok.  

“So it is a humble attempt to stop their, this suicidal policy. They are practically committing suicide. They do not know what is the value of life and how they are spoiling it, this valuable life. They are trying to adjust things by the arrangement of external energy. That is not possible—whatever adjustment they are making. So many big, big leaders, politicians, they came—Napoleon, Hitler, Gandhi, this, that—by the waves of material nature everything is driven away. In that way there is no possibility of adjustment. They come and go, come and go. And there is no permanent life; it is all asat. So they should come to the sat platform, that is perfect.  

“The more you remain strong in your spiritual life, then more it will be impressed, it will act. And if it actually is not spiritual life but theatrical performance, then it will not help. So do your best, try your best. That is very good.” 

July 13th, 1976

Bhakta Viśvaretā, the six-year old son of Viśvaretā dāsa, accompanies Śrīla Prabhupāda on his walks. Prabhupāda likes him because he is very sober and obedient. This morning before we went out for the walk, Prabhupāda told us how once in Los Angeles Bhakta Viśvaretā had come into his room, offered his obeisances and sat down very silently. Although it is very difficult for a small child to remain sitting still for even a few minutes, this boy stayed for a considerable amount of time without any complaint or agitation. Even when it became obvious that it was difficult for him, he still did not say anything. It was only when Śrīla Prabhupāda told him, “Now you can go,” that he rose up and left. Prabhupāda had to also tell him to take some prasādam. 

Tamal Krishna informed Śrīla Prabhupāda that the boy’s father and mother were also very nice. “They are doing great service, both of them working in the restaurant.” 

Prabhupāda spoke appreciatively, “So many children are coming, very fortunate children, from the beginning Kṛṣṇa conscious. We had the chance of taking birth from such father and mother. So all these children should be taken care of very nicely. Oh, yes. They’ll be asset for our movement.” 

“Future hope,” Tamal Krishna said. 

“Oh, yes. Therefore I wanted to organize the gurukula very nicely. We have no objection. Let them produce hundreds of children.” He told us his Guru Mahārāja had once said, ‘If I could produce Kṛṣṇa conscious children, I am prepared to produce hundreds of children.’ Prabhupāda said, “What is the use of producing children like cats and dogs? Produce children like Prahlāda Mahārāja. The whole world will be benefited. Progeny, that is not condemned. Why it should be condemned? Let there be pregnancy, but Kṛṣṇa conscious. That, our Pradyumna’s son, these, all children—very nice. They should be trained up properly; special care should be taken. That is the idea of my Guru Mahārāja, a gurukula.” 

He went on to explain his idea for educating children in our society.“Gurukula, we are not going to make some big, big scholars. We don’t require scholars. We require ideal men by character, by behavior, by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not by studying grammar, there are many grammarians. Let them study our books nicely, English, little Sanskrit, that’s all. Gurukula organize like that. There are so many scholars in the universities, drinking and woman-hunting, that’s all. In the universities, I know, to get the degree, pass the examination, the girls have to adopt prostitution with the teachers. I know that. That to pass the examination by prostitution. Whatever nonsense they may write, that’s all right.” 

Looking out the car windows as we drove to Central Park, Prabhupāda observed the effects of modern schooling. “This is not education, everything is killing. Therefore we are supposed to deal with all madmen. They are thinking that they are constructing such big, big buildings, they are the most exalted persons; but we take them as mad, ghostly haunted. A person ghostly haunted, as he does, acts, similarly, anyone who is under the clutches of māyā, he acts like this.” 

We passed the Museum of Natural History and Tamal Krishna Mahārāja mentioned that it housed the famous Haydenplanetarium. Prabhupāda’s interest immediately perked. “So see how the planetarium is done. You take the idea. We shall have to do that.” 

Tamal Krishna was excited by the idea. “Wow! All right! They have a special projector.” 

“Whatever it may be,” Prabhupāda told him, “we may take the idea and utilize.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja asked if we should show the different qualities of life on various planetary systems in our planetarium. 

“Yes, as far as possible,” Prabhupāda said. “There is Siddhaloka, they can go from one planet to another without any machine, without any vehicle. Siddhaloka means, just like the yogis, they can go.” 

Rāmeśvara asked if the denizens of Siddhaloka have wings. 

Prabhupāda chuckled. “No wings. We think only our ideas, that without wings nobody can fly.” 

Throughout the walk Prabhupāda kept a running dialogue, mainly on science and evolution. The part of the park where we go is generally nice, although not kept up very well. New York is certainly a city of contrasts: massive cultural presentations like the Museum, and then citizens afflicted by madness and intoxication, living in abject misery and poverty. In one place we saw a bum strewing garbage from a can all across the grass, looking for something of value. Therefore Śrīla Prabhupāda very rightfully protests the scientists claims that they are making progress.  

In the car on the way back he declined to go along with Rāmeśvara’s statement that the scientists were the greatest enemies of mankind. But he said, “Because they are bluffing, ‘There is no God, everything is science.’ That is their foolishness. We are protesting against that.”  

* * * 

During class Prabhupāda expanded on the observations he made during his walk. He doesn’t talk dry philosophy simply to impress an audience with his learning; he gets to the root of the matter, dealing with the actual dilemma of living in the material world. His ability to relate the most elevated subject mater to the most ordinary person’s life is unsurpassed, and this is what makes him so effective. Whether out and about amidst the grand displays of māyā, or immersed directly in the recondite treatise of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, his consciousness is never bewildered. He remains irrevocably fixed in the vision of the unity of all things with the original fountainhead, the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. 

 He began by explaining that Sanātana Gosvāmī is a nitya-siddha, an eternally perfect associate of Lord Caitanya. When the Lord appeared He went around and gathered up all His eternal assistants from different places to engage them in His mission. Prabhupāda said that everyone is eternally part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya’s mission is to transform the soul engrossed in material life to their perfection as eternal associates of the Lord.  

“So one can become sādhana-siddha. By following the rules and regulations and instructions of the spiritual master, he can become again nitya-siddha. So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to make the nitya-baddhas again nitya-siddha. 

“It is a difficult task. Just I was talking in the morning, like a madman. A madman, to again bring him to the normal life is very difficult task. You have got in your country so many institutions. So the whole world, anyone who is in this material world, he’s a madman. Piśācī pāile yena mati cchanna haya māyā-grasta-jīvera se bhāva udaya. When a man becomes ghostly haunted he talks all nonsense. Similarly, anyone who is within this material world, they are all madmen. And Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to cure them by this treatment. So if anyone accepts this treatment, then he can make progress very quickly. Just like any madman, if he is under proper treatment, there is hope of his being cured. But the modern education is to keep him madman. That is the defect of modern civilization. Therefore they cannot understand our philosophy. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy is very bona fide and most essential philosophy. Madman cannot understand, but that does not mean the process of treatment should be stopped. No. It must go on; it cannot be stopped.” 

He said everyone in the material world is trying to become happy and America is supposed to be the most advanced in material civilization. “But we can see even in this New York City nobody wants, still, twenty-four hours there is blazing fire. Gangangangangangangangangan. Stop this, why there is blazing fire? Nobody wants it, but there must be because you are in the material world. However big, big skyscraper building you may have, you have to suffer. But these dull brain cannot understand, because madman. So this dull brain has to be cured. All rascals, mūḍha. It is a fact.” 

He explained that for every so-called advantage gained, the materialist creates a hundred disadvantages. “We are coming from New Vrindaban. They are living very comfortably in open space, there is no such disturbance, twenty-four hours, dungdungdungdungkahkahkahkahkah, no. But you have created some advantages to live in the skyscraper building, there are so many disadvantages also. So therefore sometimes the Indians are accused believe in destiny. But that is actual fact; you cannot improve a single inch than you are destined. 

“If you want to increase your so-called happiness, then you simply waste your time. That is Prahlāda Mahārāja’s instruction: na tat-prayāsaṁ kartavyam. I am not in a good position economically, let me try to improve it. That you cannot. Otherwise in New York City, so opulent, so materially advanced, why we see so many men in the Central Park lying on the bench? Why? They do not belong to the poor nation, poor city, still, because he’s destined, he must lie down there. Maybe he is rich man’s son or born in rich nation, but because he’s destined to suffer, he must lie down there, he must become a hippie. So you cannot stop it; that is not possible. Therefore those who are advanced in knowledge, they do not try for all these nonsense, improving material condition.” 

* * * 

When Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Swami talked directly to Śrīla Prabhupāda on July 10th about his desire to leave his present service, His Divine Grace was not at all pleased. Puṣṭa’s rationale was that he needed a situation where he could preach more often. He explained that his mind was unsteady and his spiritual life so unregulated that he was unable even to chant his sixteen rounds properly. Prabhupāda countered him that he could not possibly have a better situation than traveling with his spiritual master. Prabhupāda asked me about him today during massage. When I said that he complains about being unable to control his mind, Prabhupāda made a sour face and shook his head disapprovingly. He said it was due to insincerity.  

He wasn’t pleased that it would mean yet another change of secretary. Because Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja is convinced that leaving is the only solution, Prabhupāda has asked the GBC to decide on a replacement, and Brahmānanda Swami was the first choice. Tamal Krishna Mahārāja interrupted today’s massage to tell Prabhupāda he had just spoken to Brahmānanda in Africa. Brahmānanda declined because he feels he is needed in Africa, holding the opinion that all responsible post holders should remain in place for at least a year as per the Māyāpur decision. Tamal added that Brahmānanda sounded very responsible, mature and advanced. 

Prabhupāda and Tamal Krishna discussed the possibility of Harikeśa Swami rejoining the party. He is preaching in eastern Europe, but recent reports indicate that he is feeling a little strained there.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda was agreeable, although he said Harikeśa sometimes causes arguments. Still, he said that he is undoubtedly qualified to do the work. So a letter will be sent to Harikeśa asking him to meet Prabhupāda in London. The American GBC members, who will all be here for Ratha-yātrā, will meet to discuss a new engagement for Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Swami. 

Tamal went out, and Prabhupāda sat silently, allowing his body to receive its daily massage. Suddenly a loud grinding and banging noise invaded the room from the street below. Prabhupāda asked me what was going on, so I stuck my head out the window and looked down. There was a huge garbage truck in the middle of the road gobbling up several bins of rubbish. I came back over to continue the massage as Prabhupāda shook his head and laughed, “This is New York—everything ferocious! Ferocious garbage, ferocious buildings, ferocious everything!”  

It actually is a fact: New York is a hellish place. A police station is on the next block, so whenever there is a call (and they are frequent), the cars go past our place with sirens going full blast. Massive skyscrapers block out the sun, automobile horns sound twenty-four hours, alarms of all sorts constantly punctuate the atmosphere, and hundreds of thousands of dvi-pada-paśus live jammed into pigeonhole apartments. When we look out the temple windows the first thing we see is a large apartment block. At night the lights go on and you can see into each occupant’s home. There is no privacy, no peace in the city. It is very disturbing. 

* * * 

A managerial crisis has erupted in India. Gopāla Kṛṣṇa wrote a disturbing report requesting Śrīla Prabhupāda to accept his resignation. He and Hansadūta Swami are co-GBC’s for Vṛndāvana, but Gopāla Kṛṣṇa says that he is so troubled with their relationship that he wants to return to North America. And similarly his relationship with Gargamuni Swami is also perturbed. He went to considerable length detailing and refuting what he termed as the “dirty politics” the two sannyāsīs are using to drive him out. He said that both of them repeatedly undermine his position as GBC by telling other devotees that he won’t last long, so therefore they should just ignore his advice and instructions. He said he felt a disadvantage as a gṛhastha dealing with them. Rather than fight his Godbrothers, he felt he should just pull out. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda called for all the GBC men present in New York: Tamal Krishna, Rāmeśvara, Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa and newly arrived Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami. He discussed the matter with them, handing them the responsibility to provide a solution. He made it clear that despite whatever short-comings Gopāla Kṛṣṇa might have, he has worked very successfully in many areas. He said Gopāla should be persuaded to remain. Hansadūta should concentrate on his traveling bus program, and not involve himself in Vṛndāvana temple affairs.  

Based on Śrīla Prabhupāda’s comments, the four GBCs drafted a letter addressed to Hansadūta Mahārāja, affirming their confidence in Gopāla Kṛṣṇa’s managerial abilities. “Please accept our humble obeisances at your lotus feet. It has come to our attention that Gopal Krishna das is feeling very much disheartened. It is the conclusion by all of us that Gopal Krishna’s service is very, very important and that there is no one of us capable of achieving the results that he has had in managing his centres in India. Especially there is no need for two G.B.C.’s to oversee Vrindaban. For the sake of smooth management until the Mayapur meetings next Gaura-Purnima it would be best if Gopal Krishna oversees the entire G.B.C. responsibility for Vrindaban, Bombay, Hyderabad, etc. and that you travel and preach with your buses as the program is both important and fruitful. Please see that Gopal Krishna is encouraged as Srila Prabhupāda feels very strongly that Gopal Krishna is indispensable to our program in India. We feel that Gopal Krishna has done a remarkable amount of service and achieved results that none of us could possibly achieve in such short time. We trust that you will cooperate to see that the situation is improved in dealings concerning Gopal Krishna.” 

The letter was signed by each GBC and then shown to Śrīla Prabhupāda. He approved it and countersigned it with his initials.  

Gopāla’s letter had also included a brief report on the Vṛndāvana temple. On the whole, he said things were progressing nicely. A previous conflict between the new manager, Haihaya dāsa and Akṣayānanda Mahārāja had been resolved satisfactorily. Guṇārnava dāsa was now working enthusiastically as the Guesthouse manager. Two small shops have been set up inside the front gate in order to take advantage of the busy upcoming Śrāvaṇa season. 

Not all of the report bore good news though. Anantarāma Śāstrī, who had traveled with Śrīla Prabhupāda from Māyāpur to Vṛndāvana in March, has left us. According to Gopāla, he “was a real rascal. He is now criticising you [Prabhupāda]. He has also influenced Radhagovinda the boy who was translating the Bhagawatam. He too has now left. Tomorrow, I will try to bring Radhagovinda back to the Temple.”  

There was yet another item causing Śrīla Prabhupāda deep consternation. Gopāla wrote, “I have made it compulsory for all devotees to attend Artiks, and classes. Nitai never comes to the evening classes. He told me that except for your lectures, he doesn’t enjoy anyone else’s lectures. Everyday he goes to hear Narsimhaballabah Goswami’s lectures in Bengali. I understand you approved his attending these lectures. I do not mind his going, but there are other Indian boys who also sometimes go for these lectures. I cannot stop these Indian boys from going to Narsimhaballabah’s classes if I let a senior devotee like Nitai go. We have lost about 7 Indian boys from Vrindavan while I was away to Russia. The quality of the Indian devotees joining us is not very good. Now I have received your letter stating that only educated and cultured men should be allowed to stay in our temple. So I will follow this policy.” 

Śrla Prabhupāda replied to this section of Gopāla’s letter himself. “Why Nitai should be attending lectures outside of our temple? If he is not satisfied with the standard of lectures in our temple, then he should be permitted to give some lectures himself, but this habit of going outside to hear others should be stopped immediately. I am writing one letter to Nitai and the copy of this is enclosed for your reference.” 

He also wrote directly to Nitāi. “I have heard reports that you have been developing the habit of going outside the temple to hear lectures by others like Nrsimhaballabha. Also I have heard now that even some of the Indian devotees are doing likewise. Strictly no one should go outside to hear lectures by others. If you are not satisfied by the calibre of the classes at the Krishna Balarama Mandir, then you should give another class, but you cannot go outside for hearing other’s lectures. Kindly stop this habit immediately.” 

* * * 

Alan Kallman, the New York producer of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s first record album in 1966, paid a visit this afternoon. They had a congenial exchange in which Alan presented Prabhupāda with a donation of $3,000. Prabhupāda said he would deposit it in the Māyāpur-Vṛndāvana Trust Fund. Alan’s genuine respect and admiration for Śrīla Prabhupāda seems to be increasing. He informed His Divine Grace that he often comes to the temple restaurant to eat prasādam and see the devotees. He is excited and happy that the Movement now has such wonderful facility in New York. Prabhupāda thanked him and encouraged him to continue associating with his disciples. He also requested him to help with the new 55th Street complex.  

July 14th, 1976

On the way out on this morning’s walk Rāmeśvara Mahārāja told Śrīla Prabhupāda about an unusual meeting he had yesterday. His father, who lives on Long Island, sent a man to the temple to somehow persuade Rāmeśvara to leave Kṛṣṇa consciousness.  Tamal Krishna described the man as “a very big demon.” The devotees described the event as an attempted kidnapping, but it seemed a little less than that. Rāmeśvara got into a philosophical debate with the hapless fellow, telling Śrīla Prabhupāda, “We made him very embarrassed by preaching to him. He felt very insignificant.” 

Tamal Krishna had also been there. “Rāmeśvara Mahārāja called him a jackass and many other things.” 

Prabhupāda asked him how the man had tried to take him away.  

“He was trying to convince me that the goal of life is sex life,” Rāmeśvara said. 

Prabhupāda laughed. “Yes. That is the material world.Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham. That is already mentioned. Unless one understands that there is another life, sex life is the only pleasure. That will keep him perpetually conditioned.” 

Rāmeśvara continued. “He also tried to say that our Movement will never be accepted, it is a waste of time. Why are we trying? We’ll never be accepted by the public.” 

“And why you have accepted?” Prabhupāda said.  

“We said that—why have so many Americans now given up voluntarily? From wealthy families they have given up so many material things. But then he said, ‘But you haven’t given up material things. Just look at this building, just see how opulent. How can you claim you have given up?’ ” 

Answering the man’s foolish statement Prabhupāda said, “So what do you mean, we shall live in the sky? You shall live in the building, and we shall live in the sky, in the air? You mean to say like that?” 

Rāmeśvara Mahārāja described how he spoke strongly to the man, calling him a rascal to his face. He eventually realized it was a lost cause, and left.  

They also had some news for Śrīla Prabhupāda from Japan. When we first arrived in New York Rāmeśvara reported that Gurukṛpa Mahārāja has already collected $125,000 to send to Māyāpur this month, and he was aiming for $200,000. Now he said they are having some difficulties. “Some of his men were deported.” 

Prabhupāda was a bit concerned. “Why deported?” 

