nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhuitale
srimate bhaktivedant-svaminn iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
I bow to my eternal spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada. This year, I will reflect on a sublime period that I think of as a golden age of ISKCON’s mission in the West. I speak of the time from 1966 to 1970, a time when Prabhupada personally knew most of his devotees and they personally knew him.
We can structurally compare Prabhupada’s Lila in this world to that of Lord Krishna and Lord Caitanya. Lord Krishna’s pastimes in Mathura and Dvaraka had the greatest impact on global affairs, in terms of slaying demons and reestablishing pious rulers. But Lord Krishna’s pastimes in Vraja are the sweetest, the most intimate, and the most revealing of Lord Krishna’s highest nature.
Similarly, for six years Lord Caitanya traveled around India, preaching with extraordinary success. But His pastimes in Navadvipa, like those of Krishna in Vrindavana, are very sweet. He lives in a smaller community, surrounded by family and lifelong friends.
Prabhupada repeatedly circled the globe, creating and managing the Hare Krishna Explosion. Yet I see his earlier pastimes as analogous to those of Krishna in Vrindavana and Mahaprabhu in Navadvipa. As stated above, in the early days Prabhupada knew all the devotees and in a sense, they knew him. Mukunda Goswami’s biography, that of Gurudas and of course Satswarupa Goswami, and others, describe these very intimate pastimes that the devotees relished in the early days of the movement. In those days, Prabhupada lived in America, and declared an American city, Los Angeles, to be his world headquarters. We find in those earlier days that Prabhupada trusted his disciples to discover effective preaching strategies. Prabhupada maintained boundaries, but within those generous boundaries, he encouraged the ingenuity, creativity, and local experience of his disciples. The result was wonderful.
Prabhupada repeatedly circled the globe, creating and managing the Hare Krishna Explosion. Yet I see his earlier pastimes as analogous to those of Krishna in Vrindavana and Mahaprabhu in Navadvipa. As stated above, in the early days Prabhupada knew all the devotees and in a sense, they knew him. Mukunda Goswami’s biography, that of Gurudas and of course Satswarupa Goswami, and others, describe these very intimate pastimes that the devotees relished in the early days of the movement. In those days, Prabhupada lived in America, and declared an American city, Los Angeles, to be his world headquarters. We find in those earlier days that Prabhupada trusted his disciples to discover effective preaching strategies. Prabhupada maintained boundaries, but within those generous boundaries, he encouraged the ingenuity, creativity, and local experience of his disciples. The result was wonderful.
My dream and goal in life is to help to reestablish what Prabhupada created then — a truly Western Hare Krishna movement in the West. In our hearts, we Western preachers must bring Prabhupada back, to live in our Western countries. By our love and service, we can relish with him the same intimate, sweet dealings that Prabhupada’s early disciples did. The more we spiritually manifest Prabhupada in the West, by our genuine devotion, the more Western people will be attracted. Let us work together to fulfill Prabhupada’s great dream of a Krishna conscious world.His servant,
Hridayananda das Goswami
Hridayananda das Goswami
