Bombay
January 9, 1977

ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA STARTED his morning walk before dawn. He and the devotees knew their way well through Hare Krishna Land to the public road, and once off the property, they turned left, then right and began walking down the block leading to the beach. The sky began to lighten. At first they could not visibly distinguish land from sea from sky. But gradually subtle nuances of color revealed the horizon, and they could see the vast plain of the Arabian Sea stretching to meet the even greater sea of sky, where last stars twinkled and faded. As Prabhupāda and his small group walked along the broad beach, they were flanked on their left by a line of leaning palms and on their right by a rumbling surf.

Śrīla Prabhupāda wore a gray woolen cādara around his shoulders, a saffron silk kurtā and dhotī, and peach-colored canvas shoes. He used a cane, leaning not heavily on it, but lightly. With each brisk step he would point the cane ahead, poking it into the sand and lifting it again, rhythmically marking the pace. He walked erectly and held his head high.

A long line of Bombayites, many of them wealthy Juhu residents on their morning stroll, appeared, and a few coconut-wālās set up their carts, cutting off the tops of choice coconuts in anticipation of their first customers. Śrīla Prabhupāda liked to walk at this time of morning, and weather permitting, he would do so no matter where he was in the world. Juhu Beach, however, was one of his favorite places to walk.

Along the way, he and his disciples were joined by Dr. Patel, in white shirt and pants, and several of his friends, mostly doctors and lawyers. Śrīla Prabhupāda had been silent, but now he began to speak.

“How everything is nice,” Śrīla Prabhupāda commented, gesturing toward the beach before him. “See the sky, how clear and how nice by Kṛṣṇa. Pūrṇam idam.” With his cane he indicated the tall, graceful palm trees. “The tree is called vṛkṣa,” he said. “The vṛkṣa-yoni, or birth as a tree, is condemned. By Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement, however, the vṛkṣas are also so nicely set up, it becomes beautiful.”

“They are all representatives of Kṛṣṇa,” said Dr. Patel. “This is perfect.”

“Pūrṇam,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda, quoting Īśopaniṣad. “Pūrṇam idam, pūrṇam adaḥ.” Just as the rising sun illumines everything, Śrīla Prabhupāda discoursed, speaking against the atheistic notion that the complex material creation has no creator. “God’s creation,” said Prabhupāda, “is perfect and complete because it comes from Him who is pūrṇam, perfect and complete. Aṇḍāntara-stha paramāṇu cayāntara-sthaṁ / govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. Paramāṇu means smaller than the atom. Six paramāṇus make one anu. That is atomic dimension – you combine six paramāṇus. So in that paramāṇu also the Lord is there.”

“He made it,” said Dr. Patel, “and then He entered into it. That is what the Veda says.”

“Yes,” said Prabhupāda, “the Paramātmā is there. The whole human life is meant for understanding all this and glorifying the Lord. And they are wasting their lives by imitating the hog.”

Prabhupāda again fell silent, except for softly uttering the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Now the beach was light, and many people, out on their morning walks or runs, greeted Śrīla Prabhupāda as they passed. The greetings were always words of respect, or at least “Good morning,” and Śrīla Prabhupāda’s response was usually “Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

Suddenly Prabhupāda again began to speak: “There’s a very big conspiracy against us.”

“By the church?” guessed Dr. Patel.

“Not by the church,” said Prabhupāda.

“By the society?”

Prabhupāda uttered a thoughtful “Hmmm,” then added, “Now they are determined to cut down this movement.” He didn’t give any details, and neither Dr. Patel nor the others could fully draw out what was on his mind. Whatever it was, said Dr. Patel, no conspiracy against Kṛṣṇa consciousness could take place in India.

“I wanted to start this movement in India,” Prabhupāda replied. “I requested so many friends, ‘Give me just one son.’ But nobody agreed. They said, ‘Swamiji, what will be the benefit by this if I make my son a Vaiṣṇava or a brāhmaṇa?’ They do not give much importance to the movement. They are planning how to stop this movement in so many ways.”

Always a faithful Indophile, Dr. Patel replied, “The Americans are like that, always making propaganda.”

“There is good and bad in every place,” said Prabhupāda. “Kṛṣṇa says, manuṣyānāṁ sahasreṣu. Out of thousands of persons hardly anyone is interested in perfecting his life. This is Kali-yuga.”

