20251025 Śrīla Prabhupāda Tirobhāva Talk

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: Today is the auspicious day of the tirobhava of our Founder-Ācārya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda! So, usually in Māyāpur and other places, they give 15 minutes for each speaker. But here, they have given an hour! 

So, I was inspired to join ISKCON in 1968. In San Francisco, I had to build the Ratha-yātrā cart. So, His Grace Jayānanda Prabhu engaged me in the ratha building. Then, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s secretary gave me some japabeads and I went out in the park, and I chanted for like, some six hours (in Montreal). I chanted around 32 rounds! I was feeling great bliss! Then I went back to the temple, and the secretary met me. “You have those beads,” he asked. “Those are Śrīla Prabhupāda’s beads and I heard I was not supposed to give them to anyone,” he said! So, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy was already given to me, chanting was not quite the same after that!

Anyway, I went via New York, saw the temple in New York. Went to Matchless Gifts, the storefront and then I went to Montreal and met Śrīla Prabhupāda there. So, at that time, I had the desire to go to India. So, I asked Śrīla Prabhupāda if I could go to India. He told me, “You stay with me, I will train you up and then you can go to India.” So at that time, I saw all the temples in ISKCON! San Francisco, New York and Montreal! Now there are like 800 or 1000 temples of ISKCON and not easy to see all of them! 

So, I was given some special service that in the afternoon, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s secretaries were shopping, so I was asked to ‘guru-sit’. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted anything, he would ring the bell, and I would have to go. 

So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he went to the basement, and he saw a rat running around. Don’t think it is only in India! Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Hare Rāma!” As soon as the rat ran out, he chanted the holy name. 

One time he caught a cockroach in his room. He was holding him by the back and talked to him –  “My dear cockroach, I give you the world, fly away” and he opened the window and threw it outside. So like that, Śrīla Prabhupāda was very spontaneous. 

When we went on a morning walk with him, he was saying, find a very healthy man, you can go shopping there and it will be very good. A taxi driver let out a passenger who was very healthy. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Ask him where does he do his shopping?” He answered, “I go to some supermarket.” Śrīla Prabhupāda was very spontaneous and whatever he said, he would do.

One time, he was in Chicago airport which is called O’Hare airport. They spell O’Hare as ‘Hare’. So he told them have the airport name changed to ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa’. Haribol! Then he sent me to India in 1970. So, we were staying in South Calcutta. There were many South Indians there. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave me sannyāsa along with Acyutānanda Prabhu. He told Acyutānanda Prabhu that he had given nine people sannyāsa in Los Angeles, that Acyutānanda was number 10 and I was 11! So, like this, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he established Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur as his special centers for devotees around the world to visit. So, after I was president in Calcutta, he sent me to Māyāpur. After some time, I think His Grace Prabhāviṣṇu Prabhu was with me as a co-director. And then, Śrīla Prabhupāda came to Calcutta in 1970. He went via Japan. And at that time, he met His Holiness Bhānu Swami in Japan and brought him to India, as far as I remember! So, Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted the Indian Yātrā to expand. I think you all heard from Bhānu Mahārāja, that if you all further expand the movement that would be very pleasing to Śrīla Prabhupāda!

I was reading in the Bhagavad-gītā in the purport it said, you only get devotional service by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa or His pure devotee! In 1971 or so, there was the Ardha-Kumbha-melā in Allahabad. I think that is called Prayāgarāj now. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said in his lecture that having devotional service means you do all the different things like yajñas, tapasyas, various holy activities. So after the end of the class, one of the senior devotees asked, “I don’t see when I look back at my life, I did no yajñas, did not visit holy places, I did nothing! How did I get devotional service?” Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “I made your good fortune for you!” So, one unalloyed devotee went around the world fourteen times and made thousands of devotees!

Śrīla Prabhupāda established the Internal Society for Krishna Consciousness! Kṛṣṇa is in everyone’s heart, He is in every atom! So, being Kṛṣṇa conscious is a step in the service of Kṛṣṇa, always. So every one of you should be thinking about Kṛṣṇa all the time! When you meet someone, you give a book or something, in your heart you think, “Kṛṣṇe matir astu – may this person be Kṛṣṇa conscious!” Every one of you has the power to bless others! It is the only way, devotees can get Kṛṣṇa conscious. The only way people can get Kṛṣṇa conscious – only by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa and His unalloyed devotees.

