Transcriptions of the
Bombay 25th Reunion Festival
Remembrances of Srila Prabhupada
in Bombay

Madhudvisa dasa

Madhudvisa: Jaya, Srila Prabhupada. Nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale, srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine. Namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine, nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine. I was standing in the darkness of ignorance with my eyes closed shut when Srila Prabhupada came to me and forced me to open my eyes with the blazing torchlight of transcendental knowledge. Therefore, I offer my humble and respectful obeisances unto his two golden lotus feet. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Hare Krishna. So I was very privileged to be able to serve Srila Prabhupada in Bombay. But if you want to understand the history of Bombay yatra, you have to go back a little bit, you have to backpedal a little bit. Syamasundara touched a little bit on it, and I will try to give us a little thumbnail of what happened in India and how it evolved that we all came together in this Bombay pandal. Srila Prabhupada left Los Angeles in 1970, in the fall of 1970. There was a cloud of controversy that Srila Prabhupada brought to the attention of the devotees, that they were not respecting Srila Prabhupada properly. Somehow or other some doubts had developed amongst the devotees, and Srila Prabhupada wanted to instruct us and he wanted to leave the United States with no plan to return in the future. So this devastated all of the devotees, and it made them much more serious about their Krishna consciousness. They didn't fall prey to the fault of "familiarity breeds contempt." Srila Prabhupada was trying to teach us all that lesson. So he was destined to come to India by way of Hawaii and Japan in the fall of 1970. We celebrated Janmastami Day in Tokyo, Japan, and Srila Prabhupada sat with us in the room and we read the Krsna Book together; and when it came Srila Prabhupada's time, he read the Krsna Book with great gusto. We were wondering why Srila Prabhupada would have so much feeling about his own book and he said, "This is Krishna's book, this is not my book," and he read the Krsna Book with us from dawn until dusk in 1970.

Eventually we arrived in Calcutta and while we were beginning our preaching in Calcutta, which was life membership…before that, our preaching involved going out on the street, having harinama, distributing Back to Godheads, etc. When we arrived in Calcutta, we started to do that. We went down to Dalhousie Square in the midday sun, only mad dogs and Englishmen were around, and we started the chanting of Hare Krishna. Srila Prabhupada, after a few weeks of that he said, "This is not going to be our approach here in India. Our approach is going to be making life members," and he conceived of this whole program of making life members to spread Krishna consciousness. The reason why he told us not to just have street kirtan, as we had been doing in America for so many years, was because he understood that the Indian people would not appreciate Krishna consciousness and think that we were lower class, we were not spreading Krishna consciousness on a very high level. So Srila Prabhupada dissuaded us from the kirtans on the street and told us to make life members. So while we were in Calcutta in those early months, those late months of 1970, the devotees from England and other temples came from the West and they landed in Bombay, and they began making life members also in Bombay. When the word got out to the devotees around the world that Srila Prabhupada was beginning a massive preaching program in India and Westerners were being encouraged to come, it required a great amount of effort for the temple presidents to hold back the devotees. It was kind of like a little boy trying to hold back the crack in the dam with his thumb. More and more devotees were making a midnight exit from their temple and getting on a plane and going to India. Everybody was supposed to be sanctioned by Srila Prabhupada to come and by the temple presidents, but some were just coming because the word got out that Srila Prabhupada was going to be preaching extensively in India. So you can see, a group of devotees were in Calcutta and a group of devotees were in Bombay, and both were making life members. There was a little rivalry going on there, who could make the most life members, not just within the different temples but between the two temples, Bombay and Calcutta. Srila Prabhupada eventually went to Bombay.

So the devotees were working for about…it was September, October, November, December, January…four months, and then Srila Prabhupada wanted to have an organization meeting. So where better a place to have an organization meeting, a group meeting, than the Kumbha Mela in 1971 in Allahabad, a very familiar place to Srila Prabhupada because he had worked in Allahabad when he was a grihastha and he had preached in Allahabad. So he had a lot of contacts there, and he knew the significance of the Kumbha Mela. So he had all the devotees come from Bombay and all the devotees come from Calcutta at that time, 1971; and after the Kumbha Mela was celebrated, he redistributed the devotees. Some group of devotees went back to Calcutta like Jayapataka Maharaja, Achyutananda Maharaja, I think Hansadutta went back to Calcutta, another group of devotees went back to Bombay, and some devotees went traveling with Srila Prabhupada. There was a pandal in Delhi and so many other things happened after that, Srila Prabhupada preaching, but the two groups, the entire population of devotees were reassigned.

