March 22
The senior devotees in Māyāpur felt Śrīla Prabhupāda was too ill to travel and that he should remain there and recuperate. Besides, reports from Bombay were conflicting. Surabhi Swami, knowing that Prabhupāda’s quarters weren’t finished, wanted more time, so he wired Prabhupāda, requesting him not to come. But Girirāja and others had been arranging a lecture program for Śrīla Prabhupāda at a paṇḍāl in Azad Maidan in Bombay, and Girirāja had written inviting Prabhupāda. Prabhupāda considered the opportunities for preaching and decided to go. He had his secretary send a telegram from Māyāpur to Bombay.

PRABHUPADA ARRIVING TUESDAY AT 1350 HAVE ROOMS READY IN WHATEVER CONDITION.

But on Prabhupāda’s arrival in Bombay, he was so weak that he could not walk down the steep stairs from the airplane, and airline personnel arranged for him to be lowered to the ground by hydraulic lift. Once he was on the ground, several devotees assisted him in walking. Although he appeared frail, he smiled brightly when he saw the devotees waiting for him at the airport.

In the car Śrīla Prabhupāda inquired about the Bombay temple, and Hari-śauri informed him that his quarters were not yet ready, with no toilet, no running water, no doors or windows, and the workmen polishing the floors. Prabhupāda dismissed these objections and said he would move in anyway. The devotees who knew the state of the building became extremely anxious. It didn’t seem possible that anyone could live there. But Prabhupāda said he would.

Hari-śauri said he was surprised Prabhupāda had decided to travel, and Prabhupāda replied, “Yes, even up to last night, there was no chance of my coming. But still, somehow or other, we are here.” Prabhupāda was traveling and preaching because that was his life. For more than thirty years he had been spreading the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement – first in India and then in America and throughout the world. As long as Kṛṣṇa gave him even a little strength, he would continue. He wanted to hold the public lectures in the city, and he wanted to observe the progress of the construction at Hare Krishna Land, his grandest temple. Even though the temple was not completed, he would move in and show the devotees how to use it.

As they drove up to the entrance to Hare Krishna Land, Prabhupāda could see the tall towers of the ISKCON hotel and the incomplete but massive domes of the temple. These huge structures dwarfed the little shed that was the temporary residence of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Rāsavihārī. The Deities had been in that shed since 1971, when Prabhupāda had moved Them there, with a promise that he would build Them a beautiful temple. And now, after much difficulty and struggle, that promise was soon to be fulfilled. Rādhā-Rāsavihārī would soon move into one of the most gorgeous and opulent temples in India.

Hare Krishna Land was intense with activity as some two hundred workers plied their various skills in constructing the temple-hotel complex, under the direction of Surabhi Swami and his assistants. A dozen men were cutting redstone slabs to cover the concrete superstructure of the hotel; almost fifty marble workers were chipping away with hammers, making decorative columns and arches in the temple; and masons and interior finishers were working on the theater building. Much of the work was completed, yet everything still appeared bare, like bones without flesh. The hotel had no windows or doors and, of course, no furniture or curtains, and the temple was mostly an unfinished structure.

The work crews were moving quickly, concentrating especially on Śrīla Prabhupāda’s quarters on the top floor of one of the hotel towers. But even that was not ready, so Citrakāra, as ordered by Surabhi Swami and Girirāja, drove Prabhupāda’s car past the hotel to the rear of the property, to where Prabhupāda usually stayed, in an apartment in one of the old tenement buildings.

Devotees were waiting at Śrīla Prabhupāda’s tenement room in happy anticipation. They were prepared with paraphernalia to perform a foot-bathing ceremony and ārati, and they had spent most of the day cleaning the rooms, which were decorated with lily garlands and scented with incense. A group of devotees stood outside the building with mṛdaṅgas and karatālas holding kīrtana, and some of the brahmacāriṇīs were poised, ready to throw flower petals before Śrīla Prabhupāda when he walked from his car and up the stairs. But Śrīla Prabhupāda was in a different mood. “I will never again go into this apartment,” he said. “Take me to my new quarters.” Citrakāra repeated what Śrīla Prabhupāda had already heard: “Your quarters aren’t ready yet, Śrīla Prabhupāda. It will take a few more days to finish.”

