Bombay
From November 1974 through January 1975 Śrīla Prabhupāda stayed in Bombay. During this time he persistently but patiently tried to obtain the No-Objection Certificate, which would enable him to start construction of Rādhā-Rāsavihārī’s beautiful temple. His close involvement with this project impressed Girirāja and others who were dedicating their lives to Hare Krishna Land. As Śrīla Prabhupāda had written in Bhagavad-gītā, “One has no goal in life save and except acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness just to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. And, while working in that way, one should think of Kṛṣṇa only: ‘I have been appointed to discharge this particular duty by Kṛṣṇa.’ While acting in such a way, one naturally has to think of Kṛṣṇa. … That order of Kṛṣṇa comes through disciplic succession from the bona fide spiritual master.”

To serve in a particular project, dedicating oneself to giving the local people Kṛṣṇa consciousness, was an opportunity Śrīla Prabhupāda offered every disciple. His field was the entire world, and he was like an emperor who wanted to award vast lands to loyal sons. But his awarding of lands and projects was not for material ownership (which is always illusory) but for service to the Lord. Kṛṣṇa was the proprietor of everything; therefore a preacher could remain in a particular area of Kṛṣṇa’s domain and try to free the residents from the clutches of māyā. Hare Krishna Land in Bombay was one of Prabhupāda’s major plans, but it was only gradually evolving, as if Kṛṣṇa first wanted to see the devotees pass many tests of obedience to Prabhupāda’s order before allowing the project to manifest.

Although ISKCON owned a half-dozen tenement buildings on the Juhu land, law prohibited them from evicting any of the tenants. But no law said that the owner could not add another story onto his buildings. So Śrīla Prabhupāda had requested Mr. Sethi, a loyal life member and a construction contractor, to build rooms on the top of at least two of the tenement buildings. Eagerly, Mr. Sethi had undertaken this order and had obtained permission for the construction.

Now that the work was completed, the rooms were being used for brahmacārī quarters, offices, and book storage. At last the devotees had vacated the straw huts that had been their residence from their first days on the land. This move not only relieved them from living in nasty, rat-infested quarters, but also allowed them to tear down the huts. And demolition of the huts had been a stipulation before the city would issue the NOC.

Another major objection from the city had been that the temple’s bhajana would create a nuisance, and that point had to be satisfied first and foremost. When the police saw Prabhupāda’s drawing of the projected temple and hotel, they admitted that within such a big temple the kīrtana would not create as much noise as it did at present. So they agreed to accept the master plan for Hare Krishna Land and remove their objections based on “nuisance,” provided ISKCON tear down the straw huts and widen the access road so the tenants could approach the back portion of the land. Each of these legal demands involved many detailed points of contention; it was like a long, drawn-out chess game. But Prabhupāda was experienced, cautious, and determined. He proposed to stay at Hare Krishna Land for several months to help Girirāja, Mr. Sethi, and the others.

Meanwhile, Prabhupāda insisted that the spiritual program at Hare Krishna Land go forward unabated. Even without a permanent temple, five to seven hundred guests were coming for the Sunday feasts. Girirāja had reported to Prabhupāda that Janmāṣṭamī in Bombay had been a great success, with several thousand people coming to see the Deities and take prasādam.

For Śrīla Prabhupāda, who was now accustomed to staying in places like New York or Los Angeles for a week or less, to stay in Bombay for a three-month period confirmed again that Hare Krishna Land was very dear to him. It was his special child. When danger threatened, he became alarmed and protective, and when success came, he was very proud and wanted to tell the world.

Prabhupāda seemed satisfied that at least some construction was always going on. He asked that Mr. Sethi build a brick wall around the property, even though parts of the wall were sometimes torn down at night by guṇḍās. “Build something,” Prabhupāda said, “even if it is just one brick, but go ahead with construction.” Just as when, in acquiring the Bombay property, Prabhupāda had understood the great value of possession even before attaining the deed, so with construction he insisted they go ahead, even without full permission. “The work must begin,” Prabhupāda said, “whether you have got sufficient men and bricks or not. Begin even little, little, so it can be understood that we have begun.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda had received word from Vṛndāvana that the newly elected governor of Uttar Pradesh, Dr. Channa Reddy, had visited the temple site. Hearing this, Prabhupāda decided to invite him for the rescheduled opening of the Krishna-Balaram Mandir.