So fortunately I was assigned here to come to Bombay, and the temple was located on a big seven-story…well, we were on the 7th floor, it was a much taller building than that. It was called Akash Ganga and it was on Bhulabhai Desai Road, and that's right where the beach khandi is, right? There's a famous hospital over there, and it was a very prestigious building, a brand new building. We were one of the first occupants of the building. There was a big theater in the ground floor and some prestigious embassies, there was the Pakistani embassy in that building, Akash Ganga building. So we were there, and we took occupation of that building just when we were organizing this Cross Maidan pandal. Srila Prabhupada had a unique way of presenting a pandal. A lot of the people in India, these were jnanis and impersonalists mostly, they would have a pandal like this and they would just speak. They would speak some katha and that would be it. People would come and listen to the speaking, and then they would go away. But Srila Prabhupada's unique approach was that he did not want to just have speaking. Prabhupada said speaking without religion is just some dry philosophical presentation, and the religion without the philosophy is just sentimentality. So he wanted both of them, the speaking and the religion, to go on. And what was our religion? Our religion was worshiping of the Deity. So along with the pandal Prabhupada had the Deity established, and there were two sets of Deities that were involved in this pandal. There was one set of Deities which eventually became Radha-Gopinatha in Sydney, Australia, and then there was Radha-Rasabehari; and at one point, both of the Deities were in the pandal. I know that Radha-Rasabehari was driving on the ratha cart to Chowpatty Beach at the last day of the pandal. The pandal began on March 25th. The reason I remember that is not that I have a photographic memory, but that's my birthday. March 25th was my birthday, that was the beginning of the pandal. So I always remember when that pandal began, and it lasted till April 4th. It was an 11-day pandal. They wanted to extend it, it was so popular. It was a very, very popular…this is a very prestigious place, as you know. Cross Maidan is right in the center of town, and there Srila Prabhupada established the pandal. So every day people were coming to the pandal, but it wasn't just sitting down at night and listening to the lecture. It was a temple. Prabhupada established a temple. The Deities were there, the seven offerings a day were going on, the Deities were being bathed, the Deities were being changed, Their dress was being changed, the garlands were being changed, the vases were being changed, the offering was going on, the prasadam distribution was going on, a whole temple was established. So people were coming to visit the pandal early in the morning; and because we had the Deities, the devotees just didn't pack up and go home at night, we all slept right there on the stage. We slept on the stage. We established a temple at Cross Maidan. The devotees were bathing in the back. Behind the Deities there was a kitchen. We didn't hire any cooks, we did all the cooking ourselves right behind the stage. I remember Malati was cooking the prasadam and Tunga Bhadra, and so many of the matajis were there and they were engaging in all these activities which nowadays sometimes for some reason or other we hire people to make the garlands and we hire people to cook and things like that. In those days we didn't hire people, we did all those things ourselves. Srila Prabhupada organized this pandal in Allahabad. He made a committee. He said that "We're going to have a four-man committee." He said that Syamasundara will be in charge of publicity, and Giriraja will be in charge of fundraising, and Tamal Krsna will be in charge of the pandal, the general manager of the pandal, and I was in charge of the stage, to make sure that everything went on on schedule, the speakers, the kirtan, the aratiks, so I was the stage manager. So that was the four-man committee to organize the pandal: Syamasundara, publicity; Giriraja, finance; Tamal Krsna, the general manager; and myself, the stage manager.

So in this way the pandal went on, and it was a tremendously successful pandal because people saw that the bhakti-yoga was being performed, the devotion, the yoga of love and devotion. It would have been much easier for the devotees just to go back and live in the apartment, and why did Prabhupada establish the Deity? So much difficulty attending to a Deity on a stage like that without any facility. We had to go and fetch the buckets of water, we had to bring in the cooking facilities, and we were also distributing…besides offering the Deities so many nice offerings a day, we were distributing massive prasadam distribution to everyone. So it was a great pandal, and one of the most significant things that came from that pandal was that Srila Prabhupada plucked one boy from the audience, one Western boy, he plucked him from the audience and sat him on the stage. Not knowing this boy and not ever meeting him before, he plucked him. Out of the audience out of thousands and thousands of people, this one boy he plucked out of the audience. Just like a ripened fruit, he plucked him, he came very easily, and he sat on the stage and he came back again and again. Radhanatha Maharaja will have to tell this story himself, but at his convenience we will all be fortunate to hear how Srila Prabhupada plucked him from the material world and placed him in the spiritual realm on that Bombay pandal. We can understand how Srila Prabhupada was very affectionate towards Radhanatha Maharaja because he personally plucked him, personally. It wasn't that he saw the devotees chanting in the street and he got a card or somebody invited him or he came to a Sunday Love Feast. Prabhupada saw him and he plucked him. It was the direct workings of Srila Prabhupada's mercy. So we were all the beneficiary of that act of Srila Prabhupada at that time.

So the Bombay pandal was a very, very significant thing. There were many spiritual groups, as Syamasundara was saying, that had pandals at different places throughout Bombay, but Srila Prabhupada was making this unique contribution. And those people who had a little bhakti love in their heart, they could see that there was a difference between Srila Prabhupada and the ordinary spiritual master. They could see that Srila Prabhupada was much, much higher. His devotion and love, he wasn't just making a show of the path of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He was actually following the path of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And he knew that people, especially Westerners, we had to engage in this process of bhakti-yoga, this Deity worship specifically, because we were not in the mode of goodness and this Deity worship is the way we can elevate ourselves into the mode of goodness, and then the chanting of Hare Krishna can have its maximum effect. The maximum effect will happen when you're in the mode of goodness. You can go on chanting for so many years but if you're not chanting from the mode of goodness, it will be like the elephant who goes into the water and washes himself and then gets out and rolls in the sand. A permanent effect of this chanting is not experienced unless you chant consistently from the mode of goodness.

So Srila Prabhupada established this Deity worship all over the world where he established his temples, and this differentiates him from some gurus that we have in our present day that just come and speak and then they're off on a plane, jet-setting around the world. Srila Prabhupada made it very important that when he established the temple in San Francisco…Syamasundara doesn't tell the story, but Syamasundara was the first architect of Lord Jagannatha and he built the first ratha cart. So Syamasundara ki jaya! Jagannatha Rathayatra ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada personally instructed him; and his wife, Malati, brought the small Jagannatha to show Srila Prabhupada to get explanation of it, and then he called Syamasundara in and he said, "Can you carve a big set of Deities like this?" Syamasundara said, "Yes," and Prabhupada began to call him every day saying, "How is it going? How is the progress coming?" Syamasundara was moving a little slow and Prabhupada set a deadline, "It has to be finished by this day." And Srila Prabhupada looked out the window of the apartment and saw the flatbed truck riding by and he said, "Ah, this is my idea for the Rathayatra Festival. We will put the Deities on the back of the flatbed truck, and we will drive through the streets of the city like that." So Syamasundara was instrumental in that. So Prabhupada established the Deity when he came to a place. In San Francisco the Deity was established, Lord Jagannatha - Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra.

