A few of Prabhupāda’s disciples had organized the New Delhi paṇḍāl program like the public festivals Prabhupāda had already introduced in India. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa, Tejās, and Gurudāsa had enlisted the help of important Delhi men, including the mayor and members of New Delhi’s Management and Reception Committee. These persons had granted permission and issued letters of introduction to others, whom the devotees had then approached for donations.

The devotees found everyone they met sympathetic to Śrīla Prabhupāda. They respected him, especially after meeting him. Some disagreed philosophically, yet all were impressed by Prabhupāda’s converting Westerners to Hindu dharma and God consciousness, and they had genuine respect for Prabhupāda’s worldwide propagation of the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā.

Prabhupāda had great stature among the Indians as a sādhu. Speaking only on the basis of the scriptures, he exhibited full surrender to Lord Kṛṣṇa. He was above politics and sectarianism; he was fully spiritual and commanded respect. Everyone, regardless of personal philosophies or practices, seemed to accept him as a true representative of Indian culture, a genuine sādhu and guru.

Among the distinguished persons who agreed to appear as guest speakers during the ten-day festival were Sri Hans Raj Gupta, mayor; H. Bachchan, a famous Hindi poet; Sri Syama Caran Gupta, chairman of the Delhi Metropolitan Council; Sri C. B. Agarwal, a famous orator; Sri Vipin Candra Misra, magistrate of the Delhi High Court; Dr. Atma Ram, a renowned scientist; Colonel B. R. Mohan, ex-mayor and industrialist of Lucknow; Sri L. N. Sakalani, a prominent industrialist; Sri Aditya Nath Jha, the lieutenant-governor of Delhi; Sri Jagjivan Ram, Indian defense minister; and His Excellency James George, the Canadian high commissioner. Gurudāsa had also had friendly conversations with the U.S. ambassador to India, Kenneth Keating, who had repeatedly expressed his respect for the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Ambassador Keating regretted that he would be out of town during the function.

The devotees had secured an excellent location at the L.I.C. Grounds in Connaught Place, the heart of New Delhi’s commercial district. There they had arranged for a large tent and outdoor lighting for the ten-day festival. On opening day the program started at six A.M. with a kīrtana and an ārati before the newly arrived Deities of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, white marble Deities from Jaipur enthroned upon a flower-bedecked altar on the large stage. Attendance was sparse at first, but picked up when after a noon kīrtana and ārati devotees began distributing kṛṣṇa-prasādam. The evening program started with a kīrtana, which continued enthusiastically, building to an ecstatic climax as Śrīla Prabhupāda entered.

For the pious people of Delhi, the evening Hare Kṛṣṇa festival was a momentous occasion. Since the location and the hour were ideal and admission was free, the crowd had grown to tens of thousands, many having come specifically to see the young American Vaiṣṇavas.

At Prabhupāda’s arrival hundreds of people surged forward to touch his feet and receive his blessings, as a ring of disciples escorted him through the crowd. Prabhupāda, wearing a gray wool cādara, his “swami hat” pushed back casually on his head, moved calmly forward toward the stage with natural, aristocratic poise. He sat on the vyāsāsana, and the audience quieted.

New Delhi’s mayor, Sri Hans Raj Gupta, spoke first. He had met Śrīla Prabhupāda in the early 1960s when Prabhupāda had approached him for a donation to publish the first volume of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Mayor Gupta, recognizing Prabhupāda as “someone sincere and near to God,” had helped, and Prabhupāda had later presented him with complimentary copies of the first two volumes of his Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Mr. Gupta was impressed by Prabhupāda’s success in spreading Vaiṣṇavism in the West, and as he introduced Śrīla Prabhupāda, he expounded on the Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy he had read in Prabhupāda’s Bhāgavatams.

He said, speaking in Hindi, that as mayor of Delhi for five years he had many times welcomed important visitors and delivered addresses, but such functions were usually only formalities. This was not, however, the case with Śrīla Prabhupāda, he said, since no one he had ever known could compare with him. He praised Prabhupāda for doing “an immense amount of good work in India and the whole world.” Said Mayor Gupta, “He has also given me love and affection, and I am more affected by that than anything else.”

Then Prabhupāda spoke. When he began by asking whether the audience preferred him to speak in Hindi or English, many called out for Hindi, a few for English. But Prabhupāda announced, “I am going to speak in English, because my disciples, being Americans and Europeans, have joined me. They are following me, and they must understand. If I speak in Hindi they cannot follow. So I am going to speak in English.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Prabhupāda continued, “I thank you for your kindly participating in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Just now we will vibrate one transcendental song, Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava Kuñjabihārī. As you know, Kṛṣṇa’s eternal consort is Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, the pleasure potency of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When He wants to enjoy, He exhibits His pleasure potency, which is known as Rādhārāṇī.”

