SDG Sanga Remembering Srila Prabhupada by Giriraja Swami andSatsvarupa dasa Goswami

[Guest guest]

Remembering Srila Prabhupada

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, Giriraj Swami, and others

July 8, 2006

Carpinteria, CA

 

 

Giriraj Swami: For most of you, no introduction is required. But for

those of you who are new, we are followers of the Bhagavad-gita,

which was spoken by Krsna five thousand years ago. The Bhagavad-gita

explains the complete science of yoga, and there Lord Krsna says that

of all yogis, he who serves Him with love and devotion is the

highest of all:

 

yoginam api sarvesam

mad-gatenantar-atmana

sraddhavan bhajate yo mam

sa me yuktatamo matah

 

"Of all yogis, the one with great faith who always abides in Me,

thinks of Me within himself, and renders transcendental loving

service to Me--he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and

is the highest of all. That is My

opinion." (Bg 6.47)

 

He explains that bhakti-yoga is the highest process of yoga and that

it is the only process by which one can fully know Krsna, the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, and attain Him:

 

bhaktya mam abhijanati

yavan yas casmi tattvatah

tato mam tattvato jnatva

visate tad-anantaram

 

"One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of

Godhead, only by

devotional service [bhakti]. And when one is in full consciousness of

Me by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God." (Bg 18.55)

 

Five hundred years ago, Krsna appeared again, in the guise of a

devotee, to teach people how to follow the instructions of the

Bhagavad-gita. At the end of the Gita, Lord Krsna had directed, sarva-

dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja--to give up all varieties

of religiousness and surrender unto Krsna.

Man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru--to always engage

the mind in thinking of Krsna, become Krsna's devotee, worship Krsna,

and to bow down to Him. But how, practically, does one worship Krsna?

How does one always think of Him? That was shown by Krsna Himself

five hundred years ago as Sri Krsna Caitanya. Sri Krsna Caitanya is

Krsna playing the part of a devotee.

Just like a teacher will write the alphabet on the blackboard for the

students-- the teacher doesn't have to practice

writing "A,B,C," but he or she does it just to show the

students how to form the letters properly. Similarly, Sri

Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is Krsna Himself, had no need to worship

Krsna, but He did it to show us how. He taught us that among all the

methods of worship and spiritual realization, the chanting of the

holy names of the Lord is the best:

 

harer nama harer nama

harer namaiva kevalam

kalau nasty eva nasty eva

nasty eva gatir anyatha

 

"One should chant the holy names, chant the holy names, chant the

holy names of Hari [Krsna]. There is no other way, no other way, no

other way for success in the present age."

 

Further, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu predicted, prthivite ache yata

nagaradi grama sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama--that in every town

and village of every country of the world, His name, Krsna's name,

would be preached.

 

How such an event would come to pass remained a great mystery until

1965, when our spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta

Swami Prabhupada, left India on a cargo carrier, a steamship, from

Calcutta, and came to New York City and sat down under a tree in

Tompkins Square Park and began to chant Hare Krsna and present the

philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita as it is. Srila Prabhupada had so

much potency that by his mercy he was able to attract many

intelligent young men and women to join him in his mission of Krsna

consciousness.

 

One of the first young men to come forward to help Srila Prabhupada

was Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, known then as Steve. He was a little

older than most of the others; he was twenty-six. We hardly knew

anyone older than twenty-three. And on top of that, he had a job.

Hardly any of us had jobs, but he was a welfare worker and he dressed

in a suit and tie. So he was special from the beginning. He would

come every day and do service. He would bring mangos for Srila

Prabhupada, and as a most important service he would type Srila

Prabhupada's manuscripts. From the very beginning Srila Prabhupada

considered his most important service, or one of his most important

services, to his spiritual master, to be the translating and

explaining of Vedic scripture, especially Srimad-Bhagavatam, in

English. So, Satsvarupa Maharaja would very dutifully type the

manuscripts and edit them, and that was the beginning of the

publication of Srila Prabhupada's books, which have revolutionized

the lives of millions of people throughout the world.