When Srila Prabhupada had the pandal in Cross Maidan, he not only had one set of Deities, there was two sets of Deities there. Radha-Gopinatha, there's an amazing story about Radha-Gopinatha. It just takes one minute to tell, and it has to do with Bombay because the devotees were preaching Krishna consciousness in Sydney, Australia. This was in 1969. This one Indian gentleman came to the temple at a place called Bondi Beach, famous beach in Sydney, and the devotees were there but they just had some pictures on the altar. So the Indian gentleman said, "Oh, I'm going to send you a set of Radha-Krishna Deities." So the devotees said, "Yeah," they just took the offer very lightly, they didn't take the man's offering very seriously. So months and months passed, and the devotees vacated that location at Bondi and they went to another place in Paddington; and lo and behold, the Deities arrived at the house and nobody was living there and there was no forwarding address. There was Radha-Gopinatha, two big crates. Radha-Gopinatha came to the door, the delivery knocked on the door, nobody was living in the place. So what to do? They took the crates back to the shipping company, and the Deities stood there on the shipping dock for months. Then finally they said nobody's coming to claim, what are we doing to with this box? They didn't even know what was in the box. They knew it was something that was very fragile because it was a big box, two big boxes. So they said, "Well, we'll send them back to Bombay." The Deities came all the way from Bombay to Sydney, Australia, and then they shipped them all back to Bombay and back to the man's house. The shipping clerk knocked on the door and said, "We have two crates for you, return to sender." So the Deities came back. Oh, the man got spooked. "Oh, no. I've sent Radha-Krishna, now He's come back. My offer has been rejected." So there was great trepidation on behalf of the man's part. But lo and behold, he saw the advertising campaign conducted by Syamasundara, the big billboards downtown, the advertising balloons and the leaflets we were passing out, "Swami Bhaktivedanta, the Hare Krishna Movement." "Oh, the Hare Krishna Movement. Those are the people that I wanted to give the Deities in Sydney, Australia." So then he went to Prabhupada directly and he said, "I sent these Deities to your devotees in Sydney, they sent Them back. So now I am giving Them to you, please take Them. Don't send Them back again, don't reject Them again." So Prabhupada said, "Yes, I'll take Them." So Prabhupada took the Deities, and They were installed at the Bombay pandal. Radha-Gopinatha ki jaya! Sri Sri Radha-Gopinatha ki jaya! So this is the story of an intrepid set of Deities who were traveling all over the world - Australia and then all the way back to India. Now They are being installed in the temple that Srila Prabhupada established at Cross Maidan.

Another unique thing that Srila Prabhupada did in India is that he liked to draw attention to the fact that Mahaprabhu said prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama, sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama, that the chanting of Hare Krishna will go all over the world, all over the world. It will be spread to every town and every village all over the world. So when Srila Prabhupada had his international devotees come to India, he wanted to draw attention that Mahaprabhu's mercy was extended to all of these devotees. On our way to India, we stopped in Japan. Sudama was the president there, Bhurijana was there as well, and Sudama had his wife; and they had worked hard for a whole year and they got one Japanese devotee to join, one Japanese. Then Prabhupada said to the Japanese devotee, "Would you like to come to India with us?" and the Japanese devotee said, "Yes, I'll come to India." So Srila Prabhupada knew that if the people in India saw a Japanese Vaisnava, oh, they would be very impressed. So now that Japanese devotee is Bhanu Maharaja. He wasn't actually Japanese, he was Canadian, but he was a Japanese-Canadian. He looked Japanese. He didn't speak Japanese, though. Sridhar says he went to high school with him, so they were godbrothers from before. Anyways, so Srila Prabhupada would tell the devotees to stand up. He would tell Bhanu to stand up and everybody would be very impressed. He would tell Himavati, "This girl Himavati from Russia," he would have her stand up. Some devotee from Germany, some devotee from England, he would have them stand up and speak at the different pandals. Saraswati too, Syamasundara's little daughter was only 5 years old, right? Younger, little girl, she was one of the stars of the show of Bombay pandal. She would come and she would garland Prabhupada and everybody loved Saraswati, everybody came to see Saraswati. So a unique thing that Srila Prabhupada did, he wanted to emphasize the international flavor of the pandal program. So one of his devotees named Vegavan was from Sweden, and he was traveling…he had met Srila Prabhupada earlier when Srila Prabhupada was in Australia. He had met the devotees in Australia, and he wanted to see the devotees again. He was on his way back to Sweden, him and his girlfriend, Padmavati, who was Australian. So they came to Bombay at that time, and they never made it to Sweden. They became devotees, they became initiated by Srila Prabhupada, Vegavan and Padmavati. So Srila Prabhupada, he didn't like the idea of girlfriends and boyfriends living together. He said, "If you want to live together as girlfriend and…then we will get you married." This is how he solved the problem of Mukunda and Janaki in New York. Brahmananda was saying you don't have to get married in front of 30,000 people, but that's what Srila Prabhupada's idea was. He said, "This is the real United Nations. Vegavan from Sweden, Padmavati from Australia, getting married in Bombay. This is the United Nations." And they are getting married in front of 30,000 people in the pandal. So this was a grand success. Everybody, the newspapers, they were running front page articles about Swami Prabhupada's Bombay pandal. The gorgeous Deity worship was there and the ecstatic kirtans, Prabhupada's lectures were appreciated by everyone, he snatched Radhanatha from the jaws of the material energy and he brought him to the spiritual world. And at the end of the Bombay pandal, Srila Prabhupada convened it with the massive Rathayatra Festival. The Rathayatra Festival wound itself through the streets of Bombay and ended up in Chowpatty Beach, and there was a big stage program at that time.

