19960102 Śrīla Prabhupada Centennial Inauguration

Śrīla Prabhupāda Centennial Inauguration

Type Of Talk:

Other

Date:

Tuesday, January 2, 1996

Collection:

Enlightenment 7

Audio player:

19960102_Srila_Prabhupada_Centennial_Inauguration_Sri_Mayapur_Dham The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami in 1996, in Sridham Mayapur. The talk was about Srila Prabhupada’s Centennial Inauguration,. Jaysachinandana Maharaj : Dear Guests few of you...the few of you who have made it, we will now start our programme of inaugurating Srila Prabhupada’s Centennial festival Audience: Gurumaharaj Ki Jay Jay Jay Sachinandana Maharaj: and I would like to just say a few words in introducing this festival to all of you. The International Society For Krishna Consciousness is celebrating all over the world the year 1996 as a very very special year, because on this year Srila Prabhupada’s hundreds anniversary takes place. In the scripture...in the Bhagavatam it is stated that by glorifying and hearing about the pure devotee of the Lord great advancement in Krishna consciousness is made, but even greater advancement is made by serving the pure devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Adi Purana Krishna says that a devotee who says, “I am Your devotee Krishna.”, is not so much the devotee. Only a devotee who identifies himself as a devotee of a devotee, he is seen by the Supreme Lord as a bonafide servant and devotee. So we as a movement for Krishna consciousness, are extremely thankful to His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, because by coming to the Western hemisphere he has given this world which is lost in impersonalism a... in darkness of ignorance a chance to reconnect to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Bhagavatam it says kirāta-hūnāndhra-pulinda-pukkaśā ābhīra-śumbhā yavanāḥ khaśādayaḥ

And so on, which says, which lists, this verse lists the different sinful races on this planet earth, and it says that by coming in contact with a devotee of the Lord, even such people who as far as Vedic civilization is concerned are totally out the range of any possibility for spiritual advancement for they are elevated ah...in Krishna consciousness. This is the potency which the pure devotee has in this pure potency of the pure potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Srila Prabhupada carries this potency and by making it available to us in this Western parts of the world we have been able to come to Krishna consciousness. So today we want to inaugurate a whole year actually. Ah...the year 1996 will have different highlights and high points which are all centred around the glorification of Srila Prabhupada. I will not say what we will do because let us do it and present it to Prabhupada, that’s much better. A wise man speaks about something when it is done not ah... his plans before they are fulfilled. So but for today we certainly have a plan what we will do in this festival and I want to say what it is. We will start our evening with lecture on the vision and the mission of Srila Prabhupada. After this we will offer a huge cake to Srila Prabhupada, and then perform an aratik ceremony to him. After the aratik ceremony we will have a puspanjali ceremony that means we will offer flowers to His Divine Grace, everyone of us will do it, and then we will have a Airslide slow which will be from 05.13 you can say, it will be on the subject matter of Srila Prabhupada in Germany. We have collected about 60 slides which ah... are centred upon Prabhupada’s visit and preaching in this part of the world. So we are very very lucky that ah...we have a speaker this evening who is not only a umh... very very old disciple of Srila Prabhupada but he has helped in many-many Srila Prabhupada’s projects, a pioneer. We have today the pleasure to have Srila Jayapataka Maharaj who is also known amongst his disciples as Acharyapad amongst us, and he will address all of us on the subject of the mission and vision of Srila Prabhupada. Srila Jayapataka Maharaj, will also show us at the end a special surprise, you can see, we have arranged for a Video, and this will show us some very ecstatic scenes of different ratha yatras, all over the world, this morning for those of who are not here, he addressed, his...he told us a little bit, a glimpse out of his trouble schedule. I have forgotten the 06.40 of it, it was something, oh yea, he was inaugurating the centennial ah.. at the gold coast in Australia on Sunday, then he went to Malaysia to inaugurate the centennial there, and now he has come on his way to London today and he will give the inaugurational speech to the centennial here. So you must certainly acknowledge this (Applause) So we can definitely see that the Supreme Lord has...has arranged his quick movements over this material planet earth ha... I want to request you now Srila Jayapataka Maharaj...that they are allowed to take prasadam means that he has paid his fee, ha...ha...ha...sit here, address the devotees. Jayapataka Swami Maharaj : Jaya Jaya Shri Caitanya Jaya Nityananda, Jayaadvaitya Chandra Jaya Gaura Bhakta Vrinda. Devotees: Jaya Jaya Shri Caitanya Jaya Nityananda, Jayaadvaitya Chandra Jaya Gaura Bhakta Vrinda. JPS: Mukam Karoti Vacalam Pangum Langaya Yat kripa tamaham vande sri gurum dina tarinam Parama nanda madavam Srichaitanya ishvaram