“Well, because they are Hare Kṛṣṇas,” Tamal Krishna said. “There’s one man, he says, in Osaka, that’s a big demon, one policeman who simply makes his business to try and find out the devotees. So that one man arrested three of them in one day. Anyway he’s just taking another $35,000 out, and he’s immediately transferring today $10,000 to Gargamuni. And he’s arranging a bank account jointly with Rāmeśvara in Los Angeles for his other money. Rāmeśvara will put the money in fixed deposit and monthly transfer $10,000 for construction. Gurukṛpa was happy to know that the money could be used for that. He says he’s studying, chanting and working very hard.” 

Prabhupāda asked for ideas how to counteract their attempts to drive us away.  

Tamal Krishna Mahārāja felt we had to do something that would be seen as positive. “I suggested that a cultural center should be opened there on the basis of showing dolls, showing movies, restaurant. . . . ” 

“Books,” Prabhupāda added. 

“But very vague,” Tamal said. “Not dressed as devotees, strictly cultural.” 

Prabhupāda agreed that cultural seemed reasonable, but his idea of cultural was a little different. “Yes, cultural. They should, Deity worship is one of the items. Otherwise it is called bhāgavata and pañcarātra.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was looking out observing the street scenery as we drove along. Down one road he told us, “I came here in the evening with umbrella, and in the morning I saw the whole street is white.” 

“Whitewashed? You thought it was whitewashed?” Tamal Krishna asked. 

“Yes.” Prabhupāda smiled. “When I first saw from the window that the street was all white, ‘How is that? One white-washed?’ Then when I saw in the street, ‘Oh!’ ” 

Tamal asked him if he had ever seen snow before that. 

“No.” 

“Even in the Himalayas?” 

“I saw in Kashmir,” Prabhupāda told us, “but that was not so white. On the street also, but not so white. That is ice, not snow.” 

* * * 

Śrīla Prabhupāda answered a couple of letters as he took his massage. Bhagavān prabhu wrote from Paris explaining that he had just returned from Rome where he has been trying to arrange a meeting with the Pope. He said he was almost positive to meet with the Pontiff at his summer villa, but the date would be August 11th. He wanted to know if Prabhupāda would be willing to put back his schedule a little, since he is supposed to be in Tehran on that date. 

Prabhupāda replied that his schedule was flexible. “I have no objection cancelling or delaying the journey to Tehran if the meeting with the Pope is assured. That is important. But if it is simply a courtesy visit, then what is the use? If he is prepared to discuss seriously how religion is becoming degraded all over the world, then it is worthwhile. Religion is now being taken as a formality. People generally have no real conception of God. Ours is a tangible connection with God. We know who is God and how to serve Him. Everything is fact.” 

Saurabha dāsa submitted an enthusiastic update on the Bombay construction work. It is progressing quickly, the marble flooring has begun and the final slab of the guesthouse will be cast within two weeks. “The building looks already impressive. It will be definitely an outstanding project. Many people are very attracted. Yesterday I came back from Vrindavan and when I came to our gate I felt the same atmosphere. Everywhere, even outside the gate—Hari bol! Hari bol! This is definitely going to change the atmosphere.” 

He enclosed hand drawings of the three altars. In Prabhupāda’s last letter to him he had told him to make all the altars the same size. However, Saurabha pointed out that the central altar for Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Rāsavihārī needed to be wider, because They are flanked by Lalitā and Viśākhā. Saurabha also included the income and expenditures for June’s work.  

Saurabha also included a letter from Mr. D. Mukherjee, a film producer who has recently become a patron member. Mr. Mukherjee wrote that, inspired by ISKCON’s work, he’d like to offer the use of his services for our preaching work, especially in reaching the rural areas of India. “I have, of late, been contemplating to set up a Studio cum Laboratory complex at a place close to Udaipur in Rajasthan mainly for the purpose of rural upliftment by means of audio-visual media of imparting education to the masses. . . . Having availed the opportunity of discussions with some of the inmates of the Society I am of very strong views that the Society can achieve a lot by using this audio-visual media. The activities of the Society, based on the teachings of Lord Krishna, can extensively be portrayed to the rural population through the media of Motion picture. I shall also place my services at the disposal of the Society for whatever promotional causes that I may be worthy of rendering.” 

In a postscript to his own letter Saurabha added that Mr. Mukherjee was well connected with the Rajasthan government and was planning a development worth one hundred fifty lakhs on thirty acres of land in Udaipur. The government has promised him thirty lakhs, he will finance the rest. Saurabha said that Mr. Mukherjee had pledged to donate the whole thing to ISKCON for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness. “He seems to be sincere because the money he collects he wants to deposit in our bank account so we can decide what to do with the money, although the idea is to produce Krishna Conscious pictures. He says that if you approve this and guide him he is ready to deposit 3 lakhs now. He has proposed a master plan. When you come to Bombay he would like to show you the plans.” 

On account of the huge sums of money we spend in India, Śrīla Prabhupāda keeps very careful control over every little detail. He examined Saurabha’s accounts and told him, “The bill which you submit to me should be signed by three persons before we issue payment to ECC. At present you and Giriraj are signing, but I desire that Gopal Krishna also sign.” 

He minutely inspected the altar designs. “The idea to have a wider larger altar for Radha-Krishna is approved however on the plan which you have enclosed it appears that there are pillars separating Lalita and Visakha from Radha-Krishna. There should be no pillars in between the Deity of Visakha Lalita and Radha-Krishna. The scheme should be just like in our Krishna-Balaram Mandir. So from the front there should not be a pillar in between Radha-Krishna and Visakha or Lalita.” 

Now that his Society is growing in size and reputation Prabhupāda is doubly cautious in accepting apparent donations of land or anything else. Our experience in Nellore at the beginning of the year was a prime example of why we should not take things at face value, no matter how sincere a person may appear. Apart from this, Prabhupāda has done business in India his whole life, and he knows how clever people can be, and how gullible his disciples can be. So Prabhupāda replied to Mr. Mukherjee without mentioning the man’s proposal. He merely informed him of his expected arrival date and told him he would be glad to see him then. To Saurabha, though, he expressed caution. “Concerning Mr. D. Mukerjee, I am always prepared to do anything for spreading Krishna Consciousness. It may be that with our name he will collect from big men. But, the best thing is to wait until I see Mr. Mukerjee when I go to Bombay. Your proposal sounds nice but in Mr. Mukerjee’s letter he does not mention anything about anything except to open an audio-visual laboratory. So we don’t want to be used by some film producer who might collect money in our name. In any case, I can see him when I return in one month’s time, and I am enclosing a copy of my letter to him for your reference.” 

* * * 

During the day, Prabhupāda gave two interviews, one with Newsweek magazine and the other with a big Long Island newspaper, Newsday. The Newsweek people said they were sending a senior editor, but instead sent a neophyte girl reporter who arrived right after breakfast. Tamal Krishna Mahārāja entered Prabhupāda’s sitting room and informed him that Rāmeśvara and the reporter were on their way up in the elevator. When Prabhupāda heard that it was a woman, he was a bit vexed. “Then it is useless waste of time. These women reporters are useless. She will come in and simply ask my name. What is that mark on your face? How many followers have you got? How much money do you make? Like that.” He nearly had the devotees tell her not to come, but they were already outside the door, so he relented. Rāmeśvara Mahārāja and a female public relations consultant we’d hired to arrange interviews had already spoken at length to her, so it was a little late to refuse her. 

They came in and sat before Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desk. Rāmeśvara introduced the girl as Wanda. At the outset Śrīla Prabhupāda was reticent. Generally he is animated in discussion with reporters, often giving them a lot more information than they ask for. But with Wanda, although not in any way impolite, he simply was not very forthcoming.  

She started off with inquiries about Śrīla Prabhupāda himself, about whether he had thoughts of retiring.  

Prabhupāda asked her why she was asking him such a question, catching her off guard.  

“What’s the reason I’m curious?” she said. “Ah, because we’re trying to, at Newsweek, develop and try to understand what the trends are in religion, all types of religion, whether it be Christianity, Catholicism, Evangelicism . . . ” 

Prabhupāda told her that he had already retired before he started the Movement. And that anyway, there is no question of retirement from spiritual life, it is eternal.  

Wanda had some trouble understanding Prabhupāda’s accent, so Rāmeśvara acted as a kind of interpreter for her, repeating statements both ways to ensure clarity in their communication.  

“I was wondering whether perhaps you would personally take a less active role,” she asked. 

“No, I am not taking any very great active part. They are doing. I am simply reading,” Prabhupāda replied. 

Rāmeśvara tried to be helpful in promoting more dialogue, and Prabhupāda had no objection to his doing so. In fact, he would have been happy to let his disciple handle the whole thing. Rāmeśvara said, “But I was explaining to her that you are traveling all over the world, visiting your centers, and at the same time writing so many books.” 

“That may be lessened,” Prabhupāda said, “but that does not mean retirement.” 

Wanda said she didn’t mean retirement from spiritual life, she was asking about the management of the Movement.“I was wondering if you have a successor to take your place when you die?” 

“Not yet settled up,” Prabhupāda told her. “Not yet settled up.”  

“So what process would the Hare Kṛṣṇas . . . ?” 

“We have got secretaries,” Prabhupāda said. “They are managing.” 

Rāmeśvara explained to her that Śrīla Prabhupāda had eighteen secretaries who each take charge of a different part of the world. 

 “And so that group of eighteen secretaries will choose another leader?” Wanda asked. 

“I am training each one of them as leader,” Prabhupāda explained, “so that they can spread extensively. That is my idea.” 

Then she asked the inevitable question about finances. Prabhupāda told her that without any finances we could go on. Yet she couldn’t grasp Prabhupāda’s statement, and asked how that could be.  

“Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not have any financial help,” Prabhupāda said, “but His movement is going on. It does not depend on financial; it is independent. Spiritual movement is independent of any material help. That is spiritual movement.” 

“But how would you be able to carry out your educational or book publishing program if you did not have a financial backing?” 

“How I am managing now?” Prabhupāda retorted.  

“But now you are doing well financially,” she said. 

“You are stressing on financial help, but my reply is that this Movement does not depend on financial help. That is the reply.” 

Bali-mardana prabhu started to say something, “In the beginning. . . . ”  

But Prabhupāda cut him off. “Any time. It does not depend on financial help.” 

She couldn’t relate to the answer at all, and Prabhupāda made no attempt to detail it. She asked again where our money came from.  

Prabhupāda gave her a simple one-liner. “Money comes from Kṛṣṇa.” 

To Wanda, Prabhupāda’s answer was too abstract to understand. “From where?” she asked Rāmeśvara, becoming slightly bewildered. 

“Kṛṣṇa,” Rāmeśvara repeated. 

The public relations woman, starting to sense the interview was not progressing very positively for Wanda, made a suggestion. “Ah, Rāmeśvara, maybe if Prabhupāda just told how, in the first year, how the books were sold, before there was this publishing. There was a time in which there was just a storefront. How were these books sold in the very beginning?” 

Rāmeśvara obliged. “Prabhupāda personally went to the printer in Japan. He personally made the arrangement with the printer, the first printing.” 

The PR woman continued to try to coax things along. “But how did he sell his first book in America? There was a process . . . ” 

Prabhupāda didn’t really care whether Wanda was getting a good interview or not. He didn’t like the level it was being conducted on. He interrupted. “I mean to say, ‘What is our financial arrangement’—why these questions are being raised? This is not interview about the Movement. They are very much interested about our financial help.” 

Wanda got the message and switched subjects. “What do you think about some of the other gurus, since you are yourself considered a guru? Do you study anybody else?” 

Prabhupāda looked to his men. “These answers you can give.” Bali-mardana thought he was asking for clarification of the question. “She said what do you think about the other gurus.” 

“Why shall I think of other gurus?” Prabhupāda replied. “ ‘Oil your own machine.’ ” 

Another dead end. Wanda switched track again. “Could you tell me a little bit about your background, when you were young, what types of things you did . . . ” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda stonewalled her, taking Wanda by surprise. “Why shall I tell you?” 

“Pardon me?” 

“Why shall I tell you?” 

“If you wish,” Wanda returned, not trying to impose herself. 

“Why shall I wish?” 

Wanda obviously wasn’t used to being on the receiving end, especially not on this type of assignment. “Well, reporters have to ask these questions. Otherwise I would be out of business.”  

Flummoxed and nonplussed, Wanda’s interview threatened to grind to a halt.  

Rāmeśvara attempted to build a bridge so that the interview would not be lost. “People are interested to know about you, Śrīla Prabhupāda. And if they take an interest in you, then they will automatically be interested in your books also. They are very eager to know about the author of all these books that we are selling.” 

The mention of his books gave Śrīla Prabhupāda the opportunity to guide the interview in the direction he wanted it to go. So he began to open up a little. He told Wanda that if she really wanted to understand something about him, she should read his books, because a man is known by what he speaks. “Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkho yāvat kiñcin na bhāṣate: ‘A fool is so long beautiful as long as he does not speak.’ When he speaks, then you can understand what he is. So my speaking are there in the books, and if you are intelligent, you can understand. You haven’t got to ask. Just like in a court. A big lawyer is known when he speaks, otherwise everyone is a good lawyer. But when he speaks in the court, then he is known, whether he is good lawyer or not. So you have to hear, you have to read; then you’ll understand. Real understanding is there.” 

The interview began to pick up a little. Wanda asked if Prabhupāda expected that the Movement would spread to all the people of the world. Prabhupāda told her that it was not to be expected, because it can only be understood by those with intelligence. He defined intelligence as being able to distinguish the self from the body. He told Wanda that this was the first understanding of spiritual life. When she responded by asking what came next, Prabhupāda, for the first time, became a little enlivened to answer her. “Ha! That is intelligent question. Then one has to find out that ‘I am engaged only in this bodily concept of life. Then what is my engagement?’ That is the inquiry of Sanātana Gosvāmī, that ‘You have relieved me from this material engagement. Now let me know what is my duty.’ For that reason one has to go to the spiritual master, to know, understand that what is his duty now. ‘If I am not this body, then what is my duty? Because I am busy whole day and night for this body. I am eating, I am sleeping, I am having sex, I am defending—these are all bodily necessities. If I am not body, then what is my duty?’ That is intelligence.” 

They continued on for some time, with Wanda asking about the gurukula system, about our standards of education and behavior, and how would we deal with criminals. At one point she asked Śrīla Prabhupāda “Are you prepared to die?” 

Prabhupāda replied by asking her the same question. “You are not prepared? Why don’t you answer?” 

“Pardon me?” 

“You are not prepared to die?” 

Wanda was caught, and hesitated a little. “I haven’t thought about it too much.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda psychoanalyzed her. “Why you are asking me, ‘Why’? Because you are afraid. You are not prepared to die.” 

“Perhaps that’s the reason,” Wanda conceded. 

“Everyone will die,” Prabhupāda told her. “You prepare or not prepare, you’ll die. It doesn’t matter whether you are prepared or not. Death must be there.” 

Rāmeśvara added, “Our philosophy, as Prabhupāda said in the beginning, is that spiritually there is no end. There is no such thing as death for the soul, self-realized soul. There is simply death of the body.” 

“These things are discussed,” Śrīla Prabhupāda said, quoting the Bhagavad-gītā. “Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. Find out this verse. It is an educational movement, it is not a religious movement, sentiment. One requires to be educated; then he is completely on the spiritual platform.” 

Tamal Krishna read out the translation and Prabhupāda added the conclusion. “So there is no question of death for a spiritually realized person.” 

Wanda was observant. Looking around Prabhupāda’s spacious room, she noted the pleasant atmosphere, the light and air with windows on three sides, the flowers and greenery, and the simple elegance of the furnishings. She asked if such surroundings were necessary for spiritual life. Prabhupāda told her yes, that because we have a material body it requires proper facility in order to function. “Yukta-vairāgya. If I can write my books in a comfortable place, why shall I voluntarily go to a dark place? Material facilities, either dark place or lighted place, it is the same thing, but I’ll have to accept which is favorable for me.” 

Wanda was sharp enough to note a painting hanging above Śrīla Prabhupāda’s head, depicting the spiritual and material planets. She requested an explanation of its meaning. She was also attracted to the small altar at the opposite end of the room and was given a brief explanation of the Deities of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi. So after a shaky start the interview concluded satisfactorily. 

Rāmeśvara informed her it had been taped and would be transcribed for her. Then she left. 

* * * 

At one o’clock Prabhupāda received the interviewer from Newsday, Kevin Layhart, and a photographer, Bill Semm. Kevin was a clear-faced, pleasant man in his mid-to-late thirties, and a highly qualified journalist. Prabhupāda liked him immediately. He was polite and gentlemanly and knew his job, taking down every word Prabhupāda said in professional shorthand. 

Kevin asked many of the questions that Wanda had, but he was far more inquisitive about the underlying principles that support the external features. From the very beginning of the interview he was asking what was the ultimate objective in spiritual life. Śrīla Prabhupāda was responsive and forthcoming. They struck up a rapport that had been noticeably absent in his Newsweek session. 

Kevin wanted to know about consciousness, if it was something that lay within that had to be brought out. He also asked about our saṅkīrtana activities. He had been accosted in the airports several times and he was curious how a seemingly commercial activity could give spiritual benefit. 

When he inquired about Prabhupāda’s own past, he got a far different response than Wanda. 

“You came here ten years ago, or eleven years ago. You were almost seventy at the time. What had you been doing previously?” 

“Previously? I was family man. I retired in 1954. My Guru Mahārāja asked me to take this task seriously when I was twenty-five years old. So I was at that time family man, so I thought, ‘Let me adjust my family affairs. Then I shall take it.’ So by doing the adjustment it took me long years. So I retired at the age of fifty-eight. Then I took up seriously. And when I was seventy years old, then I came here.” 

“Were you a businessman?” 

“Yes, I was connected with some chemical industry. I was manager in a big chemical industry. Then I started my own business. In this way I was family man.” 

Rāmeśvara and Bali-mardana explained that throughout Prabhupāda’s life he was Kṛṣṇa conscious, that even as a householder he was writing. 

Prabhupāda told him, “This Back to Godhead was started in 1944, when I was still a family man.” 

The mention of family sparked Kevin’s curiosity. “Your blood family, are they Kṛṣṇa conscious as well?” 

“Not very much. Therefore I had to leave them and create another family.” Prabhupāda laughed. 

“How many children do you have?” 

“I have got two daughters and two sons,” Prabhupāda told him. “My wife is also still living.” 

“Is she Kṛṣṇa conscious?” 

“Not very much. Naturally women are after worldly opulence.” 

“Was it difficult for you to give up what you had been doing in order to devote full time?” Kevin asked. 

