20141026 Śrīla Prabhupāda Kathā Day 1

Śrīla Prabhupāda Kathā Day 1 @New Delhi

Date:

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Collection:

Inspiration series - 2014

Audio player:

201410 26 SRILA PRABHUPAD KATHA DAY 1 @ NEW DELHI: Om ajnaya.. So just to give a background and some highlights of my life and how I came to Krishna consciousness. So I was always searching for a guru and I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA and my maternal grandfather, he was a very religious man. He lived in a simple house along with so many other houses and I used to go and visit him. So one time I had so many warts on my hand and the doctors were not able to treat it. He said, oh, I can get rid of that so easily. He said to get a grass with a joint and then I had the grass with the joint. He said to touch each of the warts and say the name of God and I order you to leave. So I touched each wart and told them the name of God and go, name of God, go, name of God, go, and the warts went away. Any way I felt guilty that we used God for such a menial work but it instilled in me that the name of God had all power. My paternal grandfather, my father was the youngest of the 13 and my paternal grandfather he lived in a big mansion. He had a piano, had a swimming pool, had a billiards table and he was a multi millionaire. He owned the Berger Paints and my father worked in that company. Before my grandfather left he sold off the business to one Household Paints – a company called Household Paints. So each child got some millions of dollars. He also gave some funds for me as the eldest son but I never saw that money, ha! So my parents they lived by the side of the lake in Pewaukee and in that Pewaukee Lake they now have a naamahatta, I heard. Pewaukee Lake is a very big lake, so I grew up there on the lakeside. When I was about five years of age maybe nine years 5 to 9 I was there. Then for whatever reason my mother and father divorced and I was too young to really understand what was going on. But somehow I learned that my father, he was training to be a priest but because he had some facial marks the head priest told him that you will never be a success because of this birthmark, people will be very conscious of you. Then the Second World War came and my father became a medic. Because he was trained to be a priest and in the war instead of killing people he wanted to help people so he chose to become a medic. Without any man in the house I was a bit uncontrollable so they put me in a military academy. Ha! Ha! I was a very good academic and I had many extracurricular activities – football, golf, track, fencing and rifle club. I was captain of the rifle team and at the age of 12 or 13 I was in the top 11 of the NRA – the National Rifle Association. When I was in the military academy I also took up the acolyte which is a kind of assistant priest or you can say an altar boy. So when the priest would give out the mass I would carry the holy wine and holy biscuits. So he would take from me and he would offer. One day I went to the chapel and I found the priest was drunk and he was drinking the holy wine of the Eucharist, the sacrament wine. So I didn't think he was my guru. Otherwise I was like a young American and I got to the top four in my class and I got four or five full scholarships and one scholarship was navy midshipman in the NROTC, Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. I was really into the military. So at that time I applied to go to Indianapolis, the naval training camp but they said my nose was a little defective and therefore I wasn't able to get into the Naval Officers Training Corps but I was okay for the reserves. Then I went to Brown University and enrolled as a reserve Naval Officer Trainee and I was given the rank of midshipman and that was a type of – it is not an officer and not an enlisted, it is in between. It is kind of like a duty officer, I forgot the name. So then I went to Brown University and there I heard one visiting professor from Harvard University and he spoke on Lord Buddha, how Lord Buddha seeing a diseased person, old person, a dead person, and then a reborn young child and how He decided to renounce everything. So this scientist from Harvard University was Timothy Larry. He was the famous inventor of LSD – not Left Side Down, ha! But his idea was self realization. His speech kept coming back in my mind and I couldn’t concentrate on my studies. It was like something else was calling me. Then I failed in two subjects and they said well, you failed two subjects, we have to let you go and then you go to some other university and if you do well we will take you back. So then I went to Milwaukee Wisconsin University. At that time my name was Gordon John Erdman. Sounded like Gordhanjan. The wealth of Lord Caitanya, Gordhanjan. Wisconsin is the only state which has Iscon in the name. Iscon, ha! Ha! But at that time it was summer vacation. There were so many musical groups all converging on San Francisco. So I went to San Francisco hitch hiking all the way. There I tried different paths – I learnt yoga and the yogi teacher, he had a retreat and that was in a swimming pool, and all the ladies they had bikinis and he had a tight swimming suit and he was keeping his arms around two ladies. Though materialistically it seemed to be nice but spiritually it did not seem to be very proper. Then I went to a book store and I said I want a book on spiritual life. They said, oh, we have this book and that book, published in India, published in India. I said I am an American don’t you have a spiritual book from America? The shopkeeper told me, America? Ha! Oh, this one, it is an astro projection. Then I read that written by an American, ok. I will take this. So I read how to astro project and how to do pranayam, expand yourself out of the body. I said, oh, I saw the author of the book was from San Francisco. Let me go and see him. This was my habit that I wanted to see the author, see the person. So I went to the place and knocked the door but no one answered and I heard something in the back. Then I went to the back and saw he was cooking fish. Then he said, oh, you are here! And I said, yes, I read your book and I want to talk to you. So then he brought me in and said, listen, I have been grounded for two years and I cannot astro project any more. When I can project then I will tell you. I