JPS: Srila Prabhupada Ki Devotees: Jay JPS: So Srila Prabhupada Cential ki Jay So we have been hearing, I did the Jaya Jaya Sri Caitanya, the Chaitanya Caritamrita, since that we discussed this morning that the pastimes of the sakirtan being performed by ISKCON are also part of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. So I am discussing Srila Prabhupada, that is also like an extended pastime of Lord Caitanya’s sankirtan movement. For so many years we have been hearing about preparing action plan, everything for the centennial and now it has come upon us. Now it’s the not... now it’s the time for the final implementation, of all those plans that has been going on for so many years. Actually for the Krishna...Krishna conscious devotee, every year is the year to glorify Prabhupada; in that way every year is like a centennial but in the material world this anniversaries are a big occasions. We were inviting one big governor in India to come for our function. He said, “No, No, I can’t go to the temple. Nowadays it’s not politically correct to go to a temple.” We told him, “Look at... it’s the centennial of our founder, at that time it was the 25th anniversary of ISKCON.”, He said, “Oh, 25th anniversary I must come. This things are very important, I cannot.(laughter) So he came and this is a very good focal point to bring in lot’s of people who otherwise might not be involved. We heard that just a few days ago, you probably heard about the big inaugural function we had in Bombay. The news didn’t get here, so they had the biggest function in history of Bombay, over a big pandal, with over 30,000 people, all respectable people seating and hearing Prabhupada being glorified for hour and hour and they also have the chief minister, who is the head of the state of Maharastra, and it’s said that at the end of the function he was so much pleased hearing all the glories of Prabhupada that he personally yelled out three times, “Srila Prabhupada Ki Jay” Devotees: Jay JPS: Srila Prabhupada Ki Jay Devotees: Jay JPS: Srila Prabhupada Ki Jay Devotees: Jay And everybody just all resounding you know, because the government head is also saying Prabhupada Ki..., there many arrangements and everything for the centennial function. They have got a special animatronic show, state of the art show for the centennial festival and I went to one trade fare where they display all the people, who make such a moving statues and things like that, and this was the top company in the... all the field, and all the companies were talking about it, “the Hare Krishna’s have done this, it’s a very top exhibition of their founder giving lecture.” So there is different poses of Prabhupada speaking and talking, and one of them is with Krishna and ah Arjuna behind Prabhupada speaking the Gita and Prabhupada making his present couple disciples there from Germany, and Jurich in Switzerland, somewhere like that, a few sitting there, others also moving. So they will be showing that to millions of people. Probably the first time in India, probably the first time in India people have seen this, in many places they have not seen and ah...and so like that a lot of interesting things are, those shows will also be there for the festival, for all the devotees. That means that a lot of effort has gone into different programs, this festival is a 12 lotus petal re-uniting Prabhupada’s family and there have been reunions going on all over the world, in different places and then there is the 12.52 of book distribution where...which here everyone is more involved in. How to expand book distribution, because that was the thing that Prabhupada was most.... Jay Nitai Gaur, Jay Jay Baladev Subhadra That’s the thing he was most concerned about, that if the books go out the effect of Kali Yuga will decrease. So in the centennial celebrations there will be plenty of cakes being offered and khichdi’s and various feasts but that’s one aspect of it. We want to also offer some more concrete things to show Prabhupada’s 13.30. In some places they have Krishna conscious projects, that they are offering to Prabhupada, in Delhi, in Bangalore, they are offering very big projects for Srila Prabhupada’s glory, the... samadhi’s completion, finally now hope that samdhi’s are functioning, at the recent rasa purnima day in Prabhupada’s puspa Samadhi, Mayapur, when they opened the door in the morning, they...they didn’t know how many people would go through. And we have a system to see the museum upstairs, we have to pay a small donation and ah...one tenth of the people who came in the Samadhi, they went upstairs on this day, many poor people came. So upstairs to see the paying museum, 14,500 people went and, a few six or seven or...and the...that’s means about ah... one and a half...150,000 people went through the Samadhi in the one day of Rasa Purnima, on that particular day. So it’s...and ah... you know sometimes they say imitation is considered the best flattery, so in Calcuatta they have got this big festivals for Durga Puja and different clubs of the youth, they put on just like a status symbol, who can make the most interesting kind pandal kind of designwork for their celebrations, and three of the pandal’s were made in the shape of the Prabhupada Mayapur Samadhi, with the sign they call the Prabhupada Padma Mandir. Because you got the big lotus in the front, and they are calling it the Padma Mandir, and they made exact replica, and they showed slides of the Samadhi...difference So someone went there, took some slides and...they are showing... the youth, this kind of on their own they got together. So it shows how much ah... it just in the short time it’s become a very symbol, symbolic for everyone. So Prabhupada, there are some saints or preachers who went from India to the West and made a couple disciples and went back, and told the...everyone in India that all the people in the West are following him...following my Guru, and in this way the people thought that, “oh, here is a couple of people from the West.” So they thought that everybody in the West must be following and they became ah...very big hero but factually, hardly anybody in the West even knew about it. Small exposure was there in some place but not any wide movement was established, but ah... actually Prabhupada has established the world-wide movement because he said that when he came to the West, he didn’t want to go back to India without having established something permanent, so his whole focus was that he had to do something permanent. He wanted to see