20081017 Initial Days in the Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 17^th, 2008 in Chowpatty, Mumbai, India.

Jayapatākā Swami: Nice to see so many devotees. I was a student in a university in Rhode Island called Brown University. And I was studying physical chemistry. I was a science student, and I was on a full scholarship. But I was wondering what was really the purpose of life. I saw that the professors did not seem like they really believed in what they were teaching. It was just like it was their job, that is why they were teaching it but if you ask any kind of existential question, they say, “Do not ask all those questions.” Whether it is a science teacher, a math teacher, physics teacher. “Do not ask anything spiritual. It is not my subject.” But they also did not seem to really be very much inspired by what they were teaching.

One day there was a professor came from Harvard during the same league. And then, so they had some sharing of professors. I forget what the title of his lecture was, but I went there. And then he was actually talking about all the existential things. He told a story about Siddhārtha who became Buddha. And how he went out from his palace and saw a sick person, an old person and a dead person. A dead body and then a baby that he became… Siddhārtha became shocked that, “We go through these changes. We take rebirth again. And what is the whole point? It is like an insult and an injury. I have to find out what was the purpose of life”, then he went into meditation. So, being an American student, science student, I never have been exposed even to the idea a reincarnation was not in the movies. And now it is in the movies and stuff a little bit.

But in those days, it was not a public issue in the West. Probably different from any of you who at least in your childhood, exposed was a big shock. And I was wondering, “Well, if we go through all these changes...”, and I asked my teachers, and that is when they told me, “Do not bother us. All this stuff is...” So then that kept hounding me. There maybe some higher purpose in life. And then during the vacation, I went to San Francisco, and I went into a bookstore to buy some book about something... to answer my questions. I saw all the books are from India. I asked the store, the bookstore owner, “Why all the books from India? Nothing from America.” “From America? Spiritual thing. That is India.” He said, “Well, I got one book. It is an astral projection. You go into some kind of meditation, and you are projecting your dream body, your astral body, your psychic body.”

So, I brought the book, and I was trying it, but I was not having too much success. Little bit. Sometimes I thought I was kind of picked out and fly around a little bit. So, I thought that. Well, I saw that the author was in San Francisco, so I went to see him. And then I rang on the doorbell. No answer. I heard some noise inside, so I went to the back. He was cooking up something. Big hefty guy. Then I said, “I read your book and wanted to ask you a few questions.” “Okay, okay. Come in.” He took me in his living room. He said, “I want to tell you one thing first. Since I wrote the book, I have been grounded not being able to project. So, then I thought, I do not think there is much use of me advising you because now I am grounded.”

And after that I thought, you know, better I check out all these people that write these books. So, I got some book on yoga. I was trying to do some yoga that I checked out. Went to his āśrama and a big swimming pool. All the girls around there in bikinis go and hug him on. And he does not seem so spiritual. Like that, then I tried Buddhism for a while. Tibetan Buddhism. Rent the boat. But I could not find a... that Buddhist guru to check out. Then I thought, you know, this is like kind of trying out things by trial and error so better I find someone who is a real guru and get some... Someone who is gone through all these things and already come to some realization. I thought maybe then I would not find anybody in San Francisco. So I thought, “Let me go and go to India.”

Then I saw an advertisement for the Ratha-yātrā in San Francisco in 1968. It said you get a vegetarian meal for a ‘twenty-five cents’ donation. I was a vegetarian. I thought, “Okay, at least I will go and get the vegetarian meal and then check it out, see what the people are like.” In those days, ISKCON was in a very basic kind of condition. I went in. Everybody was sitting in the kitchen, around the pots and serving themselves and eating. I was just sitting there. Nobody was serving me at all. And I thought, maybe this is like some spiritual thing of survival of the Philippines. You just go in the pot. Then I wanted to give the twenty-five cents, but they were really spiritual. Nobody was  willing to take it from me. They would all go somewhere else. (laughter)

Then I went next door to the bookshop and to the boutique. There was somebody called Gargamuni there. He is still around. He is in Vṛndāvana and he is sometimes known as ‘Garga-money’. I asked him to take my donation. “Sure, sure, come on.” Then he sold me a set of Bhāgavatams. And that time the set was three books, first Canto and I think $13. I do not know was it a good price or. But still got one of them… two I got. “I got to go now. There is some people in the back can talk to... Thanks a lot.” Locked the door and left. I was not getting too much information.

My first visit, I was trying to find out about this. I went to the back and then somebody came up to me and he said, “You know, we are doing a special project here to save the whole world and need a little help. You know how to hold a nail?” “Yeah, I know how to hold the nail. My uncle had a little wooden workshop in his garage.” Then I held the nail, and he started hammering it in. You know, about holding nail, there is, you know, it is a very technical thing. As soon as it goes in the wood, you have to move your hand. Otherwise, you get your fingers smashed. Maybe not high tech, but there is some technique there. Then he said, “Wow, you did so great. You are an expert nail holder.” He shook my hand, said, “I am Jayānanda. What is your name? At that time, my name was Jay. Not Bhakta Jay but just visitor Jay.

