The Hare Krishna Explosion
The Birth of Krishna Consciousness in America 1966 – 1969
by Hayagriva das
tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprashnena sevaya
upadekshyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darshinah
Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth. (Bhagavad-gita 4.34)
PREFACE
Although at first we called him “Swamiji,” we eventually changed to the more respectful “Prabhupada,” a Sanskrit word meaning “one who takes shelter at the lotus feet of Krishna.”
“This is the proper form of addressing the spiritual master,” he humbly suggested one day.
Somehow the strange word rang true, and from then on it was always “Prabhupada,” a word that conjured for us the omnipotent Lord Sri Krishna Himself.
“Guru and Krishna are like two rails of the same track,” he said, “always side by side. By the grace of Krishna, you get guru. And by the grace of guru, you get Krishna.”
Who was this great master called Srila Prabhupada, and what was he like? To answer this is to answer the question Arjuna asked Lord Krishna millenia ago:
sthita-prajnasya ka bhasa
samadhi-sthasya kesava
sthita-dhih kim prabhaseta
kim asita vrajeta kim
“What are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is merged in Transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk?” (Bhagavad-gita 2.54)
Prabhupada’s real identity defied analysis. I was surprised to learn that he had once been a pharmacist with a wife and children. Because worldy motives and passion never touched him, it was difficult to imagine him as a householder, as anything but the saffron-clad spiritual master, the paramhansa floating over the world like a swan over water.
“If you are drowning in the middle of the ocean,” he said, “and someone throws you a rope, you do not stop to enquire, ‘Oh dear sir, why are you throwing me this rope? What is your name? What country are you from? Why are you here?’ No. The drowning man grabs the rope for dear life.”
Since we were all drowning, few of us asked those questions. We grabbed the rope any way we could, assured of some ultimate victory in Vikuntha, a faraway spiritual universe.
In the closing words of Bhagavad-gita:
yatra yogeshvarah krishno
yatra partho dhanur-dharah
tatra srir vijayo bhutir
dhruva nitir matir mama
“Wherever there is Krishna, the master of all mystics, and whever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power and morality.” (Bhagavad-gita 18.78)
And wherever there is Srila Prabhupada, there will certainly be Lord Krishna.
With special thanks to Hansadutta Prabhupada for first making this entire book available at; http://www.hansadutta.com/EXPLOSION/hkex.html Copied and reprinted with his permission. Hare Krishna!
The Hare Krishna Movement 