that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s message should continue to be spread and practiced and developed and expanded in the various countries where he visited. That’s why he put so much stress just to have nice temples with devotees because the temples are places where we can get trained up, we can gather together and have our congregations ah... with so many devotees, just congregational chanting and classes and when there are many devotees and classes that also has a lot of energy when the kirtan and the function, this is the very ah...intense, not so many devotees, even a devotee here is hardly fitting. There is a crunch. What to speak in someone’s home, nobody has....very few people have such a big house, maybe only a few billionaires have designed their house for such a big ah... program. So temples are suited for this type of training and gathering. So Prabhupada first came, he had temples in Montreol, Canada, New York, first of course then Montreol and then San Francisco. Then he said he wanted 108 temples and I always remember, even when I first met ah... Srila Prabhupada in 1968 I was not...I only came in contact in 1967, I know Prabhupada in 68 and he was always speaking with very much urgency, that I don’t know how long I will be here in the world. We had to work very quickly to take up responsibility. Prabhupada felt that extreme urgency to establish something in a very short period of time because he was already 70 years, already...he didn’t know how much longer he would be able to remain in this world by Krishna’s mercy, because already he had got...as he was crossing over the ocean to reach the West...he had ah... some heart attacks, but then the ocean became very peaceful and he had a smooth crossing, and Krishna had appeared to Prabhupada in a dream that He was rowing the boat Himself- Krishna taking Prabhupada across the ocean. Said, “don’t worry.” And in the beginning Prabhupada, he struggled a lot. I recently, a few months ago, attended one class where Brahmananda was talking about the days before I was a devotee, that was not such a long period but ah... ahead I heard all the details, and ah... in nine...In New York he had told something I had never realized ah... so clearly, how Prabhupada had a stroke and because of the stroke practically he was paralised, he couldn’t move, and ah... pretty well and he was a... so the devotees had to help him to brush the teeth, to clothe, to bathe, to do all the things, but he was still sitting on in spite of that condition, somehow or other he was still preaching, to the devotees, and I was just seeing how even under such a difficult, you know, mostly something like this happens you can find that this Presidents of big countries... the Prime Minister, they all take 2-3 monhts leave and just rest. But even he is paralysed he doesn’t take any ah... rest, he is still trying, he can still speak, so he is speaking but he can’t move his body. And when I just got that image, I couldn’t just help but cry, that how much Srila Prahbupada wanted to see that the... all of us get the Krishna consciousness blessing. Without serving Krishna what is the whole value of life. The whole human ah... civilization, mine is God consciousness, it is not anything very significant. Once Hridayananda Maharaj, one devotee was associated with him and his university project mentioned that one of the big professors in one of the big universities in America recently gave a public function, I think Harvard and Coumbian, and he mentioned that now in the modern world, we have produced highly sophisticated barbarians... highly sophisticated barbarians, because Prabhupada had said that this is like... Western people are like white aborigines, another kind of tribe who have different Olympics, different nations are like the different tribes but the real purpose, the real thing that makes the human life important is when we have the God consciousness. To the extent we have the God consciousness that extent we are civilized. All this other things are just the sophistications, some complication of certain activities whether it is sports and all these rituals behind going to the drinking places and taking intoxications and things like this. This is not culture, this is some barbarian habits that people have. In some places they told me that ah... in Helsinki that...in the Christmas eve and the New Year’s eve there is so many people falling on the road, in...overcome by the drinks that ah...the whole road is stinking from the stomachs are being emptying out in the road, I don’t know...I didn’t go there, the place is too cold for me anyway to go such in Helsinki at this time of the year and I wouldn’t be so eager to see that anyway. (laughter) So Prabhupada, he had so much compassion, he jus...you know, he didn’t care that, “ Ok this people have all this bad habits or they...” , he just saw, this people need Krishna, we have to give them Krishna. One of my own disciples from Canada explained that how the book distributed changes life by giving Prabhupada’s book. That he had immigrated from ah... Guyana, and Guyana and Tirnidad, carribean and those sections of South America connected to the Carribeans. The people there like to drink rum. I think it is a type of liquor made from Sugarcane or something, I don’t know exactly Su- shirm or but ah... anyway it’s a formal alcohol... alcoholic drink and he was in one ah... such establishment and taking something and he was dressed in a best suit and tie and everything, it was in the Winter, it was cold out and ah...he saw an Indian guy and his origin, so he was feeling that now he got a very job in Canada, he became Canadian citizen and he had achieved some good amount of success by material standard. He went... left that Tavern and ah... out in the street there was one Canadian devotee distributing books and ah.. that devotee came and offered one Bhagavat Gita. He said, “No,No,my grandmother uses, I have it.” Not that the book