His Grace Bhrgupati Prabhu here is also a disciple of Srila

Prabhupada's--a very steady and staunch book distributor--and he is

holding the first volume of Srila

Prabhupada's translation of Srimad-Bhagavatam, which he will hold up

for you all to see. Ultimately, Srila Prabhupada went on to translate

what came to be more than eighty volumes, including Srimad

Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Sri

Isopanisad, and others. And Satsvarupa Maharaja typed and edited the

first manuscripts.

 

Eventually Srila Prabhupada wanted to start more centers. First there

was only Srila Prabhupada in New York, but later the devotees came to

understand that Prabhupada had in mind a great world mission and that

he wanted devotees to go to different cities and begin centers of

Krsna consciousness. First, devotees went to San Francisco, then to

Montreal, and then to Boston-- Satsvarupa Maharaja began the center

there.

 

So, now we will request His Holiness Satsvarupa dasa Goswami Maharaja

to speak to us.

 

Hare Krsna.

 

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami:

 

nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale

srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine

 

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine

nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine

 

Giriraj Maharaja and I talked about the program and agreed that it

would be

somewhat improvised and that we would talk back and forth.

 

I wanted to first mention the process of remembering Srila

Prabhupada, which

is

the name of today's program." So, there is a process to remembering

Srila

Prabhupada. There are three most important processes in bhakti-yoga:

sravanam,

kirtanam, and smaranam. Sravanam is hearing about Krsna. Then

kirtanam,

glorifying Krsna. And then smaranam, remembering. Today we are

talking about

remembering, in this case, remembering Prabhupada. When you remember

a great

soul such as Prabhupada, if you do it very intently, what is the

result? The

result is that he is actually present, as good as if he were present

physically--as would also be true if you were reading about him or

chanting

his

name. When you talk about him and remember him, just as we are doing

today,

it

is as good as if he were present. And what do we do when we get the

benefit

of

Prabhupada's presence? We surrender to him. I remember how in the

presence

of

Prabhupada I could make full dandavats and so much feel my desire to

surrender

to him, feel my repentance for not surrendering, and feeling my

ability to

surrender and carry out whatever he would ask me to do, feel

empowered to do

that, "What do you want me to do, Prabhupada?"

 

So if we can now remember Srila Prabhupada, we can be blessed by

being able

to

please him, and so we should do this on occasions like this and in

our own

daily lives with our friends. Our friends as much as possible should

be

friends

who know about Prabhupada. We may not be direct disciples of

Prabhupada, but

there is so much literature now--a virtual library of memoirs about

Prabhupada--and we should acquaint ourselves with this and remember

Prabhupada.

 

 

On the invitation to today's event was a picture taken on Juhu Beach

in

Bombay,

where Giriraj Maharaja surrendered his heart and soul to such hard

work for

Prabhupada in fighting the "battle of Kuruksetra," as it was sometimes

called,

to get the land and to build the temple there. Giriraj Maharaja is

yet to

write

the full epic, although it has been told to some degree in

Prabhupada-lilamrta

how he served his spiritual master to carry out that order. The

picture is

of

Prabhupada; his friend and sometimes sparing partner, Dr. Patel;

myself and

Giriraj Maharaja; a devotee named Mohanananda, and another named

Prithuputra.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about Bombay and Dr. Patel and

walking on

the

beach. Giriraj Maharaja will have so many memories, but I was there

too, as

shown in that picture.

 

Prabhupada's most wonderful servant in terms of telling us memories of

Prabhupada, I think, is Srutakirti Prabhu. He has published a book,

What is

the

Difficulty? He tells his stories in such a wonderful way because he

tells

them

with love and without motivation or politics or anything. At one

point he

got

married, and for some time gave up his service, although later he

took it

back

again, but a certain point he got married and gave up his service. So

Prabhupada was thinking of another servant, and he thought of me

because I

could type and do a few other things. Little did he know how little I

could

do,

but he asked, "Have Satsvarupa come and be my servant." So he asked

his big

manager in Los Angeles, Karandhara, to call me. I was on a travelling

party,

at

the Alamo in Texas. So I flew there right away, and within a short

period of

time Prabhupada went from Los Angeles to Hawaii to Tokyo to Vrndavana

to

Bombay, and so I was on those morning walks then.