“And you see, you know how to hammer too.” “Yeah, I know, I had a hammer.” He said, “Okay, hold the nail and hammer it in.” Drew some circles on the wood and I was hammering in again. He hit me in the back and hugged me and said, “You are great. You are so...” Showed me a picture of the Ratha-yātrā in Jagannātha Purī. “So, we want to do a festival like this. How amazing that is. A million people or something... 10 lakhs. Build this car here. This is to be a car like that.” “Wow! How long is that going to take? It is going to take a couple of months or maybe a year to build.” “No, no. One week ISKCON project then. So then during a week, you see everyone that pulls the rod, everyone that sees His chariot. These Deities here, these are special that we have in the temple, the Jagannātha, (the people) they all get liberated, they go back to the Godhead. I need your help.” That sounds like good projects – liberate the world.

Then there I was building the ratha with the crew. Maybe eight, nine devotees, hammering the wood and sawing and everything. So, while we were cutting then Jayānanda Prabhu would tell us so many pastimes about Prabhupāda. How great Śrīla Prabhupāda was, how merciful. I thought, “This sounds like a real guru. And I thought, I had like to go eventually to see meet him.” So, I said, “Where is he?” “Well, he is in Canada, in Montreal. Lost his visa for America, he said waiting a new visa. He is going to go to India though.”

Maybe so then I was working with Ratha-yātrā. Then one devotee kind of took me over and showed me how to chant japa. I read the book ‘Easy Journey to Other Planets.’ Well, anti-matter and everything that kind of fit my scientific science. And then there was somebody who said, “Why do not you go out today in the park and just chant?” Since I have been doing yoga and everything, I sat in the park and went into yogāsana and started chanting. And I chanted about thirty-two rounds first day. I thought this is the most intense, wonderful meditation I have ever done. I was feeling so much. I do not know what I was feeling. It was something really super transcendental. And I went back to the temple and that devotee was waiting for me. He said, “Excuse me, you still have those beads in the shirt? By accident I gave you Prabhupāda’s chanting beads. I am not supposed to give those to anybody. Give them back.” Next day it was not quite the same.

So then, I was... Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja was there and Viṣṇujana. They are all chanting and dancing during the kīrtana. So, it was very intense. It was only a week, 10 days. I do not know exactly. Then I decided, if you do not really dive into something, if you do not really try it, how will you ever know if it is right or not? Let me try it out. I am on vacation. I got time before my classes start. Let me try it. Give it an intensive program. And then if it works okay, then I found it. And if it does not work well, at least I go on and keep looking till I find the right thing. So, I decided that Ratha-yātrā day that shave up and become a brahmacārī in ten days. Usually, it takes more time here in Chowpatty.

But that was the beginning of ISKCON, now it is a little. Somehow, they accepted me. I do not know how... So, Jayānanda shaved me up and left a big śikhā still got them and on the Ratha-yātrā day, suddenly all are surprised, “Oh, there is Bhakta Jay, shaved up, pulling the ratha. So, it was then I told the temple president that I wanted to go to see Prabhupāda after the Ratha-yātrā and him now if you would not understand him, he has an Indian accent very hard for Americans to understand him. “So better stay here and do some service in the temple.”

But then some other devotee said, “Do not listen to him. He just wants to get you to do some service.” You offer him a ticket to go see Prabhupāda also and see what he says. So, I tried it. He said, “Really? Give me a ticket to go. Okay.” He became exposed. Then I went to Montreal and there were not so many devotees at that time. Maybe only three temples. There was San Francisco, New York and Montreal and so maybe the whole ISKCON had 150, 200 devotees. I do not know the exact, but the temples had maximum.

So, I am a new brahmacārī shaved up. So, after class, Prabhupāda said, “Who is that?” Gargamuni happened to be there. Gargamuni said, “He is Bhakta Jay from San Francisco” and Prabhupāda said, “Bring him over for lunch tomorrow.” I did not know what I was getting into. Gargamuni was there with Brahmānanda, his big brother. And at that time, I was very skinny and young. I was 19 years old, second year coming to… So they fed me so much prasāda. I could not eat so much. I did not have the capacity. But the other two could eat a lot.

You have to be a devotee for a while till your appetite increases again. (laughter) I remember there was rice, I think it was curry sauce and pakorās. But I do not really know the names of things yet. But from the memory, picture-memory I have, that was the. Perhaps some other sabjīs and other things. So, then Prabhupāda kept saying, “Give him more, give him more.” And I was like ready to bust. Then I had an audience with Prabhupāda – a darśana told him my idea. Maybe go to India. He said, “Yes, do not worry. You stay with me. I will train you up and I will send you to India after a couple years.” That is exactly what happened. I was with Prabhupāda. He was very kind to me, gave me some... I was the assistant to his servant. Kind of an assistant to the assistant of his servant secretary. I could do some personal service.