“Call Surabhi Mahārāja,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. He was adamant. The devotees in the apartment and in front of the tenement wondered why Śrīla Prabhupāda wasn’t getting out of his car. As Citrakāra was driving Prabhupāda back to the hotel, Surabhi came running up behind.

“Why are my quarters not ready?” Prabhupāda asked from the car window. Running to catch up, Surabhi explained that he needed a few more days and that Śrīla Prabhupāda could please stay at his old apartment in the meantime.

“You do what I say!” shouted Prabhupāda. The car stopped. “If I don’t go there now,” Prabhupāda said, still speaking loudly, “it will never be finished. I want to go now!”

“Yes, Śrīla Prabhupāda.” And Surabhi ran off to see if he could get the elevator to work. Meanwhile, the assembled devotees, having heard the news, also ran to be with Prabhupāda as he entered his new quarters.

Śrīla Prabhupāda felt his time was limited, and if he was not insistent, his disciples would delay more and more. He had already been delayed for years by the landowner and the government. Even after he had purchased the land, the police commissioner had remarked that the kīrtana was “a nuisance” and had delayed construction for months by denying the No Objection Certificate. But despite so many delays, Prabhupāda had persisted and won. No, he wouldn’t go back to the old place. Now the new Bombay temple should come to life – now that he had come.

The elevator didn’t work. The devotees, therefore, carried Prabhupāda in a palanquin up the stairs to his fifth-floor apartment. The place was cluttered, and the floor was covered with a thick, greasy marble polish the workers were using. The dozen workers present were confused – why was their work being interrupted? The devotees rushed in with drums, karatālas, and ārati paraphernalia, but just stood around, not knowing what to do. The room was bare, with no furniture, desk, or sitting place.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, however, looked around at the chaotic scene and said, “I am going to sit down here.” A devotee took off a woolen cādara and placed it on the floor in an isolated dry part of the room, and Śrīla Prabhupāda sat down. “Now you can do what you like,” he said.

While some of the devotees began washing the floor, others ran to find serviceable pieces of furniture to provide Śrīla Prabhupāda with a desk, seat, and bed. Surabhi Swami nervously bathed Prabhupāda’s feet and then offered ārati, while devotees sang śrī-guru-caraṇa-padma and tried not to slip on the greasy floor. Surveying the scene with a satisfied look, Śrīla Prabhupāda smiled broadly and said, “Thank you very much.”

When the welcoming function was complete, Śrīla Prabhupāda was left alone with his secretaries. He said his quarters were to his liking. He spent the night there, but the next day agreed to move for a week to the home of Mr. Kartikeya Mahadevia. For a week he would attend the Bombay paṇḍāl program, which was near Mr. Mahādevia’s home, and this would give Surabhi Swami enough time to get the quarters ready.

Śrīla Prabhupāda could not stand and walk without assistance. From Mr. Mahādevia’s house the devotees would carry him on a palanquin to the car, from the car they would carry him to the room behind the paṇḍāl lecture platform, and from there onto the stage, where Bhavānanda Goswami would help him onto the vyāsāsana.

Compared to former paṇḍāl festivals, where sometimes thirty thousand people had gathered in one evening, this one was small, with only about a thousand attending nightly. The main reason for such a small turnout was that India had just held an election, and the people were absorbed in politics. On March 22, after the Congress party had been defeated in the House of Parliament, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had resigned. Within a day or two, a new prime minister would be selected from the Janata party. Many Bombayites who might otherwise have attended the paṇḍāl lecture were caught up in hearing the news, attending rallies, or talking about national politics and the fall of Indira Gandhi. But the small crowd that attended was very interested. Prabhupāda was not disappointed.

Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke, and his faint voice was amplified over the sound system. “Bhavānanda Swami will recite two or three verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,” he said, “which is the theme of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. The first verse begins with taravaḥ kiṁ na jīvanti.”

“Do the trees not live?” Bhavānanda recited loudly. “Do the bellows of the blacksmith not breathe? All around us do the beasts not eat and discharge semen?” He read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s purport and then read the next verse: “Men who are like dogs, hogs, camels, and asses praise those men who never listen to the transcendental pastimes of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the deliverer from evils.” After Bhavānanda finished reading the long purport to that verse, Śrīla Prabhupāda began his lecture. He explained how the spirit soul changes bodies, life after life, but admitted that people are generally unaware of this simple fact. “But at least in India,” he said, “this condition should now be changed.” Not everyone would be able to realize this spiritual knowledge, but at least there should be an ideal institution. And that, he said, was the purpose of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, to create ideal brāhmaṇas who could guide and instruct the rest of the society.