They walked on, and Śrīla Prabhupāda said no more about it, speaking instead of materialistic household life, in which the chief pleasure is sex. Beyond this abominable sex pleasure, he said, was the full satisfaction of spiritual life.

Prabhupāda walked for half an hour and then turned around and began walking back, wanting to return to the temple by seven, just in time to greet the Deities. Some of the others were flagging from the brisk pace, but Śrīla Prabhupāda strode on, his golden-hued face triumphant in self-realization.

Prabhupāda began talking about the importance of sat-saṅga, association with devotees, and Dr. Patel quipped, “Instead of doing sat-saṅga, people go to Kumbha-melā!” He laughed, as if it were a good joke.

But Prabhupāda corrected him. “No,” he said, “Kumbha-melā is sat-saṅga. If you go to Kumbha-melā to find a man of knowledge, then your Kumbha-melā is right. Otherwise, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicit, sa eva go-khara. If one thinks that this salila, the water, that just to take bath in the water is Kumbha-melā, then he’s a go-khara, a cow or an ass. But if he thinks, ‘Now there is an assembly of so many saintly persons, let me take advantage of their knowledge,’ then he is intelligent.”

Ever since Śrīla Prabhupāda had arrived in Bombay, he had been questioned about the upcoming Kumbha-melā at Allahabad. The Māgha-melā occurred every year, but according to astrological calculations, a more auspicious occasion came every twelfth year: Kumbha-melā. And every twelfth Kumbha-melā (an event that occurred only once in 144 years) was especially auspicious. This year, 1977, was to be such a Melā, and the government was predicting an attendance of twelve million at the confluence of the holy rivers near Allahabad. Śrīla Prabhupāda had said he would go.

“So, sir,” said Dr. Patel, “you are going by train to Kumbha-melā?” Śrīla Prabhupāda replied that he liked the train, but Dr. Patel said it was not good for health and that it would be a very long ordeal. He also warned Prabhupāda that Allahabad would be very cold. And if Prabhupāda wanted to leave the Melā early, he would find it very difficult because of the crowds. “I’ll get one of my friends to get me some water from Allahabad on that day,” laughed Dr. Patel. “I’ll take my bath here.” Dr. Patel’s friends also mentioned the difficulties of extreme weather and crowds at Allahabad during the Melā. Śrīla Prabhupāda, however, was not swayed. He was well acquainted with Allahabad, having lived there with his family from 1923 to 1936.

“In 1925,” said Prabhupāda, “I went to the Melā. I remember, I was touching the water, and it was so pinching that it was cutting your body. But as soon as you actually get a dip – one … two … three – then you immediately come out, and it is all right.”

Prabhupāda mentioned the 1928 Melā, when he was carrying his young child. “I was in the midst of the crowd,” he recalled. “It was so big that I was afraid that if there was any rush this child may be finished. But, by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, nothing happened.”

“What is the reason for the Melā?” asked Prabhupāda’s servant, Hari-śauri. “Is it something about some drops of nectar from the Mohiṇī-mūrti?”

“It is actually a religious conference,” Prabhupāda replied. “All the different groups gather in that holy place, and they propagate their philosophy there. India is a country of religion. They know spiritual life is more important than this material life – that is India. Now they are diverting their attention to the material. Otherwise, the whole of India is for spiritual life.”

About five minutes before seven, Śrīla Prabhupāda left the beach and walked back to Hare Krishna Land. As he approached, he saw the massive two-story towers of the ISKCON hotel and the even taller and grander temple domes. The buildings, however, were unfinished. The temple domes had to be covered with marble, and all the buildings needed numerous finishing touches. Prabhupāda was anxiously anticipating the opening, but Surabhi Mahārāja spoke of delays. The opening date, therefore, remained indefinite.

Delays had been routine ever since Prabhupāda had first tried to purchase the Juhu land from Mr. N. in 1971, and obstacles had plagued all his attempts to build. Now the triumph of installing the Deities of Rādhā-Rāsavihārī in one of the most gorgeous temples in India was near. Rādhā-Rāsavihārī were still being worshiped in the temporary shelter the devotees had erected in 1971, but as Prabhupāda approached, he could see the magnificent temple structure looming behind that humble shed, proclaiming that soon Rāsavihārī would move into His palace. Kṛṣṇa was blessing the faithful work of Śrīla Prabhupāda and his disciples in Bombay. Although Śrīla Prabhupāda was always traveling, pushing his movement ahead on all fronts, he would regularly return to Bombay. He, more clearly than his disciples, could see when the workers were delaying or even cheating. This time, as before, he would stay for a while, give advice, and then move on.

