20150109 A Talk on the Pastimes with Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Gurumahārājā:

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

paramānanda-mādhavam

Śrī Caitanya Iswaram

Hari Oṁ Tat Sat.

Sorry we are a little late today. There were a lot of phone calls which just came in, and everyone asked for urgent meetings. So, this led us to being late. Tomorrow we go to Chennai, and we will be there for about five days, and we will be broadcasting from there whenever possible. So, if there is some questions on Prabhupāda... when I was there.

Devotee: Gurumahārāja, this is the letter dated seventeenth August 1970 from 6-16 – commy, meguroshu, Tokyo, Japan. My dear Jayapatākā, “Please accept my blessings. Your letter dated tenth August, 1970 addressed to our L.A temple, redirected here has been duly received by me. I have sent several letters and a telegram from this place to your new address, but I have received no reply of them till now. On the 15th August, 1970 Tamāl has sent you the following Telegram, “Śrīla Prabhupāda desires you come to Calcutta immediately, Telegram from 6/16 to Komi Ohasi, Megoruko, Tokyo, Japan or telephone, Tokya – 4662935. 

To Tamāl, Sudhāmā, Kirtanānanda, Madhudwisa can confirm recommendation and accommodation from Tamal Kṛṣṇa. We were expecting your Telegram or phone call every moment, but I have received none. In the meantime I have received your reply under reply. I have again sent you another telegram reading as follows:

“I have sent telegram/ why no reply? I am ready to come. Confirm immediately by telegram to ISKCON, 6/16, Tucomy, Ohasi, Megoruko, Tokyo; A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.

In Japan we are now staying at the temple, five sanyasis including myself and one householder.

Tamāl: Ready to start for India. I have ordered seventy thousand different kinds of books and literature costing nearly $32,000 and most probably I shall order further for $20,000 more. So, they are all meant for distribution in India for propaganda work. Besides that I am getting Hindi Back to Godhead also printed here for distribution in India. So, everything is ready. Simply I am awaiting Telegram from your side. 

Gurumahārāja, would you like to elaborate on this part?

Gurumahārāja: You see how expert Prabhupāda is. He is sending Telegrams and letters to the new address to make sure that it works. I know that we got the place to stay, but for some reason we were continuing to stay in the Guadia Math. These things were coordinated by Acyutānanda Dās and although we have the place, I am not sure how telegrams are working anymore. If the person is not there do they deliver? Because we are going down to the Babughat and different places on the Harinām. So, for some reasons the... Prabhupāda’s telegrams went past us, and Prabhupāda was waiting for the reply, but somehow we didn’t reply to those particular telegrams. But at this time we had a place. I am sure that after this we sent a letter to Prabhupāda confirming that everything was ready. Prabhupāda, he didn’t want to arrive at the Gaudia Math because there were some internal, high level, spiritual manoeuvring; that if he went to the Gaudia Math, the Gaudia Math would take credit for all the hard work he did in which they never helped. They never sent any man, any mrindanga, any kartal, but they would say that he was working under them if he arrived first in their Ashram. So, he was very particular to arrive at his own place first. I was quite simple as far as these things go, and it took me some years to grasp the kind of manoeuvres that were going on, and Prabhupāda would not comment to us much about his Godbrothers because he said that after all they are his Godbrothers, and for us they are our uncles (our guruvargas). So, if we complain, that’s an aparadh. He could being a brother have more right to comment, but we didn’t have such a right. So, that was the underplay. Who would get the brand marking of going to Iskcon or to Gaudia Math?

Devotee: Regarding Deities, we have three pairs of Deities lying with Sindhia’s steam navigation. I am sending here with the copy of the letter addressed to Mr.Trivedi today. With this copy of the letter both you and Achyutananda can see Mr. Trivedi, and on the strength of this letter you take delivery of the three pairs of mūrti’s. We shall install one in Māyāpur, one in Calcutta and one in Gorakhpur. 

Does Gurumahārāja want to say something on this? 