When they went out shopping after lunch, he would take rest. And then I was door-sitting. There are a few devotees. So they had me sit outside his door. In case he rang his bell, I had go-in and many days he never rang. One day he rang the bell. I went inside and he had a cockroach. Even in Canada they have cockroaches. And he said, “You know, help me open the door, open the window. I opened the window.” Then he told the cockroach, “You are confined in this small little room. I am going to give you now the whole world to enjoy.” Threw him out the window. (laughter) Prabhupāda, everything he said was philosophical and at the same time he had a great sense of humour.

In those days, then he wanted to dye his cloth – the white cloth with saffron. So he gave us, in those days we used the gerūāmāṭi, this rock from the Himalayas somewhere. You grind it up and it becomes saffron. And then you dip your cloth in it and it becomes dyed. It is a very kacchā called kacchā dye. This you dye it with like. That is called pakkā dye, right? So, this was kacchā. So, we were in a bathtub rubbing these stones for hours and hours. Prabhupāda came in and said, “It is not thick enough.” So, we had to go on and on. So, we got the right consistency that it was 9 O’clock. While this was going on, Prabhupāda had gone downstairs the basement for some reason, I do not know, just kind of check it out or whatever. And the secretary when he came up and saw a big rat jumped in front of Prabhupāda and He said, “Hare Rāma!”, and like that, I was noticing every little thing he was doing and how immediately he said the Harināma. Immediate response. The rat ran off.

One day we were going by McGill University, Prabhupāda was walking, and he said in the McGill University library, one of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s book was there – Life and Teachings of Lord Caitanya, he sent a book to McGill. Later Prabhupāda wrote some article about. There was one cardiologist named McGill who said that it seems there is something more than meets the eye. Because he did many open-heart surgeries. People die. Seems like something leaves them. It is like some kind of sparkle in the eye and go. It is gone. He said something when the blood goes through the heart, it gets energized. So, he called it a ticker. Then Prabhupāda wrote to him on all this.

How there is a spirit soul in the heart that helps all these things. It is a while it is in some of the books. This letter to the doctor McGill. So I was there like that everyday walking with Prabhupāda and with other devotees. And it was a very wonderful experience. Then some devotees stopped by to see get the blessing of Prabhupāda. They are going to go off to London to start the preaching there. Śyāmasundara and Gurudāsa and Mukunda and their wives. They were gṛhasthas. Prabhupāda sending them to open up a whole country, a whole continent. It went off and actually they met the ‘Beatles’ and they were able to make a recording on Apple Records which we still play our Govinda and the Hare Kṛṣṇa Temple, the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Temple. So, we met with them and Prabhupāda gave them blessings, and they went off later. So, like this is how things started for me.

That time ISKCON was. I got ISKCON registered actually it was not registered at first. So, one time I was doing book distribution, went into a college university hostel different students were buying and talked to them and went into one room and the guy stood up and he put into the book, and he started shouting at me, swearing at me, saying this all nonsense. It is very offensive here, I am just a new, brand new devotee. So, I just turned around and walked out. And I was told if you hear offenses, just leave the place. So, I left. He was shocked because I did not like react. I just turned around and walked off. Also thought if I have too much commotion in the hostel and I could keep thrown out, would not be able to distribute any more books.

But at that time, we did not have any books. We only had like Back to Godhead once they published the Back to Godhead – a skull in the desert. I do not know exactly, I do not remember what the article was, why they used that as the cover page. Remember I was in McGill University holding up saying Back to Godhead and people look and see the skull, fake faces... that the Godhead... So then that time we are trying to devise how to preach to the students. I think you have better techniques now. But at that time, we were three to four devotees, and one had ‘simply wonderful’ sweet balls. He go say, “Open your mouth and put it in.” If you gave it in the hand, they might throw it. It is in their mouth. At least they got a taste.

The next one would go and give them a magazine. And the third one would go and have a big poster and say, you know, “If you did like to go for contribution, friends, please give a donation.” That is how we maintained the temple, also not a lot of friends then. ISKCON in the beginning, it was a big struggle and that time were renting a bowling alley. You know bowling? They have bowling. There is 10 this white thing, white whatever they call it, you throw a ball, and it rolls, and you knock all the ten down. If you knock it really then you knock down. That is how many points here. So, there is this long wooden aisle with two gutters. So we had eight lane bowling-alley at temple. So, we put wood in between the gutters with some linoleum over it.

So, you had this very nice hardwood, beautiful lane. And then he had some two white strips of linoleum on some ordinary wood. And then five lanes were used for the temple and three lanes for the āśrama. We put a partition, very simple. So, the brahmacārīs are all staying in the āśrama side. That time Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja was bhakta with me, we were co-bhaktas. He was working as an executive I think in ‘Pepsi Cola’ or some cosmetic company or something. He would come every morning and together we would chant. That time we did not have many books. So, one of the books we had was Life and Story of Lord Caitanya. There was a big chapter in Haridāsa Ṭhākura. He was ācārya of the holy name.

