Prabhupāda conducted an intensive three-day lecture campaign in Mexico City, speaking at the National University of Mexico, the Masonic Lodge, and the Theosophical Society, and appearing on a television show with some thirty million viewers. He also held initiations at the temple on two consecutive days. Mexico was similar to India, he said, with pious people and a tropical climate. Even when he walked early in the morning in Chapultepec Park, many people followed him back to the temple. They recognized him as a saint and wanted his benediction.

Cit-sukhānanda: On Sunday afternoon there were more than five hundred people in the temple room. After the lecture Śrīla Prabhupāda went back to his room alone, and there was a big kīrtana with five to six hundred people chanting, “Jaya Prabhupāda! Jaya Prabhupāda! Jaya Prabhupāda! Prabhupāda! Prabhupāda! Prabhupāda!” They became very, very ecstatic, and it seemed like the temple walls were going to come down. I was in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s room, and he said, “What is this? Kīrtana? They are making so much noise.”

I said, “They are chanting your name.” And I went down to see what was going on. And all the people were waiting to come into Prabhupāda’s room. It was like they wanted to charge up to Prabhupāda’s room to be able to see him. They kept yelling his name, “Prabhupāda! Prabhupāda!” So I came up to Śrīla Prabhupāda. “Prabhupāda, they want to see you.”

And Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Well, let them come.”

So I immediately arranged that people could come in. He had two doors in his room, and they were coming in through one door on the left side and leaving through the door on the right. One by one, in a line, they just filtered through like a great parade, coming and offering different words to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Most of the people were saying in Spanish, “Your Divine Grace, Your Holiness, please bless me. Give me your benediction.” Everyone was praying for his benediction. And as the people would come in, they would bow down. Everyone was extremely submissive, and there were many people with tears in their eyes to see the great saint Śrīla Prabhupāda. And they said to Śrīla Prabhupāda, “Please give me your blessings.”

Prabhupāda asked me, “What are they saying?” And I said, “ ‘Give me one blessing, one benediction.’ ”

So he had his hand in his bead bag, and with his finger outside his bead bag he would point to them and say, “Hare Kṛṣṇa.” And they were all very happy.

Prabhupāda also traveled to Cuernavaca, where he lectured out of doors at the city plaza before a crowd of thousands. The audience sat patiently and heard his words translated into Spanish.

Cit-sukhānanda: Just then we had turned out our first book, La Conciencia de Kṛṣṇa Es el Sistema Mas Elevado de Yoga [Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, the Topmost Yoga System], and Śrīla Prabhupāda, during his lecture at the plaza at Cuernavaca, saw Haihaya dāsa arrive with newly printed copies of this red book, La Conciencia de Kṛṣṇa Es el Sistema Mas Elevado de Yoga. Śrīla Prabhupāda looked at him and was very happy to see his book printed. He stopped his lecture and said, “Now you can all take one of these books and read them.” And the people actually came up to Śrīla Prabhupāda to get the books. We only brought about fifty copies, but all fifty copies Śrīla Prabhupāda sold personally. The people took the liberty to ask Śrīla Prabhupāda for an autographed book, and he autographed almost all fifty copies.

After the plaza lecture there was a hotel lecture, and then Śrīla Prabhupāda was supposed to go to a devotee’s home in Cuernavaca to take prasādam and rest. But Śrīla Prabhupāda decided he wanted to return to the temple in Mexico City. He got back around eight P.M., so from eight in the morning until eight that night he had not taken a bite of food, only a little water. We offered him fruit and things, but he didn’t want anything.

When he returned to his room, his eyes were shining and his smile was broad, and he said, “This is the way to be happy. Work all day for Kṛṣṇa.” All he wanted was a cup of hot milk with purīs and a cup of sugar. He pressed the purīs into the sugar, and he drank the milk with great joy and happiness. He said, “This is our life, to serve Kṛṣṇa. Work all day for Kṛṣṇa and take a little prasādam at night.”

On returning to Los Angeles, Prabhupāda was again the center of the burgeoning Kṛṣṇa conscious activities there. But again his thoughts turned to Bombay, and he telegrammed Girirāja, instructing him to settle the conveyance immediately.