Then after the program was over, Radha-Rasabehari was installed at Akash Ganga up on the 7th floor. Srila Prabhupada loved that temple, that small temple in Akash Ganga. It was overlooking the Arabian Ocean. The sunlight was filtering in behind the Deities, and the Deities were installed. Radha-Gopinatha were put in Srila Prabhupada's room, and Prabhupada would stand there and have darshan of Radha-Gopinatha every day. Radha-Rasabehari was on the altar in the temple room. Srila Prabhupada was living in Akash Ganga in the same apartment right beside the Deities. And when the time came for Srila Prabhupada to return to Australia, he personally brought Radha-Gopinatha back to Australia on the plane. Sri Radha-Gopinatha ki jaya! So Srila Prabhupada wrapped Radharani in a cloth and Lord Gopinatha was in a box, and they went to Malaysia and they met Bali Mardan in Malaysia. Then Krishna was taken out of the crate, and then for the last leg of the journey Srila Prabhupada brought Radha-Gopinatha on the plane, right in front They sat. Bali Mardan had one Deity, Vegavan had the other Deity. Vegavan, who had been married on his way to Sweden, Prabhupada brought him back to Australia along with Radha-Gopinatha. So then when Srila Prabhupada arrived in Sydney, he installed Radha-Gopinatha. Then this is when Prabhupada made the famous prayer in front of Radha-Gopinatha. He said, "Dear Gopinatha, I have brought You here to the land of the mlecchas, but I cannot take responsibility. I cannot take responsibility for Your worship here. So please guide these mlecchas from within their hearts in order to worship You properly." And that way Radha-Gopinatha was left amongst the devotees. Previous to that meeting, they had never even seen Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada came, initiated devotees for the first time and second time at the initiation, and then they began sewing the Deity clothes and they were learning as they went how to worship Radha-Gopinatha. And that was by Srila Prabhupada's prayer, "Please Gopinatha, teach them from within." Similarly, Radha-Rasabehari, Srila Prabhupada also made a famous prayer. He said, "Dear Radha-Rasabehari, I am bringing You to this very nasty place here. But please, I will build You a great temple, a magnificent temple here." And sure enough, Srila Prabhupada kept that promise, just like he kept the promise to Radha-Gopinatha. If any of you go to Sydney yatra, you'll see Radha-Gopinatha in a very nice marble temple; and the magnificence of Bombay yatra is self-evident, Radha-Rasabehari, Srila Prabhupada kept his promise.

We all had the feeling in Bombay, all of us in the beginning days, we didn't want to take responsibility for his Juhu land. So many of the big big leaders, the so-called big leaders were humbled, they were humbled, they were brought to their knees, they were sniveling, "I don't want to do it." Yours truly was the first to say it, "Prabhupada, I don't want to do it. I don't want to go out and live in Juhu. I want to live in Malabar Hill. I want to have a nice mansion in Malabar Hill. That's where we're making all the life members anyways. Why don't we just get a nice place in Malabar Hill, shine the marble floor, install the Deities, and just go on with our program?" So Srila Prabhupada said, "No, I want you to come out and live in Juhu in a landfill." Srila Prabhupada wanted us to become purified. He wanted us not to live high on the hog. He wanted us to live out here with the Deities, Sri Sri Radha-Rasabehari.

So we were there in Akash Ganga one day, and we had one telephone. So all the life members…we were making life members hand over fist, but the only thing that was stopping us was we only had one telephone. In those days, the government would only give you one telephone. There was some restriction, it was hard to get two lines. So the telephone sat in the middle of the floor, and we sat around it in a circle. There was Gargamuni was there, and Guru Kripa was there, and Mahamsa was there, and Tusta-krsna was there, and we were sitting around the phone. One person would put the phone down, and the next one would pick the phone up; and that was going on for four or five hours in the morning, just making the appointments to get people to become our life members. So in the course of our life membership endeavors, Tusta-krsna had gone and met Mr.…can I say his name? We can say his name, Mr. Nair. So he is a great nemesis to this project. He proved to be very insignificant, but at the time we thought he was a great nemesis. He was brought in by Tusta-krsna, who made him a life member, to see Srila Prabhupada. At that time, Mr. Nair owned the land that we are sitting on right now. Mr. Nair owned the land and he owned all the apartments, and he said to Srila Prabhupada, "I have a nice piece of land and you may be interested in it." So Srila Prabhupada said, "All right," and he came to see the land, and at that time Prabhupada realized that it was a piece of land that he previously had seen in 1963 when he was going out to Sumati Morarji's Scindia Steamship Colony here at Juhu Beach. He had come by this land and saw it, and he made a mental note that this would be a very nice piece of land for a temple. So when Mr. Nair brought Prabhupada to see the land, Prabhupada said, "This is the place we should get." And everybody to the devotee, they said, "No, Prabhupada. No, this is not the place we want. We don't want this place." Prabhupada said, "No, this is the place. This is the land we want." And we all said, "No, Prabhupada, we can't do that. We're in Akash Ganga, we're living up on the 7th Floor of this nice apartment building." We also had problems there, but they weren't anything like the problems that the early devotees had to withstand here at the Juhu project. It was beyond belief. It was beyond belief. It was a piece of land that was neglected. And in India, what happens to a piece of land that's neglected? What do people do on that land in the morning? Do I have to say anymore? That was going on for years at this land. Prabhupada wanted us to live amongst all that. The stench. Yeah, they had a distillery here. They had a little moonshine factory going on. They had mosquitoes, they had cockroaches that could knock you over, there was rats, there was cobras, snakes, there was mangy dogs picking through the plastic, sniffing around. This is what we had to live in and Srila Prabhupada wanted us all to live here, and he brought the Deities here. He said, "We want to establish our Deity right here, Radha-Rasabehari." So those beginning years were very, very difficult, so much so that, as I said, the big big leaders of our society that Srila Prabhupada had faith in, he lined them up one by one and the difficulties knocked them all out. As I said, I was the first. You're not supposed to contradict the spiritual master or say no to the spiritual master, but in this case I said no.

Devotee: [inaudible]

