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Bhāgavat dharma and harinām saṅkīrtan that Mahāprabhu came to preach was almost

gone, and it was given to only a few Vaiṣṇavs. Instead, there were a lot of

very impure, contaminated groups.

So Bhaktivinod Ṭhākur came, and his life is so amazing that--he took this role

of a gṛhastha and he was a magistrate, you know, he had a government job--but if

you read his life you could see, that actually, he was an eternal associate of

Kṛṣṇa. Because how else could he learn so much, so many things, so much śāstra,

wrote so many books, preach so much, and completely change the environment

that he was born into? So he was not a gṛhastha, he was not a magistrate, he

was not even an ordinary Vaiṣṇav--you could see that.

And then he saw that the ordinary people, they did not have any respect for

Vaiṣṇavism, because there were all these pseudo-Vaiṣṇav groups, which he called

apasampradaẏas. And he identified them; there were thirteen of them. And he

wrote so many books in so many languages. And if you don't read anything else,

but just read Bhaktivinod Ṭhākur's books, you will know everything. That's how

much he brought this religion back.

And then he had all these sons, but one of them, Bimalāprasād, he took up

his father's mission. And what Śrīla Prabhupād Saraswatī Ṭhākur did, that is so

amazing. That is one of the most amazing things in the history of religion,

because he institutionalized this Vaiṣṇav dharma, which was never done before.

So what was contained in a few devotees, he gave it to many. He made an

institution so it will come out of this treasure trove and it will go to the

public. This was never done in the history of India, which is the place of

bhāgavat dharma, the eternal principles of religion--even in India, this was

never done.

What he did was totally unique, totally new, and revolutionary. Like Śrīmad

Bhāgavatam says that "These words of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, they can cause a

revolution," right? But who made that revolution possible? Śrīla Prabhupād

Saraswatī Ṭhākur. Because revolution cannot be a thing of few people.

Revolution means it involves many people. Millions of people. That's a

revolution. And he caused that revolution. After Mahāprabhu, he is the one who

caused this revolution to take place in India, by making this institution.

So, Bhaktivinod Ṭhākur told us what is vaiṣṇavatā, what is this religion, and

what it is not. But Prabhupād Saraswatī Ṭhākur did many things. He made an

institution so it could be preached. At the same time, if you read his

books--he did not write any books, he gave lectures, and of all his disciples,

Śrīla Bhakti Pramod Purī Mahārāj, he wrote down every word. From those words,

some articles were written. That's how we have what he said. There was no tape

recorder those days.

So, if you read his books--actually, there are so many Bengali articles which

have not been translated. And even though I'm a fallen conditioned soul, I have

the good fortune to know Bengali. But I don't have a good brain, and no bhakti.

So I read them, but I cannot say I understand them. So I hope that they will be

translated, so those who are intelligent, like you all, and have bhakti, you can

understand what Prabhupād said, which I cannot understand.

But I do understand that his other thing was to keep it very pure. Very, very

pure. He's always saying what is bhakti and what is not, what is bhakti and

what is not. And always wanted to know that--like my Guru Maharaj, Śrīla

Śrīdhar Mahārāj used to say, "Emotion is not devotion--service is devotion." So

he would teach us that--what is bhakti? It is not emotion.

One person was playing on his harmonium and Prabhupād saw him on the

street of Calcutta. He was singing, "O Kṛṣṇa, come to my heart and stand

there in Your curved form and play your flute for me," and Prabhupād got so

angry! He said, "What do you think, Kṛṣṇa is your servant? You will just call

Him and He will do it? What have you done for Kṛṣṇa, that He will come to your

heart and play His flute for you?" So this way he taught his disciples that a

show of devotion is not devotion.

The other day I was reading in Bengali, in one of those Bengali articles, that

Prabhupād is saying, even if you have knowledge of all śāstras, you should

really think, what is your goal? If your goal is to get some position because

of your knowledge of śāstra, then you are not a devotee. And we must

discriminate between those who are motivated by pure bhakti and those who are

not.

He gave this example, that the architect will build mansions. And the rich

people will live in those mansions. Now are their objectives the same? No.

Similarly, just because you are in this line, and you are learning, or you know

this and that, that does not mean you are a Vaiṣṇav, because a Vaiṣṇav's goal is

to have Kṛṣṇa-prem, not to have some position for himself.

So he made many such--he was very, very careful that we will not misunderstand

what this concept is. That was another goal of his, not just to preach it. He

said we'll preach, we'll go, we'll ride elephants, we'll ride camels, we'll ride

horses, we'll go by train, we'll go by boat, we'll go by car, we'll preach. But

first we have to know, what are we going to preach. Our foundation has to be

very strong. And even today, that is so relevant.

And he made this foundation, so we have to--whenever we have some question, we

have to go back to him, and see that--because he started this mission. And he

knew the problems we'll have, when we have an institution, when we're not

bābājīs any more, or followers of bābājīs, when we are preaching, what great

responsibility we'll have.

He knew that we'll have politics. Politics will enter the mission. Because

when we have so many people, then all these social concepts, political concepts,

will enter. He knew that. Yet he took that risk, because--he so much wanted

this Mahāprabhu's message to reach everyone, that he took that great risk. He

knew that there will be politics, there will be corruption, there will be even

violence--he knew all these things. He talked about them, and he said we have

to take risks.

And he said that every person in Gauṙīẏa mission, they should be prepared to

give two hundred gallons of their blood to make one devotee. So if I have two

hundred gallons of blood, it's probably so contaminated! But anyway, this

is Prabhupād's goal, his message to us, that we have to know what bhakti is, we

have to be very--we have to have guru-niṣṭhā, and then only we can preach. And

preaching is the goal of life. Just like Gour Govinda Mahārāj was saying, prāṇ

āchhe yār, sei hetu prachār. So first we have to get life, and understand what

life is, and then we have to preach.

And he said that, "I will always be with you." He said that none of his--"I

have not made any disciples. You are actually all my gurus. I have not made

any disciples." And he said that, "I am leaving now," and he told all his

disciples, but some in particular, that "Now I'm giving you this mission". They

are our guru-varga. "Now I'm giving you this mission, and you have to carry on

my wishes. I have left everything for you. So you can always count on me. You

can always come back to me."

So with this I will finish my talk, and I hope you'll all forgive me for being

so unqualified to talk about Śrīla Prabhupād Saraswatī Ṭhākur.

Śrīla Prabhupād Saraswatī Ṭhākur ki jaẏ! The assembled Vaiṣṇavs and Vaiṣṇavis ki

jay!