 

I want to mention a little bit what it was like with Dr. Patel. Dr.

Patel

was

always arguing against Prabhupada's position of pure surrender to

Krsna.

Still,

Prabhupada said he was a dear friend. But we devotees, disciples of

Prabhupada,

we strongly disliked his presence on the walks because he would

always bring

up

Mayavadi arguments and because he would laugh like a buccaneer

pirate. You

can

hear him on the tapes: "Hahaha hahaha . . ." He would laugh against

Prabhupada

and say, "You are just teasing me." And Prabhupada would say so

strongly,

"You

are a Mayavadi. You are just a Mayavadi impersonalist." And Dr. Patel

would

say, "You may call me whatever you like, but I am right. You are not

right

in

what you are saying about Krsna. I am a pure devotee of Krsna." And

Prabhupada

would say, "You are a Mayavadi!" Sometimes Dr. Patel would take it

seriously,

and we would realize that his feelings were hurt, and he would get

angry.

That

was a strange thing. And we devotees would unquestionably just burn

and burn

at

his presence in front of our guru maharaja, bating our guru maharaja

and not

treating him respectfully.

 

The walks were such heavenly things. Sometimes devotional service was

difficult. Giriraj Maharaja was putting up with the lawyers and had

to go

through so many difficult days. I was having difficulty with my own

mind,

serving in Bombay, thinking that I wanted to go out and preach and

not just

be

a servant. But going out on the walks was just heaven. We went out

early in

the

morning, before sunrise, and saw the sky gradually lighten over the

dark

Arabian Sea, and Prabhupada walking so gracefully. At that time of

day his

mind

was clear of talks about lawyers and he was walking with his canvas

shoes

and

talking the philosophy. And so it was such heaven to be with him. But

then,

if

we saw Dr. Patel coming, oh, it was just ruination, like salt coming

into

the

sweet rice.

 

Dr. Patel had a friend who carried a stick with him. What was his

name?

 

Giriraj Swami: Mr. Shah.

 

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: Mr. Shah. And he was just the splitting

image of

Dr.

Patel. He would have the same Mayavadi opinions but was a little

timid. He

would keep a little distance from Prabhupada, next to them, next to

Dr.

Patel.

But he would also have those opinions. And just to cut it short, one

thing

that

Prabhupada used to do was criticize India's so-called saints. He

would say

that

they were bogus, and he would do it in such a challenging way. He

knew from

Calcutta that one of them was a scandalous person. And Dr. Patel and

Mr.

Shah

were really offended, deeply offended. They said, "We worship all of

India's

saints. You cannot say this to us." They stopped in their tracks and

said,

"If

you do this, then we will not walk with you anymore!" So Prabhupada

said, "I

cannot help it. I am a policeman, and I have to catch the cora

[thief]. I

must

say this. When you bring up these names, I have to speak the truth."

 

So they did it. They stopped--to our great enjoyment, to the

enjoyment of

the

disciples of Prabhupada. For a period of time they would come out to

the

beach

the same time Prabhupada came, and just put up their noses and not

walk with

him, just cross tracks. So then Prabhupada devised a further strategy

not to

talk with them. He said, "We will just read the Krsna book, so if

they come

our

way, we will not talk to them. We will be reading the Krsna book." So

for a

period of time . . . I think often Giriraj Maharaja would do it, read

out

loud

from the Krsna book while we walked. And sometimes our paths would

cross.

They

would say, "Good morning. Good morning." They would pass us and we

would

just

be reading the Krsna book. But then after a while they made up and

Prabhupada

explained, "He is my brother."

