20111030 Talk on Śrīla Prabhupāda's Disappearance Day.

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya

cakshur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

nama om vishnu-padaya Kṛṣṇa-preshthaya bhu-tale

srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine

nirvisesha-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine

Jaya Prabhupāda kī .

mukam karoti vachalam

pangum langhayate girim

yat-kripa tam aham vande

shri-gurum dina-taranam

paramananda Madhavam

sri caitanya iswaram

I place my respect underneath at the lotus feet of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. I am in Bombay since 21^st, I am taking some antibiotics. And as a result it is little difficult for me to speak as clearly as I did before. So I’ll try to speak. I hope you can understand. If you have difficulty you can ask someone to repeat who used to hearing from me. As it was explained I was stationed in Māyāpur and I first of course I arrived in Bombay that was the main city in India. So at that time there was no security and beggars came up to see me and then they said bhaksish bhaksish and I didn’t know in English, I didn’t have any idea I didn’t know what bhaksish means. So, they had some kid whose eye was falling off, she asked for money and I said “Wow this is a weird place” and I called up all the phone numbers I had from Bombay but nobody answered. But later on I found out that it was quiet normal. Anyway someone sold me some dollars in black and I bought a ticket to Calcutta. And there was I supposed to go to meet Acyutānanda and that is my first experience in Bombay “HAH”. But later I would come on some occasions to see Prabhupāda here and of course the most memorable occasion was at the end of his pastimes. I think it was April 1977, and I was on a night shift with Śrīla Prabhupāda and he woke up at about 1 o clock and he said my back is itching please scratch it! I was scratching and he said “HARDER use your nails harder” hah. So although I was serving in Māyāpur but I didn’t have personal service, I would arrange the personal service or arrange to house them and all that. But here I was given the chance to do some personal service. Before that of course at that time we had many houses in the back. All of you know that and before this heaven on earth project those houses were still there. So sometimes Prabhupāda will be on the roof and then give darśana and he will be very relaxed. He would just wear a top piece and some dhoti and he would give talks. So also in the morning he would go on the morning walk and in the morning walk, we saw that there are regular, some doctor would stop him and ask him very aggressive questions ,he would like it and he would reply those questions. So, this is a daily, as he walked up and down the beach he would stop and he would talk to various people or even have them walk with him. I don’t think he stop much but while walking he would talk. And I was present when Śrīdhara Mahārāja he had his darśana. At that time he was a brahmacārī and he asked for sannyāsa. So Prabhupāda said how sure are you that you can follow all the rules? Then he was taken aback. He was by nature very humble, very simple. So he thought, he said and Prabhupāda asked him 75%? No first he said 100%? And he said no. 75%? Not sure... 50%? Ok I can do that. I am 50%sure I can follow 100% and Prabhupāda said ok will give you in Vṛndāvana “HAH”! And this is a very intimate... He was very humble Śrīdhara Mahārāja .

You know Prabhupāda said that Vṛndāvana was his home, Māyāpur was his place of worship and Bombay was his office. So he had a plan how he would distribute the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness all over India. Now he said that he was asked by his guru to preach in the West. But how could he preach in the west and tell all the people how great was Indian culture if the Indian people adapt Western habits? So he needed to also preach in India and Mumbai as the most advanced city, was the place he wanted to focus on. So later I found in Mumbai that the small deities found in Los Angeles that the small deities of Rukmiṇī Dvārakānātha they asked Prabhupāda to please preach in India. This was revealed to Brahmānada many years ago, and he told the devotees there that Prabhupāda had told all this. Also when Prabhupāda, he was told by Rukmiṇī Dvārakādīśa, the big deities in LA (Los Angles) that he has to go back to India as it was time for him to leave his body . So this I thought I should tell you because there is a connection between Mumbai and LA (Los Angeles). Of course at that time the designer for the temples in India was Surabhi dāsa. And he had an office here in Juhu. So like that Prabhupāda would direct things here.

