Prabhupada: ...of the same
age of neighboring quarters, they will join. There will be feast, procession,
sankirtana, everything in miniature form. And my father would spend. He will
not hesitate. Yes. Therefore, my father's friends used to joke that
"Rathayatra ceremony is going on at your home, and you do not invite us.
What is this?" Father would reply, "They are all children
playing." "Oh, children playing. You are avoiding us by the name of
children." It was regular procession. And for eight days there was
feasting.
Yadubara: That was the same
time as the big procession?
Prabhupada: Huh?
Yadubara: That was the same
time as the big procession?
Prabhupada: Yes. During the
Rathayatra festival. Eight days, eight different varieties of foodstuff my
mother would cook and offer to Jagannatha. Regular bhoga-aratrika, decoration
with flowers. It was regular.
Yadubara: What did the cart
look like?
Prabhupada: Eh?
Yadubara: What did the Ratha
cart look like? Just a miniature of the one at Puri?
Prabhupada: That I can give
you diagram. I will give. Because I played with, I remember perfectly.
Yadubara: What about... Did
the girls participate? Did the...
Prabhupada: No...
Yadubara: Small girls?
Prabhupada: Small girls
they..., one or two.
Yadubara: How many boys were
there?
Prabhupada: Not less than a
dozen. And then public will gather. So it was regular procession. Not very big.
Everyone knew that "It is children; they are playing."
Yadubara: Did they play
at...
Prabhupada: The Ratha, Ratha
I used to decorate myself, painting, with color. I will give you a diagram of
the Ratha. [Prabhupada drawing] Covering. This is diagram.
Yadubara: So this was..., it
is not solid inside, so that you could see through.
Prabhupada: No, there were
many columns. Sixteen columns supporting.
Devotee: Like the Ratha cart
here, with the columns? The wooden...
Prabhupada: Yes. No. Here
there is not column.
Yadubara: This was horse?
Prabhupada: Yes. Wooden
horse.
Yadubara: This is driver.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Yadubara: What kind of
clothing did the boys wear, did you wear?
Prabhupada: No, no,
ordinary.
Yadubara: Just shorts?
Prabhupada: No, ordinary...
Yes, dhoti and shirt.
Yadubara: Dhoti and shirt.
Prabhupada: Someone without
any shirt, because it is summer season. So there was no particular dress.
Yadubara: And were there
instruments you were playing?
Prabhupada: Yes, on this
khol, karatala, then that [gaazh? indistinct]. Where is our Pandit Maharaja?
And call also Hamsadutta. [devotee goes to find]
Yadubara: When you did Deity
worship as a child...
Prabhupada: Yes?
Yadubara: ...how did you do?
Prabhupada: I would imitate
the brahmanas and my father.
Yadubara: With the lamp and
the incense?
Prabhupada: Everything,
complete. I would perform aratrika and offer prasadam. Radha-Govinda Deities,
there was altar decorated, small Deity, daily changing cloth. Everything.
Offering obeisances. Everything.
Yadubara: When you... Would
the Ratha ceremony go on in the court of Radha-Govinda temple, in the
courtyard?
Prabhupada: No, that was...
They are separate. I was doing in my... But I was imitating how the worship is
going on there.
Yadubara: Would the Ratha
cart..., was that going on in the courtyard, Radha-Govinda?
Prabhupada: Yes, yes. The
first courtyard from the road, that circle?
Yadubara: Yes.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Yadubara: Just inside.
Prabhupada: There inside
there, and stay for some time, then again circling, go away. Our house was...
You know that Mullik's house?
Yadubara: Yes.
Prabhupada: Yes. That was
also Mullik's house, our. Our number was hundred and fifty-one, and in the
middle there was hundred and fifty-three, and their house was hundred and
fifty-five. Just [indistinct].
[Pradyumna enters and offers
obeisances]
Prabhupada: Have you written
anything about that article?
Pradyumna: Yes, I'm just
finishing editing it.
Prabhupada: All right.
That's all right. Then you shall send it on.
Hamsadutta: When he is
finished.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Yadubara: So part of the
movie, it calls for either some narration by yourself...
Prabhupada: Hm?
Yadubara: It calls for some
narration either by yourself or by someone else.
Prabhupada: No. Someone else
can narrate.
Yadubara: We wanted to
describe the Deity worship, why we are worshiping Deities, because people...
Prabhupada: I was simply
imitating because my father was worshiping, and we were always going that
Mullik's Radha-Govinda temple, their festival. We are practically same family.
