There once was a King who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The King looked at all the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them.

The first picture was of a calm lake, the lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

The other picture had mountains too, but these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell and in which lightening played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. But when the King looked, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush, a mother bird had built its nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on the nest in a perfect peace.

"Bravo" said the king putting his hand on the second picture "peace doesn't mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your.

A devotee of Krishna is like this bird. He lives in a very turbulent society but remains calm and peaceful and always finds ways and means to serve Krishna. His whole aim is to satisfy Lord Krishna. That brings him all the peace that takes care of all the material problems.

What time is it?

One of the great benefits of living in New Dwarka (Los Angeles ISKCON community) in the early 70’s was that Srila Prabhupada came so often and usually stayed for a few months. For his morning walks we would sometimes take him to the beach and other times to Cheviot Hills Park. One morning he commented “of the two I like the seashore the best” after which we began going to the beach every morning. At one point in time Karandhara Prabhu purchased a used burgundy color Rolls Royce and had the words “His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Founder-Acharya ISKCON" stenciled onto one of the doors. I usually went along on the walks and some of the mornings I accompanied His Divine Grace in the car.

One morning in the car on the way to the beach I noticed that Srila Prabhupada twice asked what the time was. On the way home (back to the temple) again Prabhupada began asking about the time. I asked Srila Prabhupada what happened to his watch since he seemed to always have one in his possession. He told me that before coming to L.A. he was in London and while there Shyamasundara had bought him a new and expensive watch; however after a short time it had stopped running. In order to fix it Shyamasundara had to send it to the original manufacturers in Switzerland and wait a few weeks for its return. Srila Prabhupada was waiting for his watch to be fixed and forwarded by Shyamasundara from London to Los Angeles. I immediately took the opportunity to offer Srila Prabhupada the watch I was wearing. I quickly removed it from my wrist and handed to him saying “here, Srila Prabhupada you can have my watch while you’re waiting for yours.” Prabhupada examined it approvingly, fastened it onto his wrist and said “thank you very much.”

Around two weeks later I was standing in front of the L.A. temple when Brahmananda Swami walked over to me. He told me that Srila Prabhupada’s expensive Swiss watch finally arrived fixed and Prabhupada asked him to return my watch to me. My one-time mundane Timex had been transformed into Guru Prasad and smelled strongly of sandalwood and mustard seed oil from the transcendental body of Srila Prabhupada. From then on I got to wear “watch prasadam” on my wrist.

Addendum: At one point when Prabupada asked the time one disciple answered by saying “I’ve got 7:40.” Another replied, “according to my watch it’s a quarter to eight” and a third said “and I’ve got ten to eight.” Prabhupada laughed and commented, “Just see -- in every aspect of life -- even in the telling of time -- there is individuality."

(Swarup Hebel)

Prabhupada Smaranam

Srila Prabhupada looks so lonely and all by himself as he walks towards the Red Square in Moscow in 1971. He visited during the time of political oppression, when the Soviet Union was engaged in Cold War with United States and the West. His visa allowed him only a several-day visit, staying in an old fashioned hotel. He was not allowed any speaking engagements, and even his personal copy of the Bhagavad-gita was examined at customs before they allowed him to keep it. He had one appointment, a state-supervised interview with a professor of Indology, Prof. Kotovsky. The professor was a Marxist teaching at the university. Prabhupada could not convince him of the tenets of Krishna consciousness, and he always remembered (and repeated in lectures) that the professor had said, “Swami, after death there is no life.”

Living for even a few days in Moscow was inconvenient, and Shyamasundara had to stand in long lines to get milk, and few vegetables were available. Syamasundara dressed in his devotee clothes when he went outside, and once he was stopped and was detained by some hooligans. But a young man approached him and was attracted to his dress and made some inquiries. Shyamasundara invited him to see Prabhupada in his hotel. The young man was submissive, and Prabhupada filled him with the basics of Krishna consciousness. The boy came back for a repeated visit and soaked up Prabhupada’s words like a dry sponge. Prabhupada did not formally initiate him, but after Prabhupada’s departure the young man told his friends about Krishna consciousness, and an underground movement began. The persons who became interested were very enthusiastic, but the secret police found out about their activities and began to persecute them. This story is told in the book Salted Bread, which relates how devotees were imprisoned, tortured, put into an insane asylum, and one boy lost his life in there. Despite the opposition, the movement flourished.