Madhudvisa: I think that Sridhar Maharaja or someone like that would be better to talk about that. But I know the beginning was that Mr. Nair owned the land and there was a verbal agreement with Srila Prabhupada to buy the land, and then later on there were so many difficulties that came up. But I'm talking about just managing this property. I said to Srila Prabhupada, "Frankly, I can't do it." And Prabhupada said, "OK." I had hit the proverbial wall in India after two years and Prabhupada said, "You come to Africa with me, come to Nairobi, and you stay there and I'll get Brahmananda. Brahmananda will do it." So I went to Nairobi, and I didn't want to stay there either. I got malaria as soon as I arrived. But anyways, I didn't want to stay in Nairobi so I came back to India; and Syamasundara, by this grace, he told Srila Prabhupada, "Send Madhudvisa in Australia. They'll love him in Australia. He can chant and dance all day long, and they'll love it." So sure enough, I went to Australia and saved my spiritual life. Brahmananda eventually came, he was humbled, Giriraja was humbled, Tamal Krsna was humbled, Karandhar was humbled, Syamasundara was humbled, so many devotees. Prabhupada was bringing the best managers that he had to mange Juhu, and we all couldn't come up to the task. Srila Prabhupada actually was the only one who had the determination. So we thought, "Well, we'll make a committee." Syamasundara and Tamal Krsna and Giriraja and…no, who was it? Giriraja, Tamal, Syamasundara and one other person, Karandhar, four of them, right? Karandhar, Tamal, Giriraja and Syamasundara, they were the committee. So Prabhupada went traveling and they were here, and they were going to come up with a solution. So they came up with a solution. They said, "Srila Prabhupada, we've discussed it amongst ourselves. We should sell the land. We should get rid of this property. It's too much trouble. Let's get out of it." So Prabhupada thought, "I've put four of my best men here, they're all just going to sit together and they're going to decide what to do, and they decided what everybody else was deciding all those years before." It was an impossible task. Srila Prabhupada sat down and made a letter and he listed the points, he numbered them, the reasons why we were in an advantageous position to get this land from Mr. Nair and why this land should be gotten and why we should build a temple and a hotel. That was another thing, a hotel. How did that get in the picture? We were devotees. We were not hotel men. We were not builders of hotels. We were just devotees. A temple is one thing but a hotel, Prabhupada wanted us to build a hotel as well. So they came up with the idea, "We'll just sell it," and Prabhupada said, "No." He listed it again, why we should keep this land, what was so important about keeping this land. Unbeknownst to us, Srila Prabhupada had the promise, he was keeping the promise to Radha-Rasabehari in his heart. He had promised Radha-Rasabehari, "I am bringing You to this very terrible place, but in the future I will build You a great temple." Although it took seven years before it manifested itself, we can always understand that good things are worth waiting for. First Radha-Rasabehari were in a tent, and then They were in a makeshift temple, and then there was a whole struggle that took place after that. I wasn't here for the struggle, but I was here for the beginning of the Bombay temple in Akash Ganga and when we first moved onto this land. Some of the devotees were living in a very nice fashion. They had the top of the roof of these buildings to live on. No shelter over their head, just a mosquito net living on the top of the roof, and we had to come down in the morning and get our bucket of water. I used to get my bucket of water at night so I wouldn't have to come so early and get spooked out by the rats and everything in the morning. Some devotees were bathing in the beaches too. We would have a kirtan down at the beach too sometimes. But those were very good years.

One of our life members, Mr. Chabria, was first our well-wisher at Marine Drive; and later on, Kartikeya Mahadevia became our great well-wisher. He was a wheat grass king, he was growing wheat grass in India in 1970. That was amazing, to get introduced to that New Age practice of eating wheat grass by Mr. Chabria. He had met the wheat grass avatar. What was her name? Some lady, Ann Wigmore. But he was our great well-wisher, and Mr. Sethi. I cannot give up the mike today without saying some glories of Mr. Sethi. Mr. Sethi was not a life member like an ordinary life member, a person that you just met and got some money from, did a house program at his house. He was a bhakti-yoga teacher of mine. He taught me bhakti-yoga, because he wouldn't let us just come to his place and have a program in the house. He made us all go out on harinama up and down the street. He made us. He said, "This is part of the program." And he not only made us, devotees, he made all his workers that were working for him go out on harinama. We all went up and down the street on harinama and distributed Srila Prabhupada's Back to Godhead magazines and books, and Mr. Sethi was a true lover of Srila Prabhupada. There are so many stories about Mr. Sethi and Srila Prabhupada, I know that Sridhar Maharaja will want to speak about that later on. But he is a great devotee. His son told me today that he would be coming tomorrow. But I told the son if he doesn't come tomorrow, then I am coming to him to pay my obeisances at his feet. We can understand some devotees have past relationships with Srila Prabhupada. Mr. Sethi definitely had a past lifetime experience with Srila Prabhupada because as soon as he met Srila Prabhupada, he became a great devotee of Srila Prabhupada and we were all benefited from that experience. So I don't want to manipulate and predominate the microphone for the whole morning. So Sridhar Maharaja is telling me to go on a little longer. So Brahmananda is here, and Brahmananda is master of ceremonies. So if you want to come up, Brahmananda, we can listen to you for a while. [sings "Jaya Radha-Rasabehari, Radha-Rasabehari, Radhe"] Sri Sri Radha-Rasabehari ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Savior of the whole world ki jaya!

Brahmananda: Are you tired? What's the matter, Madhudvisa?

Madhudvisa: I'm not tired. One thing I'd like to say. I was talking to Syamasundara and Gargamuni the other day that Srila Prabhupada was a revolutionary in the real strict sense of the term. He wasn't just trying to be different for the fact of being different, to draw attention to himself, but he actually understood the purport of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission. He wasn't stuck in the tradition, the stodginess of India and Indian traditions. He established Krishna consciousness all over the world. He brought us to the 7th story of the Akash Ganga building and established the Deity up there and he introduced Caitanya Mahaprabhu to Bombay side, which was not experiencing Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy so much. Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy was there in Bombay, and Srila Prabhupada loved Bombay. Wherever Srila Prabhupada would go throughout the world, he would get messages from Bombay. In fact, because none of the managers really could take a hold of the project here, Srila Prabhupada became the president of Bombay temple. He was the first president of Bombay temple. He was the first GBC of Bombay. He was the preacher of Bombay. Everything that was happening in Bombay was because of Srila Prabhupada's personal intervention in the preaching. So I hear Sridhar Maharaja speaking. He's on the phone.