distributor, he you know.... tried, but somehow the person was not so receptive at that moment, and he ran and some other place he went into some other establishment so that he could continue his ah... consumption and whatever. Again when he left from there, some hours later, totally different place, somehow by the design of Krishna, the book distributor...same book distributor was ah... had reached over that place and ah...this time the book distributor...out of extreme humility....and we remember how Lord Caitanya, He used to conquer people by humility, how He conquered Prakasananda Sarasvati, going into the assembly of all the Mayavadi’s, He didn’t say, “You are mayavadis, mayavadi Krishna aparadhi.” (laughter), He didn’t say that. Rather He sat down on the doorway there by where they were washing their feet, just sat in the footwater and just sat, said, “what you are doing sitting, it’s a dirty place.” Said, “no, no, you are all big sanyasis, I am a very you know lesser calibre of sanyasi than all of you, so I am sitting here by where you wash your feet, I am getting purified, such a nice place here, it’s a very good place. Feet...the foot water of the sanyasis is all here, I am getting it all for myself, you are very great literates, saraswat sanaysis, you know I am only a bharati sanyasi.” And they got, “no, no, no, you come here, sit with us”, and they were you know, so much humility, what can they....they became ah...on their own they brought Him inside you know. Even how He can enter they...they would have all shut, but He was so humble they cou...they brought Him. And they said you know, “tell us something you know, why...” He said, “I can say something if you...you give me your permission to say something, I can say a few words.” (laughter) If you don’t mind, if you want to...in this way Lord Caitanya, He entered in... out of so much extreme humility, He completely converted all of the mayavadi’s, because they listened. The whole point how to get people how to listen, and in the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that says that specially the Prabhodannada Saraswavati said, and other’s have also said. Prabhupada explained it several times, if you go to someone he can say, “Sir, you are very you know...you are very beautiful person, you are intelligent, you are rich, you are cultured, you are nice just go on, just all the good things, whatever you can see in some you say all the good things, few even maybe little extra, even what...what might suspect could possibly be good, ok throw that in also. Then when the person is you know....”I just have one thing I want to request, you know, just one small thing if I could ask you. So if you don’t mind.” “No,no,no, please tell me. It was a really a very happy to meet such a person telling how nice he is” He said “Yes, please forget all this things for now.” (laughter) “Just put them aside, and just chant the holy names of ah... Lord Gauranga Devotees: Gauranga JPS: Nityananda Devotees Nityananda JPS: Hare Krishna Devotees: Hare Krishna. Of course now we have also another thing we can say, please take this book and read about this transcendental reality and chant Hare Krishna, because without this transcendental knowledge all the rest is not so useful, because when we leave this body it’s all gone. So the higher civilization means to know that this life is just part of the greater existence, so beg to the 28.56 book distribution history, so that devotee from Guyana, that living in Canada, he came out, and this time that devotee very humbly he said, “My Sir, you are a very respectable gentleman here from Canada, I just humbly approaching you, you see I am just begging you. You give... just this...just take this book, see this...” chk... you put the book in his hand and you know that always purifies people. “You just... whatever you like, you just give something for this and so because he... at that time he thought, ph... just see I was from a foreign country, I have come to Canada, and now the local person is begging from me, you know I am so important person here now. (laughter) And so he bought the book, maybe also he got loosed up a little bit (laughter), you see, sometimes people, we think that well they are intoxicated or something but one time Lord Caitanya He was walking with some associates in Nabadvip and even Nabadvip had a few drunkards you know, not....there will always be a few of everything. When we say flooded with Krishna consciousness, maybe few here and there you will find...still people, still they have some maya, but as we can see there... few people were there, they were drinking wine or something and so they were drunkards and as Lord Caitanya was going by with a group of devotees, they... one started to say, “ ore re...Gaur Hari bol, Gaur dances so nice.”(laughter) “The way he sings and dance, very beautiful”(laughter), and then he started crying you know, “Nitai”.... or what you say, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama...Krishna Krishna something you know Nimai (laughter)So he didn’t get it alright, anyway. He was going behind Lord Caitanya and moving his head and putting on the whole thing, and some of the devotees you know, he is making fun of Lord Caitanya but Lord Caitanya He was very cool, just went on. After some time, He went back to His friends and sat down there and one associate you know he said, “Mahaprabhu, why did we tolerate that, I mean he was being very offensive.” “No, he wasn’t being offensive, he didn’t tell anything offensive. He is under the influence of this...you see....he was chanting the holy names and he was saying good things but his brain is little bit intoxicated, so that intoxication, that will, effect will last today, by tomorrow that will be more or less gone, but the effect of having chanted the holy names of Krishna, that will last for ever, that he won’t loose. So since he was chanting why disturb, just let him go on chanting. Sometimes Hari