20150204 Śrīla Prabhupāda Kathā

Gurumahārāja:

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

Śrī gurum dina tarinam

paramānanda-mādhavam

Śrī Caitanya Iswaram

Hari Oṁ Tatsat

So, we offer our humble obeisance’s to his divine grace A.C.Bhaktivedānta Swāmi Prabhupāda who had brought the Sankirtan movement of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu all over the world. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Are there any letters of Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Mahāvarāha Prabhu: Interesting letter. Letter written by Śrīla Prabhupāda on the 30th of March, 1971, Camp, Akash Gaṅgā building, 7th floor, 89, Warden road, Bombay 26,

My dear Jayapatākā Mahārāja, please accept my blessings, I have not received reply to my letter sent to you on the twenty-fourth instant. Why are you silent? Also, has Dinānāth arrived there from Gorakhpur with the Deities? I instructed Dr. Rao (Rāmānanda) that if a land agreement hadn’t been settled up on the university of Gorakhpur by the 22nd instant, that Dinānāth should go to Calcutta immediately with the Deities, but as of yet I have received no reply from Gorakhpur. Enclosed please find one set of japa mālā as a sample. I want to purchase similar style beads as good, if not better quality, and in large numbers. These beads are available in Calcutta and especially in Nabadwip; they have got the best quality beads. So, please send cost quotation at the lowest prize for hundred sets first quality beads, and I will let you know how many I need order. Please take care of this matter as soon as possible since I will be leaving Bombay after 5th April. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C.Bhaktivedānta Swāmi.

Gurumahārāja: At first, I was sending out devotional paraphernalia: beads, kartāls, mrindangas, harmoniums etc. and we supplied to temples around the world. So, Prabhupāda wanted lots of beads, and some of the best beads were made in Bankura by the village ladies of Mohonavṣnupur. So, we were searching the market to see the best offer we could give to Prabhupāda, and we had mṛdanga makers and kartāl makers. They were in Nabadwip and Māyāpur, and there were harmonium makers in Calcutta. So, for about one year I was doing this sevā, and then Prabhupāda said that some grihasthas should do this. And so Manibanda, he was assigned to do this sevā and I was relieved. So, I was assigned to do other things, mainly preaching. So, that was regarding the beads. Regarding why Prabhupāda didn’t get a reply; this was always very embarrassing, but there were different reasons. First of all, the letters came by snail-mail; and that’s ordinary post. And sometimes the mail was delayed and we can only get the mail only after some days, or maybe there was nothing to report, we were still looking, but Prabhupāda wanted it like, if there was an email, he would give an immediate reply. We didn’t have email then. He wanted the things to happen yesterday. (laughter) So, he would say, “You are Americans, you are Europeans, you should do the things fast.” So, it was hard to keep up with Śrīla Prabhupāda. When he would go on a morning walk his pace was hard to keep up with. I don’t know how long it took other secretaries to send the letter, but I got all the flak, why didn’t he get a reply… I got all the pressure why didn’t I get a reply. Sometimes the letter just arrived or had not even arrived yet, but there was no excuse. If I gave an excuse it would be no use. I send a reply as soon as possible and hope for the mercy of Kapila.

Mahāvarāha Prabhu: This is a letter written by Śrīla Prabhupāda on the 11th April, 1971. And it doesn’t say place. It says Post 

Box no. 387, Bombay 1

My dear Jayapatākā Mahārāja, please accept my blessings. Please give the enclosed to document to Tamāl Kṛṣṇa. What this is for I do not know. So, he could see to it and do the needful. Regarding the new calendar, have you typed it yet and send one copy to Boston? If not, it should be done immediately and one copy should be sent to me, a part dictated to Devānanda Swāmi is already completed and I shall dictate the final part of the calendar in the very near future. Also, what has happened to my passport? If it is prepared you can send it here immediately. So far as the beads are concerned, I have sent someone to Vrindavan to enquire there also, and so I will let you know about them later on. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C.Bhaktivedānta Swāmi.

So, here Śrīla Prabhupāda talks about calendar, beads and passport. 

Gurumahārāja: At that time, he said, you should just follow the Caitanya Math calendar. Although that was a calendar calculated for West Bengal, someone had suggested making a calendar for each place, but he replied, “Don’t be over intelligent.” But today that’s what we have. So, he wanted the calendar to be typed up and sent. As far as the beads, he was checking on the prices in Vrindavan. Actually, for Tulasī beads, generally we buy from Vrindavan now, but Namhatta has some devotees who make the tulasī beads. So, we either use the Namhatta beads or we get beads from Vrindavan. The bankura beads are not tulasī although they are nicely made. They are made from neem or from some other wood. 

Any other question?