Girirāja, after receiving Prabhupāda’s cable, went to Mr. N., only to learn of a further complication. After Prabhupāda had signed the sales agreement, the Indian government had passed a law obliging Mr. N. to pay a five-lakh gains tax upon executing the conveyance. Mr. N. didn’t have five lakhs at present and told Girirāja that ISKCON should pay it, and he would apply it toward the mortgage. But Bombay ISKCON didn’t have five lakhs either, so Mr. N. suggested Girirāja take a bank loan or secure funds from ISKCON temples in the U.S. He promised that in the meantime he would not sell the land to anyone else.

Girirāja tried to get a loan from the bank, but he had no security or credit. He turned to some of the life members for help, to see if they could act as guarantors for a loan. But although sympathetic, they could not help him raise the money.

Girirāja also began to doubt Mr. N.’s word. Although naive about legal matters, Girirāja was becoming suspicious of Mr. N.’s character and of his dealings. Talking with life members, Girirāja learned that actually Mr. N. was notorious for illegal business tactics. When previously Mr. N. had signed an agreement with C. Company for the very same land he was now selling to Prabhupāda, the sales agreement had eventually been canceled because C. Company had not gotten permission from the municipality for subdividing plots of land – and one of the conditions of Mr. N.’s sale of the land had been that C. Company get government permission to use the land. According to some of the businessmen with whom Girirāja spoke, Mr. N., through his political connections, had influenced the government against the C. Company.

Mr. N. had seemed very helpful, giving the devotees a good price for the land, and even providing workers for clearing it. And Mrs. N. had often attended Prabhupāda’s classes. But there also seemed to be many contradictions in Mr. N.’s behavior.

Hearing of these problems by mail, Prabhupāda considered them manageable. If a government tax had been imposed, then the devotees should deal with that and also continue trying for a loan. Certainly Mr. N. was tricky, but Prabhupāda felt ISKCON’s position was strong. Girirāja should persist, without becoming confused by Mr. N. Prabhupāda advised Girirāja to approach Mrs. Sumati Morarji and other supporters for financial help.

It is a unique temple in the world and if you show your wonderful abilities as American and European boys and girls to manage everything superbly, she will not hesitate to entrust you in every way. Therefore, there must always be good will and cooperation amongst yourselves for this huge task ahead. I always think of our Juhu place, and I want that it shall be the model for all the world to emulate and respect as the perfect example of a Krishna Conscious community.

Portland, Oregon
June 8, 1972
From Los Angeles Prabhupāda went briefly to Portland, where fifty of his disciples from San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver, as well as Portland, had congregated to meet him. From Portland he rode by car to Eugene, where he lectured at a large hall before an audience of mostly hippies.

Every temple in the U.S. wanted Śrīla Prabhupāda, and although Prabhupāda could not visit them all, he remained open to brief visits and public lectures in faraway places. He would sometimes confide to his traveling secretary that his disciples should do this preaching. But then another lecture opportunity would arise, promoted by an enthusiastic group of devotees, and Prabhupāda would surprise everyone by agreeing to go.

After returning to Los Angeles for four days, Prabhupāda then flew to New York for a week and then on to London for two weeks. In London George Harrison and Ravi Shankar visited him several times at the Bury Place temple. When George asked if he should shave his head and try to live like the other devotees, Prabhupāda replied that he should continue to be a singer. “If you tell people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa,” Prabhupāda reminded George, “they will do it.”

July 20
From England Prabhupāda went to Paris, where he lectured and performed an outdoor initiation ceremony at the Luxembourg Gardens. Hundreds of people, most of them student radicals from the nearby university, gathered to watch. Śrīla Prabhupāda began his talk, saying, “You French people have a history of being revolutionary, because you are looking for a better way of life.” When the words were translated into French, the students cheered and applauded. Śrīla Prabhupāda continued, “Therefore, you should inquire into this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is a revolutionary movement for reviving our original God consciousness.” About thirty devotees from Germany had come to Paris, and most of them, along with many devotees from England, Amsterdam, and Paris, received initiation that day at Luxembourg Gardens. In Paris Prabhupāda also attended a successful four-day indoor festival, where he was pleased to lecture and lead kīrtanas each night.

