Even a small boy can grasp this. Then why does Dr. Radhakrishnan hesitate to accept this truth? There are countless proofs in the scripture of Lord Kṛṣṇa's supreme absolute personality, but Dr. Radhakrishnan is like an owl in the daylight of truths. He tries to cover the sun of truth by creating a dark cloud of word jugglery. Thus instead of truth and knowledge, confusion is paraded before the world. We strongly condemn this sort of activity. Whether directly or indirectly, Dr. Radhakrishnan has tried to circumvent the truth—that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the basis of Brahman—and in the process he has been defeated. If Dr. Radhakrishnan really accepts Lord Kṛṣṇa as the absolute God, then what inspired him to see another being within Kṛṣṇa and to write, "It is not the personal Kṛṣṇa to whom we have to give ourselves up..."?
Parade
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 4
The disciples of Lord Śiva arranged for Satī to be seated on the back of a bull and gave her the bird which was her pet. They bore a lotus flower, a mirror and all such paraphernalia for her enjoyment and covered her with a great canopy. Followed by a singing party with drums, conchshells and bugles, the entire procession was as pompous as a royal parade.
Then King Uttānapāda, being very eager to see the face of his lost son, mounted a chariot drawn by excellent horses and bedecked with golden filigree. Taking with him many learned brāhmaṇas, all the elderly personalities of his family, his officers, his ministers and his immediate friends, he immediately left the city. As he proceeded in this parade, there were auspicious sounds of conchshells, kettledrums, flutes, and the chanting of Vedic mantras to indicate all good fortune.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Renunciation Through Wisdom
Lectures
Arrival Addresses and Talks
Brahmānanda: There is proof of it just in Berkeley where we have our Ratha-yātrā. The police say that this... Or we have our parades there, and they are all peaceful, whereas other groups, they have parades, and they always...
Prabhupāda: "Window-breaking."
Brahmānanda: Yes, violent.
Prabhupāda: "Window-breaking crowd." We are not that. (break) Let them have this O'Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Brahmānanda: Yes, O'Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Suggest the establishment manager.
General Lectures
Brahmānanda: Yes. We have experience not only in New York City but many places around the country—I'm sure you're familiar—of worshiping hogs. Many places where we go chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, the Lord's name, we've experience of groups of young people chanting "hog, hog, hog." This is going on in New York City. And also they actually have parades where they parade with hogs and pigs. And they bow down before the pigs, and they worship the pigs. And they want the hogs to become... They want to run the hog for president, and they want the hogs to lead them. It's even gone to such lengths that at one be-in—this was in Seattle—there was a massive demonstration with hogs. There, boys and girls undressed themselves and got in the mud and they just played with the hogs. Dirty, just living like the hogs, which they worship.
Young man: You don't think there's some irony in that?
Prabhupāda: So anyway, this hog worship was anticipated long, long ago. Otherwise how they could be described in the Bhāgavatam, which was compiled at least five thousand years ago? Anyway, the idea is that beautiful life, beautiful education, beautiful situation, should be utilized for beautiful end, not degrade to the platform of hog worship. That is not very palatable thing at least. So Ṛṣabhadeva says, "My dear boys, the sense gratification process after hard work day and night is available in the hog's life.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: But he says they're not willing. That is the difference.
Mr. Arnold: I don't think they're willing at this stage, my lord, because there's been so little done for them, and I feel, and I...
Śyāmasundara: Well, we're having Jagannātha parade, Prabhupāda is speaking...
Mr. Arnold: Yes, but in their own communities, we, I suggested a long time ago that in fact there should be an appeal, start off with an appeal in the local papers.
Prabhupāda: The priestly class, they will make propaganda against us: "Oh, they are mlecchas, they are Europeans, they are Americans. What they can do? It is not good." Because India, the caste system is very strong. So I am giving the Europeans and Americans the opportunities to become brāhmaṇa, they are not satisfied.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Śyāmasundara: What was that word he used?
Mukunda: Glorifying.
Śyāmasundara: They glorified the whole parade on television. They didn't make fun of it or like that.
Prabhupāda: Nobody should make fun.
Śyāmasundara: It wasn't just an objective report, but they said it was good, it was nice, and had good appeal.
Prabhupāda: Yeah, everyone appreciated.
Mukunda: The last thing they said on the program was, "Perhaps this will give us something to think about for a long time."
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, certainly.
David Wynne: It must.
Śyāmasundara: No one could deny. They had never seen such a colorful parade, so full of festivity. (Someone walks up to Prabhupāda.)
Prabhupāda: Oh, I could have gone there. All right. (Sound of washing hands in bowl.) Yes. So I am very glad that you have come and you have taken prasādam. Very nice.
David Wynne: Thank you, sir.
Prabhupāda: And we had very good talks also. I'm very glad.
