20130313 Śrīla Prabhupāda Kathā

Following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj on March 13th 2013 in Sridham Mayapur India. The talk was about pastimes with Srila Prabhupad

So, my God brothers have asked me to write a book about Srila Prabhupad and my experiences. I am going to start talking about Srila Prabhupad in Mayapur. My experience with Prabhupad was in Montreal, in Los Angeles, in Mayapur & in India in another place, also in Calcutta. So here I’m just talking about Srila Prabhupad in Mayapur after the partition marks about the land which is still standing and so but the grass hut is just the one standing by the front gate that is all there was in Mayapur. 

I used to... I used to stay there along with Jananivas and several other devotees. So Prabhupad also stayed in that grass hut. He would say,” This grass hut is in the mode of goodness. This is all we need to chant Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.( Gurumaharaj and devotees sing together)  By the side of the Ganges, in the grass hut this is all we need. But who will come?? To receive our guests from all over the world, we have to construct buildings using the mode of passion :  bricks, steel stone chips, and sand  ,cement so here  we should build some buildings. “

Prabhupad, he paced up  that we had 10  Bighas of land , 10- 11 Bighas,  that’s about  3 Bigha is an acre. And there were 2 parts , wide  ____ and one in the back. so behind us  building. So, first he said we will build  four buildings like this one and then build the big temple. Later so then he marked the top with lime and this first building he gave the design that they were filled with large verandas so that if we are booked up ,to devotees and sleep on the verandas. (  Gurumharaj see that there is no repitition, so he asks)   Can we  have this repetition ? We do  not have the FM radios. Repetition has to come here.  ( Talk continues) So Srila Prabhupad he paced up and  he marked out where there will be  four buildings like this and also where there would be a big temple. Later we got more land and he changed his idea. So, we  were  staying in the grass hut . Then for bathroom we had a very  village style. We had some tiles , that went  in the ground. 

Tiles were almost 1-meter wide and about 4 mts deep. It was an Indian pan style. Little grass hut over the Indian pan and a slide  from the pan to  the ditch  or hole. Some of us would go early morning and clean out. There were white worms or maggots  which would eat the natural by products and being a western body, this was a new experience. Some of us were observing how the worms seemed competing with each other and one would be crawling on top of over one another. For a minute, he will be a king worm, he will be on top of other. And some other pull him down and climb up and that would be a king worm. So, we developed a  philosophy that this was the material world, you try to be on top and soon you will be down. And the real thing Is to serve Krishna and his pure devotees. So anyway there, we had an opportunity to live in the grass hut with Srila Prabhupad.

And then someone visited us from the Peace Corps and his name was Bob Cohen , C-O-H-E-N  and he had lot of questions and  Prabhupad had all kinds of answers. From that came a book Perfect Questions and Perfect Answers. At that time, there were not many people coming to Mayapur. Rather in the morning we would see some workers go by bicycle to the Hular ghat to work in the jute godowns and then in the afternoon they ride back. So  no shops, net shops ,there were no buses just us and down the road some Gaudiya Math. So Srila Prabhupad said we are going to have a spiritual city with 50,000 people. And he would give us his ideas and vision for the future. 

There was one French devotee. He had a mongoose and that mongoose would run around. So, mongooses are considered very auspicious because they can kill a cobra. So, if you have a mongoose no poisonous snakes come by. Like that so we were living with Prabhupad and he was giving us some classes .So at that time we had some cows and Prabhupad said it's auspicious if the cows graze  on the land where you are going to build the temple. Because by their grazing ,by eating the grass and walking there the land becomes purified. So, it’s good to build the temple. Later we thought we will build the temple somewhere else. But other places became complicated. And so, in the end we built this temple of Vedic planetarium on the original land where the cows grazed where Prabhupad first marked up and where he first planted the Ananta Sesha.

 So one day , one of the cows was grazing around the house and just by Prabhupad’s window I had a beehive. I bought some boxes from the Apiary society. Bee breeding society in South of Calcutta. And so  they would come and go gathering honey around. When this cow saw the grass under the beehive and cows like to eat grass so the cow ate the grass and somehow the beehive got knocked over and all the bees swarmed in Prabhupad room and I was called. (Gurumaharaj laughing). Jayapataka. (Maharaj laughing) Then I saw there was bees everywhere. And some were attacking Prabhupad. Somehow or another we made the bees back to the hives. Prabhupad said we have to move the bees. (Maharaj laughing) Not under his window. 

 One day, behind the grass hut, we had a kitchen, which was made out of tarpaulin. So, there we would cook, and that day, Sridhar Swami, he came with the latest Indian invention- automatic chapati roller, and puri roller. He was demonstrating.( Hello,Hello ...Gurumaharaj, repeats as the mike went of) So Sridhar maharaj would roll a ball , he’d roll a ball of atta, and then press it on the automatic puri machine and he made a nice puri, and then he put it in the gree, and fried, puffed up, he would serve it out. He had some liquid date gur, and then he’d dip the puri in the date gur, and try it out. Prabhupada was watching us through the window in the grass hut. “Jayapataka!”.( Audience laughing) So I came, he said, “This is not Sanyaas life”.( Gurumaharaj and audience laugh ) So like that living with Prabhupad was a very wonderful experience. 