On returning to the ISKCON property, Śrīla Prabhupāda came before the Deities and beheld once again the charming beauty that made him sometimes indicate that of all Deities, these were the dearest to him. His promise to Rādhā-Rāsavihārī that he would build Them a beautiful temple was soon to become a living reality, but he sometimes expressed doubt as to whether he would live to see it. He was now eighty-one and was bothered by certain persistent illnesses.

Of course, the warnings of death were nothing new to Śrīla Prabhupāda, as he had had serious bouts with illness from the beginning of his preaching in the West in 1965. Yet despite his frequent remarks about retiring, his disciples found it difficult to imagine. Yes, they should by all means complete the work as soon as possible and open the Bombay temple, and yes, they should assure Prabhupāda that he could retire and eventually complete his Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But of course, Kṛṣṇa would allow him to remain with them and see the completion of at least these two projects.

Each month, one of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s G.B.C. men stayed with him to serve as his secretary and to receive direct training and personal association. The secretary for January 1977 was Rāmeśvara Swami. Prabhupāda was genuinely pleased and enlivened when, early in the morning, Rāmeśvara entered his room, having flown straight from Los Angeles to Bombay. Prabhupāda considered Rāmeśvara an expert ISKCON manager, especially in printing and distributing Kṛṣṇa conscious literature, which was Prabhupāda’s priority in preaching.

Rāmeśvara Swami inquired as a humble servant before his spiritual master. “Śrīla Prabhupāda,” he said, “you look well. Are you feeling well?”

Śrīla Prabhupāda laughed. “At the present moment I am feeling well, because you are here.”

Within moments they were discussing ISKCON preaching and management, and Prabhupāda advised Rāmeśvara that the best policy was to use money for printing more books. As soon as money accumulated, Prabhupāda warned, it would be taxed and would cause headaches. Better to immediately spend it for printing books.

“Print books and sell and spend,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “Follow this policy and distribute these books. That is our main preaching. Somehow or other we must take our books door to door and distribute. Then our preaching is successful. Anyone who will read will get some benefit, that is sure. Because no other such literature is available throughout the whole world. It is a new revolution to the people in general.”

When Śrīla Prabhupāda asked for news of ISKCON’s activities in the West, Rāmeśvara gave the latest details of how the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in America was being attacked in the courts and press as a psychologically dangerous, brainwashing cult. Śrīla Prabhupāda was already aware of this; it was, in fact, the “conspiracy” he had referred to on his morning walk. An anticult movement was now aggressively active and lumping the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement in with other new movements. Śrīla Prabhupāda was well aware of the “deprogrammers’ ” kidnapping of devotees and intensively coercing them, and he had shown that he was not intimidated by the attack. He assured the devotees that Kṛṣṇa would protect them and that the outcome would ultimately be in their favor.

The most significant battle, one that had concerned Śrīla Prabhupāda for several months, was a legal case in New York where the temple president, Ādi-keśava Swami, was being charged with employing mind control to keep the devotees in the temple. The parents of two adult devotees had pressed charges after hired deprogrammers had failed to break the two devotees’ determination for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In a spirit of anticult crusade, an assistant attorney general was prosecuting, using all legal and governmental facilities at his disposal. Although civil libertarians were outraged and assured the devotees that the opposition could never win, the implications of the case were fearful nevertheless. The case challenged the very right of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement to exist as a bona fide religion and challenged the right of adult devotees to remain in the movement against the wishes of their parents. Also at issue was whether members of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement were members by their own choosing or were being kept in the movement by psychological manipulation, “brainwashing.” When Śrīla Prabhupāda had first heard of this case, his reply in a letter from Vṛndāvana had been like a clarion call to battle against the forces of illusion.

Regarding the point about whether our movement is bona fide, you can use the following arguments. Bhagavad-gita has got so many editions. Our books are older than the Bible. In India there are millions of Kṛṣṇa temples. Let the judges and juries read our books and take the opinion of learned scholars and professors. Regarding the second point about the parents’ jurisdiction over their children, here are some suggestions. Do the parents like that their children become hippies? Why don’t they stop it? Do the parents like their children to become involved in prostitution and intoxication? Why don’t they stop this?

