Remembering Srila Prabhupada - Personal: His Changing His Ways and

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Personal: His Changing His Ways and His Staying the

Same

 

 

Some devotees have analyzed that during Srila

Prabhupada's years with ISKCON (1966-1977), he passed

through three stages. A first phase was when Srila

Prabhupada was the only responsible preacher or

devotee and everyone turned to him as the sole

spiritual guide with no intermediary. This was the way

Srila Prabhupada appeared to the devotees in the first

New York temple and in the temple in San Francisco. As

"Swamiji" he was lenient, he always seemed to have

plenty of time to talk with anyone, and he only

gradually requested his disciples to follow the rules

and regulations. He was trying to get a movement

started after a year in America, during which time no

one had come forward; so if disciples left him alone

to clean his own apartment or shared his bathroom, he

tolerated it. During this time his dress was also

distinct in certain ways from later. He did not wear

kurtas, but a cadar over his bare chest, or he wore an

inexpensive turtleneck jersey that had been supplied

by his followers. He rode with them on the buses and

subways and trains, and he didn't travel very widely,

but stayed in each center for months at a time.

 

This changed during the period when the movement grew

quickly. From 1969 all the way to 1975, Srila

Prabhupada, by his own empowered endeavors, became a

world leader of a major religion. It was a time of

tremendous exertion for him. He revitalized India with

Krsna conscious preaching, personally traveling widely

there and managing the construction of major temples.

He also regularly made worldwide tours. As he

initiated hundreds and thousands of disciples, he was

not quite so accessible to the individual disciples as

he had been in the early days. Now, by his

arrangement, his leaders, especially the temple

presidents, sannyasis, and his GBC, handled more of

the affairs, although the final decisions and the

burden for everything always rested with him.

 

The third phase was his gradual withdrawal from the

more intense participation in the management. In one

sense, the second phase of his full participation in

the expansion of ISKCON always continued, but it is

true that Srila Prabhupada began to allow his GBC

representatives to take over more and more. At least

that was his desire. He expressed that he wanted to

spend more time writing. He began to stay longer in

India, where he seemed to feel more at home, and when

he did make yearly tours to America and the West, he

didn't become much involved in the management of the

temple, but lectured. Gradually his public lectures

were also something he assigned as the responsibility

of older disciples, while Prabhupada preached more to

the devotees, giving them training as he went quickly

from temple to temple. Now he no longer had to be the

pioneer of every new opening in Krsna consciousness;

his disciples ranged far and wide over the globe to

open new places, based on Srila Prabhupada's

credibility and armed with his books.

 

Then in the last year he clearly changed his mood of

activity and stayed almost entirely in India as his

bodily activities diminished. More and more he moved

into his very last, departure pastime. He gathered a

few disciples near him for intimate, personal service

and made arrangements for the continuation of the

movement after his disappearance.

 

While some of these changes in Prabhupada's behavior

over the years are undeniable, Prabhupada had many

unchangeable qualities. As he said, "There was never a

time when I forgot Krsna." Prabhupada also said that

he was always the same, even from the first days of

his arrival in America. The only difference was that

Krsna sent men and money, and with these, Prabhupada

transformed the Krsna conscious preaching, although he

personally stayed the same. Srila Prabhupada said,

"ISKCON may be big, but I am small." He was always the

pure person, the empowered preacher, and the kind

well-wisher manifested in different roles as Krsna

required. He did not become in any way affected or

spoiled by his success.

 

Over the years, Srila Prabhupada began to wear nicer

sannyasi clothes, to ride in nicer cars, travel on

jets, he accepted millions of dollars on behalf of

Krsna; but he remained the same, pure servant and used

everything for the Lord without any enjoying tendency.

Whatever was appropriate and useful for His service,

he accepted. He always wanted the whole world to

become Krsna conscious, and he was ready to work for

it constantly. He was always very sweet and

considerate, and he was always in direct touch with

Krsna. He always carried his japa beads in a bag and

chanted on them, and he always wore kanthi-mala around

his neck and tilaka on his forehead. He always worked

on translating transcendental literatures such as

Srimad-Bhagavatam, rising in the early morning and

dictating his Bhaktivedanta purports.

 

He never changed his philosophy the way speculating

scientists or Western philosophers or stylish culture

heroes and businessmen adjust theirs with time in

order to stay popular. He always gave out the same

precious product, the philosophy of Lord Caitanya and

Lord Krsna, exactly as he received it from his

spiritual master. George Harrison noted and

appreciated this quality in Prabhupada when he stated,

"He was always just speaking about Krsna and it was

coincidental who happened to be there. Whenever you

saw him, he would always be the same. It wasn't that

one time he would tell you to chant the Hare Krsna

mantra then the next time say, 'Oh, no, I made a

mistake.' He was always the same."

 

We followers of Prabhupada may also carefully learn

this art from his lila -- how to keep up with the

times and adjust according to time, person, and place,

and yet how to keep our original Krsna conscious

personality intact. Prabhupada's deep, unchanging

convictions are miraculous when one considers how he

didn't change in coming to America. He never changed

his basic dress or eating or regulated living, despite

advice from "swamis" who told him to do so. Also

miraculous was his ability to make dynamic

adjustments, such as giving his disciples a japa quota

they could actually perform and his allowing equal

rights of initiation to women.

 

All glories to the steady course of Srila Prabhupada's

pastimes in this world! All glories to his fixed

position, more dependable than the steady orbit of the

sun in the sky! And all glories to his transcendental

intelligence in preaching by which he changed his ways

according to the indications of Krsna for the best

results in presenting Krsna consciousness to the

unwilling conditioned souls! May his Krsna conscious

movement continue to reflect these two strengths of

change and endurance.

 

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami.

 

 

- From the Prabhupada Nectar by HH Satsvarupa dasa

Goswami Maharaj

 

 

 

 

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