Remembering Srila Prabhupada - I Have Smashed Him

[Guest guest]

>

>

> During the 1977 Mayapur festival, a government

> minister visited Srila Prabhupada and gave a lecture

> as part of the opening-night festivities.

>

> Before going to the outdoor stage, Srila Prabhupada

> and the minister went to see the photo display of

> ISKCON temples. Walking down the long hallway and

> viewing pictures of preaching activities in almost

> every country of the world, Srila Prabhupada was

> himself impressed at the vast scope of ISKCON. At one

> point he shook his head, turned to the accompanying

> devotees, and said, "It is inconceivable."

>

> In his introductory speech, the minister surprised the

> audience as he began glorifying Vivekananda as one who

> helped humanity, just like the incarnations of God,

> Rama, Krsna, and Visnu. Giving faint praise to Lord

> Caitanya, the minister said, "Of course, we don't know

> whether Caitanya was an incarnation, but certainly He

> did great good." At the end of the minister's lecture,

> he gave his appreciation for Prabhupada's movement,

> stating that it was spreading by "moral strength," and

> that he hoped it would do good to humanity at large.

>

> Srila Prabhupada had been prepared to lecture on

> Srimad-Bhagavatam. He had brought his volume of the

> Bhagavatam and reading glasses. After he heard the

> minister's speech, however, Prabhupada spoke very

> strongly in response. The speech was in Bengali, so

> most of the devotees could not understand it, but they

> could appreciate that Prabhupada was countering the

> speculations of the official guest.

>

> Later that night in his room, Prabhupada laughed as he

> discussed the minister's speech. He had his servant

> bring the tape recorder and Prabhupada again heard his

> own lecture. At one point, when he heard himself

> stating that Vivekananda had never made a single

> disciple despite his propaganda, Srila Prabhupada

> grimaced and slapped the palm of his left hand with

> the palm of his right. Looking up to the devotees in

> the room he said, "I have smashed him."

>

> Hari Sauri dasa, diary. Devotees were always happy to

> hear Prabhupada smash the arguments of atheists and

> nondevotees. We also knew that this was the spirit of

> Prabhupada's spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhanta

> Sarasvati, who liked bold disciples who did not

> compromise. Prabhupada set the perfect example, but on

> some occasions he also pointed out that in our own

> smashing of the nondevotees we cannot exactly imitate

> him, but we have to find the strongest method

> according to time and place. One time in New York

> City, Prabhupada visited an Indian official in the

> U.N. The man was younger than Prabhupada, and

> Prabhupada sternly reprimanded him when the man spoke

> his concocted philosophies. After leaving the U.N.,

> while driving in the car, one of the devotees praised

> Srila Prabhupada and said, "Prabhupada, you really

> chastised that man like anything." Prabhupada replied,

> "Yes, but you cannot do that."

>

> Prabhupada thus explained further that the particular

> way he had dealt with this man (who was junior in age

> to him and who was an Indian countryman) would not

> have been the way that one of Prabhupada's young

> American disciples could have dealt with him. The

> intelligent disciple learns how to follow the

> spiritual master in a way that will please him. We

> should not be like foolish Asvatthama who thought he

> would please his guru Drona by presenting him with the

> dead bodies of Draupadi's sons.

>

> - From the Prabhupada Nectar by HH Satsvarupa dasa

> Goswami Maharaj

 

Isn't it that Asvatthama was trying to please Duryodhana, not his father

Drona, who had already left his body by this time?

 

Ys TS