I don’t remember about Prabhupāda’s passport. It must have needed renewal or something. So, there were many services that Prabhupāda was giving us.

Mahāvarāha Prabhu: 

Letter from Śrīla Prabhupāda on 24th April, 1971, Bombay.

My dear Jayapatākā Mahārāja, 

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 20th April, 1971 as well as the enclosed calendar. Thank you very much. I hope by now you have sent one copy to Boston for printing. I am very glad that things are going on so nicely there. In the meantime, I have received one letter from Los Angeles, that they have not received any document for the brass Deities dispatched there. Two pairs of Deities were to be dispatched to Los Angeles and Boston out of the three sets given by Dalmia. One is there already and the other two were to go to Boston and Los Angeles. I have received news from Boston that they have received one set, but L.A complains that they have not received. What happened? 

When some men to Calcutta from there, they will take one big pair of marble Deities for installation there. The brass Deities from Gorakhpur will be installed in Māyāpur. So, please let me know about the Deities shipped to Los Angeles to whom the documents were sent and why they have not received them as of yet.

Gurumahārāja: The brass Deities were for whom? Any marble Deities?

Shyam Madhusudhana Dās: Boston and Los Angeles.

Gurumahārāja: Marble Deities. 

So, the brass Deities in Māyāpur which are in the altar all the time… Rādhā Mādhava and Lord Caitanya. Rādhā Mādhava was sent by Prabhupāda. Later he added Lord Caitanya. The other Deities were … one was in Boston and one is in Barkley where the papers were. That’s something that had to be sorted out. That’s many years ago. So, I don’t have clear recollection exactly. Which Deities, where are the papers, the weight bills were set. So, Prabhupāda, we just see what he wrote to me, but he was writing letters like this to dozens of people. 

One time in Māyāpur he held his head between two hands and said, “You don’t know what it is like trying to manage a worldwide spiritual organization.” Prabhupāda took so much headache, so much problem to see that every Deity, all the requirements were sent to the appropriate temples. Now we have ministries who see these things. One ministry – “Deity worship ministry” they have so many assistants, and whether or not a Deity can be installed, whether they have enough pūjārīs. They see that a sanyasi board, sanyasi minister… they see that the standard of sanyasis is met. The guru affairs ministry see that the affairs of the gurus are met. The book distribution ministry, they promote book distribution. There is the congregational development ministry. They see to the development of the congregation. Like that we have so many ministries, so many offices, but at one-point Prabhupāda was doing all of that, and it was a big headache. So, he was requesting, “Please take this management issues so that I can translate my books.” So, in the formative years he was overseeing all things, all the details. Some devotees, they say to the guru, “I don’t want to bother you with my problems.” But if you can see here how every little problem… Way bill. Where is the way bill?” I mean, why didn’t they write directly to me for the way bill? And why did they have to write to Prabhupāda, and then Prabhupāda to me? That was the way. So, Prabhupāda was seeing that everybody did what they were supposed to do, and subsequently he wanted the G.B.C to oversee these things, and now the G.B.C wants zonal supervisors to oversee these things. So, like that the different services and authorities were being delegated. But somehow Māyāpur got the Rādhā-Mādhava Deities and those Deities are still there. Here to the Deities we do Jhulan Yatra too and we do abhisekh too. There are a smaller set of Deities for the elephant procession.

Mahāvarāha Prabhu: (Opening with the same letter) I have already consented to attend Calcutta ceremony. I am not going to Russia immediately, but to Kuala Lāmpur by the 30th April instead. And I shall be going to Calcutta by Sydney by the 14th May. In the sankirtan festival pandal if a very big kitchen arrangement can be made, then we shall distribute prasādam daily. Try to make this arrangement: purī, halwa, khicdi; whatever can be arranged as much as possible. Tamāl Kṛṣṇa and Giriraj have all the idea. Some professional men should be engaged twenty-four hours preparing prasādam. There are many volunteer organizations in Calcutta. They should come forward and help us distribute prasādam. Your taking in so much money for this event, that is very good. Also, you should save some money for the building account. I have already sent my passport and I understand that the new passport is ready for dispatching. So, I hope that you have dispatched it yesterday. Please offer my blessings to the others there. Hoping this will meet in you good health. Your ever well-wisher, Bhaktivedānta Swāmi.

So, about the prasādam distribution at the sankirtan festival pandal and then passport.