July 26
In Amsterdam Prabhupāda installed deities of Lord Jagannātha, Lord Balarāma, and Subhadrā and lectured at Vondelpark before thousands of hippies. One day at Vondelpark a devotee was addressing the crowd when Prabhupāda suddenly told his disciples to stop. “These people are useless,” he said. “Just hold kīrtana.”

Later he wrote to a disciple in the West,

We are observing here in Europe many, many hippies have become so disgusted with material life, but they are also now so much degraded that they will not hear our philosophy, simply mocking. So our devotees may become very much learned to remove their doubts and become very much fixed up in Krishna consciousness. But so far preaching to the general public, especially the hippie class, it is better not to preach very much philosophy, just somehow or other get them to chant Hare Krishna mantra, and if some of them are curious to learn something, they may purchase one of our books. Only if they chant with us, that will help them.

July 29
At Edinburgh Prabhupāda was greeted by almost a dozen reporters from various newspapers in Scotland.

Kiśora: Edinburgh is a stuffy, puffed-up, tradition-steeped place, but Prabhupāda was very cordial and humble with the reporters. He was giving them so much credit about how nice the country was and how nice Edinburgh was – what nice buildings we have here – and he was saying, “You have two colleges here?” “Yes, yes, we have two.” Very proud they were. “So you have many students here?” “Yes, yes.” “It’s a very affluent city, Edinburgh?” “Yes, oh, yes, very rich and opulent.” And then Prabhupāda said, “So you have so many students, and you have so many nice big, big buildings. You have so much facility for enjoyment.” And they were agreeing: “Yes, yes, we have all this.” And Prabhupāda just looked at them straight and said, “Then why are your universities producing hippies?”

They looked at one another, and no one could answer. And Prabhupāda began to explain how society cannot bring happiness or contentment simply with buildings. “Stones and windows,” he said. “Where is the happiness there?”

In Glasgow Prabhupāda lectured at Woodside Hall before an audience of almost one thousand.

Kiśora: Prabhupāda was sitting onstage on his vyāsāsana. The crowd was very large, and even the balcony was overflowing. When Prabhupāda arrived, the students greeted him like a pop star. They were cheering and whistling. Prabhupāda immediately began lecturing very heavily on the basic science of Bhagavad-gītā – how Arjuna became a successful devotee by killing all his friends and relatives. At the end of the lecture, I was a little apprehensive as to whether the people would accept that heavy lecture or not. But they cheered and applauded.

When it came to question-and-answer time, one man came all the way down the aisle from the back of the hall and stood at the foot of the stage and looked up at Prabhupāda. For several moments he spoke, on and on and on, talking very proudly – “I am this. I am that” – and then concluding, “I am God.” That was the conclusion of his little monologue. The whole crowd was hushed, and I thought, “What’s going to happen now?” Prabhupāda simply looked down and let the silence continue for a few moments more. Then Prabhupāda spoke. “So, you are God – you have nothing more to say? You are not God – you are dog.” And immediately the crowd stood up and applauded and cheered. The man just looked at Prabhupāda, and a smile came on his face. With just those few words he had been defeated. He simply walked all the way back again to the back of the hall and was finished. It was ecstatic, because the crowd was participating in the whole thing. They all realized that God is not cheap.

Then we had kīrtana, and everyone in the audience was dancing. At that time they had gotten a bit lax at the door, and the local street urchins from this low-class area of Glasgow came into the hall, and they all began dancing and singing. Some of them tried to get up on the stage. Prabhupāda was also chanting, and so these kids were all trying to get around him and get on the stage to chant. The devotees started to push these dirty little children off the stage, but Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Don’t do that. These children are all devotees. Let them chant.”

When Prabhupāda finally got up to leave again, he reminded me of some big celebrity. He was smiling and waving and walking off the stage, and the audience were all shouting, “No, no, no!” They began chanting, “More, more, more, more!”

August 1
When Prabhupāda returned to London and heard that Sumati Morarji was arriving there, he went with a group of his disciples to meet her at the airport. He talked with her about his plans for Hare Krishna Land at Juhu and of his desire to form a board of trustees consisting of ISKCON’s Bombay life members. Sumati Morarji agreed to be president of the board, which would meet regularly and give advice for managing ISKCON’s Bombay project. Each trustee would also contribute a large sum of money toward developing a particular area of the project. Prabhupāda asked Mrs. Morarji to donate for the temple. He would request Mr. Khandelwal to donate for the library and Mr. N. for the two other wings.