Śyāmasundara: I'm hoping George will come tomorrow. He has indicated he would come Tuesday.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: In Chicago also. Philadelphia. There will be Ratha-yātrā. this is the...
Satsvarūpa: This is for Melbourne, Australia, Ratha-yātrā parade, (shows a poster), picture of the parade last year.
Professor La Combe: Last year.
Prabhupāda: No, this year they are advertising.
Professor La Combe: Which is to come.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Satsvarūpa: This is a poster that Haṁsadūta sent for Frankfurt for next week.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. This is German language.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. I have seen. We were school children at that time. So on the two sides of the road, our first place was, the king, queen passed, we saw. We were given a flag. (laughter) "Jaya Rāja, Rājeśvara." We were... And very good tiffin was supplied. Two samosa, two kachori, two sandeśa, and one big tangerine. Twice I saw. Once when he entered Calcutta, and again, one day, when there was a parade of military... military parade. So both days we were invited, and we saw the king. (break)
Brahmānanda: ...Calcutta, on the Maidan, there's that big building, that big memorial. Is that...
Prabhupāda: Oh, Victoria Memorial.
Brahmānanda: That was built for, the king when he was coming?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was noticing that yesterday on the parade, everyone was offering respects.
Prabhupāda: Yes, Vṛndāvana after all.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think that is a benefit spiritually.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: To offer you respects.
Bhagavān: In Bombay, even those poor fisherwomen...
Prabhupāda: Yes, they are offering respects. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we have to create divine because the world is full of devils.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But we have to be divine ourselves.
Prabhupāda: You perhaps know. There is a embassy quarter in New Delhi which is called Cāṇakya Purī under his name. He was a great politician. About three thousand years ago when there was the reign of Candragupta, he was the prime minister. (break)
Reporter (3): The parade on Saturday, would that be down the same route it was last year with the thing at the Civic Center?
Jayatīrtha: Yes.
Reporter (3): You'll be serving food?
Jagadīśa: Yes.
Reporter (3): And you got all the civic permits this year? You ran into quite a bit of trouble last year, as I recall.
Jayatīrtha: (in car:) It says, "Forgive me if this story is not well-written. I am a woman. My brain weighs less than a man's, and I am not equal in intelligence." So she admits. "His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the seventy-seven year-old founder of the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, said so Wednesday. The Society is dedicated to peace in the world through love of God and relinquishment of all things material. The Swami spoke seated cross-legged on an expensive looking cushion surrounded by fresh flowers, microphones and burning incense in a conference room he rented at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel. He is in town for a Kṛṣṇa parade at 1:30 p.m., Saturday down State Street in which he will ride on a flower-bedecked float. He then will fly to Philadelphia for more celebration and philosophical chats. He looked occasionally at his gold watch as he explained his life philosophy. His adoring disciple, five men, knelt at his side. 'The MAN,' " capital M-A-N, "he said, 'who loves God, controls his sense, is clean inside and out, is simple and tolerant and uses knowledge he has acquired in practical life...' "
Prabhupāda: Intolerant?
Bhaktadāsa: ...photograph, we'd like to introduce the founder-ācārya spiritual master of the entire Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who founded this movement in 1966, coming here to America from Calcutta. Now His Divine Grace has very kindly once again come to San Francisco to lead us in this holy Rathayātrā Jagannātha cart parade. And we will ask him the questions that you have written down, and he will answer those questions, like that. So the first question, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is "What is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement?"
Prabhupāda: Yes. Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means that every one of us is in some type of consciousness: "I am American," "I am Indian," and, "It is my property," "America is my property," "India is my property." But we say that "Everything is Kṛṣṇa's property." Kṛṣṇa is the... Kṛṣṇa, God, when we say Kṛṣṇa, we mean God. God is the original proprietor. And He is, therefore, the supreme enjoyer, and He is everyone's friend. If we understand these three things, then we become peaceful. If all the nations in the United Nations assembly accept that everything belongs to God, then their quarrel between one nation to another nation immediately stops. But present fighting is that two hundred years ago the Americans were mostly in Europe. Now they have migrated and claiming America is theirs. So we think always that "All land belongs to God." Just like this big ocean.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Hayagrīva: Remember the first time you came? You walked up the road. Our car, we tried to take you in the car, but it didn't work, it broke. Power wagon.
Kīrtanānanda: It got stuck.
Prabhupāda: All fresh vegetable, fresh milk, this is celestial. Who has got the opportunity in the city? Automatically. (noise like drums in background)
Devotee: Some kind of parade.
Prabhupāda: All right.
Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: You may read that.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: "One of India's biggest and most ancient religious festivals, Ratha-yātrā, the festival of the chariots, which has been enacted in several Western cities in recent years, is to be staged in South Africa in July. The festival in honor of Lord Kṛṣṇa is planned to be held in Durban next month by the local branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, widely known as the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. Based on the thousands-of-years-old annual parade of the three main deities of the Jagannātha temple on huge chariots through the streets of Purī, Orissa, the festival has been staged by devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa in major world cities such as London, Paris, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Montreal and Melbourne, following the spreading of Kṛṣṇa consciousness amongst thousands of Westerners in the decade since the founding of the movement in 1966 by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is Fifty-seventh?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty-ninth. They don't want to turn here, huh, Jayānanda? Do you? Go up Fifty-ninth it would be nicer. This is where the parade begins. From here down straight. All the way down Fifth Avenue.
Prabhupāda: The Ratha-yātrā.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. From here all the way down, we go all the way down to the park. Washington Square Park. All the way down, three rathas. It's the biggest avenue.
Prabhupāda: Is there any hour limit?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Two or three hours it will take. You've got to get on the right side, Jayānanda.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're going to take a ride down Fifth Avenue.
Hari-śauri: This is the parade route?
Ādi-keśava: Yes. You can see there's no wires, so we don't even have to bring the top down except for the very end entering into Washington Square Park.
Prabhupāda: (break) He has told that we have got already a copy.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Your Bhāgavatam was here?
Hari-śauri: Where was that, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This library is the biggest library in the country. Forty-second street. You can go back up on Madison and Park. (break)
Rāmeśvara: ...carts all the way down.
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Rāmeśvara: About two to three hours.
Hari-śauri: The parade, Ratha-yātrā.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two hours. (break)
Prabhupāda: Lord Rāma's, what is this?
Hari-śauri: There's shop there with a sign of Lord Rāma's.
Rāmeśvara: Train station? Grand Central?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Grand Central Station.
Ādi-keśava: You want to go on the upper level and around?
Ādi-keśava: That's when we ah... Toṣaṇa, isn't that the picture that you showed them to show what our carts look like? He told the police, to get our permit, that our carts were like those little small rathas, so that we could get the permit. He said that we were having a parade with hand-pulled floats. When they thought of hand-pulled floats, they thought of little wagons.
Hari-śauri: They're going to get a shock.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's breaking the news to them slowly.
Hari-śauri: We did that in Melbourne. But then gradually we let them see. Then they took us out for a trial run and everything. (break)
Prabhupāda: Note down in the account book. (break)
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It's very funny that Ninth Avenue turns into Amsterdam Avenue at this point. Ninth Avenue becomes Amsterdam Avenue on about Sixtieth Street.
Rāmeśvara: Yesterday there was a big parade in New York City, all people who are against abortion, they were marching. The U.S. is having a presidential election, so the Democratic party, they are having their convention in New York City to decide who will be their candidate for President. So all these people were marching to try to convince him to be against abortion. But he has already said he will not take any issue, he will not take a stand, because it is too controversial.
Prabhupāda: Who?
Prabhupāda: You are now in New York?
Mr. Kallman: I live here.
Prabhupāda: Oh. No, you live I know. Sometimes you go out.
Mr. Kallman: Much traveling, but we've come for the parade.
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Mr. Kallman: Down Fifth Avenue.
Prabhupāda: So often you come to the temple?
Mr. Kallman: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. Hm. So? (break)
Mr. Kallman: Any way I can help Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Thank you. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Mr. Kallman: You're going to have a big parade. My favorite.
Prabhupāda: You have got that store?
Mr. Kallman: Well, we're doing well wholesaling now, Prabhupāda. We sell to stores, department stores across the United States. We had to give up the store because we couldn't have, you know, timewise.
Prabhupāda: Hm. You are now making wholesaling.
Mr. Kallman: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Mr. Kallman: To see you.
Prabhupāda: Thank you very much.
Mr. Kallman: We'll see you at the parade.
Prabhupāda: Give this to Mrs. Kallman. Yes.
Mr. Kallman: Very, very much. Thank you very much, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa, jaya.
Rāmeśvara: We've been talking, if these management questions come, then it is a distraction, but also... Even if the devotees are here and it is preachings, even then it's, so much time is taken. So we want to do the thing which is most pleasing. So we were thinking to arrange a (indistinct) less darśana with the devotees.
Rāmeśvara: Do you have any questions about our festival coming up this Sunday? You know we're marching down Fifth Avenue.
Interviewer: Are you going to march?
Rāmeśvara: He asks if you are going to participate in the Ratha-yātrā Parade.
Hari-śauri: This is the parade that it's based on.
Rāmeśvara: This is a photograph of what takes place in India every year. It's a traditional festival in India, we are bringing it to New York. We've got our permits and everything.
Prabhupāda: We have already got in San Francisco, in Chicago...
Rāmeśvara: Philadelphia.
Prabhupāda: In Philadelphia.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes, Sanskrit department.
Prabhupāda: Very learned scholar in Sanskrit. Titles in Sanskrit.
Hṛdayānanda: (break) ...Ratha-yātrā, "No Parking. Sunday Parade."