“Not from so-called politicians,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “This is Indian civilization. Formerly even Lord Rāmacandra, who was the king – He is God Himself – still He used to consult the learned brāhmaṇas, sages, and saintly persons for governmental duties. The divisions of society must be there. There are so many things to be done in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Don’t take that it is simply chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting is the prime factor, because if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, then gradually everything will be clear in your mind.”

Prabhupāda told how he had overcome opposition in America and how the people there were taking Kṛṣṇa consciousness seriously. When he stated his plan for a combination of American money and Indian culture, the people applauded. “The real thing is knowledge,” Śrīla Prabhupāda concluded. “So don’t keep this knowledge locked up in your books, but spread it. My only request is that the leaders of India should now come forward and join this movement and take this advantage of doing good to the whole world. Thank you very much.” The audience’s applause swelled into a sustained ovation.

Prabhupāda’s voice had been weak, his body almost motionless, but he had projected a power that had overcome those bodily limitations. His presence was, in fact, more commanding than ever. His energy was obviously the pure energy of the soul, transcendental to the bodily condition. Girirāja Swami called for questions, inviting people to come up and speak into a microphone in front of the stage.

Woman: “Isn’t spiritual life very taxing?”

Prabhupāda: “Do you think that you are not being taxed? Why should you not be taxed for the proper gain? You are being taxed for so many nonsense things. Why not be taxed for the proper thing? That is intelligence.”

As Prabhupāda answered the questions, he became more and more forceful, although he remained very still, not even moving his hand. His answers were not as lengthy as usual – he seemed to be saving his energy – but he delivered each answer with intense emphasis and conviction.

A well-dressed, middle-aged Indian man stepped forward and asked, “Swamiji, what is the importance of health in life, and how do you advise people to maintain health? And how does it connect to your mission?”

Prabhupāda: “What is health? First of all you have to understand that however healthy you may be, you must die. So what problem will you have solved? Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam, Kṛṣṇa says. It is not my manufacturing. Although you may try to remain very healthy, nature’s law is that you must die. How can you help yourself? After all, you have to meet death. So long as you have got this material body, there is no question of health. You must suffer. You may be a very great scientist, but nature’s law must act. Prakṛteh kriyamāṇāni. Foolish persons bewildered by false egotism think, ‘I am improving my health, I am improving this… ’ He is improving nothing. He’s completely under the clutches of material nature. He can’t act anything independently. That is the law of nature.”

Another man asked if Prabhupāda could solve political problems “with this religious basis.”

“Yes,” Prabhupāda replied. “All problems will be solved when we become Kṛṣṇa conscious.”

“What is the simple solution to understand the soul?” another man asked. “I would like to understand the soul.”

“This is very simple,” Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “but you are educated so foolishly that you cannot understand.” Śrīla Prabhupāda explained briefly that the body is made of material elements but that there is a superior element. “Anyone can understand,” he said. “Everything is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. But people are not serious to understand.”

The morning after the first paṇḍāl lecture, Śrīla Prabhupāda sat with Kartikeya Mahadevia, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, and Bhavānanda Goswami. Ever since Prabhupāda’s extreme weakness of health had occurred in Māyāpur, he would often sit for hours alone and silent. When he spoke, his voice was often hoarse or faint, but otherwise his conversation was as it had always been: completely Kṛṣṇa conscious.

In fact, Śrīla Prabhupāda was becoming increasingly strong in his uncompromising criticism of all mūḍhas who do not accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He was condemning materialistic civilization, calling it a dog civilization or an anthill civilization. A dog runs on four legs, and a human being runs on four wheels; but if he doesn’t know the meaning of life, then he is no better than the dog. Both humans and ants build tall edifices, but if a man doesn’t know of the soul and of Kṛṣṇa, then despite his proud skyscrapers, his civilization is no more than a glorified anthill.

“If more visitors come,” Prabhupāda said, “I shall describe all this anthill civilization. Health – nonsense. What health? He’ll be kicked out immediately.” Śrīla Prabhupāda was referring to the man’s question from the paṇḍāl. “Who is healthy if he is going to die?” Prabhupāda asked. “ ‘I am so healthy that I am going to die tomorrow.’ This is their health.”

