Srila Prabhupada's Tree

[Guest guest]

What a nice text.

 

 

 

> Talk by Giriraj Swami

> Prabhupada Festival, 27 May 2001, Los Angeles

>

>

> Srila Prabhupada had to struggle very hard to build the Juhu temple.

> The first struggle was to get the land; the next struggle was to get

> the permission to build the temple, and last struggle was to

> actually build the temple and install the Deities. And we had worked

> very hard to get the permission, but the Indian permits often

> include many conditions. So although they give permission, the

> permission is not actually valid until one fulfills the conditions.

>

> One of the conditions was that we had to have an internal access

> road of a certain width according to the length of the road. And it

> just so happened that right where the access road was supposed to go

> there were some palm trees. Once when Srila Prabhupada came to Juhu

> after being away for some time he noticed that one or two of the

> trees had been cut and he was very concerned--I would say upset--and

> he asked, "Why did you cut down the trees?" We thought we had the

> perfect answer: We had to build the temple, and to get the

> permission for the temple we had to cut the trees in the way of the

> road. Srila Prabhupada said, "No, you go to the Municipality and

> tell them it's against our religion to cut down trees." So we had no

> choice, and we did it. And of course the Municipal officers argued.

>

> But one thing that really struck me about how concerned Srila

> Prabhupada was for the trees was that the next time he came back to

> Juhu after a world tour practically the first thing he said was, "I

> was in Tehran and I have seen they have trees in the middle of the

> streets. So we can also have trees in the middle of our street." In

> other words, it was not so strange. So on Srila Prabhupada's order

> we held our ground with the Municipality, and in the end they gave

> us the permission to keep the tree. And even today we can see that

> tree that Srila Prabhupada protected is still standing there with

> asphalt all around it.

>

> So I am thinking that if Srila Prabhupada has so much concern and

> care and even love, I would say, for a tree, then what to speak of

> us--how much care and love he must have for us. And it's just

> because of Srila Prabhupada's care and mercy and protection that we

> are able to stand in Krishna consciousness--no matter what else is

> around us.

>

> All glory to Srila Prabhupada.

>

> Hare Krishna.