Das thakur, he will be going with some children, would be mocking him “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna” Actually he loved it. “Oh, they are chanting Hare Krishna, even in the games they are chanting, he would...he knew that the kids are being very naughty, so he showed like made the face and covered his ears. Then they would go, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.”, they get more enthusiastic, inside he is saying, “Wow they are chanting more.” So he was tricking them by hook or by crook to chant Hare Krishna. So that person from Guyana, he got the book but of course he brought it home, and after some time, said, “what is this book here?”, that night it was a heavy night. Said, “what is this book anyway”, so he started reading it, and he read and “Wow, this is really amazing, you know, I never knew all this things and ah... then in the back it had the list of temples. It shows how important the list of temples, list of local temples are.... because it is distributed, because when he looked, he said, “Oh, this one here in my city, In Toronto, then he went to the Toronto temple, and it just happened that day, there was a big festival going on, it was a festival of Nityananda Trayadoshi, appearance day of Lord Nityananda. If, maybe thousand people on the temple packed and kirtans and prasadam, and so he immediately, he got into...and started to helping out, doing something, he is a very service person. Anyway he got hooked by Krishna’s mercy and then now he has... he is disciple, he has made many...his whole family Krishna conscious and many other families Krishna conscious. So we can’t imagine how this books, I mean we see thousands and thousands of testimonies, every devotee has so many testimonies of people, how they get the books and become Krishna conscious. This is ah... showing how Prabhupada’s mercy in so many different ways, in festivals, or books or the meeting with the devotee, or meeting personally with Prabhupada. Sometimes when Prabhupada was going he would ah... be meeting so many different people all the time rather, and he always left an impression and sometimes he would just not have to deal with different people, you know he was very much in tune with, where people were what they were thinking, and once I remember when ah... he came to Montreol there was a big World fare going on. We all attended the homage or something, probably all my friends, I don’t know so much, mad at his word, I didn’t know friends but attended this homage or something. 35.07 mad at his word....pretty close. So they...they gave him a big V.I.P reception and they sent one tour guide to take him around and show the different things. So he was going to see the world fare and ah... they had a Monoreal, that was a big thing in those days Monoreal, so we were riding in a Monoreal hanging, you know... one real, and... but this tour guide was a young lady, Canadian and she was.... and here we are all shaved up, you know, Hare Krishna, then there was Prabhupada, very elderly. So she didn’t know what to say or rather, she is like really uptight, you know, just sitting you know, and then Prabhupada turned to her and said, “Oh, you have such a beautiful hair 35.57, very nice hair you know you have.” “Oh, thank you very much” (laugther) Just immediately became you know, ah...ah... and then you know, and then ah...Prabhupada started ah...when she loosened up a little bit, asked her a few things, and then she mellowed out and ah... otherwise is just like frozen what to say.... They could see that, Prabhupada he knew how to deal with all the different people, different circumstances, then of course in the end she was also asking question about what’s your religion or this thing... or they come around out of curiosity or something and so then Prabhupada and some of the devotees also 36.43 explained the thing to her. So Prabhupada, he being, he knew how to deal with all kind of circumstances and situations, but 36.50-59 Krishna consciousness in all parts of the world, didn’t want to just make a show. Could have just made a show and go back to India, but he wanted to establish something permanent. So therefore on the centennial we want to do permanent, more kind of permanent thing, of course we can have ah...we will have the Vyasa Puja and abhisekh and everything, there will be offerings, so many offerings of prasadam, in Mayapur the...last year they offered 1000....there well would have been 1008, but so many devotees got so enthusiastic that turned it to 1208. 200 extra preparations came. There was so much prasadam, that this whole room like this much is all filled up with Prasad. Just a small plan37.50, but it’s become so much...they make a better plan for one week where everyone is cooking. It’s not difficult in India because of the heat. Probably in this part of this world you could have 5000 preparations because there is so much warmth, you can go back and 38.08, but that’s not the point. We will go on doing all those things ah...no doubt but thanks to Centenial leaderhip, the GBC has authorized that we should do something special for the centennial, so that’s why there is a plan in all this different areas to do book distribution, the congregational preaching, the spiritual standards, the projects for ah...Prabupada and ah... monuments for Prabhupada, permanent monuments of his pastimes, or wherever he went, wherever he, which temples he installed that some special 38.50.....commemoration should be very ... So like this there are so many different ah... plans. There were some special events, of course there would be Hare Krishna festival, you see Bhaktivedanta institute... and meeting for this big functions. ...39.12..with centennial processions, and seminars ah... big scientists recently in Detroit, Ravindra Swaroop and some of our you know phd devotees apparently organised seminar with all the big scholars, over 50 big scholars came and they had a big panel