Arguments flew back and forth, as other devotees in the room challenged Prabhupāda’s logic. But Prabhupāda stuck to his main point. If a man doesn’t know the difference between a dead man and a living man, if he doesn’t know the soul, then he has no brain. When the devotees mentioned faith in scripture, Prabhupāda said that he was not arguing on the basis of scripture, but on logic. Whatever arguments they raised, Prabhupāda strongly defeated. There was no trace of illness or weakness in Prabhupāda’s demeanor as he drilled his men on how to defend by aggressive argument.

“They say that this discussion is beyond our intelligence,” said Ādi-keśava.

“If you say beyond your intelligence,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda, “that means you have no brain.”

In Prabhupāda’s association, Ādi-keśava gained strength and conviction. “They complain,” said Ādi-keśava, “that if one becomes a devotee, he suffers from loss of identity. But actually, they don’t know who they are. So we will challenge them like that, ‘What is this loss of identity? You don’t even know who you are. So you have nothing to lose.’ ”

“Yes,” said Prabhupāda, with great spirit. “What is your identification? That you do not know. We are teaching that by identifying yourself with this body, you have lost your identity.”

“Most of their charges,” said Ādi-keśava, “are based on misconceptions about our movement. For instance, they say that we do not eat enough or sleep enough. Yet we have studies from their own scientists that say our diet is good.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda: “How we are living if our diet is not good? Ten years we are eating insufficiently? Then how we are living? You do not know what is good food, but the result you have to know. A cow eats so much grass, and a human being eats a small plateful. If the cow says, ‘You are not eating sufficient like me,’ is that logic?”

“No,” said Ādi-keśava, “it is not logic.”

Prabhupāda: “So you are just like cows and asses. You eat voraciously. Does it mean I have to eat voraciously?”

“But what proof is there?” asked Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami. “They may argue for proof of the soul.”

“This is proof,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “Now if the real active principle has left, if you can understand it, then replace it. Replace life. If you cannot, then you have no brain.” Prabhupāda argued that at death, although the parts of a body remained, something was missing.

“But you have not seen that something,” said Tamāla Kṛṣṇa.

“See it or not,” said Prabhupāda, “I can see. Why this man is dead? Something is missing.”

“Well,” said Tamāla Kṛṣṇa, “it’s just like a machine.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda became fiery. “A machine you can replace! Why don’t you bring a new body and replace the dead one? Therefore you have no brain! It is a completely different thing!”

Prabhupāda said this philosophy of the soul should be presented in court. “It will be very interesting,” he said. “The case will prolong, and we can disclose our whole philosophy. Is it not? Think deeply, over and over, and fight. Tell them, ‘What is your seeing? You cannot see beyond this wall. Does it mean there is nothing? Why depend on your seeing, rascal? You are being brainless.’ I take it as a good opportunity for describing our whole philosophy. Don’t take it as otherwise. Rather, prove yourself sufficient in this subject matter. This is a trial examination.”

The devotees told Prabhupāda how critics were examining the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and trying to find fault with the devotees on the basis of their philosophy. They were challenged in court about Prabhupāda’s statement that man had not gone to the moon.

“I personally did not go with you,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “So how shall I believe? From the practical point of view, I did not go. It is just some news, so why should I accept it? They believe some paper, that’s all. So why shall we not believe the Vedic literatures? Vedic literature is so authoritative. It has been accepted by the ācāryas.”

Next the devotees began talking about how the parents and deprogrammers justified their use of force. “This clouds the issue in the courtroom,” said Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, “because everyone naturally feels very sympathetic toward the fathers and mothers.”

“Why don’t you quote from our śāstra,” replied Śrīla Prabhupāda, “that he is not father – pitā na sa syāt. Find this verse.”

Pradyumna had the book off the shelf and his finger on the verse within a few seconds. He read, gurur na sa syāt sva-jano na sa syāt, pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt / daivaṁ na tat syān na patiś ca sa syān, na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum. “One who cannot deliver his dependents from the path of repeated birth and death should never become a spiritual master, a father, husband, mother, or worshipable demigod.”

“So how is he the father?” asked Prabhupāda. “What is the purport?”

Ādi-keśava Swami: “They argue sometimes that —”

“You will argue your point,” interrupted Prabhupāda, “but our point is there. We shall argue from our point of view. Unless the father releases the son from the cycle of birth and death, he is not father.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda never let up, and finally he concluded, “If you try to advise a rascal, he will be angry. So this is the position. Still, we have to do our business. What can be done? Difficult task. Therefore, if you want to please Kṛṣṇa very quickly, struggle for preaching: ya idaṁ paramaṁ guhyaṁ mad-bhakteṣv abhidhāsyati. So we have got our business, to please Kṛṣṇa. That is our mission. So despite so many inconveniences, we have to do this business. Mūḍho ’yaṁ nābhijānāti loko mām ajam avyayam.* They are all mūḍhas. So we have been engaged to teach them some lesson.”