I was known as one of the children of Mullik's family. Other neighborhood men,
they would know that I was belonging to their family. Because the house in
which we are living, that belonged to the Mullik family, one partner.
Yadubara: I saw that
beautiful room, very aristocratic room, with chandelier and glass.
Prabhupada: They were... Now
they are reduced. Otherwise they were the most aristocratic family of Calcutta.
Kasinatha Mullik. There are roads and names, Kasinatha Mullik name. We belonged
to... The house where we were living, that was Kasinatha Mullik's second
brother. Second brother. So his wife was living, and she was a distant
relative, grandmother, of me. So she had no children. So we were living. With
some relative she was living.
Yadubara: So we wanted to
explain in the movie to people in general how the Deity worship is authorized:
how it's not worshiping just stone, how the Deity is actually Krsna Himself.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Yadubara: Things like that.
Prabhupada: Krsna and
Krsna's form, Krsna's quality, they are all the same. That you know. You can
explain.
Yadubara: Also we wanted to
give some, just some very brief explanation of your past. How you were attached
to Krsna from the very beginning of your life, how your friends offered you
intoxication.
Prabhupada: That is
explained in the Bhagavad-gita. Sucinamsrimatam gehe yogo bhrasto
sanjayate [Bg. 6.41]. It has come from
previous life. Therefore I was given the opportunity to take birth in that
family, Krsna association. And my father was a great Vaisnava. So sucinamsrimatam.
Both things were confirmed. My father was suci, and although I did not belong
to that family, but I was born in that aristocratic family and I was raised
amongst them. So that confirms: this Krsna consciousness coming from previous
life. And some very authorized astrologers said that in my previous life I was
a physician, and I did not commit any sinful act. He said like that. The only,
if it is taken as sinful, I killed some snakes for medicinal purpose. Otherwise
I did not commit any sin. He said like that. [laughing] And it is right,
because I had tendency in my childhood play to imitate a physician. I would
keep some medicine, and my playmates would come, I would feel their pulse and
give some medicine. [devotees laugh] This was my play, I remember. Yes. Some
powders.
Yadubara: Pills?
Prabhupada: No, pills...
[laughs] Very small child at the time. So I would play that my playmates would
come as patient, they would stand. I would give them some medicine.
Hamsadutta: And still you
are giving medicine.
Prabhupada: Yes, I was
giving medicine in business. I was appointed Dr. Bhose's laboratory manager.
Hamsadutta: But still you
are giving medicine. You are giving Krsna medicine.
Prabhupada: Yes,
bhagavat-sakti. I know how to prepare so many medicines still. Practically all
allopathic medicine I can prepare. Ayurvedic also, some of. What is that they
are written in the book, I can prepare. So that confirms my previous life also.
Yadubara: We wanted to
include some very brief notes on your family. You had some family life and
business.
Prabhupada: My father was a
businessman. He was doing business. Although we were living the most
aristocratic family, my father was middle class. In those days about five
hundred rupees' income, it was not very much. But seventy years ago five
hundred rupees means nowadays twenty times. Everything has gone up ten times,
twenty times. We were purchasing at that time rice. My father always, there
must be full stock of rice, at least for six months. Rice and fuel and ghee and
potato, he would stock. So we had no difficulties. Everything was sumptuous, by
father's plan.
Yadubara: What about your
family after you were married?
Prabhupada: I have got sons.
They are still there in Calcutta. A sannyasidoes not require the history of his
previous life. In summary I have already given.
Yadubara: We wanted to
include like this, some very brief history of your..., that you were in some
business, of your meeting with your Guru Maharaja.
Prabhupada: That is already
explained in that Isopanisad.
Yadubara: Yes. So it is all
right to include all these.
Prabhupada: 1922 I met my
Guru Maharaja. In 1933 I was officially initiated. Then Guru Maharaja passed
away in 1936. And he asked me, fifteen days before his passing away, that
"You preach in English language in the Western countries. That will be
your good, and the person amongst whom you preach, they will be also
benefited." This was his last instructions to me.
Yadubara: That was fifteen
days before...
Prabhupada: Fifteen days
before his passing away. He passed away in 1936, December 30th, and that letter
was written 13th December, 1936.
Yadubara: Didn't he say
something right away after he met you personally?