 

Now I will ask Giriraj to add to this Dr. Patel stuff.

 

Giriraj Swami: I will begin with the history of Dr. Patel, because it

will

come

to play in a later conversation with Srila Prabhupada that was very

interesting. Srila Prabhupada entered the agreement to purchase the

Juhu

land

in February of 1972, and then he left on a world tour. At the time,

we were

living in tents on the land, but he instructed that we should build a

hut

made

out of chatai with a roof of tarpaulin, which, in a crude way, we

did. Dr.

Patel found out about us, and he came to the land to meet us. He was

a proud

man. As Satsvarupa Maharaja said, he claimed to be a pure devotee,

not in

the

sense that we understand pure devotee, but in the sense that he was

born in

a

Vaisnava family and followed the Vaisnava principles of purity.

Further, he

was

proud because he had gone to London to study medicine--quite a big

thing

back

then--but even there he never ate meat or smoked cigarettes or drank

alcohol.

So he considered himself to be a Vaisnava, and when Prabhupada would

call

him a

Mayavadi, he would beg to differ: "No, Sir. I am a Vaisnava."

 

Before he began his morning walks with Prabhupada, Dr. Patel had come

to the

Juhu land and seen us foreigners. In the very beginning we were not

living

even

in the hut. It was so hot, we just slept outdoors. There were some

apartment

buildings on the land with flat roofs, so we would just go up and

sleep on

the

roofs. And many of the devotees got sick. There were a lot of

mosquitoes,

and

some devotees got malaria. We were living in quite difficult

circumstances.

 

Somehow Dr. Patel took a liking to the foreign devotees, and he got

inspired

to

take up a collection. There is a big cloth market in Bombay called MJ

Market,

Mulji Jetha Market, and he decided to go stall to stall and beg for

cotton

and

cloth and get the cotton stuffed into the cloth to make pillows and

mattresses,

and to get blankets, sheets, and mosquito nets as well. So he asked

how many

devotees we were--at the time we were about twelve. And because he

was a

proud

man, it was a big thing for him to beg; he had never begged in his

life. And

he

came and presented one set to each devotee--a simple mattress, a

pillow, a

sheet, a blanket, and a mosquito net.

 

When Srila Prabhupada returned to Juhu, Dr. Patel met him, and soon he

became a

regular companion on the morning walks. Maybe because of my

relationship

with

Dr. Patel and the service he did for us, I liked the discussions that

Srila

Prabhupada had with him--I felt that Srila Prabhupada was engaging

with Dr.

Patel in order to teach us. Still, Dr. Patel could be annoying at

times. So

it

was hard to figure him out. He knew Sanskrit--that was another factor

that

contributed to his pride--and he knew a lot of verses. He was

relatively

pure

in his habits, educated abroad, a doctor. And when Prabhupada would

call him

a

Mayavadi, he would say, "No, no. I am a Vaisnava."

 

Another thing that Prabhupada would often do, and it was a technique

that he

taught us, is when people would bring up some popular figure, he

wouldn't

comment on the person; rather, he would ask, "What is his

philosophy?" Then

he

would compare the person's philosophy to the Bhagavad-gita. And if the

philosophy didn't agree with the Bhagavad-gita's, he would reject

it--because

our standard is the Bhagavad-gita.

 

Quite often Prabhupada would come to the point of calling these other

people

mudhas. There is a verse in the Bhagavad-gita:

 

na mam duskrtino mudhah

prapadyante naradhamah

mayayapahrta-jnana

asuram bhavam asritah

 

"Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among

mankind,

whose

knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic

nature of

demons do not surrender unto Me." (Bg 7.15) So Prabhupada would

say, "Anyone

who doesn't surrender to Krsna is a miscreant [duskrtina]. Mudha means

"fool,"

"rascal," or in stronger language, "ass." Naradhama means "the lowest

among

mankind." Mayayapahrta-jnana means someone who may be very

knowledgeable or

intelligent but whose knowledge has been taken away by maya, stolen

away by

maya. And asuram bhavam means people who have the nature of demons. So

Prabhupada would say, "Anyone who is not surrendered to Krsna falls

in one

of

these four categories: fool, rascal, demon," and so on. And Dr. Patel

would

get

very upset. But Prabhupada would say, "I am not saying; Krsna is

saying. I

am

not saying; I am only repeating what Krsna is saying."