“No,” Prabhupāda told him. “It is the Vedic system that at a certain age they should give up family connection and completely devote for God consciousness. In the beginning, twenty-five years, he should learn from guru about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then, if he is able, he does not become a family man, but if he is unable or circumstantially, he may become a family man. So he can remain a family man up to fiftieth year, and then he retires from family life. He travels in holy places with his wife, and sometimes he comes home and sometimes she goes home. In this way, when he’s practiced to give up family attachment, then the wife goes back home to the care of her elderly children, and the man takes sannyāsa, and he remains alone simply for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is Vedic system.” 

Kevin was intelligent enough to pick up on the difference between the natural progression to sannyāsa that Śrīla Prabhupāda had just described in his own life, and his awarding of sannyāsa to his young disciples. “Now, you are not practicing the Vedic system then, here, are you? Or are you?” 

“It is all Vedic system,” Prabhupāda told him. 

“Is it better to do it the way you did it? Or to start from a very early age?” 

Prabhupāda explained his motivation in facilitating his men to jump ahead in the path of spiritual progress. “The purpose is to train a person in brahmacārī, not to enter into the entanglement of this material life. That is Vedic system. Basic principle is that don’t be entangled with this material energy. So at the early age, up to twenty-five, he’s trained up. If he can, he can continue as brahmacārī. He directly can take sannyāsa. But if he’s unable, so let him go step by step. Let him become a family man, householder life, then retired life, then . . . But sannyāsa at the end, that is compulsory. Not that unless he is shot down by somebody, he’s not going to give up family life. That is not Vedic system.” 

Kevin was sharp and could understand the kind of commitment needed to give up everything. “But young men don’t tend to be wise, do they? Young men do not generally possess a great deal of wisdom.” 

Prabhupāda’s response reflected the positive ideas underlying the establishment of his preaching movement. “No, if he’s trained up. Just like here we have got so many young men, they are trained up. So there is no prohibition that a young man cannot become a sannyāsī. If he’s able, he can take sannyāsa from the very beginning. But if he’s not able, let him enter into household life up to fiftieth year, then retire, then take sannyāsa. It is not an enforcement; a gradual process. But the ultimate end is to become free from all material attachment and completely devote life for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Because human life is meant for that purpose, self-realization or spiritual realization, that opportunity must be given to all human beings. Unfortunately at the present moment the civilization has no scope for spiritual realization. They live like other animals, eating, sleeping, mating and defending. That’s all. They do not know there is another life, spiritual life, and neither there is any education or institution to educate them. Now we are trying for that purpose.” 

When it was mentioned that we have nearly fifty centers in America, Kevin asked how they were supported. Prabhupāda gave him the same answer he gave to Wanda, but it led to a much different exchange. “That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” 

“I beg your pardon?” 

“That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” 

“The way they support themselves?” 

“Yes,” Prabhupāda said. “Kṛṣṇa supports.” 

 “Kṛṣṇa supports?” 

 “Yes. We do not know what we shall eat tomorrow, but we have no insufficiency. Rather, neighbors they are grudging that these people do not do anything and they live so comfortably. Sometimes they ask . . . ” 

Intrigued, Kevin asked about the specifics. “How does Kṛṣṇa support them? He mediates through physical things, does He?”  

Because his interviewer’s curiosity was aroused, Śrīla  Prabhupāda was willing to elaborate on what he meant in practical terms. “Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa.” 

“Yes,” Kevin said, following the reasoning. 

“So Kṛṣṇa is within you,” Prabhupāda went on. “So if Kṛṣṇa dictates, ‘Give him three thousand dollars,’ you’ll give me. That’s all. That actually it is fact. Yesterday Mr. Kallman came? He gave me a check for three thousand; I never asked him. So we are immediately depositing for our Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur scheme. So Kṛṣṇa sends money. We do not bother what will happen tomorrow. But we are very nicely maintained by Kṛṣṇa’s grace. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And Kṛṣṇa says, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham. Find out this verse.” 

As I looked up the verse, Kevin switched to another question, one that almost every interviewer has asked on this tour. “You are now the leader and the spiritual master. Who will take your place?” 

“That Kṛṣṇa will dictate who will take my place,” Prabhupāda said. 

Kevin was again intrigued. “Kṛṣṇa will tell you that?”  

Before he could pursue it, I had the verse Prabhupāda requested, so the question was temporarily put aside. I read out the translation. “But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form—to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have.[Bg. 9.22]”  

Kevin listened carefully and then asked, “They still have to go out and ask occasionally?”  

Prabhupāda explained that we don’t sit down idly simply waiting for Kṛṣṇa to give us everything; he and his disciples were working very hard. “I am now eighty years old. I am working twenty-four hours. I think I work more than my young disciples,” he said only half-humorously.  

We all agreed it was true. Rāmeśvara told Kevin that at times Prabhupāda has been seventeen volumes of books ahead in translating the books his disciples publish. 

Kevin asked him how he spent his days. “You do an awful lot of traveling I understand.” 

Prabhupāda detailed his program. “Traveling is going on throughout the whole world, and wherever I go, at night I write books. And daytime I meet devotees. Manage. They have to ask me, final decision is taken from me. From all over the world letters are coming, some problem, some problem, some problem!” He was chuckling. “Although I have got about twenty secretaries, still they have to consult, I have to give them advice.” 

“In the evening Śrīla Prabhupāda goes to bed at ten o’clock and gets up at eleven-thirty to begin translating,” I added. 

“That’s it?” Kevin asked, impressed that anyone could sleep so little.  

“Yes. Of course in daytime I take rest two hours. So in this way altogether about three to four hours. Our philosophy is not that you sit idly and God will send everything, no, not like that. We know God will send everything, still we work. Without God’s sanction nothing can come. But we must be qualified to receive the favor of God. That is our philosophy.” 

Kevin put together the different bits of information he had heard how Kṛṣṇa provides everything, and Śrīla Prabhupāda’s response that Kṛṣṇa would dictate who would take his place. He revived his suspended question. “You are responsible for the organization. Are you the one who chooses who runs each center, who is responsible in each temple?” 

“Yes. Our program is to open centers in every village, every town, to propagate Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” 

“And you choose the leaders, or Kṛṣṇa does and tells you. How does that work?” 

Prabhupāda refered to the process of paramparā. “No, I have been chosen by my spiritual master.” 

“Yes. And you in turn choose others?” 

“Oh yes,” Prabhupāda said. “That is our succession.” 

“On what basis?” 

“Basis, on the order of Kṛṣṇa. Originally the order is from Kṛṣṇa.” 

“How does that come?” Kevin asked. 

“Comes by disciplic succession. Just like Kṛṣṇa said this knowledge to Arjuna and Arjuna said to others, and it is open. Everyone can take it, there is no secrecy. We have to accept only, that’s all. It is open secret. Anyone can take it.” 

Kevin had grasped the general arrangement, but he wanted to dig down to the heart of the process. “All right. But in terms of specific, say, choosing, specific things, specific details . . . ” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda assured him that the śāstra was complete and practical. “Yes, in all details, how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. There is all details in this book, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.” 

“So he’s asking what’s a man’s qualification to be chosen,” I noted. 

 Rāmeśvara Mahārāja tried to clarify it. “In other words, Prabhupāda will decide who should be leader if he’s qualified. And there’s a process for making him qualified, and there’s a process for testing to see if he is qualified. So in that way it all comes from Kṛṣṇa.” 

Kevin’s intelligence was still probing.“You chose, for example, these fellows here to run the publishing house and be responsible for the East Coast.” 

“Yes, like that,” Prabhupāda said. “He’s in charge of publication, he’s in charge something else, like that.” 

“On what basis, though,” Kevin went on, “can you tell me some of the things that . . . ” 

“Basis,” Prabhupāda said. “Just to see whether he’s qualified, that’s all. Just like ordinarily one manager is appointed by the superior authority on the merit, on his qualification. That’s all.” 

Kevin was finally able to formulate his point, the essence of his questioning. He wanted to know about the innermost workings of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. “Okay, is it a mediated choice, or is it a direct communication from Kṛṣṇa? That’s my question.” 

Rāmeśvara couched it in plain terms. “He’s asking whether we claim that God speaks to us directly.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s reply was natural and matter of fact. “Yes, God speaks to you when you are qualified. You cannot expect God as order supplier. When he sees that you are qualified, He will speak to you.” 

Not wanting Kevin to think that this happens with just anyone, Bali-mardana qualified Prabhupāda’s statement even more. “The spiritual master is the representative of God to the disciple because he is in direct contact with God.” 

And Prabhupāda added, “My spiritual master appointed me that ‘You do this.’ Similarly I shall appoint somebody else, this is the way.” 

Because Kevin’s question was aiming at the most intimate levels of a devotee’s relationship with Kṛṣṇa, Rāmeśvara also felt it necessary to follow Bali-mardana’s concern. He wanted Śrīla Prabhupāda to specify the position and thus avoid any misunderstanding. “It’s difficult for people to understand that God can speak to a man. They question, ‘How can God speak to some man?’ ” 

Prabhupāda obliged with an analogy and a śāstric quote. “The radio message is coming. A foolish man cannot understand how it is coming. He’ll think, ‘How it is that, speaking?’ So any foolish man will be astonished how things are happening. That is foolishness. But God says, find out this verse: teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam/ dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te.” 

I read aloud the translation from Bhagavad-gītā [10.10.] “To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give them the understanding by which they can come to Me.” 

To that Prabhupāda added, “God is situated in everyone’s heart. As soon as He sees that ‘Here is a qualified person,’ then He gives him instruction.” 

Kevin continued to probe. “But in the same way that Kṛṣṇa says He’ll provide for your needs, you still must work to achieve whatever Kṛṣṇa is giving you.” 

“Yes,” Prabhupāda interjected, “you work for Kṛṣṇa. You have to work to get your necessities.” 

“In the same way I’m curious with respect to the way Kṛṣṇa communicates with you,” Kevin continued. “Whether it’s in a similar kind of way that He gives your necessities.”  

Bali-mardana caught what he was trying to say. “In other words, when you decide that someone is to be in charge of a particular temple, does Kṛṣṇa tell you that this person should be in charge?” 

“Or do you by judging him, say this person is qualified?” Kevin added. 

“Yes,” Prabhupāda replied. “Because a devotee always consults Kṛṣṇa and He gives order.” 

“It’s a more direct communication.” 

“Yes,” Prabhupāda told him. “And He gives order.” 

At this point Rāmeśvara came into the conversation again, offering his own realization of the process of communication. “Because intelligence, our philosophy is that intelligence comes from Kṛṣṇa. Try to understand. Suppose my intelligence sees that this person is qualified, that means Kṛṣṇa has told me . . . ” 

Prabhupāda stopped him, making it perfectly clear that the process was not indirect. “No, not necessarily. Kṛṣṇa will tell directly. A devotee always consults Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa tells him, ‘Do like this.’ Not figuratively.” 

We were all smiling at Prabhupāda’s unambiguous statement. His answer was firmly based on both śāstra and his own personal experience. 

“Does that apply then to other kinds of decisions and other kinds of activities as well?” Kevin wanted to know. 

“Everything,” Prabhupāda told him. “Because a devotee does not do anything without consulting Kṛṣṇa.” 

“But that applies to a very greatly elevated soul, that is not an ordinary person,” Bali-mardana reaffirmed, just to make sure Kevin didn’t get the wrong idea. 

And Prabhupāda added, “Therefore the minor devotees, they consult the spiritual master. That is our process.” 

Duly corrected, Rāmeśvara realized his mistake. “I see, I was trying to explain the minor devotees.” 

Kevin laughed. “No, I was talking about . . . ” 

“You’re talking about the topmost level,” Rāmeśvara completed for him.  

“Yes.”  

Everyone was smiling and enjoying the exchange. “He’s getting right to the source,” Bali-mardana laughed. “Right to the top.” 

The interview concluded at that. Kevin was well satisfied with his in-depth interview, and went away with prasādam and a flower presented personally to him by Prabhupāda.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s candor impressed upon us once again, as his reply to Bhagatjī’s letter on the 11th had done, that he operates on the most intimate levels of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It was a revealing session and a good indication of how far away we are from realizing what a relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead actually means. We are still very impersonal in our understanding, tending to forget that a pure devotee converses directly with Lord Kṛṣṇa. As Prabhupāda said, it is not at all figurative. 

* * * 

Illness forced Prabhupāda to cancel his afternoon darśana, but he did meet with Dhṛṣṭadyumna Swami’s mother and father, along with some friends who are the parents of Māyeśvara dāsa. Dhṛṣṭadyumna’s father, Mr. McDonough, is president of the international division Seagrams, a very large liquor company. He seemed a cultured and intelligent man, and pleased to meet Prabhupāda. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda complimented them all on producing such fine sons. “You are fortunate you have got such devotee sons. They’ll do the best service to the family by becoming devotees. By his service you’ll also be delivered. Yes. God is so kind that He delivers the father and the mother, even though they have not done anything. It is spiritual concession—just like the government. If a soldier dies in the battlefield the government takes care of the whole family, is it not? Similarly anyone who has become a devotee, Kṛṣṇa takes care of the whole family.” 

Śrla Prabhupāda’s warmth and friendliness quickly won his visitors over and Mr. McDonough expressed his genuine appreciation. “That’s reassuring—I think I need help, sir. Well, we feel our son is very fortunate to be so active and involved here.” 

Once again Śrīla Prabhupāda complimented him. “Unless you are fortunate how you can get such a fortunate son? You are fortunate.” 

The meeting was brief, about twenty minutes. And Śrīla Prabhupāda didn’t say much. He answered a doubt Mrs. McDonough had about the fighting on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra but when the conversation turned to more immediate concerns about some negative press against the Movement in yesterday’s paper, Prabhupāda was content to allow Dhṛṣṭadyumna and myself to answer and only occasionally interjected.  

To calm their concerns over bad press which classified us as a cult, Prabhupāda cited the widespread sales of his books in the university and college libraries. We also emphasized that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s substantive writings were proof that in the long run we would be separated from the plethora of concocted cults and bogus religions, and be seen as authentically spiritual and practically beneficial.  

Mr. McDonough agreed. “Time is on your side—it’s a long-cycle product life. Well, I know His Divine Grace is very busy and I hope you enjoy your stay in our country. I’m glad that our sons are associated with you and I hope they follow you and emulate you as they go through life.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda smiled. “So I am much obliged to the American boys for their cooperation.” 

As they rose to leave Prabhupāda handed his garland as a gift to Mr. McDonough and sent Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja to escort them down the elevator. “Good father,” Prabhupāda told me as they left. 

July 15th, 1976

Accepting Tamal Krishna Mahārāja’s invitation, Prabhupāda decided to spend a day at the Pennsylvania farm, a five-hour drive away. We will stay overnight and return tomorrow morning.  

Fulfilling what he said was “a long cherished dream,” Prabhupāda traveled there on one of the Rādhā-Dāmodara buses. Devotees set up the seat from his sitting room in the center of the open floor against the wall to the right of the altar. As he sat back the bright rays of the early morning sun streamed in past the partly curtained windows, highlighting his golden form in the same way that a spotlight picks out the most important actor on a stage. Tamal Krishna Goswami, Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Swami, Bali-mardana, Ādi-keśava Swami, Tripurāri Swami and Chāyāvana Swami gathered at his feet. Bus manager Mahāmuni dāsa and driver Vakreśvara Paṇḍita dāsa sat in the front cab. We sped down the highway at seventy miles per hour, while Prabhupāda held his usual morning program. Everyone took out their song books and turned to page eighty-six, and as we sat before the Deities of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi, Śrīla Prabhupāda sang one of his favoritebhajanas,Locana dāsa Ṭhākura’s “Śrī Śrī Gaura Nityānandera Daya: The Mercy of Śrī Gaura and Nityānanda.” 

While Prabhupāda gave class I prepared his breakfast in the compact, but well-equipped kitchen in the back. It was not such an easy task, with the bus bouncing and swaying on the undulating highway. After taking his breakfast, we had more kīrtana.  

By 11:00 a.m. we were pulling into the farm entrance. A handful of devotees, led by Paramānanda dāsa, greeted him. We were taken to a small, wooden, two story residence where Śrīla Prabhupāda could take his massage. During the massage I pointed out a thumb-sized lesion over the joints of his toes, resulting from the two-hour foot massage I gave him in New York. Prabhupāda just shrugged it off, saying that when the body ages the healing processes do not work as well—that was what old age meant. I was relieved he took it so lightly.  

Once before, when discussing his massage with a visitor, he looked over in my direction and said half-jokingly, “Sometimes he cuts me!” Prabhupāda’s good humor lessened my mortification. But it’s for this reason I keep my fingernails very short. 

* * * 

Paramānanda prabhu and his wife Satyabhāmā dāsī were two of the first devotees in New Vṛndāvana, later coming to run this farm. Satyabhāmā made Prabhupāda’s lunch today using our own farm produce.  

The capātīs were very thick, and Prabhupāda said that when he first saw them he was thinking, “How will I be able to eat these?” But when he bit into one he was surprised to find it very soft, sweet and digestible. They were so delicious that he ate three or four. He was very pleased to hear they were made from the farm’s own wheat, and that the devotees had ground it into flour themselves.  

Located near Port Royal, the farm has some of the richest soil in the state, with about two hundred acres under cultivation or pasture and one hundred acres of forest. It supplies milk, grains and vegetables to the New York temple. 

* * * 

After Śrīla Prabhupāda’s afternoon nap Tamal Krishna Mahārāja came to take him on a tour of the farm. Prabhupāda sat for a few minutes waiting for Paramānanda to bring his four-wheel drive truck, talking about the state of the world and how people are being misdirected by “mis-leaders.” As an example Prabhupāda cited Idi Amin, the despotic ruler of Uganda. The international community knew that he was killing and pillaging his own country men, even eating their flesh, but were not saying anything.  

He advised us what should be done to correct things. It was another feature of Kṛṣṇa consciousness that is not yet manifest.  

Tamal Krishna Mahārāja asked if this solution was one of the “plans” which he had declined to reveal on our first night on the rooftop in New York.  

Prabhupāda just smiled as he went through the door and said, “Yes.” 