After chanting Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava Prabhupāda expounded the science of Kṛṣṇa for half an hour, quoting Bhagavad-gītā on why Kṛṣṇa comes to the material world, how the jīva souls are transmigrating from one body to another, birth after birth, and how human life is the opportunity for the jīva souls to revive their love of Kṛṣṇa.

“This is religion,” Prabhupāda said, “ – simply surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Become a Kṛṣṇaite. … It doesn’t require a church. It doesn’t require a mosque. It doesn’t require anything. But wherever you sit down, you can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is the easiest method.”

Following Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the ancient speaker of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Prabhupāda condemned a materialistic life spent “working hard like the hogs or dogs,” without self-realization. He emphasized that India had a treasure house of knowledge, which Indians should distribute all over the world. Unfortunately, the Indians were forgetting their real duty.

In conclusion Prabhupāda said, “So there are many things to be spoken in this connection of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. I am trying to present this to you in the next ten days. This is the beginning. I shall request you to come here. We don’t charge any fees. We are depending on Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa likes, He will benefit us. We are completely surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. If He likes, He can maintain us. If He likes, He can kill us. We don’t mind. We have no business. We have no separate interest. We request you to come and join this movement. It is not sectarian. We have many Hindus, Christians, Jews, Muhammadans, and Sikhs also all over the world who are now in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are preaching one word, Kṛṣṇa, one scripture, Bhagavad-gītā, and one mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Thank you very much.”

Prabhupāda attempted to leave the stage, and again the crowd rushed forward to touch his lotus feet. Although Prabhupāda’s disciples were already convinced of his greatness, that greatness took on a vivid reality at times like this, when they heard him speaking so powerfully and saw him surrounded by throngs of worshipers.

As Prabhupāda proceeded to his car, he remained calm and humble, but the disciples surrounding him tensed to protect him from being jostled by a frantic crowd. Yet despite the devotees’ sincere attempts, individuals in the crowd would manage to break through, diving between the devotees’ legs to throw themselves before Prabhupāda.

“Do you know why they are worshiping me?” Prabhupāda said, turning to the disciples near him. “It is because I am free from sex desire.”

For ten consecutive nights Śrīla Prabhupāda lectured at the paṇḍāl. In many of his lectures he would speak of dharma (religion) in connection with the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

“The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the topmost yoga system. It is very scientific. Don’t think it is a sentimental movement. It is authorized, supported by the Vedic literatures. And actually it is becoming effective. Religion is surrender to God. These boys and girls have taken to this real religion. This movement is so important, and we are giving everyone a chance to make this life successful. Therefore our humble request is that you take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

On the fifth evening, after Justice Misra had referred to religion in his introduction, Śrīla Prabhupāda defined the word in his lecture. “Religion means constitutional position. In the English dictionary religion is described as faith. But by Vedic definition religion cannot be changed like faith because it is the law given by the Lord. Only surrender unto the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa is dharma. That is Kṛṣṇa’s verdict. One should not have any ulterior motive in approaching God.

“Why not surrender immediately? Be intelligent. Real religion means to surrender immediately. Why should you wait for many, many births? We request all of you to try to understand this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness very seriously. Take to it, and you will become happy.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda saw the Indian people abandoning their dharma for materialism, and he spoke strongly, pointing out their great mistake and urging them to rectify it. “If you actually want to advance your nation, India, then you must take to the culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This will glorify your country. You cannot compete with the Western world in the field of technology. It is impossible. The Western countries are meant for that purpose, for advancing technology. But you are meant for a different purpose. Your special advantage is that you have been born in this land of Bhārata-varṣa after many, many births and after performing many pious activities.

“India is very poverty-stricken, so wherever I go I am told I come from a very poor country. India advertises this image – our ministers beg from other countries. We are accepted as a beggars’ culture. At the Berkeley University one Indian student protested the studying of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. He was the only student to protest. He said, ‘Swamiji, what benefit is made by accepting this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement?’ In another place a girl asked me, ‘Swamiji, what is God?’ So I asked her, ‘Are you Indian? You should be ashamed of being called an Indian, because you ask what is God, although you come from India, the land of God.’ India is the land where Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared. So although you may be born Indian, if you have no dharma, what is the difference between you and the animals?”

One night while Prabhupāda was speaking, an American hippie in the audience approached the stage. He had long, wild blond hair and wore a vest and high leather boots. A miniature framed picture of Viṣṇu, Brahmā, and Śiva hung on a chain around his neck. When the boy tried to climb up on the stage, some of the devotees pushed him back, but Śrīla Prabhupāda intervened. He had a devotee bring a cushion and place a microphone in front of the boy. Then Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Yes?”

“Have you realized yourself?” the young man demanded. “Have you realized the soul in the innermost depths of your being?”

“Yes!” Śrīla Prabhupāda replied.