I was with Śrīla Prabhupāda when he went to Vinoda Bhave’s place. Vinoba Bhave was devoted to Gandhiji. He was having a conference on the Bhagavad-gītā. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda had the devotees with him chant and he spoke on Bhagavad-gītā. Vinoda Bhave was in mauna-vrata as he was against the cow slaughter going on in India. So, he had his devotees chant a chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. Then they had this Māyāvādī sannyāsī who was present, and he was trying to speak. And he started to speak some speculated mantra! “Sat-cit-ānanda, Kṛṣṇa!” Like some, I cannot remember. They were like, what is this??! Śrīla Prabhupāda told his devotees, “Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa!”

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare /
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! 

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare /
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

Everybody was like clapping and rocking, they were so inspired! Śrīla Prabhupāda said, that your chanting was so effective because you are all pure devotees! They said, “Śrīla Prabhupāda, you are a pure devotee!” You see, a mango, some mangos are unripe and some are ripe. But mango is a mango! So you are all mangos! So, some may be katcha mangos and some may be ripe! If you want to worship Kṛṣṇa with some motive or some purpose, like I want some two in one, some better car, I will worship Kṛṣṇa and get! But if you want to worship Kṛṣṇa to please him like Śrīla Prabhupāda taught, then that is pure devotion! So, like that, may be many devotees do that, some may be ripe, some may be katcha, but they want to please Kṛṣṇa!

Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was spreading this Kṛṣṇa consciousness around the world because Lord Caitanya had predicted that His message would go around the world. So, in fact Lord Caitanya said, in every town and village, that was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s ultimate goal! Every one of you do something in that regard. That is the order of Lord Caitanya, order of Śrīla Prabhupāda. As His Holiness Bhānu Swami said, “Śāstra says the order of the guru is the most important thing in the life of a devotee.”

In 1977, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā [Cc. Madhya 7.128], he said, by my order be a guru! So, reading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books is very important. The Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta and a number of the small and medium books. But Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wanted all his followers to get the degrees. I have the Bhaktivedanta degree! They offered to give me, honorary. But I said, “No, I will take the test an earn it!” And I want every devotee to read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and get the degrees! I am two-thirds going through to my Bhakti-Sārvabhauma. 

His Holiness Bhānu Swami is translating many essential books for the devotees. But you should get the degrees in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and then read His Holiness Bhānu Swami’s books. Do you know that in the 9^th canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it says that whether a woman, a man, śūdra or whatever, if they are Kṛṣṇa conscious, they are all equal! I mean, a śūdra for me is someone very elevated! I was born a mleccha, yavana, and broke all the regulative principles! But by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy, I got Kṛṣṇa consciousness!

Now, in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa there is mention of different śāstras that criticize women. His Holiness Bhānu Swami has translated the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa which I haven’t seen his translation yet. But it says there that all these things about women is if they are not Kṛṣṇa conscious. I went to an island in Bangladesh. There were Hindus there, but no brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, one śūdra was there. So they had a śūdra do the marriage ceremony and everything, he was the most elevated! But Śrīla Prabhupāda changed all of that by giving us Kṛṣṇa consciousness!

So, tirobhāva, the disappearance festival is we rejoice that simultaneously one that guru went back to Godhead and the other thing is that he left his instructions and those are to be followed. And he also left his culture, his heritage and we want to continue to that. And so, Śrīla Prabhupāda started this around the world movement, and we want to spread that. He said that when many charismatic leaders leave, the disciples sell his properties and take the profit. He was very worried before his departure what will happen to the movement after I leave! One thing Śrīla Prabhupāda established is that we should follow the GBC. There are many movements where the person appoints another person and moves on. But Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, they wanted to have a Governing Body. So, this is a very important instruction that keeps us together! Everybody should think how they are going to carry on the movement of Śrīla Prabhupāda!

On the appearance, and disappearance day we offer puṣpāñjali to the guru. So I offered my puṣpāñjali, you all have to go and offer your puṣpāñjali. In Japan, we forgot to offer puṣpāñjali to Śrīla Prabhupāda on his Vyāsa-pūjā. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that your Vyāsa-pūjā is unacceptable! So you have to fast again and do puṣpāñjali. So it is very important, don’t miss doing your puṣpāñjali! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: Today is the auspicious day of the tirobhava of our Founder-Ācārya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda! So, usually in Māyāpur and other places, they give 15 minutes for each speaker. But here, they have given an hour! 