* * * 

Paramānanda is an expert farm manager; every inch of the land is utilized and production is very high, yet they do all the work with modern machines. He first drove Prabhupāda through the fields to show him the various crops. Stopping the truck, he hopped out, climbed back in and dropped an ear of wheat in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s hand. Prabhupāda inspected it carefully, and then questioned Paramānanda closely, impressing us all with his knowledge of food growing and production. Pleased with their evident labor and the results, Prabhupāda told Paramānanda that there is no need to abandon the farm machines, provided they utilize everything in Kṛṣṇa’s service.  

After we drove around the land the next stop was the huge cow barn and dairy, where Prabhupāda saw a calf born just that morning. He petted some of the younger calves and then inspected the huge cows. The herd is Brown Swiss and they have gigantic milk bags. One cow gives one hundred and four pounds of milk per day—that’s the equivalent of its own body weight every eleven days! Paramānanda informed us that two of the cows have the finest pedigrees in America. Their ancestry traces back two hundred and fifty years, to the time when their breed first came to America.  

The cows were not the only occupants of the barn, however. A dog peacefully sat between the stalls; and as Prabhupāda looked on, a small kitten ran among the cows, catching milk dropping from their udders. He smiled and said that this was the result of living in a Kṛṣṇa conscious community: even the animals are great friends. 

He then visited Devakīnandana dāsa’s house, a single story, rustic dwelling out on its own in the woods.  Prabhupāda liked the taste of the fresh spring water bubbling up from the ground just outside the door.  

Finally, Prabhupāda was taken to the main house. It is a two-story wooden building where the devotees meet and conduct their spiritual program in its one large room. Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi reside on a simple altar in a curtained off section of the temple room. 

Prabhupāda had darśana of the Deities and then gave a short lecture to the assembled devotees. “So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to revive the original, constitutional position,” he told us. “So one of them in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is village organization, as you are trying here. Kṛṣṇa, in His natural life, is a village boy in Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana is a village. There is no factory, there is no motorcar, there are no big, big skyscraper buildings; it is village. That Kṛṣṇa likes.” 

He said that Kṛṣṇa is satisfied with such village life, and so should we. “That is part of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But it does not mean we shall avoid city life, or town life. No, every place is Kṛṣṇa’s place; everywhere there should be Kṛṣṇa consciousness. 

“We should keep ourselves within the village, and properly organize as Kṛṣṇa showed us the example. He was personally taking care of the cows and calves. When He was a child He was taking care of the cows and calves. When He was grown up He was taking care of the cows, even though He was the son of a very rich man, Nanda Mahārāja, the village king. . . . So we should follow His footprints . . . Whatever Kṛṣṇa has taught by His personal life, by His teaching, to follow that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” 

He told us that Kṛṣṇa teaches the Bhagavad-gītā so that those who are naturally God conscious can make their lives perfect in this life. This should be our last life, we should go directly to Kṛṣṇa in our next life. “He is giving us instruction. If we follow His instruction, very simple, and remain in this village, satisfied with simple life, agricultural produce, milk. How many nice things you have produced? Where is the difficulty? There is no economic problem.”  

Prabhupāda gave the devotees hints how to use all their milk so that not a drop would be wasted. “In India we are in scarcity of milk. So, kṛṣi-gorakṣya-vāṇijyam. So if you have got excess milk, you can make it into powdered milk and send it to India in any amount. It will be consumed. At least we can use it in our different centers, we can distribute.” 

He also gave a breakdown of how to use it all locally. “From milk, first of all drink as much as you like. Then convert it into yogurt, next day, next day, next day. And then when that is also enough, then churn it, take out butter—buttermilk and butter—and drink the buttermilk with capātī. It is very palatable, very nutritious. Then butter, if you have got excess butter, then turn it into ghee. And ghee can be preserved for years, there’s no question of preservation. You send it to the cities and towns. And now we are encouraging to open prasādam distribution restaurants. Where is the problem? There is no problem. Each drop of milk you can utilize to the perfect utility point.” 

If there were an excess of cows, he said they could chop out some of the trees in the woods and keep them there. “But give protection to the cows. That is the order of Kṛṣṇa. We cannot be ungrateful that we kill mother. The milk is so important. We are drinking milk, and in exchange if we cut the throat of mother, that is not civilization. That is barbarism, less than animal. So try to give protection to the cow. That is pious activity, and you will not live in scarcity.” 

He glorified the principle of living simply with just the bare necessities, saving time to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. “This is the ideal life. So, I am very pleased that you are doing that, and do it nicely so that others may be attracted. This town life, industrial life, factory life, is asuric life. It is killing the human ambition. It is killing civilization.” 

He added a final note, balancing out his emphasis on village life with a wider scope of Kṛṣṇa conscious life. “So there are many other businesses for a Kṛṣṇa conscious person, because in Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa speaks all around: sociology, politics, philosophy, religion, culture, economics, everything is there. If you simply try to follow Kṛṣṇa’s instructions, then you get cultural life all around.” 

It was about 7:00 p.m. when he concluded his tour and retired to his quarters for the night. 

* * * 

In the middle of the night Prabhupāda rang the bell. When I entered his room he was sitting behind his low desk, with his dictaphone before him, but he was not using it. He was ashen, and told me he was experiencing severe kidney pain and could not translate. It was the same problem he had a few days ago. This time he agreed when I asked if we could call a doctor on our return to New York. He wasn’t confident that it would do any good, but he said that there was undoubtedly something wrong, so he had no objection. 

This means it is serious; otherwise Prabhupāda never usually agrees to medical help. 

July 16th, 1976

At 5:00 a.m. Prabhupāda returned to New York, but by car. He decided not to return on the bus because it bounced too much, placing a great strain on his heart. 

After the five-hour trip Prabhupāda spent his usual day—massage on the roof, bath, lunch and rest.  

* * * 

In the afternoon the religions editor from Associated Press, Mr. George Orwell, visited with a photographer. They were both in their fifties, experienced and respectful. It was Mr. Orwell’s second attempt to meet Śrīla Prabhupāda. He had once gone to the old Brooklyn temple, but failed to get an audience. This time he was highly successful. The interview was intense and enlivening. Prabhupāda expressed himself with flair, conveying his message with his hands and eyes as well as his voice, while Mr. Orwell listened intently and scribbled in his note pad on the corner of the desk. 

Mr. Orwell opened the exchange by saying that many people felt ISKCON members were being denied the opportunity to work in the outside world. Thus their contribution to society was being lost. He asked how His Divine Grace felt about that.  

Prabhupāda said that people misunderstood the platform on which devotees actually worked. People in general were working on the dead platform and the devotees were working on the living platform. The body is always dead, having value only when the living force is present. Therefore it is the life, the soul, that is important, not the body.  

Mr. Orwell was sincerely trying to follow what Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying, but he found Prabhupāda’s accent, as well as the subject matter, a little difficult to tune into. To help him understand, Prabhupāda used the analogy of a car and its driver. He explained that the soul in the body was like the driver in the car. It was the driver that was important; the car only had value when the driver was present. Similarly, the important thing was to concentrate on the activity of the soul, not the body.  

The analogy eluded Mr. Orwell’s comprehension for a while, but by repetition Prabhupāda got his point through. Once Mr. Orwell accepted that there was a difference between the two, Prabhupāda concluded that knowledge of the car without knowledge of the driver was useless. 

Mr. Orwell derived an answer to his original question by extrapolating that we were rejecting the body. “Well, since this dichotomy appears to be the case, I mean that the Movement is sort of cut off from the world in general, does that not deprive the world of the service, of the usefulness of these people?”  

Śrīla Prabhupāda corrected him. “First of all, if you do not understand what is the Movement, then how you can give your verdict like that? First of all, try to understand what is this Movement.” 

“What is the purpose of the Movement, Your Grace?” 

“Purpose of the Movement is to know who is the driver of the car.” 

Mr. Orwell was still a bit adrift. He hadn’t fully grasped how to apply the analogy and Prabhupāda’s switching back and forth between the analogy and the subject continued to confuse him. He knitted his brow and asked, “To know who is the driver of the car?” he asked. 

“Of the car,” Prabhupāda confirmed. 

“And who is that?” 

“That we are contributing. People are in ignorance about his own identification, who is he. He’s thinking he’s dead body. That is misconception.” 

Mr. Orwell was still lost. “There’s no way to identify the driver of the car then.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda smiled. “Just see, it is so difficult subject matter. I am speaking to you, still you feel difficulty. We say the car and driver. If you understand this analogy, so who is important? The driver is important, the car is important. Both combined together giving a service—the car is moving. But if they are separated, who is important—the car is important or the driver is important?” 

Mr. Orwell was trying hard to understand. “I don’t know how I’m going to get the point you’re making across. If the car and the driver are separated, the car is useless and the driver is a person. The driver is always important.” 

Prabhupāda’s eyes lit up. Now it seemed he was grasping his point. “Yes, yes. Driver is always important, within the car or without the car.” 

But Mr. Orwell was not quite there. “Within or without the car,” he repeated. “And if he’s a chauffeur driving a carload of people, then he becomes less important. The people are primarily the ones that are important, that are in the car.”  

Everyone laughed. It wasn’t easy getting through. 

Prabhupāda patiently explained that if the car had no driver, it was useless, but the driver was always important, with or without the car.  

Bali-mardana prabhu mediated, helping to make Prabhupāda’s words comprehensible to his visitor. “In other words, the soul is important, with this body or without this body. But the body without the soul is simply fertilizer. Like you said, it’s dead, useless. So our mission is to educate people about the driver, about the soul within the body.” 

“And people are generally working on the body,” Prabhupāda added. “And we are working on the driver of the body. That is the difference.” 

Now Mr. Orwell got it. “Working on the driver of the body, on the spirit. Right?” 

“Yes.” Prabhupāda smiled. “On the spirit soul. And because they do not know what is the difference between the soul and the body, they cannot understand what is our contribution.” 

Mr. Orwell repeated Śrīla Prabhupāda’s words, writing them down in his note pad. 

That done, Prabhupāda then used another, interconnected analogy to expand the concept. “The car requires petrol and the driver requires nice food. So people in general, when they see that we are not giving petrol to the driver, they are surprised. They think that petrol is the food of the driver.”  

“In other words,” Bali-mardana added, “to satisfy the body does not satisfy the person within the body.” 

“Therefore they misunderstand,” Prabhupāda said. “ ‘Oh, they are not giving petrol to this man for eating.’ But the man’s eatable is not the petrol.” 

Mr. Orwell didn’t respond directly. Instead he said, “I would like to ask you another question, Your Grace.” 

But Prabhupāda wouldn’t let him move on without properly comprehending his example. “You have understood this point? 

“Okay.” 

“No. Have you understood this point?” 

Bali-mardana asked once more whether he had understood the analogy. 

Mr. Orwell wasn’t completely clear. Although he had said that people question the value of our activities, he hadn’t quite related the second part of the analogy to that.  

Prabhupāda persisted until he felt Mr. Orwell got the proper idea. “The motor car without petrol cannot work; similarly, the driver without food cannot work. But the food of the driver and the power of the motor car—different.” 

Again, Bali-mardana translated. “The needs of the body and soul are different.” 

Prabhupāda summed up. “So we are supplying the needs of the soul, and they are supplying the needs of the motor car; therefore they find difference. They are thinking, ‘They are not supplying petrol to this man for eating.’ That is the difference. The sum and substance is that if a person, the driver, if he thinks wrongly that he is the car, then his life is spoiled. He should know that he is different from the car. That is real knowledge. And if he identifies himself with the car, then he’s a fool.” 

Mr. Orwell, while agreeing that spiritual qualities were important, was still trying to understand whether what Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying translated into what might be considered useful action in the material world. Mr. Orwell asked Prabhupāda what he thought about the Democratic party’s convention in New York this week which will confirm their candidate for the coming elections. “What do you think of Jimmy Carter?” 

Prabhupāda had no idea who he was talking about. 

“But that’s part of what I’m thinking about, that you and your Movement tend to separate people from concern with what’s going on in the world; like that’s a presidential election and Jimmy Carter is the Democratic candidate. This is a disregard of what’s going on in the world. Isn’t that an example of it?” 

Prabhupāda didn’t think so. “No, the thing is that there were many presidents before. What is this name of this, Ford? So what improvement you have done by having this president or that president? What improvement you’ll make unless some false promise? That’s all. What is the improvement? You have changed so many hundreds and thousands of presidents, but what is the improvement about spiritual knowledge?” 

Bali-mardana explained that Śrīla Prabhupāda always saw everything from the spiritual vantage point. “What is the improvement spiritually out of all these presidents? So therefore we do not care.” 

Prabhupāda slightly corrected him. “We take care, but we take care more for the spirit soul than the body. That is our basic principle.” 

“But do you think most of the Hare Kṛṣṇa members will vote in the election in November?” Mr. Orwell asked. 

“Personally I never give votes,” Prabhupāda told him. 

“Never voted. You’re a citizen however, aren’t you, a U.S. citizen?” 

“I am permanent resident.” 

“Well, will they follow your example and not vote?” 

“I do not know,” Prabhupāda said. “But our principle is that I vote for this man or that man, so what is spiritual benefit? That is our point.” 

Bali-mardana told him, “As long as the candidate is not God conscious it wouldn’t make any difference which way we vote; but if he’s God conscious, then we’ll vote.” 

“Well, would he have to be in the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement to be God conscious?” Mr. Orwell asked. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda replied that God consciousness was a great science. “You may take part in the Movement or not, but he must know the science.” 

“You mean the Bhagavad-gītā; he must know that, or what?” 

“Not Bhagavad-gītā or anything. But he must . . . Just like a book, mathematics, it may be written by different men, but one must be a mathematician.” 

“I think what Bali was saying is that if a Kṛṣṇa consciousness member were running for an office, then you would get out and vote for him. That he would be God conscious.”  

“Yes, yes,” Prabhupāda said. 

Mr. Orwell wondered if it was the eastern Hindu customs which made Kṛṣṇa consciousness so attractive to young Westerners. 

Prabhupāda protested that Kṛṣṇa consciousness was neither eastern nor Hindu; it was a science, and for everyone. “We do not belong either to the Hindus or Christian or Jewish. We belong to Kṛṣṇa or God. Kṛṣṇa means God.” 

“Yes, but you use the Hindu scriptures.” 

“That is another thing,” Prabhupāda said. “But the subject matter is the same. You say the sun in the sky as s-u-n, ‘sun.’ And we say in India sūrya, S-u-r-y-a. So the name may be different, but the object is the same.” 

Mr. Orwell rephrased his question slightly, still searching for a definitive understanding of whether Kṛṣṇa consciousness was part of society or separate, whether it was contributing something positive or depriving its members of participation. “In other words, do you think the India-originated religion serves its particular purpose in Western society? Is it of particular value in a rather technological society, the Hindu tradition?” 

Prabhupāda patiently reiterated the premise on which he was working. “Generally speaking, everyone everywhere is identifying his body as the self. It does not mean East or West. This is ignorance. Wherever there is ignorance one identifies himself with the body. It may be in the East or in the West; it doesn’t matter.” 

“Well, can a self exist without a body?” Mr. Orwell inquired. 

Prabhupāda confirmed that the self could indeed exist without a body. 

“I mean you say that people identify themselves, the body as the self.” 

“Yes.” 

“And that this is ignorance to identify the self with the body. But does that mean a sort of rejection of the body as unimportant?” 

“Not rejection,” Prabhupāda corrected. “Again, you come to the . . . ” 

“But the body is important to the self isn’t it?” Mr. Orwell interjected. 

Prabhupāda agreed, repeating his driver and car analogy, trying to convey to his interviewer that the importance of the body was dependent on the presence of the soul.  

Mr. Orwell was trying hard to get the point, but even though he said he understood this, he still couldn’t figure out how the combination worked. “In keeping with that analogy, can the self exist? Does the self exist without the body in this world?” 

“Yes, oh, yes.” 

“In this life?” 

“Yes. Life is always there.” 

“As a spirit apart from the body.” 

“Yes. That is the ideal life,” Prabhupāda told him. “That is the goal. When the soul lives without this material body, that is his liberated life.” Prabhupāda then used another analogy. “Just like the criminal, he can live within the jail and without the jail. But he’s thinking wrongly that without jail he cannot live. But his life without jail is real life.” 

Mr. Orwell picked up the meaning of this analogy much quicker than the first one. “What you’re saying is that this life is a jail, and that really the goal is another life. Right? I mean that this life is an evil prison.” 

Prabhupāda was happy to get through so quickly. “Yes, yes, now you have understood. This is not a desirable life, to live in the jail, conditioned.” 

But Mr. Orwell’s conclusion of it was the same. “Well in other words, in a sense, that is to reject, or at least to repudiate, this life, this world.” 

“Not repudiate,” Śrīla Prabhupāda corrected him, “to understand.” 

Mr. Orwell nodded. “That it is not a good life.” 

“It is not a good life, and the whole material world is false identification with myself.” 

“Well, is it important to try to improve this life so that it won’t be a prison?” Mr. Orwell asked. 

“Yes, improve,” Prabhupāda said, however his definition of improvement differed from Mr. Orwell’s. “Improve, to understand that I am not a person of the jail; I am a person of freedom.” He told him that if a person lives too long in jail he starts to think that he cannot live without it. 

“Well, I hope we all get out of it sometime, somehow, someway, either here or there,” Mr. Orwell joked good humoredly.  

“But we are trying to educate the prisoners that ‘Your life is not perfect within the jail. Your life is perfect without the jail.’ This is our education,” Śrīla Prabhupāda said. He added that because the devotees are not doing jail work like the other prisoners, they are therefore misunderstood. “Just like a man has gone to jail. He’s giving education to the prisoners, ‘My dear brother prisoners, this life is not good. You become honest, don’t come to the jail.’ So other prisoners, they are working hard, they are hammering on the bricks, they think that ‘This man is not hammering on bricks, he’s talking only.’ ” 

“In other words you think people should get away from what they’re doing in the world,” Mr. Orwell responded. “That they really shouldn’t concentrate so completely on the world.” 

“No,” Prabhupāda said. “So long you are in the jail, you have to work according to the principle of the jail. But you must know that jail life is not good.” 

“Well, are your Kṛṣṇa members out of jail?” 

“Just like some of us are working like the hammer man, breaking bricks with hammer, but that does not mean he does not understand. So long one is in the jail, one is not in freedom; he has to work like that by force. But that is not his proper work; he has got a different work outside the jail or in his freedom life.” 

“Well, what people are saying about the members of the Kṛṣṇa society is that they are not doing the jail work.” 

“That I have already explained. The prisoner who is hammering the bricks, he’s thinking that this man is simply instructing that you have a different life outside the jail, he’s not hammering on the brick. Therefore he is surprised, ‘How is that he is not hammering like me?’ ” 

“In other words, he’s not participating in jail life. What’s he doing?” 