“Almost every one of those questions,” said Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, “was about the body.”

Prabhupāda: “Kṛṣṇa says, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. That is healthy. When you do not die although the body is destroyed, that is healthy life. What is this healthy life? The body is finished – and everything. Actually, everything is not finished, but people are kept in that ignorance. They think the body is finished and then everything is finished, but that is not the fact. Kṛṣṇa very clearly said, na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin.* If you do not question, then how is it possible? But that is the most important question.”

* The soul never takes birth and never dies. (Bhagavad-gītā 2.20)

Prabhupāda mentioned that despite the United Nations World Health Organization, still everyone was going to die. “Where is health?” he asked. “Such foolish things are going on all over the world. So organize. Introduce reality to them and spread it, slow but sure.”

“So we shouldn’t be impatient and compromise,” said Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, “just to be popular.”

“There’s no question of becoming impatient,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “You have got a diamond. If there is no buyer of the diamond, that does not mean you have to throw it away. You must know that ‘Here is a diamond. If I want it, I must pay the proper price.’ That I want to establish. Why India’s culture should be lost in this way? I am not a cheap patriot. I want to give Indian culture to the whole world. I am not going to cheat people, taking Bhagavad-gītā and speaking all nonsense. I want to present Bhagavad-gītā as it is. That is my mission. Why should I cheat you?”

“We will try to follow your message properly,” said Mr. Mahadevia.

“Why should India’s big culture be lost for the matter of these rascal leaders?” said Prabhupāda. “They should be stopped. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is all-inclusive. Just like the economic question: annād bhavanti bhūtāni. Kṛṣṇa says grow food. It is practical. But when I was travelling, I saw millions of clerks coming to get education. And who is growing the food? Then these clerks have to be provided in these pigeonholes and depend on ration. Is that civilization? Throngs of people are coming. They are coming like ants. And when you go to the village, it is all vacant. No one is interested to produce food. Everyone is interested to live in the city in these pigeonholes and go to the cinema, the brothel, go to the club, learn how to drink, how to become ‘gentlemen.’ Is that civilization? The human aim of life is lost. You do not know why you are going to the office, why you are eating. They are keeping humanity in an animal mentality, a doggish mentality. University education is a doggish mentality. The dog wags his tail as soon as you give him some food.”

“Oh, yes,” said Mr. Mahadevia. “For application for a job, there are five jobs, and five dozen people apply.”

“Is that education?” said Prabhupāda. “Better not to be educated. Those who are not educated, they can purchase five rupees’ worth of potatoes and sit down anywhere. After spending so much money, living at the cost of fathers and mothers, they have no job and no food. Then they plan some political party – Naxalite or this or that party – and join a political movement and help Indira Gandhi. You are paid to make propaganda.”

“But all that has vanished now,” said Mr. Mahadevia. “That plan has failed completely.” Like many other Indians, Mr. Mahadevia was hopeful that with a new election, conditions would be improving.

“No,” said Prabhupāda, “another one will come. This unemployment is there. When I was a child, we were purchasing mustard oil for three annas, and now it is selling for thirteen rupees per kilo. Will a change of government bring this thirteen rupees to three annas? Then what is the benefit? Stool is stool, whether you take it from the top side or the bottom side.”

A few devotees entered the room and sat, while Prabhupāda encouraged them all in preaching. He said that people could not get relief through government but through Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa and His devotees were for everyone, not for a particular nation or person.

“The people are in darkness,” said Prabhupāda. “And the politicians are keeping them like dogs, hogs, and camels, taking a vote from them and becoming a leader. Nobody protested last night, however, that I called all men dogs, hogs, and camels. No one came forward and said, ‘You are using very strong words.’ Because it is all a fact.”

“They especially liked your idea,” said Hṛdayānanda Goswami, “of American money and Indian culture. They applauded for that.”

“Yes, that is my mission,” said Prabhupāda. “I am doing that. I am bringing money from America. Nobody is paying me. It is not a joke. Ten lakhs of rupees. Who else brings?”

“Even big export companies don’t bring so much,” said Gopāla Kṛṣṇa.