At first the man was taken aback, but then he again challenged, “Now you tell me another thing. When was the Bhagavad-gītā written?”

“Now you answer my question,” Śrīla Prabhupāda said. “What is the process of receiving knowledge from the Bhagavad-gītā?”

“No,” the young man retorted, “you tell me – when was the Bhagavad-gītā written? In your lecture you said five thousand years ago, but according to other swamis, it was written only fifteen hundred years ago. Answer my question. I asked you first!”

Śrīla Prabhupāda raised his voice angrily. “I am not your servant, I am Kṛṣṇa’s servant. You must answer my question!”

A heated argument began, with the hippie yelling at Śrīla Prabhupāda and Śrīla Prabhupāda arguing back. Finally, the devotees removed the boy from the stage.

The incident confused the audience. Many people began to leave. “Why did your Guru Mahārāja become angry?” some of them demanded from the devotees. “He should have answered the man’s question.” Some of the civic leaders supporting the paṇḍāl program also became upset, fearing Śrīla Prabhupāda had made an unfavorable impression on the public. Those who were devotional, however, remained in their seats to hear further what Prabhupāda had to say.

To the devotees it was inconceivable. Why had Prabhupāda, in the middle of his talk, invited a crazy hippie onto the stage, given him a microphone and a seat, and then argued with him to the point of yelling and shouting? And all before an audience of twenty thousand!

Bhavānanda: One man who had helped organize the paṇḍāl protested,“Oh, Swamiji has gotten angry. This is not good.” But Śrīla Prabhupāda seemed to have done it purposefully. He had spoken for a long time that evening on how to understand the Bhagavad-gītā, and then he had this hippie brought on the stage. It was bewildering to us. We couldn’t figure it out.

Girirāja: Śrīla Prabhupāda was actually using the entire incident to illustrate the process of understanding Bhagavad-gītā. After the man left, Prabhupāda completed his lecture by stating that one must approach Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa’s representative with a submissive attitude, by serving and inquiring, not simply asking challenging questions. The whole incident had illustrated this point.

Yadubara: Many in the audience misunderstood the incident. It caused a split. But those who understood what Śrīla Prabhupāda had done could see that this hippie was a rascal, and this had been a time for transcendental anger against his nonsensical opinions.

Tejās: After everything was over, Prabhupāda told us, “Just as the gopīs were lusty for Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna would also get angry for Kṛṣṇa. So it is not bad that a devotee becomes angry for Kṛṣṇa.” But many people in the crowd could not understand this point – how a devotee is not impersonal. The Indians are used to seeing impersonalist yogīs who express no emotion. The audience was mostly impersonalists.

The last night of the paṇḍāl program, Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke privately with James George, the Canadian high commissioner.

Mr. George: “You have attracted so many Canadians and Americans.”

Prabhupāda: “I have not attracted them. Kṛṣṇa has attracted them.”

Mr. George: “True.”

Prabhupāda: “Kṛṣṇa is all-attractive. I am simply presenting the means of being attracted. That is my business. It is similar to the way a magnet attracts iron. If the iron is rusty, however, then magnetic force cannot attract. Therefore, my business is to remove the dirt. This process is ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, cleansing the heart.

“At the present moment every one of us is in a consciousness of thinking, ‘I am this body.’ Because you were born in Canada, you are thinking you are Canadian. Because I was born in India, I am thinking I am Indian. And because he was born in America, he is thinking he is American. None of us are American, Canadian, or Indian. We are living entities.”

Mr. George: “I have no problem following all of that. How, though, is this change of consciousness to be brought about, for example, in the West? This, I take it, is your mission.”

Prabhupāda: “There is no question of East and West. It is philosophy – it is science. In mathematics, for instance, two plus two equals four. This is equally understandable in the West as well as the East. It is not that two plus two in the West is five, and two plus two in the East is three. Two plus two is equal to four everywhere.

“The first knowledge, then, that must be understood by human society is that we are not these bodies. It is very common knowledge. From this point, our spiritual knowledge can advance. If we do not know what spirit is, then what is the question of advancing in spiritual knowledge?”

After their conversation, Mr. George accompanied Prabhupāda to the stage and introduced him to the crowd.

“For several years I’ve been wanting to meet this swami and see what it was about him that was affecting so many of our young people in Canada and North America. I was very happy this evening to come in response to your kind invitation, and especially to meet Swamiji. I think, as he himself said to me a short time ago, there is something really happening. Whether he is doing it or it is being done through him, as he said, it is beside the point. But there is something happening, and everyone who doubts that should be here tonight to see this. It is happening, not only here in Delhi, but it’s happening in Toronto and Cleveland and Los Angeles and New York and all sorts of places. What is it? I don’t know how he would answer that question. For me, at a deeper level what is happening is the awakening of a search.”