Prabhupāda: You convince the authorities of America that my logic, andha-paṅgor nyāya. Who will explain this? Andha-paṅgor nyāya, lame and blind logic.
Hari-śauri: Ah, lame and blind.
Bali-mardana: Oh, yes, I told a reporter that just a few days ago.
Prabhupāda: America is blind by money. Dhana-madāndha, when one gets too much money he becomes blind. Dhana-durmadāndha. Tasmād bhajanti kavayo dhana-durmadāndha. To get too much riches means he becomes fool and blind. He doesn't care. So this blindness of America... And we Indians, we have no money, but we have got culture. Combine together, then things will be very nicely done for the good of the whole world. Simply money is not the end; there must be culture. Take that culture, Vedic culture, and use it by American money, then the whole world will be paradise, Vaikuṇṭha. In India one paper, Sunday, they have published a nice article about us: "Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Catches On."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. It has a bathroom in it. That's going to accompany the parade in case at any time you require it, that will be right there. So it can go alongside the cart. At four o'clock we'll arrive, and at about four-thirty Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja will give a short introduction for you, and at four forty-five you'll speak. So at four forty-five you're expected to give the lecture. It begins at two o'clock at Fifty-ninth Street for two hours. Then by five or five-fifteen the whole thing will be over. So I wanted to know what time you would like to join the parade.
Prabhupāda: So you suggest.
Prabhupāda: No, no. What is the best? Starting point, my presence required?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, it's not a question of required. I mean that's a very exciting time, you know, but I wouldn't say it's required. We're going to start. One way or the other, we have to start the parade. It's exciting at that time, but you could also join midway. Suppose you could also join at Thirty-fourth Street instead of Fifty-ninth Street. Halfway is about Thirty-fourth Street. So you could join there.
Prabhupāda: That will be better.
Hari-śauri: That would be about three o'clock.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That would be at about three o'clock. It depends upon your resting period also.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So I asked, I took a poll, census poll of about six or seven GBC men, including Kīrtanānanda, Rāmeśvara, Bali-mardana, so many men who know New York, and they all thought that if you join the parade at Twenty-third Street...
Prabhupāda: Twenty-third. At what time?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ah, it'll be... It should be at about 3:15, like that.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then it will be nice. Because the whole parade is about fifty-four blocks, and you'll be riding for about nineteen blocks. It means your ride will take about forty-five minutes.
Prabhupāda: So what time I'll going to start?
Prabhupāda: Jaya. (break)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...this city, this will be a small parade with some hand-pulled floats. Another trick of the Hare Kṛṣṇas.
Prabhupāda: Bali Mahārāja was asked for three feet of land. "Very good. You speak so nicely, such intelligent, but You are boy, You do not know how to ask. I can give You a big island." "No, I must be satisfied as I require. I don't want more. Only three feet, that's all."
Rāmeśvara: That story is in the Eighth Canto, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Hmm. I'm going now with that story. (break) "Rascal, if you give like that, where you will stay? He'll take everything!" Smārta brāhmaṇa. Simply considering "How I shall live?" (laughs)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The buses, you know the windows, some of the windows are broken a little bit—you saw them. Do you think they will look good in the parade? It's all right if the windows are not all...
Prabhupāda: Who is going to see? (break)
Hṛdayānanda: Great American paintings. What they consider to be great American paintings.
Hari-śauri: It's an art exhibition. (break)
Prabhupāda: In London they have got such a nice...
Prabhupāda: Why?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I'm not sure. I didn't deal with them. They were dealt with by Toṣaṇa Kṛṣṇa. We'll bring them some present tomorrow. But they made the statement that "If every parade was so beautiful and so nicely orderly, we would be very happy."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They said it was very orderly.
Prabhupāda: And that cannot be expected from any other group, only in this group. Such a huge crowd, and there was not a single instance of violence.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Except that one tie. One boy was punched out.
Hari-śauri: (referring to 7-UP) I sent someone out.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The procession was very well attended.
Prabhupāda: Yes, then there is no need.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I heard people say "We've never seen such a festival, never seen such a parade." I heard these comments. One man said... Someone said, "What's going on?" and he said, "Oh, they have so many things going on here." They were very appreciative. And actually we could not put our full energy into it this year because we were so busy preparing the building simultaneously.
Prabhupāda: And above all, the atmosphere, the weather, was very nice.
Bali-mardana: Oh, yes, Kṛṣṇa has blessed us.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (laughs) The breeze was there. We did not feel any...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No discomfort.
Prabhupāda: Yes, I say fatherland. India, motherland; this is fatherland.
Bali-mardana: It is so nice that now in New York they are receiving you so nicely, this parade. Everyone is turning out to greet you. You are like the local boy who made good. So now they are receiving you very grandly.
Prabhupāda: Yes, continue this program. People will be attracted.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I was thinking that we could make a point to have many big festivals here each year, not just this one, but many.