So, we did not have older devotees. I mean very few. Maybe one month, one year older. Now you have so many counselors and all the devotees to guide you and help. We did not have not much of a range there. I was reading this book, and it said that Haridāsa Ṭhākura, when his mind would think of something else, he would chant louder. So being a 19-year-old student, my mind was thinking of so many things other than Hare Kṛṣṇa. So I would keep on chanting louder and louder. Every time a new thought came in, louder, another thought, louder. Sadly, you never had your mind go off. But my mind would go off sometimes I had go louder. Finally, I had be screaming loud as I could. The mind would stay pretty fixed. Then all the devotees went and complained to Prabhupāda, that this bhakta is shouting so loud, chanting so loud. We cannot think. (laughter) That was what I was. I would not think just Hare Kṛṣṇa.

So Prabhupāda called me and asked why I am chanting so loud and disturbing the devotees. So, I said, “Well, I read in this book. Your mind goes off. Chant louder. Haridāsa Ṭhākura. So my mind goes off. So I was chanting louder.” And he thought, Prabhupāda was actually very liberal. Like he had a good reason. He told me, “You can go chant in the park then.” So, I was exiled to the park so I would not disturb the other devotees. Surely, I would be banned from this temple if I was chanting like that. So, then the park that time was the pre-jogger region, you know, time there was no joggers, only squirrels and I was just shouting in the park, walking, feeling very blissful. [Aside: This is cool. Just a few video clips.]

But after two years, Prabhupāda then went off. He got his visa and relapsed. Before leaving, he gave me initiation, for me, Jayapātākā dāsa brahmacārī. Then he made me the temple president of Montreal. And here I am, two weeks initiated temple president. So, then I wrote to Prabhupāda, “Maybe I am too young”, I wrote back. He said, “Do not be body conscious”, so I followed the order of the guru. There I was, but I was, you know, there I was Bhakta Jay, now I am Jayapatākā. But even though the other devotees were not much older, but from their point of view, they are very much older. So, if I told anyone do this, do that, they had look at me like, “Who are you? You know. So I had to learn techniques, how to convince people to do something without offending their false ego.

And that time I was the president. I was a treasurer and a cook and a pūjārī because the previous president had taken all the devotees to open a new temple in Vancouver. And I had only four devotees in a temple and one 16-year-old student who came from his high school course in the afternoon and took prasāda. So, we did not also have. We had 200 dollars in the bank about. Now, that would be 8,000 rupees, but not too much. Then we went out to the... we went out to the wholesale fruit market and vegetable market there was the different Greek and different kinds of people selling boxes of bananas and apples. So we go and say, “We are monks, we are religious people and we are giving out food and we made some donations.” So they gave us an old box, too old to sell wholesale to build some banana. We fixed up, filled up a whole little pickup truck.

So many kinds of fruits. So I did not know how to cook many things. Only halavā and cātni and few sabjīs. So maybe six, eight kind of fruit cātnis and maybe half a dozen, maybe also like five, six kinds of halavā. Halavā with apples, halavā with peaches, halavā. Somehow, we got 20 preparations for the Indian students and some of the workers are mainly from India. But he would get 200 people come for the Sunday feast and give a 2-dollar donation and get a twenty-two preparation feast. In the morning, I did be cooking, then Prabhupāda told us how to add a cauk where you put the ghee and the spices. And then you lift up the dal and it would explode and everyone attempted. And I had have somebody make the plate up.

And I run and take a quick shower because I was also the pūjārī, then I had take the plate and walk down the bowling alley lane to the Jagannātha Deity that was there after cooking, then, you know, get up maṅgala-ārati, chant some quick rounds, cook the whole feast and then go and do the ārati. I was so blissful. I am walking down with this plate. Humble offering, I hope you accept it. But I really felt very blissful. So in the beginning it was really just had to start things in a very simple way. And then Prabhupāda said he wanted to open many new temples. So, then I thought after I had built up the temple, there to maybe 20, 30 devotees, then that I will take three devotees and go and open in Toronto, which is a bigger city. And like that. Then Prabhupāda had Gargamuni phone me up and said he wants to send me to India.

What he had said earlier. So by that then he called me to see him in Los Angeles, went to see him, gave me a few tips. I really did not know, what would India be like. “What do If I see a sannyāsī in India?” He said, “Bow down.” So like that. And I sent to India. I got a really cheap fare, 111 dollars from Belgium to Bombay by Brothers Airlines. There were three brothers, Yusuf, Ali and Ahmed. They had bought a used Second World War plane. That is why it was so cheap. The plane had no decoration and no air pressure. Every time they went up, your ears would go. You get a headache and your ears would go. It would only fly a few hours, have to land, reload and go on.