Your Excellency:
… Tentatively the date is fixed up on Sri Ram Navami, the Birthday of Lord Ramachandra. Probably it will be the fixed up date because we are depending on the progress of the construction work. If you kindly give me your consent, we can print your Excellency’s name on the invitation card as the Chief Guest and Inaugurator of the temple.

You are already our member as well as a great devotee of Lord Krishna, so we shall feel it a great privilege if you kindly agree to this proposal.

Prabhupāda followed his invitation to the governor with a letter to Surabhi in Vṛndāvana.

… Everything must be cent per cent completed by the end of March. Is the contractor cheating? That means it will never be finished. Simply we have to put money. From the photos I have seen, there is not very much progress. What to do?

I want no explanations. I want to see everything finished. If there is still doubt please tell me frankly.

Invitations were coming in for Śrīla Prabhupāda to travel to different places, and another world tour was developing. Prabhupāda wrote to Hṛdayānanda Goswami, who was inviting him to visit Mexico City and Caracas.

… Yes I want to come there very much. Now we are in Bombay trying to get permission from the government to build our temple. And it appears that we will possibly be getting the permission next week. If this works out then I will immediately be going to Honolulu and from Honolulu I can go directly to Mexico City, then Caracas, and then to Australia by the end of Jan. If the Bombay situation is not settled up I may have to stay till mid-Jan. or so and then in mid or end of Jan. I will be going to Australia to stay for one month.

By mid-January of 1975 the city finally issued the NOC. Prabhupāda was jubilant and immediately called for a cornerstone-laying ceremony. He had already held a ground-breaking and cornerstone-laying ceremony in March 1972, on first moving to the land. Nevertheless, he wanted another one, as this would actually signify the beginning of the construction of the temple. He therefore devised a festival involving all life members and friends of ISKCON in Bombay.

Śrīla Prabhupāda was ready to travel, and this time, more than ever, he impressed on his leaders in Bombay that the temple construction should go ahead without interruption. No doubt there would be new opposition from the government. But such opposition would be overcome, as in the past, by Kṛṣṇa’s grace. The devotees, however, would have to be very determined. This was the reward of working for Prabhupāda in Hare Krishna Land – that one gained determination in the face of trouble and knew that by staying with one’s service he was pleasing Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s pure devotee.

During February and March of 1975, Śrīla Prabhupāda toured widely again, traveling eastward via Tokyo and Hawaii to Los Angeles. While traveling, he received word that Governor Reddy had accepted the invitation to attend the Vṛndāvana temple opening on Rāma-navamī. He also received an encouraging report from Surabhi, assuring him that this time the temple opening would definitely take place. “I am encouraged that you expect to have everything completed on time,” Prabhupāda wrote. “This I want.”

Prabhupāda traveled to Mexico City and Caracas. Again, in answering his mail, he was saying he would soon meet everyone in Vṛndāvana. To an Indian life member who wrote him for advice in touring foreign temples, he wrote,

By the 20th of March I will be in Calcutta and you can see me there. I shall advise you personally. You are also invited to participate in our Mayapur festival during Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s appearance day ceremony, as well as the opening celebration of Krishna-Balaram temple in Vrindaban on Rama-Navami day. The Governor of U.P. will also come there to participate and many other important and respectable gentlemen will also be coming. I hope you will also come with your wife and son and mother, and encourage us by taking part in the festival.

Leaving South America, Prabhupāda moved quickly, stopping in Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, and New York – all within a month of his departure from India. He then went to London, stopped in Tehran, and returned to India on March 16. It was Prabhupāda’s eighth trip around the world in ten years.

