“When I was alone in your New York, I was thinking, who will listen to me in this horrible, sinful place? All right, I shall stay little longer, at least I can distribute a few of my books, that is something. But Krishna was all along preparing something I could not see, and He brought you to me one by one, sincere American boys and girls, to be trained-up for doing the work of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Now I can see that it is a miracle. Otherwise, your city of New York, one single old man, with only a few books to sell for barely getting eatables, how he can survive, what to speak of introducing God-consciousness movement for saving the humankind? That is Krishna’s miracle. Now I can see it.” (Letter to: Sudama — Bombay 23 December, 1972)
Today we honor the disappearance day of Srila Prabhupada.
om ajñāna-timirāndhasya
jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena
tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him.
Dear Srila Prabhupada
On this most auspicious day, we are celebrating your disappearance, with remembrances and prayers.
There are so many days on the Vaisnava Calendar where we are celebrating some auspicious holiday or festival, but none of them are as important to me personally, as the two days when we honor your appearance and disappearance. There is no day more important to this insignificant disciple, then your appearance into my life.
Today is the Disappearance day of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Founder Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Srila Prabhupada had this to say about the disappearance of Vaisnavas:
“As Lord Krsna’s appearance and disappearance are all spiritual, transcendental, they are not ordinary things, similarly, Lord Krsna’s devotee, His representative, who is sent to this material world for preaching the glories of Lord Krsna, their appearance and disappearance is also like Krsna’s. Therefore, according to Vaisnava principles, the appearance and disappearance of Vaisnava is considered all-auspicious.”
Dedication to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Vol. 13, 1-2, 1978
Around the turn of the century, the great spiritual master Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura made this prediction:
“Soon there will appear a personality who will preach the holy name of Hari [Lord Krsna] all over the world.”
As we have witnessed for the past twelve years, that personality was His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Throughout his life, Srila Prabhupada prepared himself for his great mission, and from his arrival in America on September 18, 1965, to his passing on November 14, 1977—through some seventy books and thousands of letters, interviews, and lectures-he gave the world the holy names of Krsna and the Vedic science of self-realization.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura also wrote a short stanza about the influence that a Vaisnava (a pure devotee of the Lord) carries in this world even after his passing:
“He reasons ill who tells that Vaisnavas die When thou art living still in sound! The Vaisnavas die to live, and living try To spread the holy name around!”
So, while it is natural for us to be sorrowful that Srila Prabhupada has passed away, we can know for sure that he will never pass away, for he is “living still in sound.” As he himself said, “I will never die. I will live forever in my books.” In the days and years to come, may everyone come to remember Srila Prabhupada in the same way that he remembered his spiritual master:
“He lives forever by his divine instructions, and the follower lives with him.”
(c) The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
…Someone asked, “What is the Krsna conscious person’s attitude towards others?” Srila Prabhupada replied, “He sees everyone as part and parcel of Krsna. The Krsna conscious person thinks, ‘They are suffering from not knowing Krsna, so let me bring them to Krsna.’ This is the highest service. Everyone is suffering, so to act in Krsna consciousness is the highest service. After all, they are suffering on account of detachment from Krsna.”
The Great Soul Who Walked Among Us
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine
Vol. 13, 1-2, 1978
“Consider this example: when the sun is in the sky, there is no question of darkness. Similarly, when the Hare Krsna mantra is vibrating on your tongue and you are hearing attentively, then your consciousness becomes Krsna consciousness, or clear consciousness, and there is no question of maya, or hazy consciousness. Just as when light and darkness come together the darkness cannot stand before the light, maya cannot remain in the presence of Krsna.
This was funny and we just had to post it. This was submitted by Sudarshan Prabhu.
It is the general practice of all saintly people to deliver the fallen. Therefore they go to people’s houses, although they have no personal business there. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta 8.39 Madhya-lila 8.39)
Today on Visvarupa Mahotsava we honor the day that Srila Prabhupada accepted the renounced order (sannyasa) of life, in 1959.
…Recognizing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s philosophical learning and devotion, the society of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas honored him in 1947 with the title “Bhaktivedanta.” In 1950, at the age of fifty-four, Śrīla Prabhupāda retired from family life, adopting the vānaprastha (retired) order to devote more time to study, writing and preaching. Śrīla Prabhupāda moved to the holy city of Vṛndāvana, where he lived in humble circumstances in the historic medieval temple of Rādhā-Dāmodara. There he spent several years in deep study and writing. He accepted the renounced order of life (sannyāsa) in 1959. At Rādhā-Dāmodara, Śrīla Prabhupāda began work on his life’s masterpiece: a multivolume annotated translation of the eighteen-thousand-verse Srīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa). He also wrote Easy Journey to Other Planets…
A godbrother of Srila Prabhupada’s remembers their early friendship and their meeting again after many years.
