Prabhupāda trained his disciples in the etiquette of living in Vṛndāvana-dhāma. “In the holy dhāma,” he said, “if one of my disciples drinks from a jug incorrectly and he contaminates that jug, everyone will notice it. Don’t be criticized for this uncleanliness, or I will be criticized. It is the duty of the disciple to follow these etiquette habits very austerely. I am putting so much energy into this party in India because I want to train you how to live here.”

Prabhupāda wrote his disciples in the West of his successful tour of Vṛndāvana.

I am currently in Vrindaban with a party of 40 devotees, and we are having daily parikrama of the holy places. We shall return to Delhi tomorrow by coach. The officials and residents of Vrindaban have greeted us very nicely, and they are simply astounded to see our SKP chanting with great jubilation through the city streets. The Mayor has publicly proclaimed that I have done something wonderful, and practically speaking, they realize that before I went to the western countries no one there knew about Vrindaban. Now hundreds of visitors and hippies from your country come here to see Krishna’s place. The Vrindaban devotees have understood that Vrindaban is now world-famous due to my preaching work, so they are all very much appreciating their home-town Swamiji.

Delhi
December 1, 1971
Upon his return to Delhi, Śrīla Prabhupāda, along with the forty disciples who had accompanied him to Vṛndāvana, stayed at the Birla Mandir. The host offered Prabhupāda a small house reserved for special guests in the back of the formal gardens.

Meanwhile, political turmoil continued to trouble the nation’s capital, as the threat of an all-out war between India and Pakistan increased. Even peaceful Vṛndāvana had been disturbed, being only ninety miles from Delhi and thirty-four miles from Agra, with its large military installation. One night, while Śrīla Prabhupāda had been staying at Saraf Bhavan, the local authorities had ordered a blackout. Śrīla Prabhupāda and the devotees had been confined to their quarters, the electricity had gone off, and everyone had covered their windows with blankets, so that even the candlelight could not be detected.

Nevertheless, despite political agitation and threats of war, Prabhupāda had now come to Delhi to preach. On his second day in the city he visited the American ambassador to India, Kenneth Keating, at the American Embassy.

You may be pleased to know that this morning I met here in Delhi with your American Ambassador to India, Mr. Kenneth Keating. He has got very good respect for our Movement, and he has promised to help me to arrange a meeting with your President when I shall return to your country perhaps in the late Spring. I have requested him to help this Movement and that help will save your country from great danger by turning hippies into happies. … Let us see what can be done.

The next day, while Prabhupāda was on his morning walk in the streets of Delhi, he asked a devotee to get a paper from a newsboy passing by on a bicycle. Prabhupāda read the headlines: “Emergency declared; three enemy planes downed.” He had a devotee read aloud:

Pakistan launched a massive attack on the western front, bombing seven Indian airfields and crossing the cease-fire line in strength in Poonch. … The Prime Minister in her broadcast late tonight described it as a full-scale war launched by Pakistan against India. … Earlier the President had declared national emergency.

The national emergency had international implications, with America cutting off supplies to India and supporting Pakistan, China threatening India, and Russia supporting India.

“This war will not last long,” Śrīla Prabhupāda said immediately. “It will soon be finished. And Pakistan will lose.”

Later that night he heard Indira Gandhi’s broadcast over the radio:

I speak to you at a moment of great peril to our country and our people. … Today a war in Bangla Desh has become a war on India. This imposes on me, my Government and the people of India a great responsibility. We have no other option but to put our country on a war footing.

Prabhupāda was not alarmed. War was not the only “ugly reality”; birth, death, old age, disease, and so many other material sufferings were inevitable – war or no war. Prabhupāda continued to follow the news, however, and some days Śyāmasundara would purchase for him three or four different newspapers.

After a few days at the Birla Mandir, Prabhupāda and his party moved to a dharmaśālā in the Kamala Nagar district of old Delhi. There Prabhupāda delivered what the devotees later referred to as “the blackout lectures.” While black-painted newspapers and blankets covered the windows and combat jets flew overhead, Prabhupāda would speak by candlelight to his disciples.

“The propensity to fight is very strong in this Age of Kali,” he said, “and the population is becoming so sinful that they are trying to accumulate atomic weaponry for ultimate destruction of humanity.” Sometimes Prabhupāda would ask a disciple to speak to the group also. No guests were present, since during blackouts no one could walk the streets, and on some nights the police pounded on the door demanding the devotees extinguish even their candles.

“Due to the war in India,” Prabhupāda wrote in a letter, “our programs here have been reduced, and there is every night a blackout.” Not only in Delhi but in other parts of India his disciples were encountering difficulties in their preaching attempts. In Māyāpur the government had ordered the devotees to leave the area because of its close proximity to Bangladesh.

As Prabhupāda had predicted, however, the war did not last long. On December 17 Prabhupāda read the headlines of the Indian Express – “NIAZI SURRENDERS: BANGLA DESH IS FREE. India Decides on Unilateral Cease-Fire in West.” Prabhupāda was joyous. He told the devotees confidentially that the reason the war had ended so quickly was because of their massive saṅkīrtana-yajña at the paṇḍāl a month earlier.

On the very same page that had announced India’s victory, however, another headline read, “PM blames USA for war.” Indira Gandhi was blaming President Nixon for the war. The American devotees tensed as they walked the streets, sensing the Indians’ mistrust, and daily newspaper propaganda only worsened the condition. “There is great propaganda now against America in India,” Prabhupāda wrote, “due to the country’s stand against India and the war with Pakistan.”

Delhi was the seat of much political agitation, and Prabhupāda decided to relocate the devotees who were there with him. Although his disciples were peaceful and far from being politically active, he sent some to Calcutta, while others accompanied him to Bombay. International politics would not stop the oncoming wave of Lord Caitanya’s movement.