And grass huts, they are actually alive, there are all kinds of lizards, living entities, be surprised, how much stuff live in the grass. But they are at home with the nature. So, on one hand, Prabhupad would be saying his vision for the future, and on the other hand, he’d be also training us. In the morning he would go for his morning walk, he was leading us through the aisleways in the fields, and there were some narrow pathways, about you can say 10 inches or  thats about 1/4th of 25 cmts, those would be leading to the fields. So we would walk on those and lead Prabhupada to the Ganges or wherever he wants to go. He said that these are like the expressways or highways, and Jayapataka Swami, he knows how to go. So he was very kind to me. So we would walk to different places. So sometimes we walked down the road, and beyond the National school, opposite to the polyclinic, there used to be a big banyan tree,that rooted down during one strong wind. That place is also known as Shiva Doba. In ancient times, there was a Shiva there. But that tree, Prabhupada said, that tree is a desire tree, Kalpa Vriksha. And so like that, Prabhupad used to  see all these trees and things with his spiritual vision. So he let us distribute some free prasadam. Some days of the week we would give out free prasadam. One day was I was riding on my bicycle, people coming from the temple they told me “Bachur more geye che, Bachur more geye che.”That means, I  don't know, I knew little Bengali at that time. So I thought, Bachaa, means baby died. And I said “Oh No”. Because I would see these little babies, little kids, they eat so much khichdi, Their stomach would come out.( All laugh) and I thought oh no, one baby bursted.(All laugh) He ate so much. Later I realised that Bachur means calf, Bachaa means baby and Bachur means calf. So, one calf was born of the cow and died at the birth. Like that we were living in the grass hut and Kolkata temple would send us 35 rupees a week, which was not much. So I took permission from Prabhupada to grow our own sabjis, rice. And I remember Tamal Krishna Maharaj, he said ,”these are all city boys, what do they know about growing.” I asked Prabhupad “Give me a chance”. So he said “ok”. So a little piece of land, about 5 kattas, 20 kattas is a Bigha. I grew tomatoes and on two Bighas we grew radish. We had so many radish, 100’s and 100’s of kilos of radish. Finally the devotees said “Please Please, no more radish” (All laugh) Radish…Radish (makes crying sound). We learnt every way of cooking radish. The greens, the radish, we got somany tomatoes on 5 kattas, we got some tonnes. The land produces so much, it’s quite incredible. So, we had to sell the excess because we five devotees could not eat all of that. So like this, while we were here, we learn to grow many different things. And then, Prabhupada said we should be self sufficient. So that’s when I also learnt how to plough with the bulls. Bulls have their own language. Not very extensive but, enough to tell them what you want them to do. There’s no reins, just by voice. So when you go to the end of the plot, you want to turn around, in Bengali languages tell them “gur gur gur gur’. You want them to go right, you say “da da da da”. You want them to go left you say “ba ba ba ba”. You’ve to watch out for the feet, if you go close to the plough, you say “pa pa pa pa”. So like that, we learnt some of the cow language and so, Prabhupad was pleased that we did this. And I could understand that the bulls and cows, they’re actually people. And Krishna, He knows all the languages- cow language, bird language, even Tamil, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Chinese every language He knows. And he could talk to all the animals, all the people. When Lord Chaitanya went to the Jharikanda forest, he would talk to all the animals and tell them chant Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. (everyone repeats)  So Prabhupada asked us to keep the grass hut. Let everyone see, that Mayapur started here. At one time, that was all we had. That was Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir.

(  Gurumaharaj tells about evening programme) Because today till 6:30 they are having award ceremony for book marathon, book distribution. We also want to spend the maximum time in Kirtan Mela. I have in my room a special video and a TV which shows the Kirtan Mela. So you may not see me, but I see you. (All laugh)

 So, here Srila Prabhupada, he started out, that time, he dug a hole and he went down the hole with the Ananta Shesha. He invited all the other god brothers and nephews, descendants of Om Vishnupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and they all gathered together and he established this Ananta Shesha. He said, this Ananta Shesha would hold the project on his head. He said that that is the birthplace, this is the work place. Krishna said Janma Karma Ca Me Divyam, so he said that Yogpeeth is the Janma Sthan and this is the Karma Sthan of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So here, he also invited all his other god brothers and god nephews.  You all are struggling to finish your 

guest houses, preaching, I will  give you some foreign devotees who can go with all your parties, how to finish your guest houses. I’ll help you. Let’s all unite together, UNITE TOGETHER ( Gurumaharaj stresses) for the pleasure of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. So, he invited them. But no one took it up. Many years later, someone came from the neighbouring Gaudiya Math and asked Srila  Prabhupad, come and speak at the occasion they had.  He said,” I’m going to say the same thing. Why are we separate? Why don’t we work together? Why don’t you do that? Why do you want me to come there and cause you embarrassment? So why don’t u want to work together. “ And by that time, I more or less knew Bengali. I knew it. So, he replied to Prabhupada in Bengali, he said,” I am very ashamed, but I have to admit you are a big fish and I am a small fish in a small pond. But in my pond, I'm the big fish. So by inviting you over, if I work with you, then I become a very small fish. So I’m not able to do that. “ Prabhupad looked very disgusted. That’s not the mood of pure devotion. So, in ISKCON Prabhupada established the multi guru system, where all different devotees could become guru. Some may have thousands of disciples, some may have a dozen, or one. Doesn’t matter. Everyone tries to serve the Guru Parampara in their way and we work cooperatively. Haribol!! Srila Prabhupad ki jai!! (All repeat)

Now we will distribute prasadam. Men this side and Ladies that side.