Early in the morning of March 23, Śrīla Prabhupāda left the Calcutta temple for Māyāpur, traveling in a caravan of five cars. Prabhupāda was in the first car, three following cars carried his sannyāsī disciples, and the last car carried his sister, Bhavatāriṇī, and other ladies. As usual, Prabhupāda asked to stop at the mango orchard.

Daivī-śakti dāsī: They all sat around together, just like cowherd boys, Prabhupāda in the center taking his breakfast fruits. It was Ekādaśī, and I had made a cake for Prabhupāda out of dates and coconut – very fancy. When Prabhupāda opened his tiffin and saw it, he said, “Oh, what is this? Who has made this?” So Acyutānanda Swami told him I had made it, and he started eating it right away. Prabhupāda said he liked it. Then they washed their hands, and we were on our way again to Māyāpur.

Māyāpur
March 23, 1975
For this year’s festival, almost five hundred devotees from around the world had gathered, and Prabhupāda – while taking his morning walks in the nearby fields, while entering the temple of Rādhā-Mādhava, or while lecturing from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta – was the central attractive feature. Each morning after giving the class, he would circumambulate the temple room, followed by his disciples. A brass bell hung from the ceiling on either side of the Deities’ altar, and Prabhupāda, while circumambulating the Deities, would go up to one of the bells and ring it several times, pulling the rope while the kīrtana continued wildly. Then, with cane in hand, he would walk around the back of the Deity altar and emerge on the other side to ring the other bell.

The devotees would jump up and down close around him, singing Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Smiling with great pleasure, Prabhupāda would continue the length of the temple room, past the pictures of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, Gaurakiśora dāsa Bābājī, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, then come around and up the other side of the temple room to the first bell again and strongly ring it. After half a dozen such blissful circumambulations, he would leave the temple, while the kīrtana continued to roar. Coming out into the bright morning sunshine, he would walk up the broad staircase to his room.

On at least two occasions during that festival, Prabhupāda became stunned in trance while delivering the morning lecture. One time he was speaking in appreciation of the sacrifice of his disciples, who had spent so much money and come so far from their homes in America, Europe, and Australia to render service and attend the festival in Māyāpur. “You are all young,” he was saying. “You have a good opportunity. But I am an old man. I have no opportunity.”

And with these words he suddenly fell completely silent. Such silence before five hundred disciples produced a feeling of suspended time. Everyone waited. Finally, one of the devotees began chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and Śrīla Prabhupāda returned to external consciousness, uttering, “Hare Kṛṣṇa.” He told the devotees, “Have kīrtana,” and went to his room.

Prabhupāda again supervised the annual meeting of his Governing Body Commission and personally approved or modified all their decisions. ISKCON was indeed growing, but as Prabhupāda had told his friend, the aged Gopala Acarya, in Madras, “Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s institution are nondifferent. If the devotees are thinking of Kṛṣṇa’s institution, they will not forget Kṛṣṇa.”

By insisting on the devotees’ participation in the annual India pilgrimage, Prabhupāda was solidifying the spiritual basis of ISKCON, his transcendental institution. To gather his devotees like this was the reason he had prayed and struggled to erect centers in the dhāmas. He wanted to extend the purifying shelter of Māyāpur and Vṛndāvana to all his followers, now and in the future. Bit by bit, the plan was coming together; the whole world was being saved by Lord Caitanya’s movement.

Vṛndāvana
April 16
When Śrīla Prabhupāda arrived to finally conduct the Krishna-Balaram Mandir opening, he was pleasantly surprised to see the three tall domes rising over the temple. The domes had been constructed entirely during the eight months since his last visit. The four-story international guesthouse had also been completely built during his absence. Surabhi had supervised workers in day and night shifts to get everything done on time.

The tall central dome and two side domes, one over each altar, were magnificent. Their graceful form led the mind to higher thoughts and suggested an existence beyond the material world. The strength and beauty of the domes reminded one that beneath resided the Deity of the Supreme Lord. A temple was to enlighten people, to remove their nescience, and the domes eloquently spoke of this purpose. They could be seen for miles, rising boldly above the landscape of Vṛndāvana, proclaiming the worship of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.