* “I am never manifested to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency [yogamāyā]; and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible.” (Bhagavad-gītā 7.25)

Later, Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke privately and in more detail with Ādi-keśava Swami. “They told me that you had grown your hair,” said Prabhupāda. Ādi-keśava admitted it was so but that he couldn’t do it anymore. He said he wanted to go to court proudly and say that he was Prabhupāda’s son and proud of being a devotee. Prabhupāda said that was also his desire, that Ādi-keśava go into court in sannyāsa dress and carrying his sannyāsa-daṇḍa. He should have tilaka and a shaved head, and he should preach. Śrīla Prabhupāda told how people had advised him to wear Western dress when he had first come to America. Ādi-keśava had received recent letters from Prabhupāda, but now Prabhupāda told him face to face to bring all of the books into court and introduce them as evidence. He should boldly preach.

Ādi-keśava mentioned that an official in the Indian Embassy had said that the Indian government would give him asylum if necessary. Śrīla Prabhupāda was pleased to hear this. When Ādi-keśava admitted that he was sometimes discouraged and alone in the prolonged legal struggle, Prabhupāda said he could take other men with him to help. But the main backing Ādi-keśava required was from Śrīla Prabhupāda; he wanted Prabhupāda’s mercy. And Prabhupāda, like a father, gave solace and courage to his young, rather frail-looking son who was going into battle. Don’t be afraid, Prabhupāda said. Repeatedly he would call Ādi-keśava to his room to give him more mercy: another logical argument, an instruction on how he should act in court. Prabhupāda’s essential advice, of which Ādi-keśava was now aware and convinced, was that he should preach; Kṛṣṇa would protect him.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa replaced Satsvarūpa as Prabhupāda’s secretary. Early in the morning, on Satsvarūpa’s last day of duty, Śrīla Prabhupāda called him in just after dictating his Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam verses and purports and told him that for breakfast he wanted cucumber, soaked mung dāl and fruits. He said he had just dictated some verses and purports dealing with transmigration, and he rewound the tape and played back the dictation: philosophical arguments of Kṛṣṇa’s father, Vasudeva, trying to convince Kaṁsa about the eternality of the soul. Vasudeva argued that at death the soul changes from one body to another, just as a man walking down the street places one foot in front of the other. And Prabhupāda, while listening, demonstrated by “walking” with two fingers across the dictating machine.

Prabhupāda’s dictation continued:

At the present moment there is great opposition to the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, which is being called a “brainwashing” movement. But actually the so-called scientists, philosophers, and other leaders in the Western countries have no brains at all. The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is trying to elevate such foolish persons by enlightening their intelligence so that they will take advantage of the human body. Unfortunately, because of gross ignorance they regard the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement as a brainwashing movement. They do not know that without God consciousness one is forced to continue transmigrating from one body to another.

Now the very same arguments that Prabhupāda had spoken to the sannyāsīs were immortalized in the Bhaktivedanta purports. In the future, after the court case had been finished and mostly forgotten, Prabhupāda’s true assessment of the situation would prevail.

On February 22, three hundred fifty devotees arrived on a Boeing 747 Air-lndia jet at Dumdum Airport in Calcutta. The special flight, all devotees, had flown from Los Angeles to New York to London, picking up more devotees at each stop. As it was the first landing of a 747 in Calcutta, the mayor, local militia, leading Air-lndia dignitaries, and media people were on hand to greet the historic flight. One of the devotees told a reporter that the Boeing 747’s coming from the West to Calcutta was the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Śrīla Prabhupāda. Ten busloads of devotees then rode to Māyāpur.

Soon the Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir was teeming with transcendental activity; the Gaura-pūrṇimā festival was in full swing. The Vaikuṇṭha Players of New York staged an evening theater performance of the Rāmāyaṇa, and Śrīla Prabhupāda attended. The audience watched and appreciated Śrīla Prabhupāda almost as much as they did the play.

On the opening night of the paṇḍāl, a government minister attended to officially inaugurate the festivities. He cut a ribbon to open the new building, and he and Śrīla Prabhupāda walked together down the long first-floor corridor and viewed a photo display of ISKCON centers around the world. Halfway down the corridor Śrīla Prabhupāda stopped, shook his head, and said, “It is all inconceivable.” The minister was also amazed at the scale on which Śrīla Prabhupāda was propagating Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. Then Śrīla Prabhupāda and his guest went onto the stage. The minister gave an introductory speech, glorifying a well-known impersonalist swami, referring to him as a divine incarnation. He also slighted the name of Lord Caitanya by saying that although he didn’t know whether Caitanya Mahāprabhu was an incarnation, he knew He had certainly done good in the world.

Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke next, using scriptural evidence to correct the erroneous opinions the minister had given in his talk. Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke in Bengali, and most of his disciples could not understand, but they could appreciate the gist. Later, when Śrīla Prabhupāda was sitting in his room with a few devotees, he began laughing. Smacking his fist into his left palm, he said, “I have smashed him.”

With Gaura-pūrṇimā only about a week away, thousands of Bengali pilgrims were attending the ISKCON center each night. They streamed into the temple room for kīrtana and darśana of Rādhā-Mādhava and then went to see the ISKCON photo exhibit. It was the biggest and best organized Māyāpur festival ever. Despite the opposition in America, Lord Caitanya’s movement was flooding the world with the waves of saṅkīrtana, and this gathering of more than five hundred devotees from every continent was a powerful testimony to the good health of the growing Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Rāmeśvara Swami returned with the latest figures of Prabhupāda’s book production. In the English language alone Śrīla Prabhupāda had published 43,450,500 pieces of literature. And the total production of Prabhupāda’s books in twenty-three languages, including Russian, was 55,314,000, more than ninety percent of which had already been distributed. Rāmeśvara also presented Śrīla Prabhupāda with a new book just off the press, the Ninth Canto, Part One, of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Rādhāvallabha reported that the next printing of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is would be so large that the paper required to print it would have to be carried on seventy-six train cars. Prabhupāda and the devotees laughed at the astounding figures.

Prabhupāda thanked the devotees for their hard work. “This is the blessing of my Guru Mahārāja,” he said. “He wanted it. And because we are trying to do this, he is giving us all blessings.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda continued to be very active: encouraging devotees, writing, preaching. Soon after the busloads of devotees arrived, however, he became very ill again. His busy schedule became a strain, but he continued.

The G.B.C. men began their annual three days of meetings, and each evening they would meet with Prabhupāda. He heard their proposals and, after making some corrections, approved them. The final item on the G.B.C.’s list of resolutions was that all ISKCON temples hold twenty-four-hour kīrtana, in view of Prabhupāda’s sickness. The devotees had also done this in 1974 when Prabhupāda had been ill. “Yes,” Prabhupāda said when he heard the resolution, “chanting is the only cure for all diseases.”

On Gaura-pūrṇimā, Śrīla Prabhupāda accepted more than two hundred disciples for first initiation, and he awarded second initiation to one hundred disciples. Huge crowds poured through the front gate all day; and from four P.M. until late at night, the roads would be packed and the kīrtanas would attract large receptive audiences.

In the afternoon Śrīla Prabhupāda received Tarun Kanti Ghosh, the home minister for Bengal, also in charge of the state police force. Prabhupāda spoke with Mr. Ghosh in his room and found him very favorable toward ISKCON and the Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy.

Śrīla Prabhupāda had decided to stay on in Māyāpur instead of accompanying the devotees to Vṛndāvana for the second half of the festival, so some of the leaders came to his room to pay their respects before departing. When Harikeśa Swami and Ādi-keśava Swami entered together, Prabhupāda told Harikeśa that because the people in the Communist countries were suffering so much, he should give them books without making them pay. Turning to Ādi-keśava, he said he had placed much responsibility on Ādi-keśava’s thin shoulders but that he should be victorious. “So you are Harikeśa and Ādi-keśava,” he said, “the Keśa brothers. So go and preach. Be successful.” Śrīla Prabhupāda similarly spoke lovingly with other G.B.C. men as they departed for their assigned areas around the world.

Within a few days, Māyāpur was again quiet, with very few visiting devotees remaining.

Almost two weeks later, while Śrīla Prabhupāda was still in Māyāpur, the news of the New York court decision appeared on the front page of The Times of India. On receiving it, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami immediately brought a copy to Prabhupāda in his room and, at Prabhupāda’s request, read it out loud.

HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT IS BONA FIDE RELIGION

Washington, March 18
The Hare Krishna movement was called a “bona fide religion” yesterday by the New York High Court Justice who threw out two charges against the officials of the movement of “illegal imprisonment” and “attempted extortion.” The charge had been preferred by an angry parent that his son, as well as another disciple, had been held by the movement illegally and that they had been brainwashed. “The entire and basic issue before the court,” said the Justice in dismissing the charges, “is whether the two alleged victims in this case and the defendants will be allowed to practice the religion of their choice and this must be answered with a resounding affirmative.” Said Mr. Justice John Leahy, “the Hare Krishna movement is a bona fide religion with roots in India that go back thousands of years. It behooved Merril Kreshower and Edward Shapiro to follow the tenets of that faith and their inalienable right to do so will not be trampled upon. The separation of church and state must be maintained. We must remain a nation of laws, not of man. The presentment and indictment by the Grand Jury was in direct and blatant violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights.” The Justice said that it appeared to the court, “The people rest their case on an erroneous minor premise to arrive at a fallacious conclusion. The record is devoid of one specific allegation of a misrepresentation or any act of deception on the part of any defendant.” The Justice said, “The freedom of religion is not to be abridged because it is unconventional in beliefs and practices or because it is approved or disapproved by the mainstream of society or more conventional religions. Without this proliferation and freedom to follow the dictates of one’s own conscience in this search of approach to God, the freedom of religion will be a meaningless right as provided for in the constitution. In the attempt, be it direct, well intentioned or not, presents a clear and present danger to this most fundamental basis and eternally needed right of our citizens – freedom of religion.” The Hare Krishna movement has been under pressure from various groups and this judgment is expected to stop some of the harassment in which it has been subjected in recent months.