Prabhupāda: Yes, at least three, four you can do. On Janmāṣṭamī, one; Gaura Pūrṇimā; for Śrī Rāma-navamī; and one, Ratha-yātrā.
Prabhupāda: So where is Ambarīṣa?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was not in the parade.
Bali-mardana: He is going back to..., I spoke to him for a little while. He's going back to Boston right after the parade, I think, with Aja? I spoke to him; he seemed to be a nice boy. I asked him, because we were meeting with reporters. So they like to ask who is giving you big donations. I wasn't sure whether he wanted his name to be used or not, but he said, "Oh, yes, you can use it without any question. I do not mind at all." (pause)
Prabhupāda: All right, go take rest, you have worked so hard.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, we didn't. (end)
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very nicely written. "With everybody pulling together and everybody puffing together, a huge float is tugged down Fifth Avenue yesterday during the first Ratha-yātrā Parade of International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The parade moved south from Central Park to Washington Square Park, where a free feast, music, art, dance and theater festival was held. According to a spokesperson, Ratha-yātrā is a time when people come to dance, sing and feast amidst a sublime atmosphere of bright flags, festoons, banners, garlands, flowers and incense, simply to feel the poetry and blissful nature of life.' "
Prabhupāda: Very good, this is blissful nature.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, you can see the devotees pulling the float.
Bali-mardana: Read the caption in the middle.
Prabhupāda: And they have created a civilization, wine, woman, gambling and meat.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's what it said. "The multicolored floats contrast with Fifth Avenue's concrete canyon as parade passes Thirty-fourth Street yesterday." Here it says, "An idyllic mood in saffron robes."
Prabhupāda: Everything is approved.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes, highly approved. Then there's another, New York Times.
Prabhupāda: Oh, that is not very(?) important.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Beautiful photograph.
Bali-mardana: "East Meets West in Hare Kṛṣṇa..."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "Feat."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This one is not, it's not bad, but it's not so accurate. "In size it was dwarfed by 'Operation Sale.' In popular concern it was outweighed by the Democratic National Convention. But for hundreds of Hare Kṛṣṇa followers, including many Indian immigrants to New York, yesterday's Ratha-yātrā festival was by far the most important event in an eventful month. Pulling three brightly-colored chariots down Fifth Avenue from Central Park to Washington Square, the religious group's adherents were celebrating one of the oldest holy days of the Indian calendar, the feast of Jagannātha, the Lord of the Universe, according to Kṛṣṇa doctrine. Most of the participants in the parade were young Westerners, followers from as far away as Caracas and Montreal. But the crowd included hundreds of Indians who brought the basic Kṛṣṇa faith with them from Bombay and Calcutta."
Prabhupāda: That's nice.
Prabhupāda: That's nice.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, that nice. "Like many other immigrant groups who preserved their forms of worship once they came to America, the Indians who watched or participated in the parade were pleased to see that they could keep the faith even in New York City." (laughter)
Prabhupāda: These rascals, let them come, they become baḍa sāheb.
Bali-mardana: Become what?
Prabhupāda: Baḍa sāheb.
Hari-śauri: Baḍa sāheb, big Westerner.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "While Hare Kṛṣṇa propounds doctrines of world renunciation common to other varieties of the Hindu faith, the sect, officially known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, was founded in 1966 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, whose fame as a guru came only after he arrived in the United States in the same year. For most of the Indians watching the parade, however, Hare Kṛṣṇa was close enough to their brand of Hinduism to make them feel at home."
Gurudāsa: That's good. It means that we're not a light cult. It means we have a great tradition.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, it's actually good.
Gurudāsa: They're recognizing that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: " 'It's surprising that you find this right in New York City. It's our way of life,' said Nagan Patel, a civil engineer from Jersey City, who immigrated from Bombay. 'We love New York City and America. It's the most beautiful place in the world. No other country will give such freedom for our own ceremony.' "
Prabhupāda: That's a fact, that I say always.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "But the Kṛṣṇa people were not entirely free of harassment. Along the parade route three men, including one who said he was an Evangelical Christian minister, jeered at the parade and called on parade watchers to become Christians. 'Idol worship. This is absolutely ridiculous. Read the Bible,' cried one man who would identify himself only as a normal Christian. There was a brief scuffle when an Indian immigrant tried to tear a large placard out of the hands of another heckler. The placard read 'Turn or Burn.' The police broke things up but made no arrests. 'They are insulting us,' said the Kṛṣṇa follower who declined to identify himself. 'I'm a devotee of Kṛṣṇa and Christ. These people who are doing this in the name of Christ are criminals.' " Very strong statement. "Except for the hecklers, however, the parade was generally very well received by passersby, who enjoyed the three multi-hued floats, the sun, and the chanting and dancing of the young Kṛṣṇa marchers. 'I think it's great,' said Tyrone Adams of Philadelphia, who was paying a visit to his home town of Inglewood, New Jersey. 'I'm not religious, but they're all happy and dancing, and that is what life is all about.' " Even a nonreligious person said that. "In Washington Square a crowd of about three thousand, many of whom were there as part of the normal Sunday afternoon activities, heard Swami Prabhupāda deliver a lecture. Later the crowd was served a free vegetarian feast. Along the side, Kṛṣṇa followers sold Indian sweets, Kṛṣṇa scriptures, and what one speaker described as 'transcendental paraphernalia.' "
Prabhupāda: Very good.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They have very big program, and the reporters-Dhṛṣṭadyumna was watching—he said that the reporters through the whole news, they were very grim, and then they, because they read what they say, and suddenly their faces lit up, and they said "And Hare Kṛṣṇa had a parade today!" And they described the whole parade. And they loved it, they said it was very well received. CBS reported, ABC reported, NBC reported, Channel Five gave big coverage, all the television networks gave a big coverage. It was very well publicized, with a lot of coverage and photos. They were showing movies of the parade, of you lecturing, of the crowds that were gathered taking prasādam.