Prabhupada hardly ever spoke on the phone. I'll tell you one time when Srila Prabhupada spoke on the phone. This is important. It has directly to do with Bombay. Srila Prabhupada, he conducted the whole International Society for Krishna Consciousness, you could count the times he spoke on the phone on one hand, maybe two hands at the most. Never used the telephone, Prabhupada never used the…only in the matter of life and death. So this was in that case. So Srila Prabhupada was in New Zealand at Gribblehurst Road, at our temple in Gribblehurst Road, and we were up on the second floor and a phone call came from Giriraja. So Prabhupada's servant came in and said, "Giriraja is on the phone, he has some message." So everybody thought, "Well, Prabhupada will just say give him some instruction." No, Prabhupada said, "Oh, Giriraja from Bombay is calling." Prabhupada got up from his room and he picked up the phone and Prabhupada said, "Bhaktivedanta Swami here." Then after that about 10 seconds elapsed, and then Prabhupada went, "Jaya! Haribol! Haribol!" and then put the phone back to his ear again. And everybody, after Prabhupada finished speaking, Prabhupada put the phone down and we all said, "Prabhupada, what did you say? What happened? What happened? Why did you say haribol?" And Prabhupada said, "Mr. Nair has passed away." And we said to Srila Prabhupada, "Mr. Nair has passed away?" "Yes." He said, "A Vaisnava is not supposed to pray to Krishna that someone passes away, but in this case I have prayed to Krishna and He has answered my prayers." So Mr. Nair passed away, and in this way Srila Prabhupada saw that the Juhu project, the Bombay project could go on with full steam. So that was one of the rare times that Srila Prabhupada spoke on the phone, and it had directly to do with the Bombay project. And later on this whole chapter of struggle. That wasn't the end of it. It went on for seven years. So after so many years, Radha-Rasabehari in all Their glory are benedicting us now. So I guess Sridhar Maharaja wants to speak now. Thank you, Hare Krishna. [Sridhar Maharaja asks Madhudvisa to keep speaking a little longer]

Brahmananda: [inaudible]

Madhudvisa: So Brahmananda draws a little more of the minutia out of the incident, that Prabhupada at the time he received the call from Giriraja, he was given a T-shirt by Tusta-krsna, who was the…it kind of worked that way because Tusta-krsna brought Mr. Nair to see Srila Prabhupada in the beginning. He made him a life member, brought him to see Srila Prabhupada, and then Srila Prabhupada was with Tusta-krsna in New Zealand and he had given him a T-shirt. There was a practice that devotees were getting into silk-screening T-shirts in those days, so they had silk-screened a big Nrsinghadeva face on the T-shirt. So Prabhupada had got the T-shirt. So out of his mercy, he put the T-shirt on, he would wear the T-shirt. Srila Prabhupada out of his mercy would do things like that. In the early days, Himavati had made Srila Prabhupada a cowboy shirt. Out of his affection for Himavati, he put the cowboy shirt on. Then everybody thought that Prabhupada liked cowboy shirts. So then all the matajis started making Prabhupada cowboy shirts, and these cowboy shirts had the big old collars and big flap pockets and big studded buttons on there. So Srila Prabhupada was wearing cowboy shirts for years after that because of the mercy he showed towards Himavati, because Himavati made him a cowboy shirt. Then they elaborated on the cowboy shirt. When Srila Prabhupada was in the famous 1970 Rathayatra in San Francisco when Naranarayana and Bhavananda were running around spending all my money on the ratha cart, we decided that we were going to make Prabhupada a silk cowboy shirt. But not only a silk cowboy shirt, we were going to have pearl buttons on the silk cowboy shirt which cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. We didn't have that much money in those days, but Naranarayana and Bhavananda said, "You can't afford pearl buttons for your spiritual master, the spiritual master of the universe?!" So I said, I felt guilty, "All right, go out and get the pearl buttons." So they had the pearl button cowboy shirt. So Srila Prabhupada had this affection towards the devotees. Prabhupada would wear the beautiful Prabhupada hat, but most of the devotees didn't know Prabhupada's head measurements. So sometimes the hats were too big, sometimes they were too small, sometimes they were off center, but Srila Prabhupada would always put the…whatever was given to him, he would put it on. He'd wear the cowboy shirt, he'd wear the hat, he had the pearl buttons. But of his own choice, Prabhupada just liked this nice thin cotton light garb more. Naranarayana?

Naranarayana: In that line, I think you were probably there, [inaudible] 1969 when Chitralekha made sort of a hat with a swirling silk pattern in it for Prabhupada. We were all standing on the front steps of the temple, it was the first temple in Los Angeles, and everyone waited for Prabhupada to put it on. He put it on and it looked horrible, it was ridiculous, and he looked around at everyone like this and he said, "Do you like it?" Everyone thought they were supposed to say yes so everyone said, "Yes, Srila Prabhupada, we like it so much." We were all "Jaya" and everything like that. Then Prabhupada looked around again like this and said, "One must dress to please one's friends."

Madhudvisa: So Naranarayana was saying when he was presented with a very outlandish hat, all the devotees were asked if they liked it and they said, "Yes, we like it, Prabhupada," and Prabhupada said, "We must dress to please one's friends." So in this way, Srila Prabhupada was the friend of all. The devotees, we were doing so many outlandish things. So Tusta-krsna had printed up this outlandish…this very, you could say a garish or outstanding-looking T-shirt with Lord Nrsinghadeva's head with teeth, showing His teeth and His mouth wide open on the front and gave it to Srila Prabhupada, and Prabhupada put the T-shirt on. When he had the T-shirt on, this is when the call came from Giriraja in Bombay telling of the passing away of Mr. Nair.

Brahmananda: And Prabhupada apologized. He said, "I'm sorry, but I had to pray to Lord Nrsinghadeva to remove him because he was just too much offensive. But I'm sorry." He said, "Generally a sadhu does not do this." But Srila Prabhupada, in this case he had to do it. So the cowboy shirt, that's interesting. Himavati, she had the idea…why make a cowboy shirt? Because Krishna is a cowboy. But the cowboy that Krishna is is different from the American cowboy. So she made an American cowboy shirt, which is actually associated with the slaughter of the cow. The American cowboy, they herd the cows for slaughter. This she didn't… Just like in Bhagavad-gita, instead of "cow protection" we put "cattle raising.." It was in the first edition of Bhagavad-gita. So Prabhupada explained that this is just the opposite, but this is what our understanding was. But Prabhupada, because it was made by his devotee and offered in devotion, even though it was totally against the principles and the philosophy, Prabhupada accepted it and gave pleasure to his devotees.