Gurumahārāja: This is probably the Maidan festival which is being held opposite the Indian museum, and there I mention that we tried to offer four preparations. So, here Prabhupāda said khicdi, halwa, purī, and I think they had chutney too. There were thirty thousand people and everybody got sumptuous prasādam. Prasādam was a big hit; and if we give out lots of prasādam, people would remember the program that much longer. Then, seeing that his passport was made and sent… So, he filled out his passport very quickly travelling around the world. I heard that he travelled fourteen times around the world in the period between 1966 and 1977. He went a little later to Russia. I think in the same year but he did go to Malaysia and to Australia. Books have been written about his travels and preaching in Malaysia as well as Australia. I only went to Malaysia in 1984. I saw when I was there, there were already established centers and many life members. I only went to Australia much later. But since I went to Malaysia… I was the G.B.C there, and till today I am still the G.B.C. I think there was a center in Butterworth and Petalling Jaya near to Kuala Lampur and also in …. This is the year we visited the Asian countries…. No, no. This year, 2015, I saw on the T.V, in the hospital that this is the year all tourists visit the Asian countries. That means Asian… A.S.I.A.N: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and some other… Myanmar. When we came to Māyāpur, Prabhupāda wanted us to learn how to make Mridangas and other needed paraphernalia. In case there was some world war or some tsunami or something, we would be self-independent and be able to make our own drums. So, in Māyāpur we brought some drum makers to teach the artisans in ISKCON how to make drums. So, some devotees came, some from Canada, some from America, different places, to learn how to make mridanga drums. That is a whole science, that not just any leather will work, because the ordinary leather has salt in it, like the leather they use for people’s belt and things, they have salt. So, it gets humid up, the leather will become whiter. Therefore, the tone changes. So, you have to have non-salted leather, and the only way to get that is by ahiṁsā leather, that a cow has to die naturally, and then we have to skin of a dead cow and dry the leather. So, unfortunately the local dogs, they didn’t know that we wanted to make mridangam drums and they just saw leather and they wanted to eat it, chew it. Whatever dogs do. So, we had to stay there day and night to keep away the dogs, and then after certain days… period of time… the leather would dry, and we would stack it up and put it away, and you could keep it away from the dogs. So, the mridanga taught how to make leather strips which could be used to make the strips on the mridanga drums, and then how to make the heads of the mridangam and how to put the earth gobs on the head of mridanga so that they go woo woo wooo… tum tumm tumm woo woo. If didn’t go wooo wooo, it was not a true mridangam. There was a whole science to it. So, some of the devotees learned how to make mridangas and how to stretch the leather on the mridanga. Some devotees learned how to play the mrindanga. We had to say the bols. There were mridanga mantras. Tene tene ta thik ta tha…. Woo wooo…khi..khi… they would teach you the bols and then tell you, practice this for two months…

“Two months?”

“Yes, has to be second nature.”

One drummer came. They said he was the best drummer in the world. I don’t know how you certify that, but he was good. So, he could make the drum speak. “Nītai Gaur, Nīta Gaur, going to the Gaṅgā … Gaṅgā…. Nitail Gaura goig to the Gaṅgā…. Gaṅgā… 

So, Prabhupāda had us learning how to make mridangas. Of course, some went to America and made fiber glass mridangam, but it didn’t have the same sound. It was not so sweet. Instead of whoo whoo it went wha wha.. Prabhupāda was not too impressed, but for the West it was something because they keep breaking the clay mrindangas. 

How to make the clay of the mrindanga, that is a whole new topic. We should probably still have someone learning how to make mrindangas. So, this science is not lost. 

Any questions? Yes, Jayaradhakrishna.

Jayaradhakrishna prabhu: Gurumahārāja, when Prabhupāda was in anxiety holding his hand between his two arms, actually according to scripture he was in greatest bliss. How was it?

Gurumahārāja: when you are trying to do your service for Kṛṣṇa, that’s bliss. But if all the obstacles and different blockages… it would seem like a kind of anxiety. So, maybe Prabhupāda was… from one level you could say he was in bliss because he was doing everything for Krishna, but we know also that he was keeping great anxiety to please Krishna and to deliver the fallen souls. So, we should be grateful to Prabhupāda for all the service he did to deliver fallen souls.

Geetanjali: Thank you Gurumahārāja for the lovely explanation. Gurumahārāja I want to ask you that you explained that in order to make mrindangas they use they use the skin of cow who has left the body to make mrindanga. Like this is something new and very shocking to me, but is it not incorrect to use even if the cow has left the body. Just I can’t get over it that they use the skin of the cow who has left the body. So, is it still correct or incorrect?

Gurumahārāja: since it is used in Krishna’s service it’s a direct paraphernalia for chanting the holy names. So, it is considered auspicious. I mean there is some shop in North Calcutta which sells ahiṁsā leathers for shoes, but I won’t feel comfortable putting the leather of cows on my feet. But as a mrindaga, chanting the holy names of Krishna, the cow would be blessed, and since everything has to die in this world. Then at least it is better than being dog food. It would directly be a paraphernalia used for Kṛṣṇa. I don’t see anything wrong in that.