“He’s educating,” Prabhupāda said. 

“He’s educating them to what? That this jail life is no good?” 

“Yes.” 

Although Mr. Orwell seemed to appreciate this analogy, he still could not see beyond the mundane. Accepting the physical world as a prison, he nevertheless held fast to his misconception that one’s duty in life was to remain there. “Well when you get through with talking, instructing the man hammering the bricks, is he going to lay down his hammer, too?” 

“No, he doesn’t require,” Prabhupāda said. “You try to understand. At least he must know that ‘This hammering is not my business; it is my punishment.’ That is knowledge. When a prisoner understands that ‘This hammering business is not my real business, it is my punishment.’ ” 

“Isn’t that a rather negative way to look at the work?” 

“Why negative? It is the fact,” Prabhupāda said. “That is the positive understanding. Why do you take negative? If you are suffering and if you say, if I say, ‘Don’t suffer,’ is that negative or that is positive? It is positive. But they are rascals, they are taking as negative.” 

“Why is work in the world necessarily suffering? It has a mixture of pain and joy but it’s negative to look on it as useless work,” Mr. Orwell said. 

“Therefore they are envious of the Kṛṣṇa conscious men. They see that ‘These people, they are not hammering like us.’ So therefore they are thinking that there is no contribution of hammering. They think the hammering is the real business.” 

Mr. Orwell laughed. “That’s pretty good. I think people understand the analogy. They think hammering is the business. What do you think is the business?” 

“Our business is to educate them that ‘Your hammering business is not your life. Your freedom is real business.’ ” 

The mention of freedom struck a chord with Mr. Orwell. He questioned Prabhupāda about organized opposition to movements like ours in America. “I’m sure you’ve heard or read about these claims by these parent groups that claim that the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement members are, ah, sort of controlled by intensive indoctrination? Brainwashed they call it. You know, by getting up and having the two hours or three of chanting in the morning, and prayer beads constantly, and the group life; that they’re sort of controlled, and denied their freedom. What do you say about that?”  

“It is due to misunderstanding,” Prabhupāda said. “They do not understand what kind of preaching, what kind of education we are giving. We are giving education how to become free from the hammering business in the jail. They think hammering business and keep oneself within the jail is the real life because they have been accustomed to that. And when we speak that ‘Hammering or to keep within the jail is not your real business; your real business is freedom,’ naturally they find contradiction; they think that we are doing something against their business. That’s the difficulty.” 

“But in other words do you think, is there not something to this idea of being spiritually controlled or spiritually directed?” 

“It is not controlled,” Prabhupāda told him.  

“Well, what would you call it?” 

Prabhupāda used the same argument as before. Then he gave another example. “When the physician says to a patient that ‘Don’t eat like this, then you will increase your diabetes. Don’t eat this, don’t eat starch, don’t eat sugar.’ So people may think he’s simply giving negative, but that is his positive life. They misunderstand.” 

Finally satisfied he had understood Śrīla Prabhupāda’s answers, Mr. Orwell moved onto other topics. He asked about Śrīla Prabhupāda’s tour schedule, wondering if he would be back in the States. “I mean you aren’t leaving this country for good. You’re a permanent resident, right?” 

“Who said?” Prabhupāda asked him, wondering how he got the idea he wasn’t coming back.  

“I don’t know, I just heard that somewhere.”  

“How can I answer this?” Prabhupāda said. He laughed, humorously adding, “Somebody madman must have said it.” He then explained that he was always touring. 

“Where is your main home?” Mr. Orwell enquired. 

“My home is back to home, back to Godhead. That is my real home. That means every temple is my home.” 

Mr. Orwell also asked Prabhupāda what he thought about Judaism and Christianity. Prabhupāda said that he didn’t know because he hadn’t studied them; but any religion, if it freed its adherents from the bodily conception of life, was first-class.  

Mr. Orwell said that he didn’t think they did that. He thought they considered the body important, and cherished the world.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda responded that such a conception was ignorance. He explained that he was attracting people from every religion and community because real knowledge is for everyone. Just as two plus two equals four is the same for everyone, and gold is gold for everyone.  

Mr. Orwell asked who had the gold: just the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, or are there other paths to spiritual enlightenment? Prabhupāda replied that there were other paths, but they were not very elaborate. This prompted Mr. Orwell to ask if Kṛṣṇa consciousness was elaborate. 

Prabhupāda indicated his bookshelf. “We are explaining this science in so many books. It is open to everyone.” 

A writer himself, Mr. Orwell was very impressed with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s output, especially when we told him another forty volumes were yet to come.  

“Are all of these translations that you’ve made Your Grace? I don’t blame you for sleeping only four hours a night. I tell you, just to produce a half a dozen books in a lifetime is quite a job, you know.” 

Prabhupāda admitted, “It is very difficult.  But I have already produced eighty books. And all world scholars, professors, universities, they are receiving so nicely.” 

Bali-mardana mentioned the standing orders from universities and libraries around the world and the hundreds of favorable letters and reviews.  

Being the senior religions editor, Mr. Orwell had contact with scholars. He said, “What I’ve heard some Hindu professors say is that Hinduism is such a complex and profound religion and that the Kṛṣṇa consciousness members are very superficial about it. They simply go through these disciplines and really don’t involve themselves in the, they take a superficial version of Hinduism.” 

But Prabhupāda wouldn’t be baited. “That may be Hindu religion. But we do not belong to any religion. That may be true for the Hindu religion what the professor has said, but we do not identify with any religion. We are different from any religious system.” 

“But the scriptures are the same, the Vedic scriptures are Hindu scriptures.” 

Prabhupāda corrected him, giving the etymology of the word Hindu. “Actually the Hindu, this name is given by the neighbor Muhammadans. There is a river called Sindhu. That river is still there, it is now in Pakistan. So outside the border of India, the Muhammadans, they used to call the inhabitants of the neighborhood of that river Sindhu, ‘Hindu.’ Because they pronounce s as h. So this is the origin. So ‘Hindu’ is a title given by the Muhammadan neighborer. It is not found in the Vedic literature. Real Vedic principle is called varṇāśrama, observing the principle of four varnas. So the Vedic civilization is called varṇāśrama-dharma, not Hindu dharma. This is later contribution of the so-called scholars.” 

That wound it up for Mr. Orwell. He was very happy with his interview and genuinely pleased to have met Śrīla Prabhupāda. “It was good to catch you this time, and I hope to see you again.” 

Prabhupāda replied, “So kindly put the matter properly, because people on account of their ignorance they misunderstand our Movement.” 

To make sure he got it right, Mr. Orwell did a brief double-check with Śrīla Prabhupāda. “What are their main misunderstandings?” 

“This bodily concept,” Prabhupāda said. “They are thinking that they are body. ‘I am Muhammadan, I am Christian, I am American, I am Eastern, I am Western.’ All bodily conceptions. Why they are thinking Eastern, Western? Everyone is human being.” 

“Well, what is it that they particularly misunderstand about the Movement?” 

“They do not understand that we are talking on the spiritual platform and they are on the material bodily platform. Therefore they find contradiction. One has to be little sober to understand this Movement and what platform we are speaking. They are accustomed, on the same example, to hammering the bricks. And when they see others not hammering the bricks, they think they are different. They cannot understand that life can be without hammering the bricks. Karmīs. In the Bhagavad-gītā the word mūḍha, that has been explained by Viśvanātha Cakravartī, karmīs, these mūḍhas. They cannot understand.” 

Mr. Orwell was already on his feet and ready to go. He grinned. “I’m going to have to go back and hammer a few bricks,” he said, laughing along with everyone. “It’s been a pleasure. Thank you very much for your time.” 

Prabhupāda was also laughing. “Give him prasādam. Thank you very much.” 

* * *  

After the interview Atreya Ṛṣi prabhu, GBC for the Middle East, gave a brief report on the Tehran center. Iranian himself, he is in New York for a business meeting which happily coincides with the Ratha-yātrā festival. He told Śrīla Prabhupāda that Dayānanda and his wife, Nandarāṇī, are doing very well there. Nandarāṇī has begun a small school for Indian children. Her two daughters who were in the Los Angeles gurukula when Prabhupāda was there last month recently joined her. Dayānanda is working for one of Atreya Ṛṣi’s computing customers, Sperry Univac, and he’s earning about $1,300 each month. In his free time he organizes preaching programs, sometimes bringing people from his work to the gatherings.  

Prabhupāda was pleased to hear of their activities, as he had personally sent them to work with Atreya Ṛṣi in March. He was also especially interested in Parivrājakācārya Swami’s preaching. He is in contact with the Shah of Iran’s daughter and her husband and both are said to be attracted to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. 

* * * 

Upon our return from the farm, the devotees had contacted a Gujarati doctor, Dr. Bhagat who is a life member. He arrived just after the API interview to examine Śrīla Prabhupāda.  

As soon as he came in Śrīla Prabhupāda made him feel at home by inquiring about his family. When he learned that the doctor had only one child, he quoted a Sanskrit verse of Cāṇakya Paṇḍita: “Ekaś candras tamo hanti na ca tārā-gaṇair api/ varam eko guṇī  putro na ca mūrkha-śatair api. There is no need of hundreds of rascal children. One is sufficient, varam ekaḥ; guṇī putraḥ, he must be qualified. And who is guṇi? He who is a devotee and learned scholar. Ko ’tra putreṇa jātena yo na vidvān na bhakti-mān. What is the use of such rascal child if he’s not a devotee, neither learned? Kānena cakṣuṣā kiṁ. . . . cakṣuḥ pīḍaiva kevalam. What is the use of blind eyes? It is simply troublesome. So let there be one child, but he must be like Prahlāda, like Dhruva Mahārāja, and then child production is beneficial. Otherwise, if we beget children like cats and dogs, what is the use? That is Cāṇakya Paṇḍita’s instruction. Another example is given: ekaś candras tamo hanti na ca tārāḥ sahasraśaḥ. If there is one moon in the sky, it is sufficient to give light to the whole sky. What is the use of millions of stars? So, it is very good that you can take care of one child and make him a great devotee and learned scholar. Then it is successful.”  

Dr. Bhagat examined Śrīla Prabhupāda, diagnosing very high blood pressure and a weak heart. He said the uremia problem, which makes Prabhupāda’s hands and feet swell, meant that his body produces too much water, and was probably the result of a kidney stone. He prescribed five different kinds of medicines: Lasix, a diuretic to eliminate excess water to be taken once a day with breakfast, Kerflex an antibiotic for the kidney infection to be ingested four times a day, Parafon Forte, a pain reliever, Valium, a psychotropic relaxant, and a sleeping pill. He also advised Prabhupāda not to take any salt or sugar.  

Prabhupāda allowed us to purchase the medicines, but I have strong doubts that he will take them. And I know that he will never agree to a diet of no salt. He always insists that there must be some taste to his prasādam, otherwise he won’t eat it. 

* * * 

In mid-evening Śrīla Prabhupāda went down into the theater again to watch the Bhakti-rasa players perform the first two acts of the Age of Kali. The very professional standard of acting, coupled with the stage effects of multiple lights, drifting smoke and modern costumery, produced a spectacle that engrossed the entire audience. It was entertainment par excellence. Sudāmā Mahārāja brilliantly played the lead role of the personality of Kali, plotting the destruction of the world with his cohorts Sin, Lust, Anger, Envy, Illusion and Madness. Rasajñā dāsī, Lohitākṣa dāsa, Nanda-kiśora dāsa, Loka-maṅgala dāsa, Śatarūpā dāsī and Prajāpati dāsa all played their parts with gusto. 

In the drama’s opening scene, Kali and Sin discussed how to expand their activities. Sin introduced each of her perverse colleagues to him. As each made their entrance, they described the pernicious effects they sought to perpetrate on the conditioned souls of the Age of Kali. The first act closed with the devotees of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, chanting the holy names. This struck terror into Kali’s heart, forcing him and his entourage to leave. The second act depicted the personalities of Bhakti and Renunciation and the roles they play in elevating the living entities back home, back to Godhead. 

Prabhupāda watched the performance with great satisfaction and appreciation. 

July 17th, 1976

Kīrtanānanda Swami accompanied Śrīla Prabhupāda in the car on the way to this morning’s walk. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja talked about Lord Kṛṣṇa’s daily gift in charity of over thirteen thousand opulently decorated cows to the brāhmaṇas. He said it was inconceivable, but then added that our distribution of a million BTGs this month would have been inconceivable just ten years ago when Śrīla Prabhupāda started the Movement in New York.  

Prabhupāda smiled. He recalled how they were printing five hundred copies on a mimeograph machine. He smiled even more broadly as Rāmeśvara Mahārāja informed him that for this Christmas marathon the BBT intends to print two million copies. “It is all Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. You have seen the first copy?” Prabhupāda asked Kīrtanānanda.  

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Swami described what he had found in the Library of Congress. “Very thick, it was a thick magazine.” 

“In those days I was spending three hundred rupees per month,” Prabhupāda said.  

Tamal Krishna Mahārāja said that was a lot.  

“Yes, three hundred rupees, nowadays at least ten times,” Prabhupāda said.  

Tamal calculated, “At least three thousand. I think even perhaps more, Prabhupāda.” 

“Yes, not less than.” 

“Say five hundred dollars a month?” Kīrtanānanda asked. 

“And I was not getting any return,” Prabhupāda added. 

“How were you getting so much money?” Tamal asked. 

“My income, from my business,” Prabhupāda told him. 

As the car negotiated the light traffic, Śrīla Prabhupāda and Kīrtanānanda shared memories of their early days at 26 Second Avenue. Prabhupāda remembered holding early morning classes in his apartment. He recalled how Kīrtanānanda, Hayagrīva, Umāpati, sometimes a boy named Carl, Rāyarāma, Jim Green, and then later Brahmānanda and Satsvarūpa, would gather. Kīrtanānanda said how much they relished the intimacy of those beginning hours of the day with their newly-found spiritual guide. 

“At that time Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja was taking one cāpātī.” Prabhupāda laughed. 

“Whew! Only?” Tamal Krishna Mahārāja exclaimed. “Nothing else?” 

“I would offer, he would take one or two, that’s all.” Prabhupāda grinned. “Later on, one dozen!” We all laughed, and he remembered yet more prasādam pastimes. “And that boy? Stryadhīśa. He would take at least twenty capātīs. ‘Stryadhisa, can I offer you?’ ‘Yes.’ I gave four. Again finished, again four.” 

“You must have been surprised to see how much they could eat,” Tamal suggested. 

“Hmm, I was not surprised. He was young man, very stout and strong.” 

Kīrtanānanda said that originally they all ate from Prabhupāda’s plate. “There was one plate of prasādam. And Prabhupāda would just give little, little to everybody. And everybody would be satisfied.” 

Prabhupāda confirmed this. “I used to keep some prasādam, anyone would come I would give. In meeting, I used to collect not less than six dollars, not more than twenty dollars. And that was three times a week.” He added, “They purchased my books. In Butler also, many churches would purchase.” 

As we walked into Central Park the handiwork of our devotees was in evidence everywhere. A large party of men were out most of last night, plastering the lampposts and street lights with posters advertising Ratha-yātrā. In anticipation of the festival and fully confident of its potential for changing the hearts and minds of the general populace, Śrīla Prabhupāda encouraged the devotees in their efforts. “You convince the authorities of America of my logic, andha-paṅgu-nyāya,lame and blind logic. America is blind by money. When one gets too much money, he becomes blind. Tasmād bhajanti kavayo dhana-durmadāndhāḥ. To get too much riches means he becomes fool and blind; he doesn’t care. So this blindness of America, and we Indians, we have no money, but we have got culture. Combine together, then things will be very nicely done for the good of the whole world. Simply money is not the end; there must be culture. Take that culture, Vedic culture, and use it by American money. Then the whole world will be paradise, Vaikuṇṭha.”  

* * * 

Viśākhā dāsī arranged for another group photo for BTG. It was the most impressive photo yet. The size of the building made it impossible to have everyone stand on the pavement outside, so she made some special arrangements. Prabhupāda came out onto the half-roof on the third floor and sat on his lotus-flower vyāsāsana, with his senior men gathered around him. The other devotees waved from every window on all eleven floors, as Viśākhā took her shots from the roof of the building across the road. 

* * * 

Prabhupāda has refused to either adjust his diet or take the different medicines. He said that the anxieties of managing ISKCON are the cause his pain and that the GBC should learn how to relieve him of it.  

* * * 

Tamal Krishna Mahārāja came to Prabhupāda with a doubt he had about the work going on in New Vrindaban. He wanted to know whether it was all right that Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja was expending so much money and energy on building the palace. Surely this was at the expense of book distribution he suggested.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda assured him it was proper. “No, it is all right. He is doing it as an offering to his guru.” 

* * * 

Ten GBCs are here now, representing both North and South America. They had meetings for most of yesterday and again today. While Śrīla Prabhupāda took his massage they came onto the roof of the building to inform him of their decisions. They have decided to make Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Swami the GBC for the West Coast, from Berkeley to points north. He is taking Jagadīśa prabhu’s place, who, on the insistence of Śrīla Prabhupāda, is now full-time GBC for education. They appointed Harikeśa Swami as Prabhupāda’s new secretary. However Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja will remain in the post until we leave for England in three days. 

The body also confirmed Śrīla Prabhupāda’s appointment of Tamal Krishna Mahārāja as GBC for New York and Rādhā-Dāmodara TSKP to replace Madhudviṣa. They added life membership and trusteeship of ISKCON properties to his portfolio.  

Prabhupāda is very pleased with Tamal Krishna Mahārāja’s organizational skills. Both the temple and Rādhā-Dāmodara TSKPs are quickly clearing away the enormous debts which the previous temple administration incurred, even though this accelerated debt liquidation is preventing money from being sent to India. 

Satsvarūpa Goswami and Ghanaśyāma dasa arrived a few days ago with Mahābuddhi prabhu, who has just returned from his highly successful tour of the libraries and universities in India. They met with His Divine Grace several times, presenting him with a written plan to expand the Library Party’s activities around the globe. Running out of places to go in America, they proposed going to Europe, Asia and the South Seas. Prabhupāda read their report and approved it, giving them his wholehearted support, even to the point that when Gopāla Kṛṣṇa prabhu phoned from India to insist that Mahābuddhi return, Prabhupāda said no, that he must now do a world tour. Prabhupāda had also suggested that Gurudāsa Swami join them as a classroom lecturer.  