In his lecture, Śrīla Prabhupāda compared the material body to a machine operated by a driver, the soul. And he spoke of the soul’s natural position as servant of Kṛṣṇa. Addressing Mr. George, Prabhupāda concluded his speech.

“Here our honorable high commissioner of Canada is present. I request that since you have come to our country, please try to understand this philosophy. I have traveled in your country, in Canada, also, and as you have already mentioned, we have got five branches, in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Hamilton, and Ottawa. So the boys are struggling. They are distributing culture, these books, and I am getting very encouraging reports. Many young men are also coming. It is a very scientific movement. So I request you to inform your government to give these boys facility to inject this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in your country. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

After the successful ten-day paṇḍāl festival – seven hundred thousand had attended – Śrīla Prabhupāda took his disciples on a short excursion to Vṛndāvana. His preaching tours had taken him to such places as Amritsar, Surat, Indore, Gorakhpur, Allahabad, and Benares, but never to Vṛndāvana. With so many of his disciples gathered in Delhi for the festival, Prabhupāda considered it an opportune time to travel to nearby Vṛndāvana.

They set out in two vehicles, Śrīla Prabhupāda and four others in Mrs. Kamala Bakshi’s Ambassador and forty devotees following in a rented bus. Prabhupāda remained silent during the ride out of the city, past the factories and through the agricultural fields, groves, and villages along the Delhi–Agra Road en route to Vṛndāvana. When, after a couple of hours, they approached the outskirts of Vṛndāvana, Prabhupāda directed the driver of his car to a village and into the center of the small town to a sweet-water well. Here Prabhupāda and his party drank, took a breakfast of fresh fruit, and then continued on their way. Just before reaching Chhatikara Road, which leads directly into Vṛndāvana, Prabhupāda’s car broke down.

Tejās: After Prabhupāda’s car broke down, he rode the rest of the way with us on the bus. Our relationship with Prabhupāda was very reverential, although we were in the most intimate situation, staying with him and traveling in a bus with him. Prabhupāda never said anything about it. In those days we were actually very much like a family – Prabhupāda knew everyone, and everyone knew Prabhupāda and would talk to him – but still we were very reverential.

In Vṛndāvana a Mr. G. L. Saraf accommodated Prabhupāda, his secretaries, and the women in the party at his home, Saraf Bhavan. The rest of the devotees stayed in a nearby dharmaśālā.

Prabhupāda had come to Vṛndāvana for more than just a pilgrimage; he had come to try and secure land for ISKCON. When in 1967 he had come to Vṛndāvana from America, he had come to recuperate, but on recovering his health he had looked for a place in Vṛndāvana for his disciples. He had tried to establish an “American House,” a center where his disciples could live in Vṛndāvana’s ideal atmosphere and receive training in Kṛṣṇa conscious culture and then go out and preach. But after two months of little prospect for establishing his American House, he had left.

This time, however, Prabhupāda was coming to Vṛndāvana as that city’s famous ambassador to the world, renowned for propagating the glories of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Vṛndāvana in the West. The success of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement was being widely publicized in India, as Prabhupāda and his band of foreign disciples traveled from city to city holding kīrtanas, lecturing from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and telling of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the West. So when Prabhupāda arrived in Vṛndāvana with forty disciples, the entire town heralded his presence.

The municipality of Vṛndāvana arranged a formal reception, attended by prominent local citizens and sādhus. A spokesman for the city praised Śrīla Prabhupāda and his accomplishments. “O great soul! Today we, the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, known as Brijabāsīs, all combinedly offer our humble welcome to Your Holiness in this holy place of Vṛndāvana, and in doing so we feel very proud. … For many years you stayed in the Rādhā-Dāmodara temple and worshiped Her Majesty Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī in a meditative mood, and thus you now have the transcendental vision to deliver the entire world. As proof of your perfection, we can see these foreign devotees before us, and we feel very proud to see how you have transformed them into such pure devotees.

“O great preacher of Vedic culture, formerly a great many swamis went to foreign countries, but now you have wonderfully preached the saṅkīrtana movement and the sublime philosophy of bhakti cult in the Western countries, and that is the only means for giving peace and prosperity to all people of the world in this age. For preaching religion and culture, your holy name will remain ever dazzling.

“To speak frankly, we feel a very intimate relationship with you, and we feel perfect satisfaction at this time in the privilege to present you this address of welcome. We take it for granted that you are one of us in Vṛndāvana. We are sure that wherever you travel, you must carry with you the impression of Śrī Vṛndāvana-dhāma. The culture, religion, philosophy, and transcendental existence of Śrī Vṛndāvana-dhāma travel with you. Through the great message Your Holiness carries, all the people of the world are now becoming very intimately related with Vṛndāvana-dhāma. We are certainly sure that through your preaching alone the transcendental message of Vṛndāvana will spread all over the world. May you be crowned a success in these noble activities.”