Journal of a Prabhupada Man, Entry #4

[Guest guest]

July 27, 2003—Austin, Texas USA

 

"Take the Management"

 

Today, while I was preparing to give the Sunday feast lecture at ISKCON's Austin Hare Krishna center, I was listening to a Srila Prabhupada lecture tape. I was hearing the same lecture that I've been hearing again and again for many weeks, but today I heard something I had never noticed before, and the potency of it has left me amazed for hours.

 

Here is the concluding paragraph of that lecture, which was given by His Divine Grace in Bombay on March 21, 1974.

 

"So let us take advantage of Krishna's coming here, leaving behind Him this Bhagavad-gita, and read it perfectly, and make your life perfect. That is Krishna consciousness movement. It is not a bogus movement. It is a most scientific movement. So outside India, these Europeans, Americans, they are taking advantage of it. Why not these Indian youths? What is the wrong there? This is not good. Let us join together, start this Krishna consciousness movement very seriously, and deliver this suffering humanity. That is our purpose. They are suffering for want of knowledge. Everything is there, complete. Simply by mismanagement... Simply by the... It is being managed by the rogues and thieves. Take. You become perfect in Krishna consciousness and take the management and make your life successful."

 

What jumped out of the cassette player and astounded me was Srila Prabhupada's statement "Take the management." He's speaking here of the entire material society, that it is being mismanaged by rogues and thieves and therefore plunged into a suffering condition. Srila Prabhupada is instructing us to take the management, to become the guiding authorities for the entire world population.

 

What a broad vision Srila Prabhupada has for this Krishna consciousness movement! What a broad vision we must also have as his followers! We are meant to manage the entire human society by the enlightened guidance so systemically, carefully, and lovingly presented in Srila Prabhupada's books.

 

Many of our devotees and members have lost their faith in ISKCON as being an institution that can lead the world out of chaos. They have seen so many chaotic things happening within ISKCON since Srila Prabhupada departed from this planet in November 1977 that they don't consider ISKCON to still be a world-class, world-leading institution.

 

But the fact remains that Srila Prabhupada's potency is just as powerful now as it was when he was physically here with us on this planet. For those who are holding tight to his orders with firm faith and conviction, he is indeed still here. For such devotees, Srila Prabhupada has never left. Such devotees are feeling fully sheltered and protected by the divine presence of Srila Prabhupada and are not attracted to going outside of ISKCON for so-called spiritual enlivenment. Such devotees read Srila Prabhupada's purports and understand fully well what truth is, what untruth is, what Srila Prabhupada wants, and what he does not want. They are not misled by any kind of deviant philosophy that is being currently propagated in the name of Srila Prabhupada.

 

I spoke this evening on the simple comparison given in Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 6, between the astanga yoga system and the bhakti yoga system. Even though I have no personal qualifications to represent Srila Prabhupada and his teachings, I am amazed to see how by his divine blessings the parampara presentation of this philosophy can be so perfect, so enlivening, and so potent even from the mouth of someone who was never a great speaker.

 

In this way, I happily pass my days reading, chanting, and preaching with the full conviction that very soon this Krishna consciousness movement will lead the world out chaos. I pray to see it fully manifested within my lifetime.

 

param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam All glories to Sri Krishna sankirtana!