discussion and ah...they were all glorifying Prabhupada. The whole...not only you know what we consider the important thing about giving Krishna conscious, but they were seeing from different points of view, academically, socially, historically, how he is coming, .had...had an impact, culturally and then world... Western world, in so many different ways. I haven’t benn able t to read off the detailed explanations, but I guess got the overview but it’s very impressive in so many big-big scholars accepted Prabhupada, still are accepting now, but he had a very broad contribution to society. And so those kind of functions where we bring in people, only we are going to talk about Prabhupada all the time, but you know if we bring in the head of the Swiss or German, whatever different universities and they come and they say something, ...if they contributed something, it is significant here in the West by his presense, it has an impact which is very valuable, and this things are kept in... presented in the proper forms and it has a impact also on other people of the establishment, and those people who are speaking they get to know, like he invited some big politician to come one function and said “you know I have to speak in this assembly, some of this books I 41.00-03, I don’t know what to know, what to say. So I am sure he had, he would some of the book, he had the secretary big with his speech. ...........” They would be recording all the things Prabhupada would say. Jay Nitai Gaur ki Jay Jagannath Baladev Subhadra ki Jay Prabhupada ki Jay So this idea, that Prabhupada centennial wanted to do many things which are of ah...very 41.30 So I heard this morning that there is a target to one million ah... books for the centennial, but you know it’s been about 820000. So you have a 41.43 for me. So there is a significant increase of a 180,000 more books. So like that I just wanted to take reference with Sachinandana Maharaja, I mean what he said is correct, that great people that they don’t brag all the things what they are going to do but that’s for the public but here for the devotees they need to have to be reminded of a few of our goals for the centennial, this is not the bragging but this is worried about all the devotees behind it, it’s not going to happen, not that I am going to do it and come back and show. We are going to do. Right. We are going to do it in a united way. I am going to implement this program or each different devotee may take up different aspects of the goal. So for that reason we have to focus everyone that we are all doing our part. And this year we are going to do a special offering to Prbhupada, as they say, “It will never happen again, it’s not happened before, so it’s a special occasion” But that’s why the people have been racking their brains, so to speak, like thinking deeply, what other things we can do for Prabhupada or something special, taking advantage of this opportunity. We know that Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur, he was our most conservative, and he was also a dynamic preacher, but he was very philosophically correct in everything he did and he also observed one centennial function, I think it was the centennial of maybe Bhaktivinod thakur or something. I don’t know what centennial, but there was some centennial and on that occasion he had a big dyrama exhibition, and in those days dyrama exhibition was probably for the public or something like Dysney world or something. People didn’t have so many ah... 43.46 things, and ah... to control the crowd he also charged a admission fee. It was a small fee, maybe 50 paisa or 25 paisa, one half or one quarter of a rupee, of course in those days a rupee was worth a lot more. So it became...it was also, everybody came and became a big thing, so he also observed all this occasions like the centennial but he would also take advantage of ...put on exhibitions and put on some special functions and programmes. So we are following the footsteps...that’s why we are holding different programs, ah...different places, one of our objective is that we should ah... build up our congregation, and we want to build them up means not only that numerical buildings, the building like you know like body building, you have a spiritual building, build them up by empowering them so they can also preach. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that every human should take up Krishna consciousness and spread it to others. So we want every human being, whoever we meet, whoever gets Krishna consciousness, gets a Krishna conscious literature, gets association of devotees, they should be empowered to also give that to their friends and others. I am sure most of many devotees might have found that a friend of yours told you about Krishna consciousness. You know maybe something will go on 45.25 pioneer they just met for the first time, but they might tell some friend, and so many have been told by a friend, have been told by someone they know, and they find that the best way to introduce someone to a new idea is being told by someone you already know. That’s part of the reason why it is advantageous to ..45.42 distributing a book, how much can you talk to them, it will take a lot of time, and they may or maynot accept what you are saying because they don’t know you, but if they take the book and read it and get convinced then that works a lot better. They in turn if they are convinced, and they tell their friends. So in this way then it goes on, so I think coming to an end here. So we want to see that every member of the whole congregation also gets empowered to help in this sankirtan movement and that was an important thing also because ah...it is inspirational for the book distributor because if you distribute books and say that lot of people are taking up Krishna consciousness, definitely it is more inspiring, many people are taking you know, and taking it seriously to different degrees. So all these things