So I flew to first stop in Rome, then Cairo, then Yemen, then Karachi, then Bombay. When I arrived, my head was and I thought I had a few contacts in Bombay. I called up, nobody answered the phone. Cross line, different things. It was in 1970. So, then somebody came up. The eye was like hanging out and some like diseased beggar. It was the open terminal that time and said, you know, bakśīś. I do not know what they are talking about. So, I thought this is very strange place. Let me go to Calcutta where Acyutānanda was waiting. Someone sold me a ticket for 15-dollar to Calcutta. And that time it was 7 and a half rupees per dollar. Gasoline was 60 paisa per petrol.

So, then I got to Calcutta and asked a taxi to take me to this temple where Acyutānanda was staying. I got there and he charged me six rupees. And I said, “Oh, you are paying three times the amount.” He must have taken you on a rail ride to get the meter that night. Like that, I was here in India. Then, Prabhupāda came to India. Something like that. When I first I learned the Bengali script because I was in Kolkata. Most difficult thing was reading how when I write English Indian script. “Glass house” Glass house, you know how they write. It is not all the same to English. But gradually I learned Bengali from going out and shopping in the morning. When Prabhupāda came, Acyutānanda was here for a few years to renew the ropes.

I was just totally new. Prabhupāda wanted to establish a mission in India. So here it was registered in Bombay in 19... We had branches in Calcutta, Māyāpur, Delhi. I was really glad that I met Prabhupāda in Canada, in the West. I had thought, I want to come to India looking for a guru who knows where I want to go. Very hard to find a bona-fide person. So, you are very fortunate. You have very systematic now.

One time, Prabhupāda, someone said to Prabhupāda, “What about those old days?” What good old days? These are the good old days.” Those are really rough days. And I got sent to Māyāpur. We did not have a car. We had a bicycle.

I remember, I went to buy some wood and nails and things wherever it was hardware. So, I rode 45 minutes from Māyāpur by the bicycle. I got on and I was really happy. The whole way I was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Although my father and grandfather were millionaires, but I was very happy being a simple brahmacārī. And by that time maybe I was a sannyāsī. It was probably sannyāsa in Calcutta. Then I drove by bicycle. I was chanting. I was very happy. Came in with a smile. Got off in this big hardware, you know, set. He looked at me. “So why are you happy? You have nothing, bicycle. I have my hardware store. I got a three-story house. I have wife, money, some big position here in the market. I am not happy. Why are you happy?” Unfortunately, people do not know… how big a house you have, how big a car you have. Does not make you happy. But if you are Kṛṣṇa conscious, you are happy.

If you have an understanding that what is the real meaning of life? Sense gratification may make you happy. Sometimes, may make you sad. You smash up your new car yourself. I was happy because of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy, having some devotional service. You will all be happy if you do devotional service. We were living in a grass hut actually in Māyāpur. We had a grass hut still there. It is not. Prabhupāda came out to visit us and he said, “Actually this grass hut is all you need to be Kṛṣṇa conscious on the side of the Gaṅgā, grass hut. Chant rounds, this is sāttvika, mode of goodness. Whether we only have this facility, who will come here now? People, modern people, they want things more in a mode of passion. That is why we are building this guest house with stone chips and iron and cement and bricks and steel and so on. That is in mode of passion. We can get people to come and be comfortable here.”

So Prabhupāda giving us a vision to build a spiritual city. There will be 50,000 people living. With me in grass hut, five of us, whatever. Prabhupāda is talking about a city. But already Māyāpur is developing. We have over a thousand. Some devotees still far away from a city, but at least something developing. We are getting a lot of input and help from Rādhānātha Swami, one of the four GBCs. That is why we are meeting here.

How I took sannyāsa? Everything happened really fast with me. I was sent to India. We were there for a few months and were waiting for Prabhupāda. He said he would come. And then we heard that Prabhupāda given nine people sannyāsa in Los Angeles. He said, “Why don’t you take sannyāsa, you should take sannyāsa?” I did not really have so much of an idea what sannyāsa was. But for young brahmacārī it sounds very inspiring. Prabhupāda came and we were staying in a temporary place that was given to us for six months. It was going to be a fitting medical clinic, but it was just empty at this point. So the owner said we can just stay there. No lease. No renters in Calcutta. Any lease then you cannot get them out. “You should stay there as our guest.” We were there and Prabhupāda was. There were some issues in ISKCON at that time. Would not go into all those details but he talked to Acyutānanda first with my elder and then fine. I thought maybe giving him sannyāsa. We did not really have an idea what was the procedure. Then he can get sannyāsa and he called me and talked to me.