However, the GBC, while approving the Library Party members’ plans, decided Satsvarūpa Mahārāja was more needed in the USA, and should remain to properly oversee the temples in his jurisdiction.  

Śrīla Prabhupāda accepted their decision, even though it overruled his own previous approval. He was happy to see his leading managers cooperatively working together to solve problems and promote the preaching, and he gladly deferred to them.  

The GBC men also dealt with one extra item on their agenda: Śrīla Prabhupāda himself. Concerned about his health, they requested him not to travel or give classes, and to rest in New York until his health improves. Śrīla Prabhupāda modestly accepted their concern for him. He tipped his head. “I have no objection.” 

* * * 

Śrīla Prabhupāda answered a couple of letters today from devotees in America. Dāmodara Paṇḍita dāsa from New Vrindaban had several questions. He said he had heard some tape recordings of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Godbrother, Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī, singing some devotional songs. He wondered if they were bona fide or not. He also asked if it was a good idea to make a comparative study of different philosophies from the Kṛṣṇa conscious standpoint. He felt it might be useful in our preaching work. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda replied that he had not heard the recordings of his Godbrother, so he could not make a judgment of them. Apart from this he said, “You should just go on chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra and the Pancatattva mantra and don’t divert your attention. You cannot understand the meaning of the Indian songs and simply parrot like chanting of these songs has no value.” 

He told him that comparison of philosophy was a difficult task unless one was expert. Prabhupāda doubted its necessity for general preaching. ”First of all, let people understand Krishna. We are doing that. Maybe one or two are interested in philosophy and for so few persons we can’t spare so much valuable time. Better to induce everyone to chant Hare Krishna and take prasadam. That will be a mass benevolent activity. In the western countries many Ph.D.’s are out of employment because they do not get any service. We do not want to become great philosophers but rather to understand the philosophy in our own books. If we remain strong in our own literature, we can meet anyone else without any fear.” 

He ended his letter by telling him that he would visit New Vrindaban again, as soon as the palace is complete. “I very much appreciated how everyone is living peacefully and happily at New Vrindaban.” 

In a letter from Los Angeles, Dhṛṣṭaketu dāsa, a BBT worker, asked for Śrīla Prabhupāda to clarify his instructions on the growing of hair. Dhṛṣṭaketu had heard it said that Śrīla Prabhupāda did not consider a person with long hair to be his disciple. If this was so, he wanted to know the reason, as there are photos of our previous spiritual masters with hair and beards. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda confirmed his dislike for long hair. “Unless absolutely necessary, one should keep head shaven and not allow the hair to grow long. If absolutely necessary, one can dress like an American gentleman, with short hair, but long hair is prohibited. The reason that one with long hair is not my disciple is because he is against the principle. Unless absolutely necessary one should keep hair short, and if necessary one can dress like an American gentleman with short hair. It is not expected that everyone will join. For that reason we can’t compromise. The tendency is there to be hippy. When the acaryas are seen with beard, that is during Caturmasya, July-September. If observed strictly there is not simply a beard. There are so many rules and regulations. One can’t eat a variety of foods. Only kitri prepared and poured on the floor, and then licked up. There are so many other rules also. That is not always that they kept beard.” 

In Gopāla Kṛṣṇa prabhu’s last letter, and then again during a phone call, he requested Śrīla Prabhupāda to give him a special power of attorney so he could initiate a court case against a Vṛndāvana bābājī. Prabhupāda had negotiated to buy land at the back of our temple in December last year with the man. Under the signed agreement the bābājī was to sell his land for thirty thousand rupees. He is now demanding four hundred thousand. Although we have already laid a drainage pipe through Mr. Dalmia’s property in front of the land, the bābājī is now blocking the pipe. The effluence is falling on Mr. Dalmia’s land, making him angry, and making it urgently necessary for us to fight the case in court. In his letter Gopāla Kṛṣṇa prabhu said that Bhagatjī feels the local municipal councilor and the local gosvāmīs are behind the trouble since the bābājī is an old man, without resources to fight us without some kind of backing. 

Accordingly, Śrīla Prabhupāda sent out the power of attorney today. He made it out in favor of Akṣayānanda Swami and Haihaya prabhu.  

* * * 

At 4:30 p.m. Śrīla Prabhupāda held a lengthy interview with the editor of a monthly magazine for expatriate Indians, called Trans-India. A perceptive man, the editor asked intelligent questions. He had interviewed a number of devotees yesterday and had a good grasp of how ISKCON worked. 

He began with an observation of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s uniqueness amongst the preachers of Indian spirituality. “Ever since Vivekananda came here in 1893 there has been a lot of interest in this country in Indian philosophy. Recent gurus have come, they have talked about meditation. My own view is that all of these things have influenced the American people, but in a kind of intellectual fad, a kind of fashion. And it seems to me that your intention and aim is not merely to cater to the mind, cater to reason, cater to the intellect, but to effect a kind of transformation of man himself. Is this why you have introduced a whole way of living, a whole way of life, is it? Am I right in suggesting that?” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda gave a lengthy reply, explaining, as he did with Mr. Orwell, that spiritual life was on a different platform of work than the material. He elaborated on the difference of the soul and the body, explaining that he was trying to educate people to the real standard of civilized life, in pursuance of Lord Caitanya’s order. 

 The editor asked Śrīla Prabhupāda the difference between his message and that of other gurus.  

Prabhupāda replied, “First of all, we do not accept anyone as guru if he’s not competent to understand Bhagavad-gītā and preach it also. He’s not a guru. The guru’s definition given in the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa said to Arjuna, ‘My dear Arjuna, this Bhagavad-gītā philosophy or yoga system, first of all I spoke to the sun-god. And then he spoke to his son, Manu. Then Manu spoke to his son, Ikṣvāku.’ In this way the knowledge comes down from the spiritual master to the disciple, or from the father to the son. So unless one comes in this disciplic succession, he cannot become guru. All the swamis and yogis who came here, they do not belong to this paramparā system, so therefore they are not bona fide guru. They are presenting themselves as guru, but they are not guru. Therefore people are misled. People are misled, and this is the first time that we presented India’s traditional philosophy and life as it is understood by the paramparā system. Therefore it is being so well received.”  

Since the man had begun by mentioning Vivekananda, Prabhupāda used his work as an example of non-paramparā ineffectiveness. “Vivekananda came here, as you said, 1893, before my birth. I was born in 1896. But they have worked for, say, eighty-five years. What they have done? But I have worked here for seven or eight years, and it is now world-wide movement. Why? Because we presented the things as they are. Therefore it is effective. So if the things are presented as they are, the customers will automatically come.” 

When, a little into the conversation, the man asked what Śrīla Prabhupāda’s plans were for India, Prabhupāda used the opportunity to enlarge on this principle of being an authorized preacher. At the same time he gave an interesting synopsis of his early efforts to preach. “I wanted to start this Movement from India. I even requested Mahatma Gandhi, that ‘Mahatmaji, you have got some respect all over the world, and you are known as a great student of Bhagavad-gītā. Now you have got your svarāj, the Britishers have gone away. Let us preach Bhagavad-gītā.’ But I don’t think I got any reply from him. Of course he was very busy man. My letter might have reached him or not reached him. The secretaries might have rejected. I think received from secretary, like that. But then after few days he was killed. So I was trying for this purpose in India. I approached many friends, that ‘You have got four sons. Give me one son so that I can train him how to become a real preacher of Bhagavad-gītā how one can understand.’ Because Bhagavad-gītā is being misinterpreted. So I wanted to preach it as it is. That was my mission. So practically nobody joined me. Then I decided to come here, and these boys cooperated. 

“So I have got great desire to, because India is by nature Kṛṣṇa conscious. But our modern leaders keeping them suppressed, that is the difficulty. There are so many other difficulties, and leaders are misinterpreting Bhagavad-gītā. To tell you frankly, there are so many commentaries on Bhagavad-gītā by Dr. Radhakrishnan, by Gandhi, by Tilak, by Aurobindo or many others. But nobody has said that ‘Here is God, Kṛṣṇa.’ Do you admit or not? Has anybody said that, ‘Here is God, Kṛṣṇa. You are searching after God. Here is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Worship Him’? Nobody has stated. Am I right or not?” 

The editor said he hadn’t read many different commentaries. Just Gandhi’s and Radhakrishnan’s. 

“Gandhiji has preached or Dr. Radhakrishnan has written,” Prabhupāda continued, “but who has preached that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is to be worshiped? Just like we are preaching. Here in America, you have seen our temple. How they are worshiping Kṛṣṇa? So Bhagavad-gītā, main purpose is that. Kṛṣṇa says sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ  śaraṇaṁ  vraja. So who has preached this? So although they came—so many swamis, yogis and politicians—they came, but they talked—what can I say?—all irrelevant. Nobody spoke that ‘Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. You worship Him.’ Nobody has said. This is the first time, I am saying. Do you agree or not?” 

“Yes. Do you think that this is because of the Western influence under which they have gone?” 

“They did not come to teach,” Prabhupāda said. “But they wanted to be victimized by the Western people. They had no strength to save themselves. They have no strength. They have no determination. Hodgepodge, that’s all. Therefore it was not successful; not a single man became Kṛṣṇa conscious. Even nowadays.” Once again he cited Vivekananda. “He is famous in India that ‘He preached in America, all Americans have become Vedantists,’ something like that. Now, practically, you have gone in Vṛndāvana?”  

The editor said he had, but before our temple was opened, so he had not seen it.  

“So we have got our temple,” Prabhupāda said, “that is considered the best temple in Vṛndāvana. Thousands and thousands of Americans went to Vṛndāvana for our temple and other temples. But there is another Vivekananda, Ramakrishna āśrama, nobody went there. Not a single person. So what preaching they have done, from practical point of view? So many men went to our temple. They had no inquiry even that ‘We have heard that there is a Ramakrishna Mission Temple here, where it is?’ Vṛndāvana is not a very big city, everyone knows. Nobody, not a single person went there. And they visited other temples. So what kind of preaching, hmm? What do you think?” 

The editor hypothesized that a religion could not be expected to prosper or even survive in a culture that was the very antithesis of what it stood for. “And that’s why your Movement, you are trying to suggest that the only way you can attain mokṣa, or liberation, or whatever, is through a particular kind of culture that you are propagating.” 

Prabhupāda quickly responded that it was not a “particular” culture he was propagating; it was the culture. He quoted two verses from Bhagavad-gītā. The first, (4.9) said that if one understands Kṛṣṇa as He is, one never has to take birth again in the material realm; the second, (9.3), stated that one who has no faith in Kṛṣṇa’s teachings cannot escape the repeated cycle of birth and death. “They do not know it, what is cycle of birth and death, how one can get out of it. Just like the flies with great force falls in the fire. They are very busy. What is their busy-ness? Falling in the fire. This is going on. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is just to save the people who go down by the force of the laws of material nature in the cycle of birth and death.” 

The editor asked one last question and then took his leave. He seemed very satisfied with his interview and honored to have met Śrīla Prabhupāda. 

* * * 

Before the Trans-India interview,  one of the devotees had supplied to Śrīla Prabhupāda a Time magazine to give him an idea of what type of magazine Trans-India was. After the depature of the interviewer Prabhupāda browsed through the Time for a few minutes. Looking up from his desk and pushing the magazine away to its edge he told me, “No one should read these magazines. They are presented in such a way that it makes the material world appear as if it is real.” 

* * * 

In the evening the devotees showed Prabhupāda a film of last week’s Philadelphia Ratha-yātrā which Prabhupāda enjoyed.  

Tamal Krishna detailed some of the plans for tomorrow’s New York Ratha-yātrā. Hundreds of devotees are already here, with many more expected. The parade will begin at 2:00 p.m. and is expected to reach Washington Square Park by 4:00 p.m.  

Tamal Krishna Mahārāja wanted to leave it to Śrīla Prabhupāda to decide his degree of participation; however, he made three suggestions: Prabhupāda could come at the start and go the whole way, just come at the end, or join the parade halfway. Tamal said the devotees would be more than happy with whatever Prabhupāda decided; they were already fully satisfied just knowing he was there.  

Prabhupāda, however, left it to Tamal to make the decision. So after consultation with other senior leaders, Tamal proposed that Prabhupāda join the carts at about the halfway mark. This would allow Śrīla Prabhupāda to follow his normal schedule of noon massage, bath, lunch and a rest before joining the parade around 3:00 p.m. They felt that would not be too strenuous. He said they had arranged for a Winnebago with a toilet in it to travel along side the chariots in case Śrīla Prabhupāda required it.  

Prabhupāda appreciated this thoughtfulness, recalling that when he attended the London Ratha-yātrā three years ago he had walked the whole route, but it was troublesome because of his kidney problems. 

July 18th, 1976

Prabhupāda has been waiting for this day when he can witness Ratha-yātrā in the place he first began ISKCON just ten years ago. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda maintained his regular program this morning, except there was no class because all the devotees were fully engaged in preparing for the festival. We drove past the ratha site just in time to see the devotees pulling the chariots to the parade start. As we neared them, Śrīla Prabhupāda suggested that the devotees include all the temple vehicles in the procession. “Full opulence,” he said as he smiled. “Ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇa.” 

Tamal Krishna Mahārāja caught up the proposal with enthusiasm, lamenting that only three buses and a few vans were present out of the twenty-five vans and eight buses the Rādhā-Dāmodara party has. However, he and Ādi-keśava assured Prabhupāda they would at least all be there along with all the temple cars, with the exception of the older vehicles. 

Ādi-keśava told us that each chariot weighed fourteen thousand pounds. Even with their top canopies lowered they looked formidable. Seven and a half feet tall steel wheels were covered in mirrors, and their brightly painted frames dazzled. Prabhupāda was very impressed with them, commenting several times how strong and nicely made they were. Jayānanda prabhu, who Rāmeśvara Mahārāja said had worked throughout the last five nights to ensure the carts were ready, was leading the carts looking tired, yet blissful. He had been working all night with sixty other men to get the carts to the beginning of the parade route, and had drafted another fifteen men to help with one of the chariots that was refusing to budge.  

Just as Śrīla Prabhupāda’s car pulled close, that chariot began to move. The devotees were all shouting, “Prabhupāda! Balarāma!” to gain both strength and enthusiasm. When they saw Śrīla Prabhupāda in the car they began to shout and pull with even greater vigor. “Jaya Prabhupāda!” they called out. Śrīla Prabhupāda smiled and called back, “Jaya. Hare Kṛṣṇa!” 

Rāmeśvara reminded Śrīla Prabhupāda how in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta he had written that just as the cart of Jagannātha in Puri is compared to Mount Sumeru, similarly, in London they were comparing it to Lord Nelson’s column. 

Prabhupāda said the British newspaper, the Guardian, had published its report with the words, “Rival to Nelson’s column.” 

Tamal Krishna said the Guardian was a good newspaper. Prabhupāda, however, felt they were now against us for political reasons. “Only politics. So mean-minded, they have no idea even beyond politics.” 

As we walked around the park Tamal Krishna Mahārāja told Śrīla Prabhupāda that when they had applied to the city for permission to hold Ratha-yātrā they only said it was going to be a small parade with some hand-drawn floats.  Tamal laughed. “Another trick of the Hare Kṛṣṇas.” 

Prabhupāda smilingly compared them to Lord Vāmana asking Bali Mahārāja for charity. “Bali Mahārāja was asked for three feet of land. ‘Very good. You speak so nicely, such intelligent, but You are boy; You do not know how to ask. I can give You a big island.’ ‘No, I must be satisfied as I require. I don’t want more. Only three feet, that’s all.’ ” 

Prabhupāda told us that right now he was writing about that story in the Eighth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.He described how Bali Mahārāja’s guru, Śukrācārya, had chastised his disciple, “ ‘Rascal, if you give like that, where you will stay? He’ll take everything!’ Smārta-brāhmaṇa. Simply considering, ‘How I shall live?’ He rejected guru. ‘You are not guru.’ ” 

Satsvarūpa Mahārāja asked, “But that guru told him to worship Viṣṇu officially.”  

“No,” Prabhupāda said. “He was by nature Vaiṣṇava, like the grandfather, Prahlāda Mahārāja.” 

Satsvarūpa Mahārāja said that although Bali was born in a demon family, he was not a demon. Śrīla Prabhupāda confirmed that, adding another one of his interesting observations. “Demon family, still, they are kṣatriyas. Just like the Europeans and Americans, they were kṣatriyas, now they have become demons. Actually they are kṣatriyas. I have studied. And the Jews are vaiśyas.”  

That brought a laugh, since Rāmeśvara and Tamal Krishna are both from Jewish families.Tamal Krishna added humorously, “That’s why they call them the American Maḍwaris.” 

Prabhupāda laughed. “Yes. They know how to do business and earn money.” 

Rāmeśvara Mahārāja noted the day’s clear sky, prompting Prabhupāda to produce another humorous anecdote. “Yes, good morning. When the sky is clear the Englishmen call, ‘Good morning.’ This is the origin of ‘good morning,’ because, unfortunately, in their country the sky is never clear. If by chance some day it is clear, they say, ‘Oh, it is a good morning.’ That is the origin of that. One Englishman told me.” 

“But now they always greet each other by saying ‘Good morning, sir,’ ” Tamal said. 

“No, it has become now a phrase. But originally the word originated when the morning was good, because that is a great fortune for them. Yes, in London I was three months; always gloomy, damp, cloudy. Therefore on television they asked, ‘What is your idea of hell?’ and I, ‘This is hell, London.’ He stopped; he did not ask anything more. This is hell. Simply by big, big buildings, you are keeping as heaven, but it is the hell.” Everyone laughed. 

Having spent a lot of time in India with Śrīla Prabhupāda, Tamal Krishna Mahārāja knew Prabhupāda’s view of the history of the British Raj. “The British propagated in India though that everything was like milk and honey in Britain.” 

Prabhupāda smiled. “They propagated the Thames River as very big river. And when I first saw it—it is canal.” 

Our route back to the car took us past the Museum of Natural History. Rāmeśvara said that the planetarium presented atheistic arguments to show life as being chemically based with the stars created by chemical reactions.  

Tamal Krishna said that as a child he had gone and played with an exhibit of a number of weighing scales which each purported to give the weight of a person on a particular planet. The scale for the moon planet showed his weight to be one-sixth his weight on earth. He asked Śrīla Prabhupāda if the idea of lighter weight was correct.  