With Glastnost, the thawing of relations with Soviet Union in the West, the movement grew, and devotees even printed books in Russian translations and chanted on the streets. It was a long struggle, but Russia (in the demised Soviet Union) is now one of the most successful countries in the world for recruiting Krishna conscious devotees. All this came from Prabhupada’s seemingly innocuous but truly revolutionary visit for a few days. Such is the potency of the pure devotee.

(Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami)

Snana Yatra in Puri

Their Lordships Jagannatha, Balabhadra and Subhadra
Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, the presiding sibling Deities of Jagannath Temple remained out of bounds for devotees from today for a fortnight, as the Deities fell ‘sick' after taking grand bath on the traditional occasion of Snana Purnima (bathing ritual) festival today.

The Deities, whose daily rituals include activities akin to the lifestyle of humans, will undergo treatment by the shrine vaidyas (Ayurveda doctors) till July 10th. People cannot have interaction with the ‘ailing' Deities during these days. Their Lordships will fully recuperate on July 11th and will appear before pilgrims looking rejuvenated on the occasion of navajauvan darshan (rejuvenation) on that day.

Puri was packed with pilgrims jostling for space to have a glimpse of the bathing ceremony of the Deities at Jagannath Temple today. Snana Purnima is a major festival observed prior to the Rath Yatra, to be held this year on July 13th.

Earlier in the morning, the three Deities were escorted out of the temple's sanctum sanctorum by the priests (daita servitors) in a boisterous procession, called Pahandi. The Deities were ferried to the bathing altar located at the outer temple complex, facing the Grand Road. They were given ceremonial bath after the completion of a set of rituals.

"A total 108 pitchers of aromatic and herbal water was fetched from a particular well (suna kua) in the temple for the Lords' bathing. That well remains unused till the next year's bathing ceremony. Thereafter the Deities were decorated in elephant attire symbolizing the incarnation of Lord Ganesha," said Laxmidhar Pujapanda, the Public Relations Officer of the temple.

"In late night today, the Deities would be taken to the anasara ghar (known as sick room) of the temple where they would undergo treatment for a fortnight," Pujapanda said.

Since Their Lordships remain inaccessible for fifteen days, pilgrims can have the darshan of the representatives of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra during these days.

Srila Prabhupada Pastimes

GUIDELINES FOR INITIATED DISCIPLES

“Notice” the list of reg­u­la­tions written down in Prabhupada’s handwriting. 

Prabhupada’s English hand­writing is clearly leg­ible. Why did he wait so late in the year; November 25, to post the rules for ini­ti­ated dis­ci­ples? Maybe he saw they were get­ting slack. He just wanted to make it offi­cial. At the first ini­ti­a­tion in the summer the com­mit­ments were largely unknown and not com­mitted to by the ini­ti­ates. They didn’t all know that they were pledging to follow for a life­time. Some of the restric­tions seemed hard to follow at first. Years of smoking cig­a­rettes and of taking drugs and being habit­u­ated to sex had to be given up. They were deeply ingrained. But the taste of chanting the maha-mantra and the taking whole­heart­edly to hearing from the Swami and hon­oring prasadam with him were enough to give up the old sins.
Prabhupada was one of the very few yogis or gurus in the west who made these demands. “Swami, you are very con­ser­v­a­tive,” Allen Ginsberg had said to Prabhupada, but Prabhupada had no inten­tions of giving up the reg­u­la­tive principles.

“The Notice” was a his­tor­ical doc­u­ment, taped to the wall in the store­front without fan­fare or announce­ment. We read it and gasped and said, “This is serious,” and “I accept it.”

(Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami)
 
SRILA PRABHUPADA & MRS SUMATI MORARJI

Prabhupada and Sumati Morarji of Scindia Company sit together giving speeches acknowl­edging the favors she did for him when he was a poor san­nyasi trying to pub­lish his Srimad-Bhagavatam and trying to get pas­sage to America. Acting as a pious lady within the Hindu cul­ture, she received him as a san­nyasi beggar and agreed to pay for pub­lishing one of the vol­umes of his first canto, Srimad-Bhagavatam. (He had to wait many hours before she would give him an audi­ence) After she paid for his book, Prabhupada remem­bered her and approached her again when he had the urgent oppor­tu­nity to go to America. Without a great sac­ri­fice she gave him free pas­sage aboard a cargo ship, the Jaladuta, headed for New York. At first she did not agree, her sec­re­taries warned her that Prabhupada, being so old and in fragile health, might die enroute. From a worldly point of view this was not such a wild spec­u­la­tion. But Bhaktivedanta Swami had his way with Sumati Morarji. He impressed her with his saint­li­ness and his deter­mi­na­tion. Although she received some con­ser­v­a­tive advice not to let the old man ride on their steamship, she asserted her authority and gave him permission.

For this act of kind­ness she will always be remem­bered by Prabhupada’s fol­lowers and she will go down in his­tory as a great bene­factor to the world. During the first year in New York, when Srila Prabhupada did not have his own place, and when he did not make any progress in preaching, he thought of using his return ticket and going back to India. He wrote to Mrs. Morarji and she encour­aged him to stay in America until he had com­pleted his mis­sion. This word of sup­port helped his spirit to remain in New York and renew his visa to stay in America.

(Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami)


MY BOOKS ARE BETTER THAN MY SPEECHES
In discussing with His Divine Grace I summarized your desire to have access to all of the many tapes which Golden Avatar has for the purpose of transcribing them into rough manuscript form to be published later on as cross references or in some other form. His Divine Grace was not very enthusiastic at all about this idea. Srila Prabhupada commented, "This is not necessary. My books are sufficient. Let all of my disciples read my books. This idea is over-burden. It will mean too many readings. Let them read whatever is there and digest it. Everything I have wanted to say I have said in my books. This will only be superfluous. Tell him to concentrate on reading my books, not on studying such transcriptions. Does he think he will find something else in these transcriptions that are not in my books?"

...Actually you should know that Prabhupada's books are better than his speeches. This is because He concentrates tremendously and chooses each word when he writes these books. This is not my opinion but he himself has said this to me.

Letter from TKG, 770720

PRABHUPADA SMARANAM

This is a famous pic­ture, a won­derful moment. It is the 1974 San Francisco Ratha-yatra at Golden Gate Park. The cart in which Prabhupada has been sit­ting and riding has come to a halt. He rises to his feet, raises his hands like Lord Caitanya and makes little leaps with his feet. All the devo­tees go wild and start leaping in the air, raising their arms, playing karatalas and mrdangas and all sing Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare. They are amazed that Prabhupada can dance like this. He is causing a mass ecstasy. All they know is that he is jumping, and they are jumping and that it is a state of exalted delight, joy and rap­ture. These are over­pow­ering emo­tions involving tem­po­rary loss of con­scious­ness. This is the highest mys­ti­cism of Krishna con­scious­ness — caused by Prabhupada’s dancing.

(Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami)

SRILA PRABHUPADA WITH KIDS



Srila Prabhupada was always kind and atten­tive to little chil­dren. He liked to hold their hands. They were usu­ally awed and in good behavior in his pres­ence. He would often give them cookies. They brought a smile to his face as he saw their inno­cence. The children’s par­ents would be thrilled when Prabhupada blessed the little ones. There is a nice series of pic­tures with the child of Gopal and Sally Agarwal, the first people he stopped with in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was present when their child first stood, and he beamed. He was a nat­ural, loving grand­fa­ther. There are many chil­dren who grew up not remem­bering their con­tact with Prabhupada because they were too young, but some remember it, and all were blessed. It was not an ordi­nary thing to be touched by him. He was amused at the tod­dlers. Sometimes he would catch their hand and not let it go. They would pull to free them­selves, but he would hold on for awhile. Everyone loved to see Prabhupada playing with the chil­dren. It demon­strated his nat­ural warmth and humanity.

Once Prabhupada took little Sarasvati’s Krishna deity and hid it behind his back. The little girl was flus­tered and con­fused. Her mother, Malati, mean­ing­fully asked her daughter, “Sarasvati, who has Krishna?” It clicked with Sarasvati, and she turned to Prabhupada and searched him until she found her Krishna deity. Prabhupada had Krishna in his hand, and he freely liked to give his hand to the sub­mis­sive, uncor­rupted children.

(Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami)