Prabhupāda: (Hindi) So you can speak something in English... And some of the messages... And, first of all you speak something.
Tamal Kṛṣṇa: (Chants Śrīla Prabhupāda Praṇati)
I am offering my most respectful and humble obeisances unto the lotus feet of my Guru Mahārāja who is most dear unto Lord Kṛṣṇa for he has taken complete shelter of the Lord's transcendental lotus feet. We are offering our respectful and humble obeisances unto you Śrīla Prabhupāda because you are the servant of Sarasvatī Gosvāmī and you are so kindly delivering the message of Lord Caitanya-deva throughout the western countries and you are ridding them of impersonalism and voidism.
By the grace of our Guru Mahārāja we have somehow been able to hear this message of Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Before meeting Śrīla Prabhupāda our lives were very much enveloped in materialism and we were simply calculating how we could become advanced materially, thinking that we could become happy in life. But anyone who has tried simply to become happy through materialistic means knows that it is a very difficult path. In fact it is impossible to become happy materially alone. So by the grace of our Guru Mahārāja somehow we have been fortunate enough to hear this message of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Śrīla Prabhupāda came just in the nick of time because for many of us we had become very much frustrated in our materialistic endeavours and Prabhupāda delivered this message of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's message is for everyone and it does not matter whether he is from India, or whether he is from the United States, whether he is from the Soviet Union. Caitanya Mahāprabhu's message is that everyone has a relationship with God, with Kṛṣṇa.
But that relationship has become forgotten and so it must be reawakened. Just like everyone, everyone is originally Kṛṣṇa conscious. But this Kṛṣṇa consciousness has been covered, just as the sun is sometimes becomes covered by the clouds. But still the sun is there, in the same way we are originally God conscious or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But we have forgotten that original consciousness. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu's instructions are for everyone, he says:
- harer nāma harer nāma
- harer nāmaiva kevalam
- kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
- nāsty eva gatir anyathā
- (CC Adi 17.21)
In this age of Kali the most effective way, or to uncover our original consciousness is by chanting this Hare Krishna mantra. And you can see from us here that it is not something artificial. Just like we are coming from western countries, we had perhaps never heard of Lord Kṛṣṇa five years ago. But simply by chanting this Hare Krishna mantra our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, our remembrance of Kṛṣṇa has been revived. So everyone has within him this natural love of God and simply it has to be revived and the process is this chanting of Hare Krishna mantra.
Today is a very special day for us because it is the appearance day of Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Our spiritual master's Guru Mahārāja. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta is the founder ācārya of the Gauḍīya Maṭha. The Gauḍīya Maṭha has so many branches throughout India and he is the most stalwart ācārya since the time of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmījī, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Mahārāja has given our Guru Mahārāja the mission of preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the English-speaking countries. And so it is by his grace also that we have had the chance to receive this Kṛṣṇa consciousness.