As a young bhakta/book distributor back in 1975, I daily distributed Back to Godhead Magizines along with Srila Prabhupada’s books. I remember one day when the heat was oppressive, I took a break and sat beneath a shade tree and read the following article from the BTG. Reading this article sparked my desire to visit India, and planted the seed that would later bring me there. We share it with you along with some of the accompanying photos.
Conversations from India
excerpted from Back to Godhead Magazine Volume 10, Number 02, 1975
A senior member of the Hare Krsna movement tells how Krsna consciousness has gone from East to West and back again.
Last March, when hundreds of devotees from all over the world gathered in India for a pilgrimage to the holy cities Mayapur and Vrndavana, I had the opportunity, after four years, to again have the association of my senior Godbrother, His Holiness Tamala Krsna Gosvami Maharaja. The ISKCON temple in Vrndavana was then under construction, and Tamala Krsna Maharaja had a small grass-and-adobe hut nearby, which he used as a headquarters for chanting, reading and executing his various Krsna conscious duties.
After Srila Prabhupada, our spiritual master, first brought some of his devotees to India in 1970, he entrusted to Tamala Krsna Maharaja the responsibility for overseeing the Society’s various preaching programs in India. I knew something about these programs from pictures, news clippings and letters I’d received from devotees, but still I felt that I didn’t have a clear picture of what we were really doing there. However, Tamala Krsna Maharaja is always eager to talk about Krsna consciousness, and so he kindly agreed to tell me about what our movement has done in India during the past four years.
So, there in his hut in Vrndavana, the transcendental land where Lord Krsna Himself had appeared 5,000 years ago to display His transcendental pastimes, Maharaja and I spent several mornings simply talking about Krsna consciousness—and especially Krsna consciousness in India. Here is an excerpt from our conversations, which we taped to share with readers of BACK TO GODHEAD. We will print more in a future issue.
—Jayadvaita dasa; Editor, BACK TO GODHEAD
The Hare Krishna Movement 