That Mr. N. had not yet produced the deed, however, continued to weigh heavily on Prabhupāda’s mind, and he questioned Mr. N.’s intentions and Girirāja’s competence. If the only obstacle was the five-lakh tax, then Prabhupāda had already instructed Girirāja to approach ISKCON’s wealthy friends and secure a loan. What was the difficulty? But Girirāja’s communications sounded as if such a solution was “impossible.” On August 27 Prabhupāda telegrammed Girirāja: “HAS CONVEYANCE DEED BEEN SIGNED IF NOT FINISH IMMEDIATELY AND WIRE DETAILS.”

Again Girirāja went to Mr. N., although anticipating Mr. N.’s reply. This time, however, Mr. N. added yet another complication, reminding Girirāja that ISKCON had not yet obtained permission from the charity commissioner. ISKCON was a public charitable trust and so required permission from the charity commissioner before acquiring property. Mr. N. put the burden back onto ISKCON.

At the charity commissioner’s office, Girirāja learned that he should have applied for permission six months prior to signing the agreement for the land. To Girirāja and the other devotees in Bombay, the affair had become a huge Gordian knot.

New Vrindaban, West Virginia
August 30, 1972
Only two days remained until the Janmāṣṭamī celebration, and more than three hundred disciples had gathered to be with Śrīla Prabhupāda. Janmāṣṭamī, Kṛṣṇa’s appearance day, is always followed immediately by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s appearance day, and this year, with so many devotees gathered in a holy place with Prabhupāda, the occasion promised to be especially auspicious.

Prabhupāda had agreed to lecture every evening in an outdoor pavilion, constructed for the occasion atop one of New Vrindaban’s many hills. The lecture series was titled “Bhāgavata Dharma Discourses,” and through these meetings Prabhupāda set an example for his disciples that they hold similar festivals in other parts of the country. Through bhāgavata-dharma discourses and book distribution, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement would increase its purifying influence throughout the world.

Prabhupāda lived during these days in a small wood-frame house in the New Vrindaban woods. He regularly received visitors and lectured in the evening. Each evening, before his lecture at the pavilion, the devotees would hold a kīrtana and carry Prabhupāda up the long, steep hill on a palanquin. And afterward, as they carried him back down, he would be surrounded by chanting disciples bearing lanterns and torches.

Sureśvara: The path from the pavilion wound down and around on its way to the temple. I got there at dusk and beheld Śrīla Prabhupāda floating jubilantly in his palanquin atop a sea of devotees. There were hundreds of devotees, with tumultuous kīrtana and roaring, plus dust was being kicked up everywhere from all the people. It looked spectacular, like a panoramic scene from one of those epic movies, The Ten Commandments or Exodus, only much more, because it was transcendental. I just fell down in the dust as Prabhupāda’s palanquin came gliding past. It was very wild, but devotional.

Baṭu Gopāla: It was a small palanquin carried by four men. There were some ropes for Prabhupāda to hold on to, and it wasn’t a very comfortable ride for him. But it was an amazing scene. Devotees with torches – electric torches and fire torches and lanterns – and Prabhupāda coming down in his palanquin, down the trail. Hundreds of devotees were surrounding him. Kīrtana was roaring. I kept trying to get up close to Prabhupāda and get a glance.

Jāhnavā-devī dāsī: We were running down the steep hill in the dark amid the loud chanting of a river of devotees. And our feet seemed to never touch the ground. About halfway down, I caught up to the palanquin. But then I realized that being close to Śrīla Prabhupāda meant far more than physical proximity and that I needed to become much more serious about Kṛṣṇa consciousness in order to feel less distant from him.

On Janmāṣṭamī night Prabhupāda went to the temple and listened to readings from Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead about Lord Kṛṣṇa’s birth. Around two A.M. he noticed many devotees were nodding. “You are getting tired,” he said, smiling, and he ended the program.

Even in the midst of such a large festival, Prabhupāda was again plunged into the struggle over the Bombay land. A letter arrived from Girirāja explaining his failure to secure the five-lakhs loan owed the government and the government’s refusal to grant permission. He also mentioned his suspicion that Mr. N. was influencing the charity commissioner’s decision.