So, I was inspired to join ISKCON in 1968. In San Francisco, I had to build the Ratha-yātrā cart. So, His Grace Jayānanda Prabhu engaged me in the ratha building. Then, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s secretary gave me some japabeads and I went out in the park, and I chanted for like, some six hours (in Montreal). I chanted around 32 rounds! I was feeling great bliss! Then I went back to the temple, and the secretary met me. “You have those beads,” he asked. “Those are Śrīla Prabhupāda’s beads and I heard I was not supposed to give them to anyone,” he said! So, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy was already given to me, chanting was not quite the same after that!

Anyway, I went via New York, saw the temple in New York. Went to Matchless Gifts, the storefront and then I went to Montreal and met Śrīla Prabhupāda there. So, at that time, I had the desire to go to India. So, I asked Śrīla Prabhupāda if I could go to India. He told me, “You stay with me, I will train you up and then you can go to India.” So at that time, I saw all the temples in ISKCON! San Francisco, New York and Montreal! Now there are like 800 or 1000 temples of ISKCON and not easy to see all of them! 

So, I was given some special service that in the afternoon, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s secretaries were shopping, so I was asked to ‘guru-sit’. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted anything, he would ring the bell, and I would have to go. 

So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he went to the basement, and he saw a rat running around. Don’t think it is only in India! Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Hare Rāma!” As soon as the rat ran out, Śrīla Prabhupāda chanted the holy name. 

One time he caught a cockroach in his room. He was holding him by the back and talked to him –  “My dear cockroach, I give you the world, fly away” and he opened the window and threw it outside. So like that, Śrīla Prabhupāda was very spontaneous. 

When we went on a morning walk with him, he was saying, find a very healthy man, you can go shopping there and it will be very good. A taxi driver let out a passenger who was very healthy. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Ask him where does he do his shopping?” He answered, “I go to some supermarket.” Śrīla Prabhupāda was very spontaneous and whatever he said, he would do.

One time, he was in Chicago airport which is called O’Hare airport. They spell O’Hare as ‘Hare’. So he told them have the airport name changed to ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa’. Haribol! Then he sent me to India in 1970. So, we were staying in South Calcutta. There were many South Indians there. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave me sannyāsa along with Acyutānanda Prabhu. He told Acyutānanda Prabhu that he had given nine people sannyāsa in Los Angeles, that Acyutānanda was number 10 and I was 11! So, like this, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he established Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur as his special centers for devotees around the world to visit. So, after I was president in Calcutta, he sent me to Māyāpur. After some time, I think His Grace Prabhāviṣṇu Prabhu was with me as a co-director. And then, Śrīla Prabhupāda came to Calcutta in 1970. He went via Japan. And at that time, he met His Holiness Bhānu Swami in Japan and brought him to India, as far as I remember! So, Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted the Indian Yātrā to expand. I think you all heard from Bhānu Mahārāja, that if you all further expand the movement that would be very pleasing to Śrīla Prabhupāda!

I was reading in the Bhagavad-gītā in the purport it said, you only get devotional service by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa or His pure devotee! In 1971 or so, there was the Ardha-Kumbha-melā in Allahabad. I think that is called Prayāgarāj now. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said in his lecture that having devotional service means you do all the different things like yajñas, tapasyas, various holy activities. So after the end of the class, one of the senior devotees asked, “I don’t see when I look back at my life, I did no yajñas, did not visit holy places, I did nothing! How did I get devotional service?” Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “I made your good fortune for you!” So, one unalloyed devotee went around the world fourteen times and made thousands of devotees!

Śrīla Prabhupāda established the Internal Society for Krishna Consciousness! Kṛṣṇa is in everyone’s heart, He is in every atom! So, being Kṛṣṇa conscious is a step in the service of Kṛṣṇa, always. So every one of you should be thinking about Kṛṣṇa all the time! When you meet someone, you give a book or something, in your heart you think, “Kṛṣṇe matir astu – may this person be Kṛṣṇa conscious!” Every one of you has the power to bless others! It is the only way, devotees can get Kṛṣṇa conscious. The only way people can get Kṛṣṇa conscious – only by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa and His unalloyed devotees.