I did not get it either. Just wanted to find out a few things. Then later Prabhupāda called us here and said that, “I gave nine people sannyāsa. There is actually eleven on my list. But you two are the other two.” So, then he asked, “Acyutānanda, you want to take sannyāsa?” He said, “Yes.” Then, he asked me, I already decided to remain a brahmacārī. So okay. Of course I was very fortunate. Once in India, in a village in Māyāpur that time we had took him in Calcutta. So he gave us in Rādhāṣṭamī. Then he gave the daṇḍa first to Acyutānanda. “So, you are Acyutānanda Swami. I am giving you first. That means you are the senior sannyāsī.” So, I was put in my place. Then he gave me the daṇḍa and said, “You are Jayapatākā Swami.” That time I was 21. Now it is much harder to get sannyāsa.

You have to be older. You have to be on a long waiting list and go through kinds of training. Somehow. Prabhupāda was in a very fast mode. Calcutta, I was there for a while. Then when I was sent to Māyāpura like that, the grass hut. We only had a very narrow small budget, 35 rupees a week. So I asked permission if we could grow our own food. And then Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, some of money or the many things I suggested, he did not agree with. But we are used to that. He said “What? They are westerners, how they can grow all the things?” And I said, “Give us a chance. We can try and get, you know, five acres.” So, then Prabhupāda said, “Okay.” So, then we were growing like bhindī and tomato, all kinds of things. I got this Indian Council of Agricultural Research. They have a magazine in Delhi.

And so, I was like a science in chemistry. And so okay. N-P-K, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, cow dung has this much and chicken droppings this much. So figured out how to do those things more. For me it was like a science lab. And then local workers. But they were. If you did not work too, they were not really active. One little plot, maybe a little bigger than this room of tomatos. I got five tons. You had be surprised how much Mother Earth gives. Then somebody gave me a seed for the wing beans from Australia. And there is so many wing beans, but nobody ate it. Nobody knew how to cook it or anything. And the devotees, well, when you cook, when you grow your own, you get so much. You get like quintals and quintals. So that is what we would eat every day.

So we grew mūlī (radish) and we got so many. Like a couple tons of mūlī and they said, “Please, no more radish, mūlī.” Everyday radish, radish, you know, that is the downside, you know once you grow many things but inspiring to be in Māyāpur and Prabhupāda gave us assignment to build the first building – the Lotus Building. Remember when I was a student, I was thinking that I had like to be able to work and do something that was a challenge. It was inspiring. But everybody was looking around feeling like what I will take up. And all the professors, nobody looked inspired by what they were doing. But then Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there was so much. Every day was such a challenge to do different things. Whether I was in a farm, in Māyāpur, whether I was preaching in the city. So much of a challenge and it was so much inspiring.

I remember once when I was in Canada, a television show asked us. They said, “We will pay 45-dollar each. We want you to act as an actor on a television show. You have to act. Your role is to be a Hare Kṛṣṇa.” That sounded pretty easy. That is what I was. And there was this kind of daytime show. They call it the People’s Court or something. Here we have a loka-ādālat. But this was more just simple issues. So, they had a real actor who was acting as my father and I who was supposed to act as his son, but who was a devotee. So, he wanted to take away my bicycle or motorcycle because he said that he is going to use it in the church. And I gave it, and use it for himself. So, I wanted back. This was the basic issue.

And I was a doctor, a lawyer, psychologist. I paid for senior established citizens. Maybe they are all actors. But when I said that they were really bad. They had to like mediate between us. Judge. So then they knew that I was really. Everyone else was acting. And so. So, the father made his case, and I made mine. He gave it to me to use. “And now I am doing this. This is what I am doing for the welfare of people. If I want to use my motorcycle for this purpose, why should he take it back? He gave it to me. I can use it for whatever that I like to do.” And some simple things. Tried to fit in as much preaching as I could. And he said, “Okay, great soap advertisement commercials.” And the three of them are there and they are looking at me.

“No, he really believes in what he is doing.” One of the other panel of judges said, “Would not it be amazing to actually believe in what you do?” The third one said, “It is inconceivable. I cannot conceive of actually believing.” Once you get to do, I am still, you know, I am twenty-year-old. Here they are, you know, all these big doctors and nobody believes in what they are doing. Kind of eye opener, think okay, all these people, they are doing it because they are getting paid to… Most of them. There is maybe a few of them, really like doing what they are doing. But most of them, they do not even believe in what they do, what to speak of liking because it is just experiences. So, if you have Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the days and whether you are working or whatever you are doing, you will find life a lot more exciting and satisfying. Otherwise, life is pretty dry.

Sukha-duḥkha, you get tossed up and down. Happiness, suffering, happiness. One thing I am very concerned about. One of the biggest causes of death of like 18-year-old to 25-year-olds in India is suicide. They do not know what the purpose of life is. Like their girlfriend drops them or they fail their exam and their parents, you know, really angry with them. Somehow life for them has no more meaning and they commit suicide. A valuable life should produce something so that they go back to Godhead. They can help people. So many things. Sometimes I was thinking somehow because in some countries you have these hotlines of suicide. What we can do or how we can also like when you are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness we know we do not die. When you commit suicide, you just lose your gross body, and you are there in that astral body.