“And they will be glad,” said Prabhupāda. “They have got money, and they are getting culture. I am trying for united nations. That is the real attempt, not this United Nations, all rogues and thieves and cheaters, barking dogs. I am trying for real United Nations. Let us cooperate together.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples rallied to hear him speak like this, and they resolved to somehow counteract the forces of ignorance through Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He said they should proceed slowly but surely, just as he had done. He had begun humbly, “loitering” on the streets of New York, and before that he had been living alone in the Rādhā-Dāmodara temple. But now there was the Bombay temple, a palace that would be crowded with thousands of guests to see the Deity and attend cultural programs.

“Do it enthusiastically,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “You are all young men.”

“Our enthusiasm is coming from you, Śrīla Prabhupāda,” said Tamāla Kṛṣṇa.

“I am old man,” said Prabhupāda faintly. But the devotees didn’t accept that; Śrīla Prabhupāda was nava-yauvana, spiritually ever fresh.

Each night Śrīla Prabhupāda had a different devotee read a verse and purport. Leading disciples like Hṛdayānanda Goswami and Girirāja would lecture, and Prabhupāda would speak afterward. He continued stressing India’s real message to the world and the misfortune that occurs when people, especially the Indians, neglect it. Based on his bold statements, some devotees had made a big sign and posted it outside the paṇḍāl: “The Modern Civilization Is A Failure. The Only Solution Is Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.”

In his evening lectures Śrīla Prabhupāda advised his hearers against identifying with any political party. One day someone is a prime minister, he said, and the next day that person is finished. Although Prabhupāda had begun his lecture series by apologizing to the audience, saying he could not speak much because of his poor health, each night he very strongly argued that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the only solution. And during the question and answer period that followed his lecture, he was often explosive.

“When chanting,” a man asked through the microphone at the front of the stage, “you chant the name of Rāma as well as Kṛṣṇa. But I do not see any photograph of Rāma here. What is the reason?”

“You do not see, but can you hear?” Prabhupāda asked.

“I do not see!” the man insisted.

Śrīla Prabhupāda exploded, “But you do not hear!” And he went on to explain that hearing is the best way of understanding that which you cannot see.

Another man asked how a religious-minded person could move in the material world. Prabhupāda replied, “Therefore you have to understand your spiritual identification. But because you are fools and rascals you are thinking, ‘I am this body.’ ” He said that to realize this knowledge one must be trained by a spiritual master.

Śrīla Prabhupāda was aware that most of the questioners had no serious intentions of following him, so sometimes he reprimanded them, like an older brother, for their foolishness. Even their asking philosophical questions with no intention of following was itself foolishness. But Śrīla Prabhupāda continued to offer the diamond of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even when the inquirer didn’t possess the purchase price of sincerity. He offered it nonetheless, and at great expense to his own physical condition.

When a man rhetorically asked Prabhupāda to kindly enlighten him about the soul, Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “That is already explained, that you are a soul within the body.” Śrīla Prabhupāda elaborated on how the senses are superior to dull matter, the mind is higher than the senses, intelligence is higher than the mind, and the soul is highest of all. “So it requires study,” he said. “It requires education. The education is there, the books are there, the teachers are there. Unfortunately, you are not interested to take this spiritual education. You are now interested in technology – how to hammer. That’s all.”

Each evening a prominent guest would appear at the paṇḍāl and introduce the program. One night, after J. M. Gandhi, a justice of the high court of Bombay, spoke, Bhavānanda Goswami read aloud the first two verses, along with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s commentary, from the teachings of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke briefly and agreed to take questions.

“If God is everywhere,” a man asked, “why His presence is not felt by everybody?”

“Everybody is not intelligent,” said Śrīla Prabhupāda. “Mostly they are rascals. Manuṣyānāṁ sahasreṣu. This is the statement by God that, ‘Out of millions of persons, one tries to become perfect. And out of many millions of perfect persons, one can understand God.’ So God understanding is not so easy. But if we want to understand, God will help us. That is the point.”

The next man said he had several questions. “My first question is, I don’t think God is opposed to sex. Seriously. I have heard many a lecture, and it is always stressed as if the God is opposed to sex. But I don’t think that’s so.”

“God is never opposed to sex,” replied Śrīla Prabhupāda. “Who said? God said, dharmāviruddho kāmo ’smi: ‘Sex which is not against the regulative principles of religious life, that I am.’ God never says, ‘Stop sex.’ Otherwise, why is there gṛhastha-āśrama? Āśrama means that there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But make it āśrama, and follow the rules and regulations of āśrama. Then it is all right. Otherwise, you are bound up by the laws of nature.”