Madhudvisa: And to those devotees who were around during the beginning of the Bombay yatra, they could understand how Srila Prabhupada was personally showing the way how to conduct Krishna consciousness in India. In the West, he more or less left it up to us. He wasn't so much involved with the details of the running of the temples. There was a president, there was a treasurer, but they were more or less left on their own to conduct the business. But Srila Prabhupada had a direct hand in all the operations in the Bombay yatra. I remember he would have Rishi Kumar, he was the first treasurer of the temple, and Rishi Kumar would have to bring in the books every day and show Srila Prabhupada the ledger. Prabhupada would look at the expenditures, and he would look and he would see if there was a receipt to support each and every expenditure. If there wasn't a receipt, even an insignificant type of purchase like some postage, he would want you to go to the Post Office and bring back a receipt from the postage. Rishi Kumar had to show him every day how the ledger was being kept. One of the younger devotees who came from America in those days was Ksudi dasa. Ksudi dasa came to Bombay and he was only a young boy, he was 17 years old. He was running away from home, not officially but just trying to get out of Laguna Beach, and his mother was a big-time lawyer, corporate lawyer. So when she came to Bombay chasing after her son, Srila Prabhupada brought her into his room and he set up the whole beginnings of the BBT with Ksudi's mother in Bombay temple at that time. So it was a very important place, this Akash Ganga. So many rich men would come to see Srila Prabhupada in Akash Ganga, and they liked the idea of Radha-Rasabehari being up there, seven stories up in a beautiful modern apartment building. This was revolutionary that Srila Prabhupada was doing something like this and he was teaching them, showing them that Krishna consciousness can be executed…ahaituky apratihata, nothing could stop it, there was no conditions there, there was no prerequisites for following Krishna consciousness. It could be done exactly right on the spot, seven floors up we could be worshiping the Deity. The tradition would say that you had to have the ground breaking ceremony and you had to dig the hole and put a Sesa Naga in there and bring in the brahmanas, like they brought in in Vrindavan when we had the Vrindavan temple opening. And Srila Prabhupada said, "We'll just install this Deity by chanting Hare Krishna. That's all we need. We don't need anything else." And then all the devotees came and some of the leaders said, "Well, if you don't have the brahmanas, then the local people won't accept." So Prabhupada, in order to pacify them, said, "OK, we can have some local brahmanas come in to do this yajna." But when we first installed the Deity in San Francisco, Lord Jagannatha, Srila Prabhupada installed the Deity just with a tray and a candle on the tray. Each person would come up in front of the Deity and wave the candle in front of the Deity, and that was the installation for Lord Jagannatha. Chanting Hare Krishna and waving a candle, and Lord Jagannatha was established. So we are doing all these things because Srila Prabhupada wants us to become elevated and purified, but the holy name of God is the essential thing and Srila Prabhupada emphasized that. And the kirtans, people loved the kirtans at the Cross Maidan. So many devotees were coming from different parts of the world. Prabhupada drew emphasis to the international flavor. Dinanatha was there, he was a black African-American devotee; Bhanu was there, he was a Japanese devotee; there were devotees from Mexico who could speak Spanish; and so many other women, children, and Indian devotees all mixed together on the stage chanting Hare Krishna. It was enthusiastically embraced.

Srila Prabhupada would walk in Bombay. I was talking to Sridhar Maharaja the other day about before we got the land here, we were trying to urge Prabhupada to get some house in Malabar Hill. So Srila Prabhupada would go walking up in Malabar Hill around the Hanging Gardens there, but Srila Prabhupada wasn't going to be satisfied with just a morning walk. He wanted to impress these rich men, these millionaires who were walking up there. He brought his sankirtan party with him. So in the morning when Srila Prabhupada was walking around the Hanging Gardens, he had the sankirtan party, five or six devotees, chanting in front and all the rich men had to pay their obeisances to Srila Prabhupada every time they went around the little lake there. So that was a nice thing that Srila Prabhupada showed us, mixing the morning walk with the chanting of the holy names.

Brahmananda: And then they would make appointments in the Hanging Gardens on the morning walk. Whoever came, then one devotee would follow him and get his card, make an appointment, then make him a life member.

Madhudvisa: Yes. Business and pleasure mixed.

Brahmananda: And Prabhupada invented the whole life member program. We had never thought of that and so on, and that launched our movement here.

Madhudvisa: Srila Prabhupada made the first life member. Just like Srila Prabhupada, he was the first pujari, he was the first harinama sankirtan leader, he was our first temple president, our first treasurer, our first cook, our first server. Everything that we do to this day, Srila Prabhupada did it first. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

So this is a very great occasion to all come back here after 25 years, all of the devotees, to see such a magnificent temple which is going by your mercy, the devotees that are here that are members of the Bombay temple. We can see that everything is first class. We have done it in grand style. Prabhupada would use that phrase. When something was first class he said, "You have done it in grand style." So Bombay yatra has definitely been done in grand style, and it will go on. Now we are inaugurating phase two of the project, and I'm sure that by the grace of Radha-Rasabehari this will be done much more expeditiously than the first building project took place. But we will be all looking forward to that. So many devotees have come from all over the world to draw significance to this project and to underline the fact that Srila Prabhupada, wherever he went in the world, he was constantly drawn back to Bombay, constantly drawn back. Phone calls were coming, telegrams were being sent, and he was thinking of the Bombay project. Fortunately, before Srila Prabhupada was…it's befitting that Srila Prabhupada visited Bombay when he returned from London in the final days; and although he wasn't able to stay here for the opening of the temple, he went on to Vrindavan and he felt assured that the devotees would finally establish the temple here in Bombay. So he was definitely here in spirit on that day 25 years ago when the temple was established. He is still here on this day 25 years later. And we are drawing emphasis and we'll be doing this for the next few days, every day coming together and talking about Prabhupada-katha, which is as enlivening, as purifying and as important as Krishna-katha. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Fortunately, as I become merged in old age, Krishna has taken my eyesight away. So I really can't see Kausalya out there, but they tell me she's there. If she begins to sing, I would know she's there. She's waving, right? And Srimate is there too, is that you right beside her? And Gurudasa is there too, he's over there. There's Gurudasa. He's even closer and I can't see. I see Gurudasa because Gurudasa's smile is so big. No one can smile as broad as Gurudasa. Nistraigunya also is here, jaya. So we would like to recognize them, and they are going to be called upon in the future, the next couple of days. Sridhar wants to put them on the spot right now, but I'm thinking maybe later on today or tomorrow. We'll definitely have to get the report from Kausalya. I can speak a little bit about her history of Krishna consciousness. She was a teenage girl. She was a little teenage girl in Hawaii, and Srila Prabhupada picked her up and brought her to Krishna consciousness. Teenage girl. That was just a few years ago, right? But Srila Prabhupada's mercy is so strong. Just a young teenage girl living out on her own, one of those type of rebellious young girls who thought she knew it all until she met Srila Prabhupada and Prabhupada put her in her place. Jaya, Srila Prabhupada!

