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memories of Cross Maidan by HH Holiness Giriraja Swami maharaj

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My dear Devotees,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to

Srila Prabhupada.

 

You may know that Shyamasundar Prabhu, one of Srila

Prabhupada's

earliest disciples, and a team of other devotees have

organized a wonderful

festival at Cross Maidan in downtown Mumbai to

celebrate the 108th year

since Srila Prabhupada's appearance. You may see video

clips of the

festival at www.krishna.com/tv. Although I was unable

to attend the

program in person, I did write a message for the

occasion, which His Holiness

Radhanath Swami read on the last night. It is attached

and also follows

below.

 

Thank you. Hare Krishna.

 

Your servant,

Giriraj Swami

 

---

 

 

My dear Friends and Devotees,

 

Please accept my best wishes. All glories to Lord

Krsna.

 

I thank and congratulate all of you who have joined to

make the Hare

Krishna Festival at Cross Maidan the great success

that it has been. (I

am just sorry I could not be with you in person at

this time.)

 

In late 1970, when Shyamasundar Prabhu first presented

the idea for the

pandal at Cross Maidan, Srila Prabhupada was pleased,

and he gave the

example of shooting the rhinoceros. He said, "Everyone

knows that it is

impossible to shoot a rhinoceros. So if you try and

fail, no one will

blame you. And if you try and succeed, everyone will

praise you. So if

you are going to shoot, shoot for a rhinoceros." In

other words, "Try

for the pandal program--impossible as it may seem."

 

So Shyamasundar Prabhu organized the small group of

devotees present in

Bombay. I do not remember what all of the devotees

did, but Gurudas

Prabhu was in charge of public relations, Yamuna

Prabhu was in charge of

the Deities, Rishi Kumar Prabhu and I were asked to

raise funds, and

Shyamasundar himself took charge of the publicity.

Later, when it was time

for the pandal itself, Tamal Krishna Goswami took

charge of the

physical construction and management of it, and

Madhudvisa Prabhu took

responsibility for the stage program.

 

When Shyamasundara Prabhu first got Srila Prabhupada's

approval for the

program, he tried to organize a group of life members

to help. The

first meeting was called at the Sea Palace Hotel, near

the Radio Club in

Colaba. The owner, Sri Ramchand Chabria, was an old

friend who knew Srila

Prabhupada and the devotees from London. At the

appointed time we

waited and waited and waited, but other than Mr.

Chabria, almost no one else

came. We were disappointed, but with Srila

Prabhupada's encouragement

we persevered, and eventually some other sympathetic

friends, such as

Sadajiwatlal, Kailash Seksaria, Kartikeya Mahadevia,

and Ram Prakash

Poddar, came forward to help.

 

Of course, the rest is history: how the pandal program

captured the

hearts and minds of the people in Bombay. Srila

Prabhupada himself wrote,

"By the grace of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha and

Krishna our recent

festival at Cross Maidan Exhibition Ground has been

counted a grand

success, and quite noticeably the spirit of bhakti has

been actively

revived in Bombay. My blessings go especially to all

of you who have joined

with us in service." After the success in Bombay,

Srila Prabhupada sent

Tamal Krishna Goswami and me to Calcutta to arrange

our first pandal

program there.

 

In Calcutta, Tamal Krishna spoke very intimately to me

about Srila

Prabhupada and ISKCON, and he mentioned that

Shyamasundar Prabhu was one of

the "biggest preachers" in the movement. I was

surprised, because I had

hardly ever heard Shyamasundar give any classes or

lectures. But Tamal

Krishna explained, "Preaching does not just mean

speaking about Krsna

consciousness. Preaching means engaging people in

Krsna consciousness,

and through the Bombay pandal and other innovative,

dynamic programs,

Shyamasundar is proving that he is the biggest

preacher."

 

Years passed, and in 1977 I invited Srila Prabhupada

to Bombay for one

more pandal at Cross Maidan. We had already made the

arrangements, and

many prominent citizens had agreed to attend and

address the audience.