Prabhupada: Yes. He said
that Caitanya Mahaprabhu... I argued with him so many times. At that time I was
Congress man, non-cooperated. I gave up my education. But I was appointed
manager. I stopped my education 1920, and then '21 I was appointed manager in
Bhose's laboratory. Then 1933 I resigned that post. I was appointed their
agent, Northern India. Then my business flourished. Gradually I started my own
laboratory in Lucknow, in Varanasi, in Allahabad. So that was very successful
business. Everyone knew me in the chemical business. Then in 1933 I was
initiated. In this way, gradually I came in contact intimately. And Guru
Maharaja... In 1935, all my Godbrothers were meeting in Bombay. So I was living
outside the matha. So they requested, "Abhay Babu is such a noble soul,
why he should live outside the matha?" Purposely I was living outside. I
had my business office, I was living with my four children; family was in
Calcutta. So Guru Maharaja said, "It is better to live a little outside,
and he will do the necessity automatically in due course of time." He said
like that. So I could not understand what he meant by that. But it means that
he was confident that "This boy in due course of time will take up this
matter seriously." He said these very words: "In due course of time
he will take things rightly. And it is better now to live little apart
from..." [laughs] He said like that.
Hamsadutta: He had some
premonition.
Prabhupada: Then in 1936 he
passed away, and he left his letter, "You do this." So I was
thinking, "What shall I do?" Of course, I took up this missionary
idea as soon as I saw him in 1922, because we were trained up to some extent by
our family tradition. So one of my friends took me to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati
Thakura in 1922. So at that time I could understand that "Here is a person
who is actually doing the missionary activities of Caitanya Mahaprabhu."
Because we were Vaisnava family. My father was Vaisnava, my grandfather was
Vaisnava. We were all worshiper of Krsna and Lord Caitanya by family tradition.
So at that time I could understand that "Here is a saintly person who is
trying very nicely." So he asked me to join immediately. But at that time,
I was family man. In 1921 my first child was born. I was married in 1918,
during student time. I was at that time third-year student. So I was thinking,
"How to do? How to do?" So in 1944, I started this Back to Godhead.
Hamsadutta: From Allahabad?
Prabhupada: No, from
Calcutta.
Hamsadutta: From Calcutta.
Prabhupada: So I was
practically distributing. I was spending, in those days, 300 rupees, 400
rupees. Was a large amount, but I was spending somehow or other from my
business, and practically it was being distributed. You have seen some of the
copies?
Hamsadutta: I saw some of
the old copies.
Prabhupada: So in this way,
gradually things changed. I wanted to become a very big businessman and earn
money and spend for this missionary work, but that was not very successful.
[laughs] So in 1950, I retired practically. Not retired, but little in touch
with business, whatever is going on, going on. Then 1954 I gave up connection
with my family. I went to Jhansi. There I got a very big building. So I wanted
to start the missionary activities under the name of The League of Devotees.
Hamsadutta: I saw your
prospectus, an old prospectus.
Prabhupada: Yes, it was
registered. So that was a very nice building. Somebody gave me. Then the
governor of the province, that Munshi, K. Munshi, his wife had an association
of the women; she wanted that house. So the governing, government circle, they
began to press me to leave that house through the proprietor. So I was
sticking. All my friends, they said that "You don't go away. We shall help
you." Then I thought that "They are government circles. If they give
pressure, how can I fight with them?" And that was not a very nice place,
Jhansi, although the building was first class. That building is still there.
Then I thought that instead of fighting with them, let me go to Vrndavana, then
we shall see. So I too went to Vrndavana. And then in 1956... No, I left '54.
In '56 I was living with my Godbrothers. Then I started again. In the meantime,
for some years, two, three years, the Back to Godhead was stopped. Then I
started again in Delhi. You have seen my Delhi Radha-Krsna temple?
Yadubara: I went to one
place that you stayed at...,
Prabhupada: Yes.
Yadubara: ...near...
Prabhupada: [indistinct]
Yadubara: Something, yes.
Prabhupada: So I was staying
in Vrndavana in a very nice place. Then these Radha-Damodara temple men, they
call me, that "Why don't you come, live here. We give you two rooms. You
just repair and live here. Whatever you like, you can do." So I thought,
"It is Jiva Gosvamis place"; otherwise living in a very big palace,
Kesi Ghat, for seven years. Then I came to Radha-Damodara temple. So I was
writing Bhagavatam, Back to Godhead, and printing in Delhi. In this way, when
some books were prepared, then I came to America. Then after coming America,
everything you know. [end]
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