750620 - Lecture Arrival - Los Angeles

Lectures by Date, 1975

Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

750620A2-LOS ANGELES - June 20, 1975 - 12:16 Minutes

Kṛṣṇa-kānti: (introducing recording) This is Śrīla Prabhupāda's arrival address, recorded June 20th, 1975, in Los Angeles.

Prabhupāda: (leads Prema-dhvanī) . . . Gaṅgā-mayī ki jaya. New Dvārakā dhāma ki jaya. New Dvārakā dhāma ki jaya. Samavetā bhakta-vṛnda ki jaya. All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories to the assembled devotees. Thank you very much.

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Jaya Prabhupāda! Hari hari! (offer obeisances)

Prabhupāda: So I shall go now? Hmm? Speaking something?

Devotee: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Our speaking is the same: harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21).

Devotees: Jaya! Hari hari!

(Video - start)

Prabhupāda: We have no new discovery. (laughter) We don't manufacture. This is our process. We simply follow the predecessor's instruction, that's all. Our movement is very easy because we haven't got to manufacture something. We simply repeat the words and the instruction given by the predecessor. Kṛṣṇa instructed Brahmā, Brahmā instructed Nārada, Nārada instructed Vyāsadeva, Vyāsadeva instructed Madhvācārya, and in this way, then Mādhavendra Purī, Īśvara Purī, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, then the six Gosvāmīs, then the Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, Kavirāja Gosvāmī, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, Viśvanātha Cakravartī, Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Gaurakiśora dāsa Bābājī, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, and then we are doing the same thing. There is no difference. That is the specific procedure of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. You are singing daily, guru-mukha-padma-vākya, cittete koriyā aikya, ār nā koriho mane āśā. Very simple thing. We are receiving the transcendental knowledge through guru-paramparā succession. So we have to simply take instruction from guru, and if we execute that to our heart and soul, that is success. That is practical.

I have no personal qualification, but I simply tried to satisfy my guru, that's all. My Guru Mahārāja asked me that "If you get some money, you print books." So there was a private meeting, talking, some of my important Godbrothers also there. It was in Rādhā-kuṇḍa. So Guru Mahārāja was speaking to me that "Since we have got this Baghbazar marble temple, there has been so many dissensions, and everyone is thinking who will occupy this room or that room, that room. I wish, therefore, to sell this temple and the marble and print some book." Yes. So I took up this from his mouth, that he is very fond of books. And he told me personally that "If you get some money, print books." Therefore I am stressing on this point: "Where is book? Where is book? Where is book?" So kindly help me. This is my request. Print as many books in as many languages and distribute throughout the whole world. Then Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will automatically increase. Now the educated, learned scholars, they are appreciating our movement by reading books, by taking practical result. Dr. Stillson Judah, he has written one book, perhaps you know, Kṛṣṇa Con . . . Hare Kṛṣṇa and Counterculture, a very nice book about our movement, and he is giving importance. He has admitted that "Swāmījī, you have done wonderful thing because you have turned the drug-addicted hippies into devotees of Kṛṣṇa, and they are prepared for the service of humanity."

(Video - 05:11 end)

So this movement is so important. We are giving the best service to the humanity. They are plunged into ignorance. All, they are rascals, mūḍha. It is not our manufactured word. Kṛṣṇa says, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15). So we have this test tube. If we see one has no information of Kṛṣṇa, then he is mūḍha. We haven't got to study more: whether he is Kṛṣṇa conscious, whether he has got any portion of his heart attracted, I mean, attached to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means attraction. So whether he has been attracted by Kṛṣṇa. That is our natural position—to become attracted by Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. Just like the magnetic stone attracts the iron. It is natural. And if the iron is covered with dirt, then it does not become attracted. So this is the test, to make people prepared for being attracted by Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are by nature . . . nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti (CC Madhya 22.107). It is not unnatural. Otherwise how you European, American, you are so much attracted to Kṛṣṇa? If Kṛṣṇa is artificial and Kṛṣṇa consciousness is artificial something, so how you should be attracted? That they are surprised.

They are attracted because that attraction is there already. We are trying simply to awaken that attraction. Śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya (CC Madhya 22.107). The matter is already there. Just like the young man and young woman, the attraction is already there, nitya-siddha. It is natural. And when they come near, talk little confidentially, then attraction increases, not that an artificial attraction. Similarly, our attraction for Kṛṣṇa is already there. Therefore . . . that is the Vṛndāvana picture. Vṛndāvana, everything is attracted with Kṛṣṇa. That is Vṛndāvana. The animals, the trees, the flowers, the land and the cowherd boys, the elderly cowherds men, Nanda Mahārāja and others—all are attracted to Kṛṣṇa. This is Vṛndāvana. The Yamunā water—everything. Fruits, flowers and everything. That is Vṛndāvana. So Kṛṣṇa is the center of attraction. You might have read that when Brahmā stolen all Kṛṣṇa's associates, so He created Himself again all of them, and everyone was feeling more attracted by Kṛṣṇa. So this is natural. This is not unnatural. Our position is, natural position is, to be attracted by Kṛṣṇa. If we do not become attracted by Kṛṣṇa, that is unnatural. And to become attracted by Kṛṣṇa, that is not unnatural. That is natural.

So we want to revive our natural position, uncovered position. Now we are covered by dust, by dirt, by corroding materials. So we have to cleanse this. Therefore the bhakti process is sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170). I am thinking I am Indian. You are thinking you are American. This is a dirty thing, covering the spirit soul. So we have to cleanse this. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam. Nirmalam means cleansed. When we become cleansed of all dirty things of material modes of nature, then we are prepared to serve Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted. That . . . we do not become zero, śūnyavādi. No. We become cleansed, and as soon as we become cleansed, with clean senses when you serve Kṛṣṇa, that is perfection. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate (CC Madhya 19.170). So this process, the śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam, this is the process of cleansing. So more you chant, more you hear, the more you become cleansed, more you become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Just prolong this process and be happy.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)