Dr. O.B.L. Kapoor: I didn’t know much about his household affairs, because we met mostly at the matha in the evening. He had a shop. He sold medicines, and he also manufactured them. Once he manufactured a tonic, and he gave it to me.
I said, “That’s nice, this gift of yours. I must accept it. But I wish you would give me the tonic which you yourself take the tonic of Krsna-prema [love of Krsna].”
He said, “I don’t have that tonic. But I have the formula.”
I said, “Oh, wonderful! If it is not a secret, tell me what the formula is.”
He said, “No, it is not a secret at all:
trnad api sunicena
taror iva sahisnuna
amanina manadena
kirtaniyah sada harih*
This is the formula, and I am going to preach it all over the world.”
*”One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind. One should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige, and ready to offer all respects to others. In that way one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly.” (Siksastaka 3)
At that time I couldn’t recognize the significance of his words, but he was going to preach it all over the world. I thought it was just a casual statement. But now I look back, and I can see that he was even then thinking and planning to preach all over the world, which he did.
On the island of Godrum in Nabadwip dham, the magnanimous Lord Nityananda has opened up the marketplace of the Holy Name, meant for the deliverance of all fallen souls. By Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, performed by Agnideva das.
“That is the way of Krishna consciousness. Pure devotees are so absorbed in thought of Krishna that they have no other engagement; although they may seem to think or act otherwise, they are always thinking of Krishna. The smile of such a Krishna conscious person is so attractive that simply by smiling he wins so many admirers, disciples and followers.” (from purport to Srimad Bhagavatam, 3.22.21)
…It is obvious that as jagad-guru of the universe there is nobody who can compare to your greatness, to your humility, to your mercifulness and to your preaching potency, because you were chosen by Krsna to be His representative.
…It was a challenge for you to introduce Krsna consciousness to the West and it is a challenge for your disciples to protect your movement from any attempt made to minimize your greatness.
This offering was from 1982, by Kamadhuk-devi-dasi, and is still as pertinent today.
Dear Srila Prabhupada
Allow me to offer you my most humble oveisances in the dust of your lotus feet.
When you arrived in America in the mid-1960’s you allowed this Western world to be released from the total darkness which surrounds it. Since that time, many millions of livings entities have been released from the bondage of birth, death, disease and old age, by hearing about this Krsna consciousness process.
Today is the Apperancee Day of Our Beloved Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. We offer our profound gratitude and respectful obeisances. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Vyasa-Puja Homage
Dear Srila Prabhupada
Please accept my most humble obeisances, and kindly forgive my offences. On this most blessed event; Sri Vyasa-Puja, the appearance day of my beloved spiritual master, I am filled with a sense of gratitude and wonder. I cannot even imagine where my life would be today, if you had not appeared and blessed us all with your divine benediction.
The fact that you have always resided in my heart, and have been my most constant friend and ever well-wisher, even without your physical presence, proves our eternal relationship with you. So many friends and family have come and gone, but you Srila Prabhupada, have remained in my life as the one constant I could always turn to.
You are present in your vani; your books and instructions. You are present still in your pictures and murti’s. You live in the hearts of your sincere devotees. You have touched us all so deeply; we cannot help but remember you. Srila Prabhupada, I am most unworthy to have received your mercy, and because of knowing my insignificance, it has caused me to be even more grateful and appreciative of your blessings.
“GBC must see that no one is taken away by maya. They should be instructor gurus. I am the initiator guru, and you should be instructor guru by teaching what I am teaching and doing what I am doing. This is not a title – you must actually come to this platform. This I want.
Aug.4 1975
“By the mercy of the spiritual master one receives the benediction of Kṛṣṇa. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement. Therefore, I should always remember and praise the spiritual master. At least three times a day I should offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master.”
Dedication to
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
“We think that we have met Your Goodness by the will of providence, just so that we may accept you as captain of the ship for those who desire to cross the difficult ocean of Kali, which deteriorates all the good qualities of a human being.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.22)
On the order of his spiritual master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda began translating and writing Vedic literature in the English language to bring the message of Lord Kṛṣṇa to the Western countries. After decades of struggle in India, he came to the West and started the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Later on he created the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, to publish his writings and recordings of his lectures, conversations, etc. The VedaBase has been created so that this great treasurehouse of knowledge may be preserved and propagated and so that all may take advantage of the wisdom and association of the pure devotee of Lord Krishna.