“My mission is now successful,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “In 1965 I went there. This is now recognized after twelve years. I was loitering in the street alone, carrying the books. Nobody cared.”

Svarūpa Dāmodara was present, and he spoke with Prabhupāda about the Bhaktivedanta Institute and about preaching in Manipur. And other matters came before Prabhupāda’s attention. But he kept coming back to the news from New York. “Our most auspicious sign is this,” said Prabhupāda, “ – ‘Hare Krishna Movement Is Bona Fide Religion.’ ”

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s plans were to move to Bombay. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami said a lot of senior devotees were gathering in Bombay. They had gone there from Vṛndāvana and were waiting for Prabhupāda. “I am, therefore, going,” said Prabhupāda, “in spite of my so much inconveniences. I am going there.”

“You want to stay in Bombay?” asked Tamāla Kṛṣṇa. “How long?”

“I don’t want to stay anywhere,” said Prabhupāda. “I want to work. Staying – I have stayed in big, big palaces, big, big cities. I have no other desire but to work.”

“How long do you want to work in Bombay?” asked Tamāla Kṛṣṇa.

“So long as there is work,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “There is no end of it. Our Bombay should be organized. Work is our life. There is no question of how long. As long as possible. Kṛṣṇa is giving us good opportunities. Now we should take it seriously. It is not a joke – ‘Hare Krishna Movement Is Bona Fide Religion.’ ”

The devotees discussed before Prabhupāda the significance of the court decision. They also appreciated the judge and said that he was a senior man in the courts and was considered conservative. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that he should be sent a letter of congratulations: “May God bless you for such right judgment. Live long life to serve God.”

“Honest and sincere people normally appreciate our movement,” said Svarūpa Dāmodara. “Only those who are envious —”

“Envious we don’t care about,” Prabhupāda interjected. “We don’t care, never care about. I didn’t care – many times, even my Godbrothers. Neither do I care just now. I’ll go on with my work. Why care? We are doing our duty, that’s all – under the higher authoritative order. Have no fear. It is not personal gratification. So arrange for Manipur. We shall go.”

Svarūpa Dāmodara said he would go to Delhi and try to arrange permits for entry, but that it would be hard, since most foreigners were not allowed to enter Manipur. He said that after doing his business, he would come to Bombay and see Śrīla Prabhupāda.

“Now work very strenuously,” said Prabhupāda. “You are all young men. And somehow or other, to a dead horse you have given life. The last fortnight I was thinking I was dead. I was thinking like that – now life is finished. I can be finished at any time – that is not amazing. To live, that is amazing. My life is finished – that is not amazing. No one will lament. ‘Oh, he was old man, eighty-two years old.’ But if I can live for some days more, that is wonderful. If I die that is not wonderful.”

“Kṛṣṇa is wonderful,” said Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami.

“Kṛṣṇa is wonderful always,” said Prabhupāda.

“And you are wonderful,” said Bhavānanda Goswami.

“I am wonderful,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda, “as long as I serve Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, useless, no value. If I can serve Kṛṣṇa, then I am wonderful, certainly.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda continued declaring that Kṛṣṇa was the most wonderful and could do anything. That he was alive and still active, he said, attested to Kṛṣṇa’s being wonderful. “If Kṛṣṇa is not wonderful,” he said, “is it possible for me to do all these things? Who am I? We don’t want to become cheaply wonderful. We want to become really wonderful, by serving Kṛṣṇa. That is our mission. Kṛṣṇa is wonderful undoubtedly. Who can become more wonderful than Kṛṣṇa? Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat. Always remember, Kṛṣṇa is wonderful. Don’t take Kṛṣṇa very slightly, like one of you. That is foolishness. Kṛṣṇa is wonderful always. He is the most wonderful person, and He can do anything wonderful.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda continued to make appreciative remarks about the judge’s decision. He said he had feared the case might have taken fourteen years, and yet it had not even taken fourteen hours. Kṛṣṇa was so wonderful.