They are now feeling the weight of this movement. Formerly they thought, “These people come and go,” but now they see we are staying. Now we have set fire. It will go on. It cannot be stopped. You can bring big, big fire brigades but the fire will act. The brain-wash books are already there. Even if they stop externally, internally it will go on. Our first-class campaign is book distribution. Go house to house. The real fighting is now. Kṛṣṇa will give you all protection. So, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and fight.

Sitting with Śrīla Prabhupāda in Bombay, Rāmeśvara Swami informed him that a nationwide committee of professors and theologians had come to the defense of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the New York case and that many lawyers and psychologists were sympathetic.

“It is so much mercy from Kṛṣṇa,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “Kṛṣṇa wanted all these things to happen. Kṛṣṇa Himself became important when He killed so many demons, not simply by lying down in the lap of mother Yaśodā. When He was on the lap of mother Yaśodā, from that day He began to kill. Therefore Kṛṣṇa established that He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So even Kṛṣṇa was not exempted, what to speak of us. Prahlāda Mahārāja was not exempted. As soon as you speak of God, this opposition will come. Jesus Christ was crucified. They are so kind they have not crucified me or my men. But you have to expect all these things. Nityānanda Prabhu was personally injured. Haridāsa Ṭhākura was beaten in twenty-two bazaars. This task is like that.”

“They are getting everyone in America to ask the question, ‘What is Hare Kṛṣṇa?’ ” said Rāmeśvara.

“That is our gain,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “They are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

“We still have to work very hard to defeat them,” Rāmeśvara added. “Oh, yes,” said Prabhupāda. “That is necessary. You don’t sleep. Never did Kṛṣṇa say to Arjuna, ‘I am your friend. I am God. You sleep here. I’ll do everything.’ No! You must fight! That is wanted. Kṛṣṇa said, ‘You fight, and remember Me. Then I’ll do everything.’ This is an opportunity of remembering Kṛṣṇa always.”

Prabhupāda explained that the greatest shock for the materialists was that the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement strongly opposed illicit sex, meat-eating, and intoxication. To them, for a person to give up these things was so shocking that they could not accept it was happening because of a genuine spiritual experience. Referring to a previous case, Prabhupāda said, “In Germany they also accused that the old man is sitting in Los Angeles, and he has engaged all these boys in collecting money for him. They are thinking that way, that I have some mind control power, and I have engaged these men – they are getting the money and I am enjoying.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda recalled how, as early as 1969, when his temple in Los Angeles had purchased a few cars and the number of devotees had begun increasing, the neighbors had become envious. Prabhupāda said that he had invited them to also come and live in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness community, but that their reply had always been no. Prabhupāda said that the more the opposition created turmoil, the more Kṛṣṇa consciousness would become famous. He also reasoned that people were reacting to his very strong preaching.

“I condemn everyone,” he said, “that they are all dogs and hogs. And the United Nations I called a pack of barking dogs. It’s a fact. And in Chicago I said, ‘All women, you cannot have freedom.’ So I became a subject of great criticism.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda concluded his meeting with Rāmeśvara by saying that the devotees should be very alert and intelligently defend the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement; but they should also understand that a higher principle was operating This opposition indicated the genuineness of ISKCON. Even Kṛṣṇa Himself was sometimes the center of calamitous activities, such as when He fought with Kāliya and other enemies or when, as an infant, He fell into the Yamunā river.

“This is the beauty of Vṛndāvana,” said Prabhupāda. “When Kṛṣṇa entered the Yamunā to fight with Kāliya it was not at all good news for mother Yaśodā, Nanda, the friends and family. Not at all. Their life was lost. But still Kṛṣṇa was the center. This is Vṛndāvana. In everything Kṛṣṇa is in the center. So our situation is just like that. They are making bad propaganda against Kṛṣṇa – this is the opposition – but I am happy that Kṛṣṇa is the center. That’s all. This is the beauty of this movement. Although we are put into some difficulty, yet the center is Kṛṣṇa.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to travel with a group of his disciples by train to Allahabad. But when a devotee went to buy tickets, he discovered that all seats had long been purchased; there was no chance of making reservations for Allahabad so close to Kumbha-melā. One of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Bombay friends, however, a Mr. Gupta, held a high position with the Central Railway of India and, at Prabhupāda’s request, arranged for a special, private car on a train to Allahabad, exclusively for Prabhupāda and his disciples.