Gurumahaārāja: The one in Māyāpur is the small Rādhā Mādhava, but as far as I know the other two ended up, one in Berkley and one in Boston. There may have been an idea to make a branch in Gorakhpur, but that branch never happened, and in Calcutta he established marble Deities of Rādhā-Govinda – marble Deities and a wooden Lord Caitanya. That was RadhaGovinda and GaurangaNataraj. Then there also was Prabhupāda’s personal RādhāKrṣṇa Deities – RadhaGopinath which he kept in Calcutta. From that time temples started to have Deities. So, he no longer needed to carry Deity with him. Śrīla Prabhupāda was seeing various details, like the Deity would be rare and, and it is remarkable how he kept everything very much in his mind where he wanted the different things.

Devotee: Next para:

I have got many enquiries and friendly invitation from many different parts of India. Simply we want our place at Māyāpur immediately. Then everything will be in order. We will require a huge amount of money for constructing a temple in Māyāpur specially. I am glad that you are getting good collections also, and there is good prospect of getting more. So, if we work sincerely keeping faith in Kṛṣṇa and spiritual master, there will be no difficulty at all in our preaching work. So, either on receipt of this letter or prior, as soon as I can get your telegram for receiving us, then we can start for Calcutta. We have ordered one consignment of coal, pakwaj and kartal. They are lying with Dwarkin and son due to the Calcutta docs strike. If they have not yet been dispatched, please take delivery of them for our use in India. Hope this will meet in you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. 

I heard from some god brothers in Los Angeles that the small Deities of RukminiDwarakanath told Śrīla Prabhupāda that he should also preach in India, and he took up that assignment also. So, we would communicate with him that we had a separate place, and so he had ordered some books from Guy Nippon, the Japanese printing company, and the books would be sent to India. I remember one of the books was, “God in some features – seven or five features.” and he would particularly... he was publishing some chapters from the Caitanya Caritramita which dealt with Praksasananda Saraswati, and how the Māyāvādī sanyasis of Benares became Vaiṣṇavas? Then Prabhupāda, he said that some mridanga’s, pakwaj’s and kartal’s etc. were kept with the supplier because of the Port Strike. So, he wanted those should be... if they we were still there, to be used for his preaching in India. So, he was concerned, he said that, “We are preaching the glories of India all over the world. India is so spiritual and so great, but if the Indians go to hell and become materialistic, then our preaching is... I can’t really tell the words he used... futile. So, then he wanted to; he said that by having a centre in Bombay which was the most materialistic city; that he wanted to stop the advancement of Kali in India, and also he wanted that Māyāpur and Vṛndāvana devotees from around the world could come and visit the holy Dhām. So, he gave great importance to having land in Māyāpur, and he said that they would have a big temple, take lots of money, and it was in 1970; he didn’t even have land yet, but Prabhupāda had all these ideas. So, he wanted us to carry out and fulfil his desires. 

Now we were doing Harinām in Downtown, Calcutta. At that time Calcutta was the biggest city in India. Now I am not sure. Maybe Delhi, but somehow we got some donation for the books and the prasādam. I can imagine that those donations were very significant. Nothing on the scale that he was talking about; building a large temple in Māyāpur – that was a whole new invention, and now we are here in 2015 and we are trying to finish the T.O.V.P for which the structure is built, but it still needs a lots of work and a lots of ideas for the exhibits. As we were edging ahead, Prabhupāda he had a whole picture in his mind where he wanted us to go, and we were far back, but we were looking forward. So, Prabhupāda ki Jay..... ki jay.... ki jay... ki jay

Any questions?

Shyāma Madhusudhana: This question is from Praneshwari Laxmī Mātājī. She says, Gurumahārāja do you remember the first time you were chastised by Śrīla Prabhupāda and how did you feel?