“First thing is that it is full of life. Full of very, very intelligent demigods,” Prabhupāda replied. “They have never gone.” 

“If a devotee were to go to the moon, would he see all of these very intelligent demigods?” Tamal asked. 

“Yes.” 

“So if someone actually went there, they would see this life. It’s not that you have to have special vision to see it.” 

“But you have to qualify yourself,” Prabhupāda added. 

* * * 

Prabhupāda took his massage, prasādam and rest half an hour earlier than usual, so he was ready to go when the car arrived at 3:00 p.m. to take him to the parade. As the car moved down 7th Avenue across the intersections we could see the chariots making their way down 5th Avenue. The parade was so long that the lead cart, Lord Jagannātha’s, and the third one, Lord Balarāma’s, crossed two different junctions simultaneously, both surrounded by huge crowds of devotees and onlookers.  

Our car pulled up at the Empire State Building, on 34th Street and 5th Avenue, where Prabhupāda waited the arrival of the chariots. We looked back up 5th Avenue to see the incredible spectacle of three brightly festooned rathas, their multicolored canopies reaching high into the air, majestically gliding down the man-made concrete canyon with an entourage stretching back for blocks. Six hundred devotees chanted and danced in multiple kīrtana parties, in front and on all sides, glorifying the Lord of the universe. Many thousands of onlookers lined the sidewalks, including a large turnout from the Indian community. Prabhupāda said it was a long-cherished dream come true. 

The lead chariot went past us and then the parade came to a halt. Śrīla Prabhupāda stepped out of his car and, surrounded by an escort of sannyāsīs using their daṇḍas as a makeshift barrier, he approached Lady Subhadrā’s chariot, his hands held together in respectful praṇāmas. Prabhupāda walked slowly through the crowd which pressed forward to see him, almost hemming him in. Television and news reporters were there in force. They were practically fighting with each other to try to get their photo shots and a possible interview. Śrīla Prabhupāda ascended the chariot and sat comfortably on the vyāsāsana which the devotees had mounted under the front deck between the wheels.  

With Tamal Krishna Mahārāja, Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja, Rādhāballabha dāsa, Candanācārya dāsa, myself and some other devotees flanking him, the parade restarted. Rādhāballabha carried a walkie-talkie. He told me afterward that he and several others who stuck close by Śrīla Prabhupāda throughout the parade were all armed in case there was any trouble. But everything went very smoothly—ecstatically—as one large group of devotees after another took turns to come before Subhadrā’s chariot, each one chanting and dancing with abandon before His Divine Grace before peeling off to make way for the next. And all along the route New Yorkers and tourists stood by the roadside, amazed and delighted by the grand spectacle.  

After an hour or so the chariots arrived at their Washington Square Park destination where many thousands more spectators were milling around, inspecting various booths and awaiting the arrival of the Lord. Our chariot pulled into the park, just at the side of a large stage. Prabhupāda, grinning broadly, dismounted and was led to the stage while the devotees prepared for his lecture.  

The smoothness with which the devotees had handled the parade was marred somewhat at this point because they made the mistake of thinking that they could use the vyāsāsana from the chariot for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s lecture on stage. But they had problems getting it moved, and this resulted in Prabhupāda having to stand around for about ten minutes while they struggled to set it up. He asked for water, but none was on hand, and it was another fifteen minutes before some arrived. Prabhupāda became a little annoyed with all this. Then devotees proceeded to bring the three deities to a platform directly behind and above him during his lecture, thus interrupting him. But apart from these hitches, Prabhupāda was delighted with the whole affair. It was an impressive achievement in the most famous and important city in the world, and a triumphant climax to Prabhupāda’s American tour. 

His talk was very short. He began by giving a brief summary of the origin of the festival, describing how Kṛṣṇa came to take the form of Lord Jagannātha. “Formerly one king of the name Indradyumna, he started the temple of Jagannātha in Orissa at Purī. Perhaps some of you have gone there, know there is a very, very old temple, according to modern calculation, not less than two thousand years old. There is the Jagannātha Deity. The King was very much anxious to establish a temple of Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and Subhadrā, but there was a contract between the sculptor and the King that the sculptor would go on working in closed door and the King should not disturb him. But when many days passed the King felt, ‘What this worker is doing?’ So he forcefully opened the door, and he saw that the sculptor could not finish the Deity. So this form of Jagannātha, Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and Subhadrā was unfinished. They were going under construction, carving, but the King forcibly opened the door. Therefore the King said, ‘I shall worship this unfinished Deity, never mind.’ So this Jagannātha you see in this form because King Indradyumna wanted to worship Him in that form. So this is devotee’s willing; Kṛṣṇa accepts everyone’s devotional service if it is offered with love and affection.” 

He said anyone from anywhere in the world could worship Kṛṣṇa because He is the father of all living entities, as described in the Bhagavad-gītā. “Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ/ tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā.  God is the supreme father of everyone. If we simply study this verse, that the mother nature is the mother of all living entities, and God is the supreme father of everyone, we can study these two lines very carefully. On the earth we can see so many living entities are coming out, beginning from the grass, then so many insects, reptiles, big trees, then animals, birds, beasts, then human beings, they are all coming from the earth, and they are living at the expense of earth. The earth is supplying food to everyone. As the mother gives life or maintains the child by the milk of her breast, similarly, the earth mother is maintaining all different types of living entities. There are different forms of life, and Mother Earth is supplying food.  

“We see the mother, Mother Earth, and we see the children in different forms, then we must accept that there is father, because without father there is no possibility of mother begetting children. You simply understand this philosophy of father, mother and children, then you can very easily understand that there is God, the supreme father; there is no difficulty. But if you do not become reasonable as human being, if you remain as animal like cats and dogs, the dogs cannot understand that there is the supreme father, God, but a human being can understand. He has got intelligence. So with this advanced intelligence, if we do not understand about the existence of God, our relationship with Him, and what is our duty in that relationship, then this human form of life will be spoiled. Our, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is checking the human society from spoiling the human form of life. This human form of life, by the evolutionary process we have got after millions and millions of years, and if we spoil this life eating, sleeping, mating and defending like the cats and dog without any sense of God, then our life is spoiled. So please do not take this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement as any sectarian movement. It is the science of God.” 

He ended, “We have got so many books. So kindly take advantage of this Movement and impartially try to understand what is the purpose of this Movement, why we are distributing so many literatures. Soberly and with calm head, try to understand this Movement and be happy. That is our only mission. Thank you very much.” 

To the cheers of the huge crowd of devotees, Śrīla Prabhupāda dismounted the stage and returned to the temple, leaving his disciples to continue on with the festival into the late evening.  

Once back at the temple he immediately took rest, even though it was only 6:30 in the evening. He was strained, but happy. As I massaged his legs he lay back and laughed, “I thought there would be some fanaticism!” He was referring to a heckler who stood on the square’s fountain at the back of the crowd shouting protests during his lecture. “Did you see that man?” he asked me. “One large black man came up and Thump! he knocked him in the water.” Prabhupāda had seen it all from the stage and he chuckled as he recalled the incident.  

Actually there was practically no disturbance from anyone, except a few fanatic Christians who marched alongside the parade carrying placards that read “Turn or Burn.” 

* * * 

Prabhupāda got up again at 8:00 and Tamal Krishna Mahārāja and Bali-mardana prabhu came to give detailed reports on the day’s events. According to them the festival was a great and unqualified success. There were no real incidents to speak of, and even the police were very happy. Sudāmā Mahārāja and his troupe enthralled the crowd with their dramas. The devotees sold books, made life members, and ran various preaching booths. Devotees came from almost every temple in America and Canada and from as far away as South America to make it a truly international celebration. Everyone agreed that it was the biggest and most successful festival ISKCON has staged in the West. Tamal Krishna Mahārāja estimated that between thirty and forty thousand people went through the park in five or six hours. Over seven thousand people enjoyed seven different kinds of free prasādam, and sales of sweets and watermelon slices brought in over five thousand dollars.  

Prabhupāda liked it when they told him a single piece of burfī sold for a dollar and that a slice of melon went for fifty cents. “People, they are simple here. They are not, about money matters, so much attracted. They have got enough money. They don’t care. They want that it is good taste, that’s all.”  

Typically, Prabhupāda asked if the crazy boy who had been shouting also got prasādam. Tamal told him he thought he must have because free prasādam was given to everyone.  

Prabhupāda also asked if the police were given prasādam. Tamal said he wasn’t sure because Toṣaṇa Kṛṣṇa prabhu was looking after them. “We’ll bring them some present tomorrow,” he said. “But they made the statement that ‘If every parade was so beautiful and so nicely orderly, we would be very happy.’ ” 

“Yes,” Prabhupāda said. “And that cannot be expected from any other group, only in this group. Such a huge crowd, and there was not a single instance of violence.” 

Prabhupāda suggested to them that the devotees purchase a building in the Washington Square locale and have two parades: one going and, seven days later, another returning. Lord Jagannātha could stay in the downtown building and a weeklong festival could be held in the park. Then the rest of the year they could use the house for preaching. He had previously told them they could open temples in every district of New York. “Uptown, downtown, all around the town!” 

Tamal Krishna attempted to persuade Prabhupāda to remain in New York, tempting him with the temple facilities and the promise of being able to write. He said that if Prabhupāda came to stay he and the devotees would work day and night and give up all personal considerations in order to preach.  

Prabhupāda laughed at his persistence, praising his determination. He said that he was agreeable to the offer, but other devotees wanted to see him too. Apart from that, he said that in India his presence was required. “If the government is going against our Movement, then I’ll have to stay. There is no alternative.” Prabhupāda told us that as a result of the Emergency called by Indira Gandhi, and the jailing of her opponents, the result will be that she and her Congress Party will never be elected again. “That is sure. Therefore she’s postponing election. Now they have lost all their credit. They will never be elected. Congress Party and Indira Gandhi finished.” 

As we talked Śravaṇānanda prabhu came in with some 7 UP. Prabhupāda had asked me for some when he woke from his rest. He sipped the fizzy soft drink and told us, “From my childhood I liked this lemonade. I think it was cost, in our childhood, three paisā.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja came in, exuberant from a full day’s chanting and preaching. He had led one of the kīrtana groups in the parade. Several times he came before Śrīla Prabhupāda’s chariot, his face aglow, fully enlivened to be out with the devotees in the midst of the action. Śrīla Prabhupāda smiled and complimented him, “Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja chanted.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa also had good things to say about the festival. “Prabhupāda, this festival was wonderful. So many people took prasādam, and afterward they had a play and then they did some bhajanas, and the people were enchanted by the whole thing. And the neighbors there, they said that ‘In the five years I’ve lived by the park, the park has never been so nice.’ ” 

Prabhupāda inquired whether Ambarīṣa had been there. Bali-mardana said he was in the parade, but had returned to Boston immediately after. He said he had been very willing to cooperate with any publicity and had no objection to his name being used. 

It was very late, after ten, and Prabhupāda told the devotees to take rest. “You have all worked so hard.” 

July 19th, 1976

The devotees were in Prabhupāda’s room early this morning to show him the newspaper coverage of the parade. It was all favorable, and he was especially pleased with the New York Times and DailyNews articles. The Daily News had dedicated its center photographic section to the event with many good photos and captions. The headline was “Fifth Avenue, Where East Meets West.” The Times carried a similar heading, “East Meets West in Hare Krishna Fete.”  

Śrīla Prabhupāda ordered his secretary to send copies of the papers to Ramkrishna Bajaj. He said that someone other than us should send them to Indira Gandhi. He felt the headlines of the articles had captured what he said yesterday on his walk before the parade. “This title is very nice. This is the point. East, as I say always, the lame man meets the blind man. Together they do wonderful, and different they cannot do anything. He is blind, he is lame. But they join together, Indian culture and American money, they will save the whole world.” 

Prabhupāda listened as Tamal Krishna Mahārāja read out the Daily News article. “Very nicely written. ‘With everybody pulling together and everybody puffing together, a huge float is tugged down Fifth Avenue yesterday during the first Ratha-yatra Parade of International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The parade moved south from Central Park to Washington Square Park, where a free feast, music, art, dance and theater festival was held. According to a spokesperson, Ratha-yatra is a time when people come to dance, sing and feast amidst a sublime atmosphere of bright flags, festoons, banners, garlands, flowers and incense, simply to feel the poetry and blissful nature of life.’ ” 

Prabhupāda liked the writing. “Very good, this is blissful nature.” 

Then Tamal Krishna read out the New York Times version of events. “This one is not bad, but it’s not so accurate. ‘In size it was dwarfed by “Operation Sale.” In popular concern it was outweighed by the Democratic National Convention. But for hundreds of Hare Krishna followers, including many Indian immigrants to New York, yesterday’s Ratha-yatra festival was by far the most important event in an eventful month. Pulling three brightly-colored chariots down Fifth Avenue from Central Park to Washington Square, the religious group’s adherents were celebrating one of the oldest holy days of the Indian calendar, the feast of Jagannatha, the Lord of the Universe, according to Krishna doctrine. Most of the participants in the parade were young Westerners, followers from as far away as Caracas and Montreal. But the crowd included hundreds of Indians who brought the basic Krishna faith with them from Bombay and Calcutta.’ ” 

Prabhupāda felt it good that they had mentioned the Indians. “That’s nice.” 

Tamal Krishna read on. “ ‘Like many other immigrant groups who preserved their forms of worship once they came to America, the Indians who watched or participated in the parade were pleased to see that they could keep the faith even in New York City.’ ”  

Prabhupāda laughed when heard that. “These rascals, let them come, they become baṛa sāhib.” 

Tamal continued reading. “ ‘While Hare Krishna propounds doctrines of world renunciation common to other varieties of the Hindu faith, the sect, officially known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, was founded in 1966 by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, whose fame as a guru came only after he arrived in the United States in the same year. For most of the Indians watching the parade, however, Hare Krishna was close enough to their brand of Hinduism to make them feel at home.’ ” 

At this Gurudāsa Mahārāja commented that the paper was not taking us lightly by recognizing that we are not a cult. Prabhupāda nodded.  

The paper quoted comments from onlookers, Indians, and Westerners, practically all very favorable. “ ‘It’s surprising that you find this right in New York City. It’s our way of life,’ said Nagan Patel, a civil engineer from Jersey City, who immigrated from Bombay. ‘We love New York City and America. It’s the most beautiful place in the world. No other country will give such freedom for our own ceremony.’ ” 

“That’s a fact,” Prabhupāda interjected. “That I say always.” 

Tamal read the last section. “ ‘But the Krishna people were not entirely free of harassment. Along the parade route three men, including one who said he was an Evangelical Christian minister, jeered at the parade and called on parade watchers to become Christians. “Idol worship. This is absolutely ridiculous. Read the Bible,” cried one man who would identify himself only as a normal Christian. There was a brief scuffle when an Indian immigrant tried to tear a large placard out of the hands of another heckler. The placard read “Turn or Burn.” The police broke things up but made no arrests. “They are insulting us,” said the Krishna follower who declined to identify himself. “I’m a devotee of Krishna and Christ. These people who are doing this in the name of Christ are criminals.” Except for the hecklers, however, the parade was generally very well received by passersby, who enjoyed the three multi-hued floats, the sun, and the chanting and dancing of the young Krishna marchers. “I think it’s great,” said Tyrone Adams of Philadelphia, who was paying a visit to his home town of Inglewood, New Jersey. “I’m not religious, but they’re all happy and dancing, and that is what life is all about.” In Washington Square a crowd of about three thousand, many of whom were there as part of the normal Sunday afternoon activities, heard Swami Prabhupāda deliver a lecture. Later the crowd was served a free vegetarian feast. Along the side, Krishna followers sold Indian sweets, Krishna scriptures, and what one speaker described as “transcendental paraphernalia.” ’ ” 

Dhṛṣṭadyumna added that every major television channel carried the story on their news programs last night, with CBS giving it two and half minutes, all of it favorable.  

Tamal paraphrased the official in charge of the park who was interviewed by CBS. “He said that, ‘We are very proud to be able to say that this park was founded hundreds of years ago, when America was religious.’ And he said, ‘Spiritual life is still present in Washington Square Park.’ ” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was very pleased with the reportage. On the walk today Prabhupāda again suggested they have a second festival, one week after the first, which is called Ultā-ratha. He said the deities could stay downtown for a week and then return in a similar procession to their permanent home. 

* * * 

Śrīla Prabhupāda gave class on Caitanya-caritāmṛtaMadhya-līlā 20.111. The verse stated that Lord Kṛṣṇa has three main energies, the spiritual potency, the living entities and the material energy. Using the example of the sun and the sunshine, Prabhupāda described these three emanations of God. He urged his followers to go forward on the basis of real knowledge, and develop their appreciation and relationship with Kṛṣṇa. “You have to study śāstras for understanding His position, and if we understand Kṛṣṇa, then we become liberated person immediately. So those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they should study scientifically. Not by sentiment. After full knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, when you become absorbed in Kṛṣṇa’s form, that is called budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ. So that bhāva stage does not come immediately. You have to practice. There are stages. So, this is the beginning. Ādau śraddhā. Just like yesterday. They very much appreciated this Ratha-yātrā ceremony and they wrote very frankly, ‘Here is the point of meeting.’ The newspapers they have written like that. It is actually the fact.” 

New York is the seat of the United Nations, an organization which Śrīla Prabhupāda has often compared ISKCON to, at least in terms of practical effect. The devotees laughed as he said, “We cannot become united nations of united dogs. Everyone is barking. If you practice to bark, then simply some different types of dog, some bulldogs, some greyhounds, so how they will be united? That is not possible. Here is unity. Actually if we take Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement very seriously, scientifically, then there is unity. Paṇḍita means learned, he is sama-darśinaḥ. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati /samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām [Bg. 18.54]. Actually this is the platform where we can unite. And by practical example you have shown everyone dancing and chanting, never mind whether Indian, American, black, white, children or old like me. This is wanted.  

“When we thoroughly understand what is the basic principle of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and we understand Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, is the central point, then our life is successful. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ.Mahātmā means ‘great soul.’ So great soul, one who has understood that Kṛṣṇa is the source of everything. Just like the sun is the source of material energy.  

“I request you that each and every one of you just become mahātmā, not crippled, but broad-minded. That is possible when we understand Kṛṣṇa is the source of all energy. Thank you very much.”  