ISKCON GOVERNING BODY COMMISSION SOCIETY
Registration Number S/74662 under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961
P.O. Shree Mayapur Dham, Dist. Nadia, West Bengal 741313
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
SRI MAYAPUR DHAM, FEBRUARY 10 – 21, 2012
309. Founder-Acarya on ISKCON Guru Websites
[Guideline]
Whereas the proliferation of official and unofficial websites of ISKCON gurus currently do not, in large part, prominently feature the personality and teachings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada as the Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness on the introduction page as well as on many other pages;
And whereas it is necessary to establish guidelines for such websites so that as far as possible visitors are made aware that whatever inspiration the devotees are receiving from the guru is due to the great mercy of Srila Prabhupada:
RESOLVED:
ISKCON gurus shall be responsible for ensuring that their own official websites adhere to the following guidelines:
1. They prominently feature a picture of Srila Prabhupada on the introductory page
2. They credit him as the “Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness”
3. They contain a brief summary of his accomplishments and provide authorized website links to his teachings
The Guru Services Committee will compile a suggested comprehensive template for use in guru websites.
…Someone asked, “What is the Krsna conscious person’s attitude towards others?” Srila Prabhupada replied, “He sees everyone as part and parcel of Krsna. The Krsna conscious person thinks, ‘They are suffering from not knowing Krsna, so let me bring them to Krsna.’ This is the highest service. Everyone is suffering, so to act in Krsna consciousness is the highest service. After all, they are suffering on account of detachment from Krsna.”
“Krsna consciousness never becomes old, it is fresh eternally. Do you know of any book five thousand years old that reads as fresh as Bhagavad-gita? Live in spiritual understanding and you’ll never become faded.”
The Great Soul Who Walked Among Us
Excerpted from Back To Godhead Magazine Vol. 13 No. 1-2
“Consider this example: when the sun is in the sky, there is no question of darkness. Similarly, when the Hare Krsna mantra is vibrating on your tongue and you are hearing attentively, then your consciousness becomes Krsna consciousness, or clear consciousness, and there is no question of maya, or hazy consciousness. Just as when light and darkness come together the darkness cannot stand before the light, maya cannot remain in the presence of Krsna.
When Lord Krishna Garlanded Prabhupada
Bahushiras Das Adhikary
The following narration is from the visionary Memories series of Shriman Siddhanta das Adhikary. It is the remembrance of Shriman Bahushiras das Adhikary given in DVD 44 and in vol. 3, p. 334 of the book Memories-Anecdotes of a Modern-Day Saint.
After Shrila Prabhupada’s disappearance, [Patita Pavana das] asked if I’d like to assist Satswarupa’s Lilamrita project by interviewing people in India who had known Shrila Prabhupada. One of them was Acharya Prabhakar Misra, Prabhupada’s first disciple. Acharya Prabhakar Misra was clean-cut, well-behaved and articulate. His demeanor impressed me. He held a MA and PhD and was a very cultured Sanskrit scholar and teacher. In Jhansi, Prabhupada had told Acharya Prabhakar. “I met you because I saw you in a dream and I knew that I was supposed to come here.” Prabhupada and he would do bhajan together. They’d hold Rathayatra festivals and they’d have programme in villages in the area.
Acharya Prabhakar said that on Shri Krishna Janmashtami in 1954, he had to go to Delhi. When he returned to Jhansi, he took a little rest, woke up at 1:00 am and heard Shrila Prabhupada ecstatically playing mridanga in the temple room. Prabhupada was chanting in total bliss. Acharya Prabhakar went upstairs and saw Shrila Prabhupada bouncing around the temple room performing kirtan. Prabhupada was wearing a kadamba flower garland that went all the way down to his feet. Kadamba flowers are very rare in Jhansi and when they are available they are usually the size of a golf ball. But the ones Prabhupada was wearing were big, the size of tennis balls. And he said that the atmosphere right down to the atoms in the room was not material, aprakrita. The place was surcharged with the fragrance of the heavenly planets. Acharya Prabhakar wanted to ask Shrila Prabhupada, “Where did this garland come from? It is not available from the market.” But Shrila Prabhupada would not answer. His Divine Grace just kept on performing kirtan, bouncing round the room and chanting. The next morning Acharya Prabhakar asked Shrila Prabhupada, “Where did you get the garland, why did it have such a rich fragrance, and why were you feeling so blissful?”
Shrila Prabhupada told him, “I was chanting to Krishna and feeling some love for Him. And He appeared and gave me this garland. I went to touch His feet and He disappeared. Because of that I was dancing around the temple room.” Shrila Prabhupada was crying.