Each dome was topped by a copper kalaśa consisting of three balls (representing the lower, middle, and higher planets), and at the top, the eternal Sudarśana cakra, the spinning wheel-weapon of Lord Viṣṇu. The Sudarśana cakra was Kṛṣṇa Himself, and just to see this glorious symbol atop the mandira made the devotees feel victorious and satisfied. Even the guests could not help but regard it with awe. Atop the Sudarśana cakras were copper victory flags.

As Prabhupāda toured the completed building, he continually looked up at the domes. “Oh,” he said, “the domes have come out very nice. What do you think?” He turned to the devotees accompanying him.

“They are magnificent!” said Haṁsadūta.

“Yes, Prabhupāda,” said Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, “I think that Surabhi has done a nice job.”

“Yes.” Prabhupāda smiled. “Everyone is telling how nice Surabhi is doing.” Prabhupāda turned to Surabhi, who had gone with little sleep for weeks. “But I can’t say that. Only me – I am criticizing you, because that is my job. I have to always criticize the disciple.”

No less than six hundred devotees from ISKCON centers around the world had come to Vṛndāvana as part of the annual Indian pilgrimage. The high point was to be the installation of the Deities and the opening of the temple. Final preparations were going furiously – cleanups, decorations, cooking. Many important life members and guests had come and were staying in their private rooms in the forty-room guesthouse. Prabhupāda’s vision had finally come to pass. He had created probably the most beautiful and opulent temple in Vṛndāvana – certainly the one most alive with dynamic devotion and preaching spirit – and along with it he had built one of the best local hotels, for visitors with an eye for kṛṣṇa-bhakti.

Touring the grounds, Prabhupāda walked into the sunken courtyard, its marble floor clean and dazzling. This was no rented house in America, something built for another purpose – it was a temple, like the temples in Vaikuṇṭha described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. “It is heaven on earth,” Prabhupāda said. “I think it surpasses all the temples in India.”

Prabhupāda stood smiling before the tamāla tree, its venerable branches spread throughout one corner of the courtyard, and he recounted how there had been a discussion of cutting it down and he had prevented it. Tamāla trees are associated with the pastimes of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and are very rare. In Vṛndāvana there were perhaps only three: one here, one at Seva-kuñja, and one in the courtyard of the Rādhā-Dāmodara temple. That the tamāla tree was growing so luxuriantly, Prabhupāda said, indicated that the devotees were performing genuine bhakti.

Convinced that the temple was actually ready, Prabhupāda entered his residence, just between the temple and the guesthouse. Many details demanded his attention, and many visiting disciples were present.

Thus in Ramaṇa-reti, in a place where there was no temple, a pure devotee desired, “Let there be a temple, and sevā, devotional service.” And what had once been an empty lot was now a place of pilgrimage. Such is the power of the desires of the pure devotee.

EPILOGUE

Śrīla Prabhupāda would often say of his devotional service in India, “Vṛndāvana is my residence, Bombay is my office, and Māyāpur is where I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

Bombay is the biggest commercial city in India. Prabhupāda’s “business” was pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, and in Bombay he dealt more with the managerial aspects of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in India. He had incorporated ISKCON in India with the main branch in Bombay. All other branches of ISKCON in India, therefore, were legally part of the Bombay incorporation. In Bombay, Prabhupāda had cultivated more lawyers and businessmen as life members and earned more friends of his Society than in any other city in India. So whenever he was in Bombay, he often sought legal advice, not just about the Bombay center but also about his other affairs in India.