So we had some mercy that he came to Māyāpur twice a year. Once he would come on the Gaura Pūrṇimā time, another time he would come on the time of somewhere between August September October or December. Even before or after Dāmodara. So but here he would come to Mumbai of and on.

And one time we were all invited to attend a program in Wada. That was a program at the āśrama of Vinoda Bhave. And apparently he was financed by the Bajaj group. Somehow we stayed at the Bajaj house somewhere nearby city. So at that time Vinoda Bhave he was observing mouna. Because he was upset that in India they still had the slaughter of the cow. So he took the vratā to practice mouna .He had his āśramites which were mainly ladies and chant the 4th chapter Bhagvad-gītā. And Prabhupāda he had his devotees chant Hare Kṛṣṇa first. So Cidānanda Swami… Cidānanda of the divine life society, who is a disciple of Śivānanda. So of course that society is māyāvadīs. And this was officially world's seminar on Bhagavad-gītā. So then Swami Cidānanda he was asked to say something on or do something on the gītā, So first he got his followers to chant and he speculated and he started to chant…. Sat-citānanda... Kṛṣṇa, sat-cit-ānanda Kṛṣṇa... No mantra he just speculated some. So Prabhupāda he said this is very offensive and told all the devotees to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa and the devotees started to play the mṛdaṅga and Kartāla and they began to chant and everybody had a sigh of relief. Prabhupāda kī… Jaya!!! And they all were chanting very blissfully. Then he stopped. So then Cidānanda spoke something about the gītā, but anyway later Prabhupāda said you are all pure devotees... 'Oh Prabhupāda we are not', well we have a long way to go', well he said "You are like the mango, there are ripe mango and there are green mango. If we use ripe banana or green banana, He said you may be a green banana or green mango but in due course you will become ripe. So like that Prabhupāda had many pastimes in Mumbai and Maharashtra.

So I spoke this morning a little bit about the deities I don’t think I will speak any more because my body is not cooperating but I want to say something. You know how Śrīla Prabhupāda he wanted to see that the Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement to stay together and he was very concerned that after his departure the moment should stay together and he sighted how the Gauḍīya math they sold properties and they divided up and he was concerned that ISKCON should stay together. So by Prabhupāda's mercy we are still together. And he said at least if you can maintain the temples I gave you I will be happy but if you can expand I will be happier. So now we have about 500 centres all over the world and Prabhupāda gave us 108. So about every ten years we almost doubled. So now we have nāmahaṭṭas, bhakti-vṛkṣas, councillor groups, and there are thousands and thousands of those. So like this Lord Caitanya has predicted that pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma, that the every town and village around the world my name will be sung. So here in Bombay, Prabhupāda explained that the glories of his holy names will be known in every village, every town around the whole world. So this is the vision of Prabhupāda. And we see how it’s also predicted in certain places of the śāstra, also by the associates of Lord Caitanya that someone would come about, 500 years after lord Caitanya and he would distribute the holy name all over the world, all the places where Lord Caitanya had not visited. So Lord Caitanya had visited basically all over India. So Prabhupāda was asked to preach in the west. So it seems that Prabhupāda is the fulfilment of all those predictions. Now māyā and kali must be very upset. And kali we know is the personality of quarrel and dissention. So we have to be very careful to stay united and Prabhupāda asked us at the GBC meetings we should discuss in every meeting one day, unity and diversity. So he was so concerned. So by Prabhupāda's mercy we are still united, only 2-3 temples tried to break free of which 2 are still separate. So we have a great obligation to see that Prabhupāda's will and his desires are fulfilled. So on the appearance day its simply blissful rejoicing but on the disappearance day which is transcendentally the same but still we think of the legacy that the guru left us and we want to carry that on.

So recently in May I heard a lecture from Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja, and he spoke very nice. He said we are disciples of Prabhupāda we are like standing on the mountain so maybe we don’t get a very good vision of how big is the mountain. As the future generations come they can see the mountain from a distance and they see how the mountain is so big. So like that he was saying that future generations may actually see how great Prabhupāda was more than us. So that was nice to hear. Śrīla Prabhupāda kī!