are aspects of the things that we already offered to Prabhupada. Of course we have the big events, the events are focus points like our Gaur Purnima festival, and there is a big hundred country procession in Calcutta and Delhi, and then in Vrindavan there is another big function going on and throughout the year this functions, and in the middle ah... then for the vyasa puja they have ah...already booked the big indoor stadium that holds 30,000 people or something, 20,000 stadium and they are booking all the tickets and there will be having big a V.I.P and that performing a Mahaabhisekh with the 1008 kalashesh, that will be in Calcutta and of course the same water will be distributed to all the temples of the world, and ah... every Prabhupada murti in all the temples will also will be bathed by that 1008 holy river and holy waters, which is also one of the major, promotional programmes. We get people to sponsor a kalash, a water pot. I mean who will not want to have one of those water pot with 1008 water remnants from Prabhupada also, Prasad. I mean that’s only... who else would ever... who is going to organize devotees, I mean there are great devotees working. I personally took some devotee, it sounds easy, 1008 , I mean this devotees work very hard. Because I took ah... ah... ah...80 devotees on a tour... I go you know after the Gaur Purnima festival, so I go to different places in Gaur Mandal Bhumi and ah... in eastern India, southern India. So one ah... devotee was with me, who was collecting water for the centennial and so we went to so many holy places, so he was 48.26 and he had filled up this ah...trunks and there was on the top of the box, this big box you know 50 passenger but the bus owner he was saying, “you know this water is so much heavy ah... the whole top is you know maybe a few tons of water you know and he is getting worried that I don’t know you know it’s difficult... then he is kind of, he doesn’t want anyone to take his water, so he is taking up and down and then you see...you know... if he has to move better leave up there at least, but don’t up and down. Each trunk is weighing you know hundreds of kilos, big 49.00 of water, each .... you know this kunda, this river, this bathing place, and I don’t know how this trunks, all the trunks somehow takes it by train and goes back to Delhi and because it is a pretty major effort, they may either have to .... really appreciate, so we are never going to, I don’t foresee that ah... it is likely that we are going to get a 1008 place water again, I think this is also one of those never before, never again, ah... atleast maybe because of the 200th anniversary or something, they will do it So this is ah... another opportunity for us to get this holy water, so like that people put lot of thought into this ah... program, so we wanted to increase our book distribution and Prabhupada wanted to increase the congregation, infact whatever the congregation is not the beginning of the year. By the end of the year we should have at least double. This is not difficult because a huge congregational members make one more member plus all the sankirtan devotees are making more, you do double and more. If you make two each then you triple. Three times. Then if you make three you have four times. So one devotee having four months, not so difficult to make ah... member of the congregation. We find that if you have to make a ten members of the congregation, then........ten percent, 10 to 15% ah... eventually would spend some time in direct preaching or serving in the temple, it’s a some percentage is there automatically. So like this in all the different areas, the communications, the...so much desire is there to expand for Prahupada. Just like he did something permanent for us. So let us try to do something more permanent offering for him in wherever we are serving, something not a question of offering a big cake, what’s the point of it, you know, because Prasad is an important part, you don’t, that’s one of the aspect and there is so many other. Like I remember in ....initiation ceremony Prabhupada was saying how this are the real flowers o... o... that we offer to Krishna, flowers of the souls who are surrendered to Krishna, then it’s truly wonderful offering to Lord Krishna. So I am very overwhelmed that I came to imagine that I had no plan earlier, just suddenly the opportunity came and so I took it knowing that here the sankirtan ah... devotees, ah... they are very much empowered and being with so many devotees is always very ecstatic, to have a assembly of Vaisnavas. Gather together in order to glorify the pure devotee, Srila Prabhupada, to glorify Lord Krishna, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, so I am very grateful that I could be here on this occasion and today being the day that for the year, this is a special. Actually what we need is ah... more than anything is the blessings of Gaura Nitai, and of all our deities Jagannath and all the different deities ah... will, wherever we are serving, to do something for Prabhupada, which is ah.. extraordinary, which will be maybe appreciated, bring more people to this, to understand, what is the great gift that Prabhupada has given us. What is the purpose of human life, what is the way that we can actually achieve the real happiness, and like that everyone seeking, that people appreciate all this things about Prabhupada during this centennial year, and I... of course reading Prabhupada’s books and understanding his teachings. Like someone asked Prabhupada, “What is the thing that will make you most happy Prabhupada?” Said, “When you develop love for Krishna and my followers develop Krishna Prema, that makes me most happy.” So it’s not that we only do external things, that everything count and measure, but internally also that we try to offer throughout this year that by... there will be a better devotee at the end of the year. You know, people should be so convinced that