So I wrote to Srila Prabhupada: "The interest shown by

these important

personalities suggests a very good opportunity for

spreading Krishna

consciousness in Bombay, in India, and throughout the

world. The people

in general have been absorbed in the election

campaigns for their

political leaders, forgetting the words of Sri Prahlad

Maharaj:

 

matir na krsne paratah svato va

mitho 'bhipadyeta grha-vratanam

adanta-gobhir visatam tamisram

punah punas carvita-carvananam

 

[because of their uncontrolled senses, persons too

addicted to

materialistic life make progress toward hellish

conditions and repeatedly chew

that which has already been chewed. Their inclinations

toward Krsna are

never aroused, either by the instructions of others,

by their own

efforts, or by a combination of both. (SB 7.5.30)]

 

na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum

durasaya ye bahir-artha-maninah

andha yathandhair upaniyamanas

te 'pisa-tantryam uru-damni baddhah

 

[Persons who are strongly entrapped by the

consciousness of enjoying

material life, and who have therefore accepted as

their leader or guru a

similar blind man attached to external sense objects,

cannot understand

that the goal of life is to return home, back to

Godhead, and engage in

the service of Lord Visnu. As blind men guided by

another blind man

miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially

attached men led by

another materially attached man are bound by the ropes

of fruitive

labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they

continue again and

again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold

miseries. (SB

7.5.31)]

 

naisam matis tavad urukramanghrim

sprsaty anarthapagamo yad-arthah

mahiyasam pada-rajo-'bhisekam

niskincananam na vrnita yavat

 

[unless they smear upon their bodies the dust of the

lotus feet of a

Vaisnava completely freed from material contamination,

persons very much

inclined toward materialistic life cannot be attached

to the lotus feet

of the Lord, who is glorified for His uncommon

activities. Only by

becoming Krsna conscious and taking shelter at the

lotus feet of the Lord

in this way can one be freed from material miseries.

(SB 7.5.32)]

 

"These unfortunate people do not know that the goal of

life is to get

out of this material world and serve Lord Vishnu in

the spiritual world,

and therefore they are mad after political leaders who

are equally

absorbed in material life. They do not realize that by

following either

this leader or that leader, they are simply chewing

the chewed, repeating

the same problems of life under this 'ism' or that

'ism.' Actually, the

only leader who can solve their problems is Krishna,

or Krishna's

representative. The only hope for these unfortunate

persons is to smear upon

their bodies the dust of the lotus feet of a pure

devotee such as Your

Divine Grace--that is, to submissively hear and follow

your

instructions."

 

Although Srila Prabhupada had been ill in Mayapur, he

kindly agreed to

attend. And at that last program, although physically

he was so weak he

could hardly walk, spiritually he was as powerful as

ever, and when he

spoke devotees felt as if Lord Nrsimhadeva, the

ferocious half-man and

half-lion incarnation of Krsna, had entered Srila

Prabhupada and was

exploding from within him.

 

Of course, we all wondered how ISKCON would continue

without Srila

Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada himself often warned us,

"I am an old man. I

can pass away at any time. But you boys and girls are

young. You have

come forward to help me. At least to some extent you

have understood this

Krsna consciousness movement. Please take it more

seriously. People are

suffering for want of this consciousness. I shall go

away, but you

shall live. I shall request you all to keep pushing on

this movement." But

how--without Srila Prabhupada? One devotee commented,

"ISKCON without

Prabhupada? It's hard to imagine."

 

Now so many years have passed, and the "young boys and

girls" have

aged. But Srila Prabhupada and his legacy--his

followers and his

ISKCON--continue, by his mercy, to live and grow, as

so vividly exhibited at this

event. And I know that His Divine Grace would be

pleased to see this

extraordinary festival at Cross Maidan, so wonderfully

organized in the

108th year after his appearance, in the same place

where he himself so

boldly preached thirty-four years ago.

 

I feel especially enlivened by and grateful to His

Grace Shyamasundar

Prabhu, whose vision and enthusiasm have acted to

manifest this amazing

tribute to Srila Prabhupada, the "World Preacher of

Bhakti Cult," and

his message: "The modern civilization is a failure.

The only solution is

Krsna consciousness."

 

Thank you very much. Hare Krsna.

 

Your eternal servant,

Giriraj Swami

 

 

 

 

_________

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