You are there as a ghost and then you know, flying around and look your friends or something. I do not want you to ghost you. You try to haunt somebody, take over their body. It is not a positive alternative. So many even I read in Australia 11,000 students a year commit suicide. I do not have a number for India, but I am sure it is much more because of our population. So many people are frustrated. They do not know the purpose of life. Even just by they know a little bit about Kṛṣṇa.

Like you know in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt [Bg. 2.40] know a little bit, you do a little bit of mission. If you just offer one dīpa, lamp you can be saved from so many troubles in your life. There is actually one of the māhātmyas of Dāmodara that whoever offers a lamp to Dāmodara, he is saved from troubles for as long as Indra is in his post. It is a long time.

Question: Mahārāja can you speak about the person who attacked you?

Jayapatākā Swami: Can I speak about?

Devotee: About the person who attacked you with a blade? Someone you know came with a blade and attacked you, tried to stab you?

Jayapatākā Swami: I was visiting the temple in Madrid, and actually outside of Madrid, there is a place called Barcelona. In the district of Guadalajara and Spain, they had a big festival. Many sannyāsīs and many devotees and beautiful Deities. So, one guy kept asking me if I wanted a ride to Barcelona. I said, “No, I already have my plane ticket.” Apparently, he was asking many people, many sannyāsīs, and he was very crazy.

And he had as his idea that he wanted to kill a Hindu guru, Hare Kṛṣṇa guru sanātana-dharma, or ISKCON whatever, his concept, because whatever reason he had on his mind. He wanted to drive somebody on the way, murder them and throw them off the road. So, because we do not know that. You just heard this guy smiling and driving. I was in the airport, checking in at the counter, and I look, and the lady in front of me, she makes like a horrible, like frightening face. This guy ran behind me and took a knife and slit my throat. Then he ran off. And so I was, you know, you get me a throat cut. I was exceedingly bleeding. And I thought that I took off my cādara and wrapped it around my neck and sat down. Did not know where to go, what to do.

So I just sat down and my whole life went before me. I thought, I am going to die now. Started making my prayers to Kṛṣṇa. And medical people came and took me to a first-aid room, bandaged up my neck, took me off by ambulance. Now whenever I see an ambulance, I feel different. Because when you are in the ambulance, especially in India, the sirens are going, people do not move. It is not like everybody just pulls over, let the ambulance by, you know, it takes a while. So, I am sitting there bleeding and going in this ambulance. People move aside eventually and going on. Then I got to the hospital. I could not talk as my neck was cut. They asked me what my blood type was. “You know your blood type?” I did not know it. It is good to know your blood type. Saves about 10 minutes, remember?

But it maybe life and death situation. Later I found out my blood type is B-positive. So I tried to live my blood type. Then they told me to lie down. I was sitting up all this time and I lay down and literally I was like drowning in my own bleeding. And I passed out and had given me some anesthesia. Three days later, after intensive care, I woke up and I was still here by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. So, the doctor said that they missed my carotid artery by 1 millimeter. And if you cut the carotid artery even in the hospital, they cannot stop the bleeding. Cut the jugular vein. And I was there in the hospital listening to Prabhupāda tapes. And I said I had a vegetarian diet that time. I had a tracheal hole, they put in your throat.

And they were feeding me through the nose into the stomach by tubes and injection. But then they injected this into the tube and a chicken bone got stuck in the tube. I said, “These people are cheating me. I told them I am vegetarian, and they are giving me.” I cannot taste anything. It is going right by. But I can tell, I am getting gas, like non-veg gas. Then we had some devotees who came to help me. And they took a hotel room near the hotel, and they were cooking there. And they smuggled, they said, “No outside food!” But they smuggled it into the… into the hospital. And then they would serve me whatever they are going to feed me. Then the person would go out, then the devotee would come quick, take the pot, wash it off in the toilet, transfer, put my food in it and close it.

Sometimes they had to do it in two parts. One time they put him in spinach. But actually, the hospital also served me spinach. So, I got two spinach. I thought we got caught now. Then, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja and Śivarāma Mahārāja came to see me, brought Gaura-Nitāi Deities in a hospital. I had a darśana, could worship them. Then I did not have a brāhmaṇa thread because my pavitra, my upanayana thread had been cut, taken off by whatever. I did not have it. So then I asked Tamāla Kṛṣṇa, “You can chant on one, give me.” So I have installed. See, when you get a second initiation, the guru chants on your thread, touching it to his thread. So that is like a connection from all the gurus before. I had no thread, so I need a new one. But I wanted a connected one. So, he chanted and gave me.

So, like this, the devotees would come to see me, and I could not talk, I had to write because my throat was. So, I was in there 12 days. You can imagine with all this I wanted to get out of here. And so they said to normally somebody like with that serious. Eventually there for a few months they let me out. They wanted to get rid of me. So 12-days I was later they found. They arrested the person, but they found that he was mentally unstable and put him in a mental hospital. And then he was there for a few years and he is been let out. Someone told me that he committed suicide. When I go there, they have extra security for me.