 

But they had an affectionate relationship, and after Srila Prabhupada

left

this

world, Dr. Patel was inspired to write his memories of Srila

Prabhupada, and

they were actually quite touching. His article was published in Back

to

Godhead

(Satsvarupa Maharaja was the editor for many years) as "My Life's Most

Precious

Moments" with the subtitle "A Bombay doctor wins the title `big fool'

and

loves

it." So he relished, at least in retrospect, being called a mudha by

Prabhupada.

 

In a way Dr. Patel was a Mayavadi, but he thought he was a Vaisnava,

and he

accepted Krsna and the Bhagavad-gita, but it wasn't quite clear how he

accepted

Krsna--as the person Krsna or as something impersonal speaking through

Krsna.

His position was always a little ambiguous. But he would always

insist that

he

was a Vaisnava, a pure Vaisnava.

 

One day, as Satsvarupa Maharaja mentioned, Srila Prabhupada picked on

one of

the revered so-called spiritual leaders of India and Dr. Patel got

really

upset. He was livid; he was shaking, he was so angry. And he was

shouting at

Prabhupada, "You cannot criticize like this!" And Prabhupada was

shouting,

"I

am not saying! Krsna is saying--na mam duskrtino mudhah . . ." They

were

shouting back and forth. This was one time when Dr. Patel's friends--

he had

his

group of cronies, and he was their leader, perhaps because he was a

little

intellectual and outspoken--they were trying to drag him away from

Prabhupada,

saying, "Swamiji has a heart condition. Don't upset him so." And he

was

shouting at Prabhupada, and Prabhupada was shouting at him. That was

really

traumatic. Finally they pulled Dr. Patel away.

 

Afterwards, back at the temple, Tamal Krishna Goswami went into Srila

Prabhupada's room and asked, "Srila Prabhupada, why do you do it? Why

do you

put up with him? He is so offensive." And Prabhupada said, "It is our

duty

to

engage everyone." Then Tamal Krishna said, "But what is his actual

position?

Is

he a Vaisnava? Is he a Mayavadi? What is he?" In response, Prabhupada

told a

story about a man who could speak many languages expertly--in whatever

language

people would address him, he would immediately respond perfectly in

the same

language. So no one could figure out where he was actually from.

Everyone

was

talking, "Where is he from? In whatever language we speak to him, he

answers

in

the same language perfectly, immediately." Finally one man said, "I

will

find

out."

 

One day, when the speaker of many languages was preoccupied, that man

came

up

behind him and gave him a big whack. Then the linguist started to

curse in

his

native tongue. [laughter] Then his real identity was disclosed. So

Srila

Prabhupada said, "Dr. Patel is like that. He can speak very expertly.

He can

sound like a devotee, sound like a Vaisnava, sound like a Mayavadi,

sound

like

anything. But when I really gave a slap where it hurt--this so-called

saintly

person that he revered--then his real language came out." So, that

was quite

interesting. And as Satsvarupa Maharaja mentioned, then Prabhupada

said,

"Okay,

now no more discussion. We will only read Krsna book." And for a

while they

ignored each other.

 

Finally, one day Dr. Patel, as he described it, felt pulled back to

Srila

Prabhupada, as if by force. Dr. Patel was walking on one side, and

Prabhupada

was walking on the other, but something made Dr. Patel change his

course,

and

he walked toward Srila Prabhupada and bowed at his feet--he came

back. He

said,

"Swamiji, we have been taught to respect all the saints of India." And

Prabhupada replied, "Our business is to point out who is not a saint."

Still,

in their own way they were friends, and they resumed their walks and

talks.

 

 

.....to be continued....