Prabhupāda had a copy of the purchase agreement with him, and he studied it carefully. Again he concluded that his position was strong, since he was occupying the land according to the terms of the agreement. He had paid two lakhs as promised, but Mr. N. had not turned over the deed. Now more money was being demanded, and Prabhupāda had said Girirāja should pay this money and get the deed. As for the permission from the government charity commissioner, there was no mention of it in the agreement. Although Mr. N.’s tactics were apparently bewildering Girirāja, Prabhupāda saw them as only empty bluffs. He telegrammed Girirāja, “TAKE BANK MORTGAGE PAY OFF N.” Before receiving any reply from Girirāja, Prabhupāda sent another telegram: “WHY DO YOU SAY CONVEYANCE IMPOSSIBLE EVERYTHING CLEAR IN AGREEMENT OF PURCHASE CONVEYANCE TO BE EXECUTED IMMEDIATELY ACCORDING TO TERMS OF AGREEMENT OF PURCHASE.”

On Śrīla Prabhupāda’s appearance-day morning, he went up the hill to the pavilion to speak. It was a beautiful late summer’s day, and he sat on the stage on a red vyāsāsana beside the Deities of Rādhā-Dāmodara and Lord Jagannātha. In addition to hundreds of his disciples, hundreds of guests were also present, the entire audience numbering about one thousand. The festival was a newsworthy turnout of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, and reporters from The New York Times and other newspapers were on hand, along with television film crews.

Prabhupāda spoke, explaining how, although an observer might misunderstand the devotees’ worship of their spiritual master, no one should think that the spiritual master was presenting himself as God. Prabhupāda compared the spiritual master to a tax collector. As the tax collector collects money only on behalf of the king, so the spiritual master receives honor, but on behalf of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Everyone should serve and bow down to the Supreme Lord, and the spiritual master comes and “collects” obeisances and worship on behalf of God, who accepts any sincere worship of the spiritual master as an offering to Himself.

Prabhupāda ended his lecture, and a great feast climaxed the day and a half of fasting. Prabhupāda then returned to the back yard of his little house, where he talked with some of the devotees.

Hṛdayānanda Goswami: Prabhupāda was taking his massage, sitting on a straw mat outside his cabin. Suddenly, two little kittens appeared by his mat. And they were rolling around, tumbling. They were wrestling, tumbling, rolling around and around. Immediately I thought, “Oh! They are contaminated. I have to get them away.” The cats actually tumbled right onto Prabhupāda’s mat. They rolled in a little furry ball right over to Prabhupāda’s feet. Prabhupāda began tickling them under their chins. He was laughing, rubbing under their chins. Then he turned to me, sort of in a very jolly mood, and said, “Just see, even here there is love.”

Śrutakīrti: I was in charge of the kitchen, so I was too busy to see Prabhupāda at all. He was there for a week, and practically the whole time I didn’t get to see him. I was so upset. I was doing all this service, and I had no opportunity to see Prabhupāda – always cooking until midnight. I felt so bad.

So the day before Prabhupāda left, Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja came up to me and said, “So you are going to be Prabhupāda’s servant.” I said, “Oh, no! This is wonderful! No, this is terrible!” I was so worried. Then he said, “You’ll be leaving tomorrow morning to go to Pittsburgh.” I thought, “Wow, that was quick! I didn’t know anything about it.”

The following morning Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja brought me over to the farmhouse Prabhupāda was staying at. He took me into Prabhupāda’s room and said, “This is Śrutakīrti. He is going to be your servant.” Prabhupāda looked, and I paid my obeisances. Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja said, “He cooks very well, Prabhupāda.” And Prabhupāda said, “That’s very good.” “But he hasn’t massaged,” Mahārāja said. I had never done it before in my life. And then Prabhupāda said, “That’s all right. Anybody can massage. It is very easy.”

Satya-nārāyaṇa: I was with a group of devotees. We would travel around the country in an old bus, preaching. On the bus we had Deities, a kitchen, and a shower. Prabhupāda was outside of his cabin when we drove up in the bus. When he came on, we received him just as in a regular temple, and we gave him caraṇāmṛta. He looked at everything and said that there should be hundreds of buses like this. It wasn’t such a big event for him, but he really liked it.