Since Bombay was a modern city with professional and office facilities on a level with many Western cities, Prabhupāda wanted to locate the Indian division of his Book Trust there, for printing Hindi translations of his books as well as English versions for the Indian market. Bombay, unlike Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur, was not a dhāma but a bustling, wealthy city. ISKCON’s biggest donors lived there. Although Śrīla Prabhupāda’s demeanor was entirely transcendental in Bombay, and his activities were often the same as elsewhere – speaking on Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and worshiping the Deity – nevertheless, Prabhupāda called it his office. And though it was his office, he wanted a temple there.

“Māyāpur,” Prabhupāda said, “is where I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” Prabhupāda conceived of a temple to be built in Māyāpur that would be the grandest of all temples in his movement. He and his devotees would worship the Supreme Lord there in such a magnificent style that the whole world would be attracted to Prabhupāda’s place of worship, the Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir.

According to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the prescribed worship for this age is saṅkīrtana, the chanting of the holy names of God. Saṅkīrtana worship emanated from Māyāpur, the original dhāma of Lord Caitanya. “In the Age of Kali,” states Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, “Lord Kṛṣṇa appears in a golden form, as Lord Caitanya, and His activity is to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. People with sufficient intelligence will worship Him in this form.” Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to make the most wonderful worship of Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His birthplace and thus completely fulfill the predictions of the previous ācāryas, who foresaw a great Vedic city rising from the plains of Navadvīpa.

Māyāpur could also be considered Prabhupāda’s place of worship because his spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, had preached extensively there and because his samādhi was there. Since Śrīla Prabhupāda’s entire preaching mission was in the service of his spiritual master, he worshiped his spiritual master through preaching in Māyāpur. Māyāpur was the origin and symbol of preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness, because there Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda actually began the saṅkīrtana movement that Prabhupāda was now carrying all over the world.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu wanted to preach the saṅkīrtana movement of love of Kṛṣṇa throughout the entire world, and therefore during His presence He inspired the saṅkīrtana movement. Specifically, He sent Rūpa Gosvāmī to Vṛndāvana and Nityānanda to Bengal and personally went to South India. In this way He kindly left the task of preaching His cult in the rest of the world to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Vṛndāvana is Prabhupāda’s residence. Religious people in India as well as religious scholars in the West saw Prabhupāda as a Vaiṣṇava sādhu – from Vṛndāvana. When he began his preaching in New York City, he would often introduce himself as “coming from Vṛndāvana.” “Here I am now sitting in New York,” he once said, “the world’s greatest city, but my heart is always hankering after that Vṛndāvana. I shall be very happy to return to my Vṛndāvana, that sacred place.”

The people of Vṛndāvana also thought of Prabhupāda as their hometown success. Upon retiring from family life in 1954, Prabhupāda had gone to live in Vṛndāvana, first at a temple near Keśī-ghāṭa and then at the Rādhā-Dāmodara temple. After taking sannyāsa in 1959, he had continued to reside in Vṛndāvana and, when not living there, to reserve his two rooms at Rādhā-Dāmodara.

Vṛndāvana is the home of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the place of Kṛṣṇa’s childhood pastimes, the place where the six Gosvāmīs, sent by Lord Caitanya, had excavated holy places, written transcendental literature, and built temples. Any devotee could feel at home there, and thousands of Vṛndāvana’s residents carried bead bags, chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa, and wore the Vaiṣṇava tilaka and dress. Vṛndāvana belonged to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, and this was still acknowledged by the residents of the present-day Vṛndāvana.

Ultimately, Vṛndāvana is revealed only to the pure devotee. Vṛndāvana is the eternal residence of all spiritual souls in their eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa. The Vṛndāvana in India is a transcendental replica of Goloka Vṛndāvana, the eternal planet where Kṛṣṇa resides in the spiritual world. The pure devotees aspire to attain to Goloka Vṛndāvana after finishing their life in this world, and Prabhupāda, therefore, as a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, naturally felt at home in Vṛndāvana. He sometimes said that if he were to become very ill, he would prefer not to go to a hospital but to simply go to Vṛndāvana and there pass his last days. To spread the glories of Vṛndāvana, Prabhupāda had left Vṛndāvana, but like a traveler away from home, he always thought of returning.