Prabhupāda: Somebody should send this clipping, not our men, to...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: To your Godbrothers.
Prabhupāda: To Indira Gandhi.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We're also thinking to have a press box along the parade route, so that they can stay in an elevated position and take photos. We collected a total of about seven thousand dollars, Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: And what you spent?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Spent ten thousand. But we also collected another fifteen thousand in advertisements. So total collection was about twenty, over twenty thousand, and expenditure was under ten.
Prabhupāda: Good business. (laughter)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And that was the first year.
Rāmeśvara: (chants japa)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Next year we will collect sixty to seventy thousand dollars...
Devotee: Whew!
Prabhupāda: Private house. This is organized function you ask them a place to show our books. If they deny then we don't go. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break)
Rādhā-vallabha: This one parade in Los Angeles, the Rose Bowl, they distribute thousands of books on this one day. What happens is all the karmīs get out there, sometimes the night before, at least very, very early in the morning. They line both sides of the road.
Prabhupāda: To see?
Rādhā-vallabha: To see yes. Approximately a million people. About a million people, they're just lining both sides of the road and the street is empty before the parade. So this year we're going to have the gurukula boys do a kīrtana and go right up the road. So one million people will see the saṅkīrtana party.
Prabhupāda: To see?
Rādhā-vallabha: To see yes. Approximately a million people. About a million people, they're just lining both sides of the road and the street is empty before the parade. So this year we're going to have the gurukula boys do a kīrtana and go right up the road. So one million people will see the saṅkīrtana party.
Guru dāsa: And then it will be on television.
Rādhā-vallabha: It will probably be on television.
Hari-śauri: They have a similar parade in Melbourne like that called a Moomba. Three-quarters of a million people come for it and the whole city closes down. And they line up and down the main road and then they have a parade of floats. So they invited that we could put a float in so Bali Mardana said he would try and get the ratha cart in. Three-quarters of a million people seeing Lord Jagannātha.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Get money and spend it.
Rāmeśvara: Prasāda distribution is the best thing.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: There was a big parade in Los Angeles called the Rose Bowl, one million people. So we made ten thousand bags of peanuts and raisins and called it "Govinda's Nuts 'n' Raisins." We were tossing it to the crowd, and they were going, "Hare Kṛṣṇa! Here! Kṛṣṇa!" They were begging for it.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Rāmeśvara: We could have passed out prasāda for one million people if we had had enough money.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Earn money like that.
Rāmeśvara: Say, at Ratha-yātrā time.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Rāmeśvara: Big parades.
Prabhupāda: But America has money. Here they have no money. So preference should be given in India. They're poor.
Rāmeśvara: We can take a little bit out for these festivals in America.
Prabhupāda: Yes, if required, if required.
Rāmeśvara: If required.
Prabhupāda: Just see. One family came, and I gave them little prasādam, dahl bhatta only. How nicely they took. Yes.
Jayatīrtha: Well, the crowd that's in Trafalgar Square is mostly there already. That's the thing, because there's always people in Trafalgar Square. So when the Ratha-yātrā comes they stay and they make benefit by ajñāta-sukṛti. But the number of people that are out in the parade is not very great. I've been thinking how it can be increased, because they keep us in one small lane about as wide as this room along this road, and they make you have this small cart, and the people are spread out for so long. A lot of Hindus come, but sometimes they are so far away from the cart it's hard to keep the kīrtana very nice, so they can't see the Deities. And after being in San Francisco for so many years at the Ratha-yātrā, I didn't feel so enthusiastic. That San Francisco festival is so elevated, so wonderful. Therefore I was thinking that if we could move it...
Hṛdayānanda: (indistinct)
Jayatīrtha: Not in the same way.