But something like that happens. You really think, what you want to do with you? Whatever, Kṛṣṇa gave me back some lives. I really want to do something for Kṛṣṇa while I was here on the planet. Then he revealed that he was looking, he was trying for a long time to kill a religious leader. But he failed. So I was the last chance, right? So, you got to be careful. Later they found out he was really acting crazy in a temple during Janmāṣṭamī. He came in with six knives, razor sharp, put them in a tulasī plant and offered knife ārati to the Deity. Like, be a little selective about who you got in the temple. And after someone offers knives to the Deity, they might have thought that maybe he is not normal. Yes. Local Authority, what do you think is it late now? What is it late now? Last question.

Question: What is the need of ISKCON today and tomorrow? In other words, what can devotees contribute in the best way possible?

Jayapātaka Swami: What is the need of ISKCON today and tomorrow? Today and tomorrow. You see the people – this today and tomorrow issue... because even 5,000 years ago, when Kṛṣṇa spoke to Bhagavad-gītā, they had birth, death, old age and disease. People are still suffering the same problems. And they need some spiritual guidance. They need some spiritual direction. They need to be saved from these four basic problems of life. It is not like now we are in the 21^st century. We do not get old anymore, we do not get sick anymore, we do not die anymore, we do not get reborn anymore. That is happening today, that is going to happen tomorrow. And of course, I remember I was just watching when I flew here. One documentary, some news living.

One doctor said, “Well, now we have the financial crash, people losing their homes, but they cannot pay their mortgage, so on. But even tomorrow there will still be some homes around. But we also have the environmental problems that we are destroying the environment. But if you do not solve that, there is no turning back.” They said that. I read also somewhere recently that the biggest cause of environmental pollution is slaughterhouses. Very simple thing, even though we are vegetarian, that we promote a more simple spiritual way of life. It is very hard to claim sāttvika life, if you are not spiritually oriented. But even if we could reduce this slaughterhouse, that would be a big aid for the environment to the many whether you are materially, spiritually different kinds of aspects that ISKCON is helping with.

Ultimately Prabhupāda said eventually there will be a financial crash, and it would be good to have self-sufficient farms and communities to show people how they could survive. When there was a problem in the Cold War there was one devotee offering special tours to India on survival for 5,000 dollars a trip each person. So he asked me if he wants to bring them to Māyāpur and they need a demonstration how to pass stool in the field because they only use the toilet, so they know how to pass stool. But India you need to get some guidance and how to plough their fields with bulls and things. What if there is no more mobile, or petrol or anything. How they eat they do not know.

Like they stand if the grocery store does not open, if you cannot buy everything in a plastic bag and they will just stand and die. They are so maybe you know, they are so far away from survival that if there really is a collapse of the economy maybe even here in Bombay there did be many people, they do not know how to survive also. But in America it is a real problem if they do not go to the grocery store. They do not know anything. I mean they do not even know like some people just eat from these TV dinners. It is like pre-cooked and frozen. They actually just get raw rice or wheat and make it into food that is like too high-tech for them. Too low-tech, too low-tech or whatever they do not know how to do.

So Prabhupāda… anyways is just an example how people want to pay so much money they had to take them out in the bushes and show them how to pass stool for 5,000 dollars. That is 2 lakhs of rupees. It is a true story and then in those days that was worth more. So, right here also you have like in Karnataka, Joragāon has a farm and here you have a farm. Maybe India and Asian places would not be so much hit but be a big shock if people came up in Canada, the normal routine that they are used to any breaking that they really do not know how this is done. So, Prabhupāda says we should also be prepared to shelter people. We have not really succeeded in having so many self-sufficient farms.

But that was just maybe for reference Prabhupāda had all these ideas that, we do not know, we cannot hundred percent depend on the material infrastructure that is going on. Not that we are paranoid, now that we are over here, we are using it in Kṛṣṇa’s service. But there are so many ways that ISKCON can help the people to know what is the main thing. If you do not know who you are, what is the purpose of life? What is the direction you should take? The whole world is really chaotic and crazy things. But if you know how you fit in, how everything fits in, you can be much more peaceful. Even for simple things like getting rid of stress. Youth also have stress nowadays. Psychologists and psychiatrists in the West did a study said, “Meditation is the best way to release stress. And the best meditation is mantra meditation.” That is what we are teaching is how to do mantra meditation,

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Of course, the most important thing is your love for guidance, your love for Kṛṣṇa, the highest happiness, the highest perfection. And ISKCON is teaching Lord Caitanya’s message how to develop love for Kṛṣṇa. I think that is useful today, it will still be useful tomorrow. Anybody here wants love for Kṛṣṇa? This is the fast track. We learn how to do things in a way that is pleasing to Kṛṣṇa.