Gurumahārāja: Offhand I can’t remember. I have to do a lot of mental scanning, but I felt blessed that Prabhupāda was instructing me. At the same time I felt bad that I was not satisfying his divine grace. We wanted to please the spiritual master, and that was our goal. So, if he was chastising us that meant that he was not happy, that meant that we were not doing our job right, we were not doing our sevā right. For example in his letters in Calcutta he was chastising us, “Why are you not replying back? Why are you not getting a new place?” And so on. But you can see how soft he had intents... Śrīla Prabhupāda was. He was very kind, but he was very assertive, that this thing had to be done, why you are not doing it? 

Thank you Praneshwāri LaxmiDeviDāsi, South of Sand Diego. 

Shyāma Madhusudhana Dās: This question is from Lalitāngi Rādhā. 

How did Śrīla Prabhupāda manage a lot of things in his old age which was apparently stressful, how did he manage the stress? How did Śrīla Prabhupāda manage lots of things in his old age which were apparently stressful, and how did he manage the stress. 

Gurumahārāja: Having a strong desire to serve your guru and your previous Acharyas and Lord Caitanya and Kṛṣṇa. It may seem like an ordinary stress, but it is also something very ecstatic. So, he was anxious to do this service correctly, but whenever he was not able to do, he became anxious, and that appear as stress, but that’s part of his love. You know that’s why Kṛṣṇa consciousness is different than Māyāvāda. Māyāvādīs, they want peace, Oṁ shanty, Oṃ Shanty, Oṁ Shantihi, become one, become nothing, don’t even exist. That’s Māyāvāda. They want to lose their identity, but devotees they want to please Krishna. Mother Yaśodā, she would get worried that Vṛndāvana soil is very hard, my little boy Gopāl, he will hurt his feet, or mother Yaśodā was cooking milk and sometimes the milk was boiling over. So, she was feeling anxiety, but that’s her love. If you don’t feel any anxiety you don’t feel any love. It is part of Bhakti Yoga to feel something. 

When things don’t go right, and also we always try to improve. Rādhārāṇī who is the purest of the pure, she always thinks that she could do better. So, if we think that we are doing everything alright we missed it. Even if we are doing everything right, we should still worry that something may be missing, what more can I do to please Krishna? Now that stress and anxiety is actually an expression of love. Because this devotees care about Kṛṣṇa, so therefore they feel some pleasure to do things right. Because we care about Prabhupāda we want to see that he is happy. There was one lady; she was cleaning Prabhupāda’s room in Los Angeles. So, she thought she did a very good job, and she was ready to get praised by Prabhupāda. She was standing there very proud waiting to hear the praise, but Prabhupāda he started looking how are the socks, how was this, how was that? Then she thought, “Something is not right.” Prabhupāda kept looking and looking, and tried to open the window, but the window had just recently been painted; that was painted shut. He tried to open it, it was stuck. He said, “Why the window doesn’t open?” And the girl broke down crying, but actually we have been trying to please the guru, we should never think that everything is perfect. We should be thinking, “What’s the thing that I can do better?” So, when we have the love for Kṛṣṇa, automatically your stress turns simply into love. 

Ok, last question.

Question: How we can have the same ecstasy of having stress turned into love as practitioners?

Gurumahārāja: Prabhupāda would say that you are all pure devotees, but it is like mango. 

Some mango is ripe, some is green. So, in Delhi we get green mango... carbide gas... you won’t know the secrets, and wrap it with paper, and then the mango becomes ripe, or in Central America, in Northern South America like Ecuador, they sell the expert bananas to America and Europe. So, they know how long it needs to ripe it. So, the expert green banana by the time it reaches it becomes ripe bananas.

So, once in Ecuador the banana was too old; it was still hard. But the expert said, “It will overripe when it will get to its destination. So, they offer it for sell for free to the churches and N.G.O’s. They took about three lorry’s full of thirty kilos, but it took like a months to ripen. So, when it had ripened we had thirty tons all at one time. Mahavara likes bananas. So, the sādhakas are also banana’s and mangoes, but not fully ripe. As they feel distress or anxiety for guru and Kṛṣṇa; then, naturally it will turn to love, but they may need to be guided. 

Thank you all very much.