Pañcadraviḍa: Do we use like a marching band in the Ratha-yātrā? If we used a marching band, a lot of people come, like a parade, like they use in the parades with trumpets and drums and all these things.
Prabhupāda: I think you can introduce in Africa also. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: These rascals, wherever they go, they create trouble.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: (reading:) "Why she was silent." This is from the Readers View column. "In the farewell talk she gave to the outgoing Communist Party members of Parliament, Mrs. Indira Gandhi is reported to have told them that she was to blame for the rout, but she does not mention what is common talk among people everywhere, and especially among the village folk: her connivance at the build-up of her son Sanjay Gandhi as the probable future prime minister of India. Mrs. Indira Gandhi's refusal throughout the last two years to face the facts about her son's inordinate ambitions has shocked most of her admirers. Could she not see that this get-rich-quick son of a mother who swore by Garibihato, as the person running the maruti,(?) was playing ducks and drakes with money taken in advance from motor agents for a people's car which has still to come on the road? Was she unaware that he was put next to the late president of India on the flagship of the Indian navy at the naval parade, though he has no position in the government of our country?
Prabhupāda: If somebody has said, then I shall know that he has practiced.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So this is what Prabhupāda's going to look for.
Mr. Myer: We actually have a two-way program. One is to get in more money, and the other is to save what's going out. Because the parade(?) all through the mission are not even thousand in a month in some months. It's only 845 rupees in a month. On the average it's only 1,600. And prasāda, about 2,600. Main money was coming in saṅkīrtana parties. They keep going out and they mail in a lot of money. Some money is coming from donations. But the generation here is very limited. I think that's what we really need to attract. How would you like, get that initiated boy to start work for you?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I don't know what Prabhupāda... I mean... So Mr. Myer should begin.
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Prabhupāda: If we introduce this Ratha-yātrā in every city, all other religions will be finished. (laughs) Eh?
Upendra: Yes, Prabhupāda. In San Francisco there's nothing. The only thing in San Francisco is the Chinese Parade people come for. And the next thing is Ratha-yātrā. It is bigger than the Chinese parade, the Ratha-yātrā.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It says here...
Prabhupāda: Ratha-yātrā is highly demonstrative. And what Chinese parade?
Upendra: One dragon only.
Prabhupāda: Childish. What dragon will help?
Prabhupāda: They have nothing to preach. What they have got to preach?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Here's a picture. It shows only two pictures. Here is the difference between the Moonies and us. Here is a picture of some Moon woman. She has a picture of Moon on her button and her daughter waving the American flag. And then here's us, the devotees. "Hare Kṛṣṇa followers parade on the street." This is in New York. These are some of the New York devotees. "The drop-out rate is high, but there is a slow though steady growth rate among the small membership." This is from the New York Times. I know all these devotees.
Prabhupāda: Slow but sure.
Prabhupāda: Last year in Washington I was there.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: July Fourth. Oh, yes, you were there. They had a fireworks demonstration, and you saw a parade, I think.
Upendra: Bicentennial?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah, that was a big one, two-hundredth anniversary of the independence. The karmīs are very happy about these holidays like this July Fourth, but they are not as happy as devotees. We are even happier, because we know that all the karmīs will buy even more books on these days.
Prabhupāda: (Bengali)
Prabhupāda: Where they went? All bogus.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they were rewarded by people throwing cut-up newspaper on their heads. That's considered a great... When someone gets this... It's called ticker-tape parade.
Prabhupāda: Purposely the Western money has been taken. What is the meaning of?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I think Jayādvaita has called their number in the Back to Godhead article: demons. Right out he calls them demons.
Prabhupāda: Yes. We have to describe the demon very nicely.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually you described them. He was just repeating what you have written in Bhagavad-gītā. (sound of hammers)
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Pañca-draviḍa: One parade.
Prabhupāda: Others will come also.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yeah, well, if we go through Vṛndāvana, probably many people will come.
Haṁsadūta: Then we could also get some experience, because if we were, for example, to go to Govardhana, we would have to pass over similar roads.
Lokanātha: This cart does not have cover, Śrīla Prabhupāda. This bullock cart which I hired has no cover on the top.
Prabhupāda: Govardhana?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Govardhana.
Pañca-draviḍa: That's very far. We went on one parade three years ago in Vṛndāvana, with elephants, that Your Divine Grace went. Maybe we could go on that same route.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Govardhana will take about six hours to reach there.
Lokanātha: No, how many kilometers is that?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, it's very far.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Twenty-eight to thirty kilometers.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: It takes one hour by car.
Lokanātha: Take five kilometers an hour.
Pañca-draviḍa: And the bulls might have to rest.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You have to rest the bulls, don't you?
Pañca-draviḍa: There's one route we went on in Vṛndāvana, on a parade. Shorter route. First time, as an experiment, we could go a shorter distance.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's quite a big experiment to make, going to Govardhana the first day, Śrīla Prabhupāda. You feel confident that you can travel nine hours in a row on a bullock cart?