Sridhar Swami: He put us all in our place.

Madhudvisa: So we're just waiting for the minister, the Aviation Minister, who is coming to help us in our ceremonies today.

Sridhar Swami: We're giving him three more minutes, then we're starting.

Madhudvisa: All right. We're going to give three more minutes. So Brahmananda, you have three minutes, if you'd like to ad lib for three minutes there.

Brahmananda: When we were building the towers, they had a ceiling because of the airport here on how tall the building could be. And that's why there's the extension, that kind of façade extension to make it look taller. But we had to go to the Aviation Minister, it was a big problem to get permission to build a tower in Juhu because of the proximity of the airport. So it's very nice that the Airport Minister is coming.

Madhudvisa: We started making life members in Juhu. There was a new colony here. What was that? Nearby. Ville Parle, right? Yeah, Ville Parle. So all the nouveau riche were moving out here, and they were the movie actors. So Srila Prabhupada, if somebody has the copy of the original life membership list, you'll see names of movie actors in the first scroll, the first page or two, and they were all the beginning of our life membership program here in Juhu.

Brahmananda: Raj Kumar, Devanand, Hema Malini.

Madhudvisa: I remember the first life member I made out here was a famous movie producer, his name was Jaya Om Prakash. A very nice name, Jaya Om, Jaya Om Prakash. He was a Shiva worshipper, so he brought us to his house and he had a nice temple of Lord Shiva. Srila Prabhupada came and paid his obeisances to Lord Shiva, and we had a whole program there. And so many other life members came from our initial efforts out here in Juhu. So that reinforced the idea that Srila Prabhupada wanted us to build a temple here in Juhu, that it was very important that we have a temple here in Juhu.

So Prabhupada had the vision, he had the vision into the future. He took the prediction of Mahaprabhu that this chanting of the holy name will be all over the world, spread all over the world. And when Srila Prabhupada had a vision, we had no position to oppose him. But due to our doubts, we had doubts in our mind about the practicality of things. But Srila Prabhupada, he saw no doubts. Impossible was the word in the fool's dictionary to Prabhupada. He said that "Nothing's impossible for Mahaprabhu." One of the classic things of impossibility was Prabhupada's trip to Moscow, Syamasundara accompanied Prabhupada to Moscow. And things just started to click in India. We were thinking, "Oh, we're making life members hand over fist, the different building projects are starting, and everything is gaining momentum here in India." We wanted Srila Prabhupada to stay in India. Srila Prabhupada had been corresponding with this one professor, Professor Kotovsky, and he was going to invite Srila Prabhupada to come to Moscow, and Prabhupada said, "Yes, I will go to Moscow." Then Professor Kotovsky got the cold feet and he said, "Oh, I can't invite you, I can't go on the record of inviting you," but Prabhupada said, "That's OK, I'll just come as a tourist. Sign me up for a Red Square tour and Lenin's tomb and all that. I'll just go as a tourist." Prabhupada saw that there was devotees in Russia. We said, "Moscow? We don't even have a temple, and why do you want to go to Moscow?" Prabhupada said, "We must go to Moscow," and Syamasundara and Srila Prabhupada went to Moscow. And Srila Prabhupada didn't go on the tours. He sent Syamasundara out to get the students to come and talk to Srila Prabhupada in his room. So this was the beginning of the Moscow endeavor, the endeavor to spread Krishna consciousness in Russia, and now in Russia there's thousands and thousands of devotees all over the country in Russia. Anybody who has the opportunity to go to Russia can see that this preaching in Russia was all due to Srila Prabhupada's vision. He had the vision that there were devotees there in Russia. He had the vision that there was thousands of devotees in China, and he sent Tamal Krsna Maharaja in China. Tamal Krsna Maharaja said, "Maybe I should just go to China to get free from all this hassle that's going on." Prabhupada said, "Yes, you go to China." And Tamal Krsna Maharaja said, "No, no, I didn't mean really China, I just mean like China. I meant like the moon or just someplace far away." And Prabhupada said, "No, you said China. So, therefore, you must go to China." So from that point…Tamal Krsna Maharaja was heading the Radha-Damodara party, which was the biggest book distributing party in the whole world, they were distributing thousands and thousands of dollars worth of books every month, and Srila Prabhupada said, "No, you must go to China because you have said China." Tamal Krsna Maharaja said, "Well, who's going to take care of the Radha-Damodara party?" And Prabhupada said, "That is the problem. You think that you are taking care of Radha-Damodara. Radha-Damodara is taking care of you. So, therefore, you must leave the Radha-Damodara party, you must leave America and you must go to China. You must preach in China." Then the tears came and the sobbing and the pleading and the praying; and after a couple of days of that, then Tamal Krsna Maharaja finally decided, "All right, I'll go to China under one condition, that I can choose the person I go with." Prabhupada said, "You can take anyone you like." So he said, "I'll go with Dhrstadyumna," and they went off to China and the rest is history, there are so many devotees in China. So the vision is there in Russia, in China, and here at Juhu Beach, the Juhu project. Prabhupada had the vision. We were just seeing a dump, a landfill dump, a rat-infested landfill dump. Prabhupada was seeing a beautiful temple for Radha-Rasabehari.

So, therefore, we must always try to defer back to Srila Prabhupada's vision when our mind is telling us it's impossible, the situation is not practical, we can always try to get inspiration from Srila Prabhupada's example, his vision and how he was a true revolutionary. He took risk after risk after risk in Krishna consciousness because he understood factually that Krishna was in control. It wasn't us who was in control, Krishna was in control. So thank you very much. Hare Krishna.