am sorry but this is the truth. Thank you for stopping by, have a good day! Ha! Ha! (GM makes a cross with his hand to mean crossed from his list). So then I said well, not doing too good. Let me try and then I went back to the book store and I got some books on Buddhism and they said two good parents, they have a good child and two bad parents can have a good child. Two bad parents can have a bad child. Interesting! So I got some books on Tibetan Buddhism and other kinds of Buddhism but those were logical but didn’t seem to be much spiritual. Then I got a book on Mystical teachings of Solomon, mystical Judaism. His mysticism was based on getting a mandala and getting four names of God in four directions and they used confidential names. So I tried the system. In the meantime one day there was a group of young men, one with a shaven head with a big bunch of hair and he was giving out papers. Krishna! All Attractive! Rama! Source of All Happiness! Hare! The Spiritual Pleasure Potency! So I thought oh, let me see these people. So I looked for the address, tried to find it but I wasn't able to find it. I guess I wasn't ready yet. Then I tried different things and I decided that I would go to India. In India maybe I can find a master. Then one day I was at the Golden Gate Park. And there were some people wearing sheets like the guy there, wearing sheets – bed sheets! And they were playing on cymbals. So I was attracted. I came close and one lady, she turned my way and she looked at me and I saw a tilak and then I suddenly got frightened. I got so frightened that the hairs on my body were standing on end and I just ran as fast as I could. I ran like two kilometres away. Then I thought why am I running? Who are those people? So then I went back and they were gone and I asked who are they? Well, they are the Hare Krishnas I was told, they come here every weekend. They sing and dance. Nice people! But no one knew their address. Then I saw something pasted on a tree – Festival of the Chariots, advertised that in two weeks there will be a big Festival of Chariots. At the bottom it said you get a vegetarian meal for 25 cents donation. I thought, oh, that is a good deal! So I went there and in the meantime I found the location. I went to the temple where everyone was in the kitchen, eating. Then I sat down. Then I looked around, everyone was taking and eating. I said well, maybe this is teaching us something special, survival of the fittest! Ha! So then I also grabbed and made my plate. Later I tried to give my 25 cents but they said give it next door, Garga Muni is there. He will take your money. Ha! So, nothing changes! Ha! Then I was sitting in the temple alone and I saw a picture of Krishna, the one by Brijabasi and He was sitting on a rock with long beautiful blue legs in the Jamuna river. Somehow I felt I had reached the place I was supposed to be. Then I went next door and sure enough Garga Muni took my 25 cents. While he was taking the money he sold me a set of Bhagavatam. At that time there were only three books in a set. Then he saw that he had all the money that I was going to give, he directed me to the back to see Jayananda. There the first thing Jayananda said, do you know how to hold a nail? Sure, I said. He handed me a nail and said, show me. I put the nail there and he started hitting. Then when it got close to the edge I moved my hand. He said, ok, good! You know how to hit a nail, yes? Show me. So then I hit a nail in. Then I removed the hand out and when it got to the edge. This is the secret. Otherwise you would smash your hand! Ha! So when he saw that I could nail he showed me a picture of the chariot. He said we are going to build this. And it is going to deliver thousands and thousands of people. Then I asked, by next year or what? No, no, he said, in two weeks! I said, two weeks, ha! Ha! Yes this is an emergency, you are going to have to, we need help! So there I was helping him every day and he was talking about Prabhupad. He is the great guru who brought Krishna consciousness to the West. Then I took permission and I went to chant one day. Nandakumar gave me a set of beads and I used my yoga practice and I sat in the ardha padma aasana and was chanting and somehow the chanting was very powerful. I never had experienced such a meditation before. My hairs were standing on end, sometimes tears in the eyes, I chanted the first day for two hours, 32 rounds! It was a very profound experience. Then I went back and Nandakumar was waiting for me. He said, do you still have those beads? I said, yes. Haan… those are Prabhupad’s beads. I am not supposed to give that to anybody. Ha! So he took them back. And gave me a new one. But it wasn't quite the same. So then I thought if I am going to try this out I should fully try it. Then I can say if it is not real, at least I tried it. And if it is the real thing then I got it. So on the day of the Ratha yatra I decided to shave up and Jayananda prabhu he very gracefully shaved me up and I had a big shikha. So on the Ratha Yatra day I was shaved up and wearing a customary sheet, ha! I don’t think they were so strict at that time. Some of the congregational members who had been visiting for six months, they saw how I came in two weeks, shaved up and pulling the rath. They said, wow, if he could do it, why am I not doing it? Madhudwisa and others also joined together after that. Mahavaraha das prabhu: Can I ask you one question? There is one small video clip probably ten seconds video clip of you before you shaved up with your pants and shirt, with long side burns, you still had hair and you were in Hari naam with Umapathy Swami and he was also wearing pants and shirt. You were walking with Umapathy Swami playing mridanga and another devotee playing kartals, in Hari naam. Do you remember anything on that? Guru Maharaj: Not particularly the Hari naam but Umapathy Maharaj he drove me to the place where I was staying so I could pick up my stuff and on the way we saw some cows and oh, I said, cow dung! I read it, cow dung is pure. I suggested lets go and touch. But then I said it’s alright! Ha! Ha! And he also told me that if you depend on Krishna, He will take care of all the things. That’s because I was so worried that there were so many material things that I should do. But he said that you surrender to Krishna and He will take care of that.

Jayaraseshwari devi dasi 1 October 2015