Prabhupāda: I am sleeping here.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Lokanātha: He says he's sleeping here.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But this is not a bullock cart.
Prabhupāda: The same thing.
Correspondence
1969 Correspondence
I thank you very much for your letter (undated), and I have noted the contents with pleasure. Your description of the parade with 55,000 people viewing is very much encouraging, and it is clear that Krishna is giving you nice opportunities for spreading the Sankirtana Movement throughout Hawaii. Send pictures of your activities in this parade and your other activities to Hayagriva for being printed in Back To Godhead. I appreciate very much that you are a thoughtful, intelligent boy, and you have got Krishna's Grace undoubtedly. Your good Godbrothers and Godsisters also speak highly of you, so continue to develop as you are doing and Krishna will surely be very pleased upon you. I am praying to Krishna for your long life and service.
There also they are arranging nicely. Most probably in Boston it will be as good as in San Francisco. In San Francisco they are making good advertisement, and they are expecting a very good crowd. I am going there on the 26th of July. I hope you will send me the pictures of your world famous parade in London. Send all detailed pictures to Brahmananda for publication in BTG. If possible, invite some Indian press representatives to report to the Indian papers how the Vedic culture is being accepted by Americans and Europeans.
So if you know of any prospective temples where this could be arranged, please inform us.
You will be pleased to know that in the Western World also there will be held several grand scale Rathayatra Festivals. Our temples in San Francisco, London, Boston, Buffalo and New York are all planning very gorgeous parades and ceremonies very similar to the ones held in Puri.
I thank you again for your letter, and I await your reply if you will be able to help us in obtaining a plot of land of 10 bighas or a temple for us to take charge of.
You can pay the balance after the 27th. This is all right. So far as the three sets of beads, I did not receive them yet. I do not know to which address the beads were sent. This afternoon I returned from San Francisco where there was a very, very successful Rathayatra Ceremony. There were at least 10,000 people who walked with us to the ocean for a ten mile parade, and everyone was chanting and dancing in ecstasy. Then at the ocean there was grand-scale Prasadam distribution and chanting again on into the evening. Everyone appreciated Krishna Consciousness so much, and it is so encouraging to see how the young boys and girls of the western countries are gradually coming to understand something of this movement.
1971 Correspondence
1972 Correspondence
I thank you very much for your many invitations to come there to enjoy with you the Lord Caitanya Day parade and festival at Berkeley. I am always thinking of that beautiful, quiet neighborhood in Berkeley, and of all my wonderful disciples there, so when I return to USA I shall certainly come there for some time. We shall be celebrating the Appearance Day in Mayapur this year form 25th to 29th February, and then I shall be returning to Bombay for the month of March to initiate construction of our first "Hare Krishna City" on a large plot of land we have purchased there. However, if for some reason I shall return to USA before then, I shall with great pleasure come to your festival at Berkeley. At least I will be present there with you all in spirit, as always, you may know that for certain.
And if he is impressed with our kirtana then it will be very easy to convince him and many other rich men. In Kanpur also we can hold Hare Krishna festival. There is a big open field, it is called "Parade." There is a big park, "Mall Road," so any of these places a Hare Krishna festival can be held like Calcutta.
Regarding Hindi BTG, I have received one letter from Niranjana Prabhu in Benares and he is proposing to form a committee of yourself, Ramananda and himself, plus Guru das and others, for streamlining the Hindi BTG and book publication department. So you may correspond with him on this point. Also, there are some Hindi translators here in Los Angeles who are willing to send you regularly articles for Back To Godhead, so you may open correspondence with them also. They are named Vinode and Niranjana, husband and wife, and you may address them in care of Los Angeles temple.
So I want that advancement amongst all of my students, so your are responsible that the standard will be maintained.
If Tusta Krsna is so much anxious to acquire a press for New Zealand, there is no harm. I have written to him to use his better judgement in the matter. If you wish to take the small 12-inch Radha Krsna Deities in the parade, that is all right.
I am in due receipt of your letters dated August 11 and Sept. 2, 1972, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very glad to hear that you have conducted one nice parade and festival through the city streets of Hamburg. Yes the German people, they like to hear philosophy, so if you can arrange some philosophers' meeting we can come.
I have read your account of the incidents of fighting with the hoodlums with great concern. After all, this world is full of darkness and controlled by the demons, so difficulties are there certainly. But if we stick to the lotus feet of Krsna, these difficulties will be over, just like a child jumps over the pit caused by the hoof of a calf. Krsna fought with so many demons so fighting is not prohibited if it is for the good cause.
| Page Title: | Parade |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 29 of Jun, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=2, CC=0, OB=1, Lec=2, Con=52, Let=10 |
| No. of Quotes: | 67 |