After handing out cookies Śrīla Prabhupāda stepped down from his vyāsāsana and returned to his room. Because of his weak health he didn’t remain for the initiation ceremony which followed. Gurudāsa Mahārāja conducted the fire ceremony. Jagadīśa prabhu handed out the beads, which had been chanted on by the sannyāsīs, along with the new spiritual names to about a hundred candidates. It was one of the biggest initiations of this tour. Among the initiates were Bob Cohen and his wife. Bob had several sessions with Śrīla Prabhupāda in India in 1974, where he was stationed as a Peace Corps worker. Their conversations are now being transcribed into a book to be called Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers. This morning he received the name Brahmatīrtha dāsa, and his wife is now Bhakti dāsī. 

* * * 

A letter came from the former wife of a leading sannyāsī, pleading that she be allowed to remarry. It was respectfully phrased, explaining her difficulty in being without a husband. She said that she had married at an early age and then one year later her husband took sannyāsā when she was eighteen. She explained that somehow she had managed to maintain her Kṛṣṇa consciousness over the last four years, but she felt by her nature she must be married. She did not want anything untoward to happen which would disturb Śrīla Prabhupāda, so she humbly requested him to sanction this. Her current engagement was caring for the temple Deities, where she worked alongside an unmarried brahmacārī. Finding some compatibility between the two of them, she requested Śrīla Prabhupāda’s blessings to marry him. The brahmacārī also signed her letter.  

As soon as Prabhupāda heard it he became alarmed. “This is illicit sex!” he said emphatically and called for Tamal Krishna Goswami. Allowing such an action, he felt, would greatly disturb her former husband, who is actively preaching with great success. At the same time he was sympathetic to the girl’s honesty in expressing her plight. After some discussion he called for Pālikā dāsī, a friend to the girl, and he requested Pālikā to contact her tell her confidently that “Prabhupāda does not at all approve.” He also sent a reply to the girl advising her to leave her present situation and come to New York, where there was opportunity to preach and develop her Kṛṣṇa consciousness in association with other women devotees. 

Upendra sent a letter from Fiji giving a vague report on recent events there. He said that after Śrīla Prabhupāda’s last letter to Vāsudeva dāsa, he and Vāsudeva had a full day’s meeting, which was heated at times. Without giving any details Upendra said that Vāsudeva had already sent what he described as “a very poor summary of the situation.” He felt one of the problems was Vāsudeva’s conditioning, which makes him think like an Indian, and his own, which makes him think like a Westerner. So somehow or other, it seems they are not agreeing. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda has not received anything so far from Vāsudeva in reply to his letter, so he asked Upendra to see that it is sent on to him in Paris. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda also dictated several letters connected to the Ratha-yātrā. He sent Jayānanda prabhu a special message of thanks for all his hard work. “My dear Jayananda dasa, Please accept my blessings. For so long I have wanted to have Rathayatra in New York and now at long last you have helped me fulfill this long-cherished dream. The Ratha-carts were very strong and attractive and I thank you and all of your assistants for working so hard to prepare such nice carts. May Krishna bless you all for your sincere service that you may all go on making more and more advancement in Krishna Consciousness.” 

He also sent similar thank you notes to Toṣaṇa Kṛṣṇa prabhu and Ādi-keśava Mahārāja for all their hard work in organizing the event. 

To Mr. Ramakrishna Bajaj Prabhupāda wrote, “Enclosed please find newsclippings of our Rathayatra Festival held on 5th. Avenue, New York last Sunday. They are taking it seriously now, ‘East meets West. . .’ This is the real platform of United Nations, spiritual understanding. I wish that the coordinator of the Gita Pratisthan will preach the gospel of the Gita on this understanding.” 

And to Jayapatāka Swami in Māyāpur he sent a similar batch of clippings, with a request that he give copies to Mr. Chaudhuri, the man who visited him in February from the Department of Development and Planning in Calcutta. In his own hand he added, “I always remember Mr. Chaudhry and his good wife.” He also informed Jayapatāka Mahārāja that Gurukṛpa Swami would be sending him $10,000 per month for construction purposes in Māyāpur. 

* * * 

Kīrtanānanda Swami came with a box full of clay. He requested Prabhupāda to stand in it so that they could get imprints of his lotus feet. Prabhupāda willingly complied. As he stood on the talcum powder-covered clay surface I pressed on his feet to help make the indent. He stepped off, but the impression was too faint because the clay had filled the whole box and so had nowhere to expand to.  

Kīrtanānanda took the box away and returned a few minutes later having removed a one inch strip all the way around. Prabhupāda stepped on again and allowed me to push down on his feet quite firmly. The clay yielded and clear, deep impressions formed, showing even the lines marking the soles of his feet. Everyone was happy with the result. Kīrtanānanda intends to make a mold which will be reproduced in silver for installation in all our temples. 

* * * 

Prabhupāda had a peaceful evening to himself. At about eight o’clock he went up on the roof and sat silently for a while, accompanied by only myself. He chanted japa quietly for about an hour and then returned to his room.  

July 20th, 1976

Instead of walking in Central Park, Prabhupāda took his exercise in Riverside Park, along the Hudson River. He told us this was the route he used to take in 1966 to get to Dr. Misra’s apartment in order to do his cooking.  

Pointing with his cane to the concrete path, he indicated grass growing here and there. Then he asked why they say that there is no life on the moon. “Life is everywhere, even from the stone it is coming.” He explained how scientists say that there is simply sand on the moon, but sand is produced from water. Therefore there must have been water on the moon prior to sand, and thus there must also have been vegetation. According to the Bhāgavatam there is life on the moon, and Prabhupāda backed up this information with his unerring common sense.  

Now with a new group of senior men surrounding him, Prabhupāda again raised the Mars issue, questioning what was the use of going. “What is their idea?” 

Atreya Ṛṣi said, “They constantly want to discover more and more so that they can claim that they are lords.” 

“But what is that discovery?” Prabhupāda asked. “You simply go and see? That’s all?” 

Atreya could see the pointlessness of it and said there was no really valid purpose.  

Rādhāballabha said that it was considered advancement of knowledge. 

 When Gurudāsa said “They want to colonize because there is overpopulation on this planet,” Prabhupāda mocked him. “Eh? Another rascal!” 

Gurudāsa grinned and said, “They want to put the American flag on the moon and say, ‘It is ours.’ ” 

Prabhupāda struck at the nationalistic mentality with biting humor and sarcasm. “And then lick up. ‘Here is American flag.’ And then like dog, lick up urine!” His graphic comparison had everyone in stitches. “So lick up, then dog lick urine. It is useless. Dog’s business.”  

When we stopped laughing, Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa said a little more seriously, “Śrīla Prabhupāda, they feel they should explore the unknown.” 

“That will remain everlastingly unknown,” Prabhupāda said. “They’ll never be able to push. Even with the speed of mind and air they go many, many millions of years, it will still be. This verse of Brahma-saṁhitā, panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām/ so’ py asti yat-prapada-sīmny avicintya-tattve. It is inconceivable. It will never be done. They have some vague idea, ‘There is no life. There is this. There is that.’ Real knowledge they’ll never get. Real knowledge you’ll get from Bhāgavata.” 

 As we walked along the riverside, with the early morning traffic steadily increasing, Prabhupāda asked what the scientists say about the sun.  

Tripurāri Mahārāja replied, “They think it’s too hot for life to exist there.” 

“So how Kṛṣṇa was there?” Prabhupāda asked. 

“They don’t believe that,” Rādhāballabha said. 

“So how can I believe you?” Prabhupāda returned. “If you don’t believe Kṛṣṇa, shall I have to believe you?” 

Rādhāballabha offered the scientific explanation. “They have calculated that as you come within a certain amount, a billion miles of the sun . . . ” 

Prabhupāda showed the flaw in his reasoning. “That is you. That is you, not Kṛṣṇa. That is the difference between you and Kṛṣṇa.” 

Pursuing the theme of credibility and belief, Rādhāballabha, who is full of little anecdotes denoting the foolishness of almost everyone, told Prabhupāda a short story. “About thirty or forty years ago a man named Orson Welles had a radio show, and just as a joke he started giving a news report that the Martians had landed, and people were panicking. They were trying to leave the city in cars in huge numbers.” 

Prabhupāda said that was the difference between the less intelligent class, and those with intelligence, the brāhmaṇas. “A śūdra can be misled at any moment. Strī-śūdra. Woman and śūdra on the same class.” As an example, he told us a story from when he lived in Allahabad. “You can mislead them by high talkings: ‘Oh, I am coming from Indian prince.’ They come here, marry some European, and go to India and then engage her for collecting water in bucket. One Muhammadan crewman, a vagabond, he bluffed one girl that ‘I am coming from Muhammadan prince family.’ Then she married, and she went to Allahabad, and she was given borkhā and she was living in a hut, and then she was bringing water from the street. She wrote a letter to the Viceroy that ‘This is my position.’ Then police came and rescued her and sent her home.”  

Speaking on the gullibility of women made Prabhupāda reflect on the letter he had received yesterday from the sannyāsī’s widow and the danger of having unprotected women freely mixing with men. Without being prompted he told his managers, “Now there should be one rule that unless they are husband-wife, man and woman should not worship together.” 

“On the altar?” Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa asked.  

“Yes. Strictly prohibited,” Prabhupāda emphasized. 

Tamal Krishna asked if that meant on the same altar. He wondered if it was all right if they worked on different altars.  

Prabhupāda said no, even if they worked in different sections of the Deity room it should not be allowed. More specifically he stated, “Man and woman together should not worship unless they are husband and wife.” 

Tamal Krishna Mahārāja wanted to get it very clear. “Never be alone. So just because they are married to someone else, that is not . . . They must be married to each other.” 

Prabhupāda confirmed that his understanding was correct. “They must be together, the man and the woman. The husband-wife can go, not others.” 

As a longtime GBC Tamal Krishna Mahārāja knew the situation in the temples. “In most temples that is not the system right now.”  

“No, that system should be introduced,” Prabhupāda said. “The husband-wife together can go to worship the Deity. If they are not related as husband, they should not go.” 

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Swami thought of another possible scenario. “What about a situation like this, where the husband and wife are worshiping, but also some other brahmacārīs are also worshiping?” 

“Still, that is some protection,” Prabhupāda told his GBCs. “The husband is there. The woman means her husband must be there.” 

By this time the traffic was quite busy, building up for the rush hour. We got into the car and on the way back Rāmeśvara and Tamal Krishna told Prabhupāda they had been to the Museum of Natural History the day before. Tamal said he got a headache after three hours.  

Prabhupāda sympathized with him. “From seeing the dead bodies.” Then he smiled. 

Rāmeśvara told him about the displays. “They have this one trying to prove the Darwin theory of evolution. They have these bones, and they say this proves how man was formerly like an ape or a monkey. Now he has become more civilized.” 

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s sharp intelligence dissected the logic behind the skeletal show. “So where is Darwin’s bones? Darwin got all this knowledge. His bones should be studied first, how he got so much knowledge, and from which monkey he came. By studying the bones, discover it.” 

Tamal Krishna agreed, “Complete concoction.”  

Prabhupāda repeated his challenge. “Ask them to find out from which monkey the Darwin’s bone has come. They may decide. Study the bones of Darwin.” As a final indictment, he added, “And spoiling public money in this way.” 

Rāmeśvara told him about another display which was much more gruesome than dead bones. “One display showed the different stages of the embryo growing. So to have this display they used actual dead aborted babies. They have them mounted in the display case, the dead babies that they have killed. They have taken their tiny little bodies and put them in a display, so you can see the baby at two months, at four months, at six months, at eight months. Like that.” 

Prabhupāda didn’t betray any shock. Instead he chose to examine the philosophy behind such a grotesque show. “How it is growing? When it was put into the bottle, why it did not grow? It remained as it is.” 

“They say because they severed its connection with the mother,” Rāmeśvara answered matter-of-factly. 

“That means the baby has grown from the mother,” Prabhupāda said. “So mother is life. That is the proof. Otherwise how the baby has grown? You cannot say that life can be grown out of matter.” 

“Life from life,” Rāmeśvara said. 

“That’s it,” Prabhupāda said. 

“No one thinks like that,” Rāmeśvara observed. 

“They are all rascals,” Prabhupāda said. “Therefore I say, they have no common sense, all rascals, dull. By eating meat they are . . . They may have strength of a tiger or barking capacity like a dog, but they are not human being. Useless. They cannot be used for anything human benefit—useless. We should take them like that, that ‘You may be a tiger, you may be a lion, you may be a dog, but you are not a human being. We do not accept you.’ A tiger is very powerful than ordinary human being, but that does not mean that a tiger is useful than the human being.” He paused for a moment and then went on. “When I asked, natural answer you gave, ‘Because it is disconnected with the mother.’ That is natural answer. Then how you can say the life has come from matter? Immediately you are captured. Can you say like that, that life has come without life? And they are making us believe like that.” 

Rāmeśvara explained their idea that the body is simply matter and that life enters into it at a certain stage. “Therefore they say they can abort the baby.” 

“That they do not know, when the soul enters,” Prabhupāda told him. “The soul enters in the first night when pregnancy begins. Otherwise how it will grow? Life begins from that point. It grows one day, two day, three day, five day, one month, three months, like that. But the growth, begins from that very point. If the life has got shelter between the two secretions of father and mother, then it grows. That is the only explanation.” 

“They are very bewildered,” Rāmeśvara Mahārja said. “They cannot imagine how a cell within the body is growing. They cannot imagine that there is a soul within it. Or a plant from a seed. They can never understand these things. Actually it’s a fact. When we studied in biology before we became devotees, they never explained how the tree comes from the seed.” 

Prabhupāda gave the reason. “The seed creates a favorable situation, and the life comes. On account of the life’s presence, it grows, it develops. This is right explanation.” 

* * *  

Prabhupāda gave his last class to a packed house. Guru-pūjā vibrated through the building, the last chance for the American devotees to worship their spiritual master in person before he flew halfway across the world, leaving their country thousands of miles behind. 

The verse continued with the description of Kṛṣṇa’s energies, and Prabhupāda gave a beautiful example of how they are working, with the Lord Himself in the background. “He has got so unlimited potency that things are being done as if naturally, without any endeavor. Just like we see one flower growing. Very small flower, the stem is very fine and the flower is decorated different colors. But it is not ordinary thing. If you are a painter, if you paint such a flower it will take so many days. But it is coming. But don’t think simply that it has come automatically. No, there is no such thing as automatically. Same, as you, when you paint a flower you have to employ so much energy, so Kṛṣṇa has also do that, the same energy. But it is because it is so natural for Kṛṣṇa, svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. Simply by His willing it is happening. So He hasn’t got to endeavor for it. That is the difference between Kṛṣṇa’s activities and our activity.” 

He encouraged the devotees to continue the principle of associating together. “Just like you are hearing from the śāstra and we are speaking from the śāstra. This is called sat-saṅga. By sat-saṅga, by real spiritual association, by talking with them, by mixing with them, satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvidaḥ.  Then we can learn about the unlimited potencies of Kṛṣṇa. Then it becomes very pleasing to the heart and to the ear. By satāṁ prasaṅga. Otherwise it is not possible. If you go to a professional reciter, it will enter in this ear and go out this ear, that’s all. Because there is no life. It is business. So you cannot do business with Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is not agreeable to this proposal. He’s master. You cannot utilize Him for your service. You must engage yourself to His service, that is wanted.” 

* * * 

It seems that every time Prabhupāda holds a big initiation, he becomes afflicted with some type of physical ailment. He now has a heavy cold which is worsening. It was bad enough today to warrant him deciding not to have his usual massage with oils. Instead he had me give him a dry one so that he would not have to take a bath.  

He prepared to depart from the temple by 6:00 p.m. for the evening flight to London. His GBC and senior men, however, came to petition him to remain in New York and rest until he got his health back. Some suggested that he retire from all travel and engagements for a few months. They said that even the airlines advise against traveling with a cold. Air conditioning and pressurized cabins have adverse effects, especially on the ears, which become blocked during descent. Having a cold makes it difficult to clear them, and the pressurization brings dizziness and sometimes air-sickness.  

But His Divine Grace politely shrugged aside all their suggestions as he waited by the elevator door. He stepped inside, surrounded by as many sannyāsīs and GBC men that could fit in with him, and began the descent. He turned to them and said with complete clarity and gravity, “I simply want the benediction, like Arjuna, to fight for Kṛṣṇa to the last breath.” He said it with such deep conviction that we all fell utterly silent in appreciation of his full surrender to the Lord and the great sacrifice he continues to make in the service of Kṛṣṇa, for our and the world’s benefit. 

As he exited through the front entrance, Prabhupāda turned to Tamal Krishna Goswami, Ādi-keśava Swami and the other temple managers and told them, “Now we have this building the Deities must never be moved again.” 

Our party is reduced once more to Pradyumna, his wife and child, and myself. Pālikā’s tenure is over, and when we arrive in England Harikeśa Swami will resume his former cooking duties. Viśākhā and Rakṣaṇa’s assignments were for North America only. Gurudāsa Swami has received an invitation to preach in England, and so he is coming with us. Śrutadeva dāsa and his family from Baltimore are taking up a new service in England and are also joining our flight.  

Scores of devotees accompanied Prabhupāda to the airport, holding kīrtana and remaining with him until the last moment at the boarding gate. At 8:00 p.m. we departed New York for London. 

* * * 

Once we had settled in on the flight, I read out a letter which Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja had given me just before we left. He had written it on Ratha-yātrā day but he had requested me to wait until after Prabhupāda’s departure before reading it to him. Prabhupāda listened carefully as Puṣṭa described how he found himself now struggling to maintain his spiritual consciousness. “As of late I have been battling with the material energy and I fear that my consciousness has been dangerously polluted in the struggle. My memory of substantive reality has given way to hopelessness and fatigue under the heavy pressing of the whirlwind modes of material nature. I feel as though I have slipped from the safety of the transcendental boat and I am being swallowed up by the waves of futility and despair. Desires have entered my mind from all directions and it has been a weary struggle against fate.”  

He said he realized that he must have brought this upon himself but declared, “I do not have the strength to wage war any longer. . . . But somehow by a shred of Your Loving Mercy I am hanging on to Your Lotus Feet and praying for these terrible phenomenon to pass.” He finished by making a plea for Prabhupāda’s blessings to carry on, and to give him the strength “to endure this brutal onslaught.”  

It was yet another headache, yet another disappointment, yet another senior sannyāsī disciple experiencing spiritual difficulty. Prabhupāda simply shook his head and murmured, “He is not sincere.” Then he turned away, chanting softly on his beads.