I was with Śrīla Prabhupāda when he went to Vinoba Bhave’s place. Vinoba Bhave was devoted to Gandhiji. He was having a conference on the Bhagavad-gītā. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda had the devotees with him chant and he spoke on Bhagavad-gītā. Vinoba Bhave was in mauna-vrata as he was against the cow slaughter going on in India. So, he had his devotees chant a chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. Then they had this Māyāvādī sannyāsī who was present, and he was trying to speak. And he started to speak some speculated mantra! “Sat-cit-ānanda, Kṛṣṇa!” Like some, I cannot remember. They were like, what is this??! Śrīla Prabhupāda told his devotees, “Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa!”

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare /
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! 

Tamil!?

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare /
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

Everybody was like clapping and rocking, they were so inspired! Śrīla Prabhupāda said, that your chanting was so effective because you are all pure devotees! They said, “Śrīla Prabhupāda, you are a pure devotee!” You see, a mango, some mangos are ripe and some are unripe. But mango is a mango! So you are all mangos! So, some may be kutcha mangos and some may be ripe! If you want to worship Kṛṣṇa with some motive or some purpose, like I want some two in one, some better car, I will worship Kṛṣṇa and get! But if you want to worship Kṛṣṇa like Śrīla Prabhupāda taught, then that is pure devotion! So, like that, may be many devotees do that, some may be ripe, some may be kutcha, but they want to please Kṛṣṇa!

Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was spreading this Kṛṣṇa consciousness around the world because Lord Caitanya had predicted that His message would go around the world. So, in fact Lord Caitanya said, in every town and village, that was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s ultimate goal! Every one of you do something in that regard. That is the order of Lord Caitanya, order of Parama-guru Śrīla Prabhupāda. As His Holiness Bhānu Swami said, “Śāstrasays the order of the guru is the most important thing in the life of a devotee.”

In 1977, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā [Cc. Madhya 7.128], he said, by my order be a guru! So, reading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books is very important. The Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta and a number of the small and medium books. But Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wanted all his followers to get the degrees. I have the Bhaktivedanta degree! They offered to give me, honorary. But I said, “No, I will take the test and earn it!” And I want every devotee to also read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and get the degrees! I am two-thirds going through to my Bhakti-Sārvabhauma. 

His Holiness Bhānu Swami is translating many essential books for the devotees. But you should get the degrees in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and then read His Holiness Bhānu Swami’s books. Do you know that in the 9^th canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it says that whether a woman, a man, śūdra or whatever, if they are Kṛṣṇa conscious, they are all equal! I mean, a śūdra for me is someone very elevated! I was born a mleccha, Yavana. I broke all the regulative principles! But by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy, I got Kṛṣṇa consciousness!

Now, in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa there is many things of different śāstras that criticize women. His Holiness Bhānu Swami has translated the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa which I haven’t seen his translation yet. But it says all these things about women is if they are not Kṛṣṇa conscious. I went to an island in Bangladesh. There were Hindus there, but no brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, one śūdra was there. So they had a śūdra do the marriage ceremony and everything, he was the most elevated! But Śrīla Prabhupāda changed all of that by giving us Kṛṣṇa consciousness!

So, tirobhāva, the disappearance festival is simultaneously one we rejoice that that guru went back to Godhead and the other thing is that he left his instructions and those are to be followed. And he also left his culture, his heritage and we want to continue that. And so, Śrīla Prabhupāda started this around the world movement, and we want to spread that. He said that when many charismatic spiritual leaders leave, the disciples sell their properties and take the profit. He was very worried before his departure what will happen to the movement after I leave! And one thing Śrīla Prabhupāda established is that we should follow the GBC. There are many movements where the person appoints another person and moves on. But Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, they wanted to have a Governing Body GBC. So, this is a very important instruction that keeps us together! Everybody should think how they are going to carry on the movement of Śrīla Prabhupāda!

On the appearance, and disappearance day we offer puṣpāñjali to the guru. So I offered my puṣpāñjali, you all have to go and offer your puṣpāñjali. In Japan, we forgot to offer puṣpāñjali to Śrīla Prabhupāda on his Vyāsa-pūjā. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that your Vyāsa-pūjā is unacceptable! So you have to fast again and do puṣpāñjali. So it is very important, don’t miss doing your puṣpāñjali! Hare Kṛṣṇa!