Early on the morning of January 11 Śrīla Prabhupāda embarked on the twenty-four-hour-plus train ride from Bombay to Allahabad. He was sharing his first-class compartment with Rāmeśvara Swami, Jagadīśa, and Hari-śauri, and even as the train pulled out of the station, Prabhupāda was preaching.

Rāmeśvara mentioned a radio show he had recently been on in California, where a Lutheran minister had said Kṛṣṇa was a sex symbol because He had so many wives and gopīs.

“Even taking it that Kṛṣṇa is after sex,” said Prabhupāda, “then if sex is bad, why are they after sex?”

“He says that sex is not for God,” Rāmeśvara replied. Śrīla Prabhupāda was sitting on one side of the compartment, and his disciples sat facing him. The loud rattling of the train cars on the rails made conversation sometimes difficult.

“If sex is not there in God,” said Prabhupāda, “then how has it come? God created everything. So God did not create sex?” Śrīla Prabhupāda explained that sex exists both in the material world and in the spiritual, material sex enjoyment being a perversion of the original, pure sex that exists in the Supreme. Kṛṣṇa’s sexual enjoyment, therefore, is not at all like material sex; it is the exact opposite, in fact, inasmuch as the reality is the opposite of its reflection.

“You do not understand how to face the opposing party,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. He was in an animated, argumentative mood, enthusiastic to show his disciples how to defeat the opposition. He had sometimes described his own spiritual master as siṁha (“lion”)-guru, and they now saw him in a similar fighting spirit. “The more opposition there will be,” he said, “the more we have to defend.”

“Śrīla Prabhupāda,” Rāmeśvara asked, “should we be thinking in our minds that one day the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will have to manage the cities and the nations of the world?”

“Oh, yes,” Prabhupāda replied.

Rāmeśvara asked how the devotees could accomplish such a huge, ambitious project. The management would be simplified, Prabhupāda explained, since the citizens would live a pure, natural life. Thus the burdensome, sinful aspects of godless government would become unnecessary, and so many complex problems would be solved. He gave the example of self-sufficient agrarian communities where men earn their livelihood locally. But only by education and by experiencing the higher taste of Kṛṣṇa conscious pleasure, he said, could the masses become satisfied with simple living.

Rāmeśvara asked if America would become Kṛṣṇa conscious by a minority of Kṛṣṇa conscious persons becoming powerful in government, while the masses remained as karmīs.

“No,” Prabhupāda replied. “You can introduce Kṛṣṇa consciousness in such a way that they will become devotees. Suppose in big, big factories we shall introduce this prasādam distribution and chanting. They will immediately become devotees. Their hearts will be cleansed: ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam.”

“But will it be like Russia,” pursued Rāmeśvara, “where there is only a small group of people who are in control?”

“No, it is not like that. The quality of the people will be changed.”

“So that means only when the whole mass of population becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious,” Rāmeśvara suggested, “then there will be Kṛṣṇa conscious government.”

“No,” Prabhupāda corrected. “You can have government when you are in minority. But the mass of people, on account of this quality, they have to see the example.”

In one sense these were not immediate concerns – how the devotees would manage the whole world – since the devotees’ political influence was at present insignificant. But by answering these questions, Prabhupāda was establishing future goals and tactics for the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Rāmeśvara Swami, as both a practical manager and a visionary, wanted to know exactly how Śrīla Prabhupāda saw the Kṛṣṇa conscious world of the future.

Śrīla Prabhupāda had the answers, but he indicated that social or political management would be done not by any new formalities but by pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness, by changing the hearts of the people through chanting, hearing, studying scripture – and then organizing things on the basic principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

As the train passed beyond the heavily populated Bombay area and entered the countryside, Śrīla Prabhupāda looked out the window, appreciating the scenery. “We have come to the open field,” he said. “How it is nice. And as long as we were passing through the congested areas – hellish, simply hellish. Now here is open space, how it is nice.”

“Entering into a city is so imposing on your consciousness,” said Hari-śauri.

“Yes,” Prabhupāda said, “at that point it is simply rubbish. All papers thrown here and there, and people living in hellish conditions. Now see here how it is open and pleasing. So organize these farm projects.”