We think that we have met Your Goodness by the will of providence, just so that we may accept you as captain of the ship for those who desire to cross the difficult ocean of Kali, which deteriorates all the good qualities of a human being.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.22)
On the order of his spiritual master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda began translating and writing Vedic literature in the English language to bring the message of Lord Kṛṣṇa to the Western countries. After decades of struggle in India, he came to the West and started the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Later on he created the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, to publish his writings and recordings of his lectures, conversations, etc. The VedaBase has been created so that this great treasurehouse of knowledge may be preserved and propagated and so that all may take advantage of the wisdom and association of the pure devotee of Lord Krishna.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda appeared in this world in 1896 in Calcutta, India. He first met his spiritual master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī, in Calcutta in 1922. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, a prominent religious scholar and the founder of sixty-four Gauḍīya Maṭhas (Vedic institutes), liked this educated young man and convinced him to dedicate his life to teaching Vedic knowledge. Śrīla Prabhupāda became his student, and eleven years later (1933) at Allahabad he became his formally initiated disciple.
At their first meeting, in 1922, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura requested Śrīla Prabhupāda to broadcast Vedic knowledge through the English language. In the years that followed, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-gītā, assisted the Gauḍīya Maṭha in its work and, in 1944, started Back to Godhead, an English fortnightly magazine. Maintaining the publication was a struggle. Single-handedly, Śrīla Prabhupāda edited it, typed the manuscripts, checked the galley proofs, and even distributed the individual copies. Once begun, the magazine never stopped; it is now being continued by his disciples in the West and is published in over thirty languages.
Prabhupada, Man of God
By Sriman Hansadutta Prabhu
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is respectfully called “Srila Prabhupada”, or “spiritual master at whose feet all others bow down”. Who was he really? What did he accomplish?
Five thousand years ago, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna, descended to re-establish the principles of religion. At that time, Vedic culture was dying all around the world, being ruled by demonic kings. After Krishna left this world, a rapid decline in the principles of Varnashrama Dharma ensued.
Before the appearance of Srila Prabhupada, Vedic culture existed only in very small pockets in India. We must truly understand what Srila Prabhupada actually achieved in the span of about 10 years. He took THE highest spiritual culture, THE highest philosophy and THE highest science of self-realization, and successfully brought it to the West, which had no spiritual culture, no philosophy and no science of the soul. He started a worldwide revolution in religion by humbly teaching tens of thousands of fallen, sinful, lusty and degraded persons the essence of Vedic culture: pure love of God.
Among the naive, of course, one may pass for a spiritual master by wearing robes and a beard, bearing a twinkle in one’s eye, performing some magic tricks, or speaking riddles. But intelligent people won’t settle for these outer trappings
Since we are all servants of the Supreme Lord, a bona fide guru must be a devotee of the Supreme Lord and teach others how to become His devotees. In fact, unless the guru is a devotee of Lord Krsna, he cannot understand transcendental knowledge—what to speak of imparting it to others.
Establishing the Proof: Who Is a Real Guru?
Excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine 1977, Vol.12, No. 8
A recent Gallup poll revealed that more than nineteen million American adults are now practicing some form of yoga, meditation, or other “self-renewal” process. To meet this great demand, many “gurus” have appeared on the scene, each teaching his version of spiritual truth. Some have attracted large followings, and every disciple undoubtedly feels that his guru is the best. But for the serious seeker of truth, choosing a spiritual master cannot be a matter of mere sentiment. Spiritual life is factual and scientific, and we have to test the qualifications of any spiritual teacher by referring to the standard authority. This authority is scripture, especially the Sanskrit Vedic scriptures, which throughout history have provided the philosophical basis for the guru-disciple relationship. By referring to Vedic scriptures we can know the criteria for a bona fide spiritual master. Then we can easily see who is actually a spiritual master, and who is a fraud.
Examining the Guru’s Teachings
The first criterion, according to the Vedic scriptures, is the quality of the words the teacher speaks. (Even a fool may be highly esteemed—until he speaks.) In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Sri Krsna, the original spiritual master, tells his disciple Arjuna, “The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.” In other words, a genuine guru must have realized the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, and he must be able to impart this truth to his disciple, thus freeing him (or her) from repeated birth and death.
We should therefore immediately reject as outright charlatans those so-called gurus who pretend to have some spiritual knowledge, but who teach their disciples only how to gain some material advantage—a slimmer body, better sex life, success in business, and so on. Real spiritual life means getting free from the agony of birth and death. How can a common man, unable to distinguish spirit from matter—and thus himself caught in the cycle of birth and death—claim to be a spiritual master? Such cheaters generally take up the “guru business” just to earn a living. But the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the essence of all Vedic scriptures, sternly warns, “No one should become a guru unless he can free his disciple from birth and death.”
The Hare Krishna Movement 