they should decide that I should only take shelter within Prabhupada’s movement. That always I want to be connected with Prabhupada, therefore I want to take initiation from one of Prabhupada’s followers, bonafide guru following Prabhupada’s footsteps, because I want to be connected with Prabhupada and get that vibration coming down from Prabhupada, through the parampara. So like this people should be inspired and that’s something that everyone of us can try to do in our own humble way, so I... I am sure that you also have many different plans and the book distribution goal... one of the very most important goals not the most important goal, because what’s the thing when Prabhupada he will be eager to read here what are the book results and what were the book publishing when he saw the new books, I remember Harikesh Swami brought so many books. When he was just crying, he appreciated so much, but he appreciated all the things, clean temples, and nice prasadam, everything. Prabhupada appreciated that we did out of love for him. So Prabhupada ki Jay Prabhupada Centennial ki Jay Nitai Gaur Premanande

Jay Sachinanadana Maharaj (Devotee): I wanted to ask you a personal question. What is the quality of Srila Prabhupada which impressed you personally most of all his millions of qualities? JPS: Now you put me in the hot seat ah...(laughter) I am sitting up here to be put on the hot... in the heat. I feel that’s that’s probably quite difficult for me because I was actually looking for a bonafide guru, and I have visited so many gurus ah... in the West, and in the...then eventually I figured out that this one is bogus and this one’s useless and this one is crazy and (laughter), so I had become quite hopeless actually and ah... but I thought that only way is, I have to go to India and maybe in India it will be you know, ooph If I had gone to India I really would have been in trouble, because ah.....56.13.....but hard to find the real thing there, I think also, so I was so fortunate that then I came in touch with Prabhupada’s movement, and the first thing that impressed me were his devotees. Before we met Prabhupada we met his devotees, and that they were very impressive, especially Jayananda Prabhu, he was serving so nicely, he was very impressive devotee, and when I...after one week of coming ah... to the temple, I decided to shave up and try this up because I was looking already, and I wanted to do, I was already vegetarian.....I wanted to try out this spiritual process, so I got convinced that this was the way, so on that rath yatra day I was to be shaved up, and Jayananda personally shaved me, so...so first thing I was impressed by his devotees of Prabhupada actually. They were like reflecting some of his ah...glories and then when I went to see, at that time Prabhupada was in montreal and I went to the ratha yatra was in San Francisco, then I flew right after that I flew to montreal and ah... met Prabhupada there, but when I was in the temple room and Prabhupada came in, it was a total kind of experience for me. His bearing, his speech, his presence you know, and even I could... I could you know get some kind of spiritual like whatever I could, feel some kind of ah... very profound spiritual vibration and everything and I was really just like overwhelmed by Prabhupada’s ah... presense on so many levels that you know, try to select which one was the most, I don’t even... at that point I was like already like tidal wave, overflooded. Every...every know sometime....he has got this little meter here 58.17 as we are recording, “Hari Bol”, like when it goes all the way to limit, so all of those areas was already were already at the maximum limit (laughter). It had already gone you know, full scale ah...beyond the meter, my meter always overgone in every, every you know level, and on the top of that then Prabhpuda he saw me there amongst the devotees, he said, “who is that?”, then someone said, “Oh, he if Bhakta Jay, just came from ah.. San Franscisco” “so have him come for lunch tomorrow.” (laughter) So he... I next day I was sitting in front of Prabhupada, he was talking to me and he gave me lunch ah...Prasad. He is taking, I am taking at his feet there. He fed me so much pradadam I felf I was going to burst, I was very skinny in those days” (laughter) So every quality that I could see in Prabhupada, everyone was like ah... as I said, like this meter in the Haribol, you know, we are seeing here this meter. All maximum, so it’s more like a sequential, one way after another, but each one, I could find anything spiritually ah... spiritual ah... and personal level I couldn’t find, I never saw any person like that, so compassionate and so learned and it was some kind of an experience that ah... maybe if you want to get the total presence of ah...Prbhupada spiritual force and everything but as I said, it was like a really best part of singular most difficult trying to say which one quality because it was all the qualities, maybe that’s the one quality that everything was great, everything was very special. Of course probably people more they are tuned in, but even the general people they have a very good impression of Prabhupada. One day I would meet him, so if had said which one good quality, if you said, give like some of the examples of the different specific qualities 1.00.40 that’s like more, but that will take all my, you are very intelligent. (laughter) Are there other questions. Everyone wants to see the slide show, and wants to offer the cake. Devotee: .........1.01.05, second day of very intense festival, where .....you have described ....the best of the qualities JPS: They are all maxed out (laughter) Jay Jagannath Swami

Nitai Gaur Ki. Srila Prabhupada Ki. Prabhupada centennial ki Jay. Sachinanda: .............thank maharaj for very enlightening class and continue out inauguration festival ah... Transcribed by: Sadananda Krishnaprem Das Mayapur, 18/1+0/2015

ay Sachinanadana Maharaj