Prabhupada, Gorakhpur, February 15, 1971: […] Then there were other Godbrothers. I consulted them that, “Guru Maharaja said like this. What can I do?” So they also encouraged me. I was writing. There was a paper, Harmonist. Then, by their desires, I started this Back to Godhead in 1944. That was also started on his advent day, this advent day.
Back to Godhead was started. Yes. There was a meeting, and many friends came, and we first started this Back to Godhead on his advent day, this advent day, 1944. So our paper, Back to Godhead, the advent day is also today. Yes.
Hamsaduta: Doubly auspicious.
Prabhupada: Yes. So at that time, there was no sale of Back to Godhead. I was publishing about one thousand copies and distributing. So there was no income.
I was spending three hundred, four hundred rupees from my pocket. At that time, I had income. Then, gradually… I wanted to remain as a grihastha and preach, but Guru Maharaja did not like this idea. I could understand.
Sometime I was dreaming that he was calling me, and I was horrified that, “I’ll have to go away from home.” (laughter) So at last it happened so that I left my home in 1950 and became a vanaprastha.
I was living sometimes here and there. In 1959 I took sannyasa. But that Back to Godhead was going on. Then there was some inner dictation that, “This paper, Back to Godhead, I am publishing, people are taking.” Some friend advised me that, “Why don’t you write some books? That will be nice.”
So then I began to translate Srimad-Bhagavatam. And because I left home, so practically I had no income. With this Bhagavatam, er, Back to Godhead, I was selling and I was some way or other maintaining. And whatever little money I had, that was finished.
Then, when I wrote book, Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto was finished. So I approached the Bhaiji of… Perhaps Mataji knows this. (chuckles) In 1962. So I asked him that “You take this publication.” So I am very much obliged to Bhaiji.
He said that, “Our English printing is not very efficient. You can get this book published from elsewhere. I shall partly help you.” So he helped me with some money from the Dalmia Trust, and I first of all published my first part of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Then I published second part also. There was sale. Then there was no necessity of money.
I was getting money by selling Srimad-Bhagavatam. Everyone appreciated. Even your American Embassy here, they purchased eighteen copies, and they gave me open order that, “Whenever this Bhagavata will be published next part, subsequent parts, this is open order, eighteen copies, each part.” That order is still there.
So after publishing three parts of Srimad-Bhagavatam, then automatically, Guru Maharaja gave me indication that, “Now you can start for America.” So some way or other, in 1965 I went to America, with great difficulty. But I took about two hundred sets of books. The customs clearance was done, I told them that, “Oh, I am taking these books for distribution. Not for sale.”
Anyway, they passed, and with these books I reached America. And I was maintaining myself by selling these books for one year. There was no friend, and I was living in apartment with great difficulty.
Still, the whole, I mean to say, stock, and my typewriter, my tape recorder—everything was stolen. In this way, I became very much depressed, and I was going to the shipping company, “When the next ship is going for, going to India?” So they gave me such and such date. Then I thought, “Let me wait for some time more. Then I shall return back.” I had return ticket, of course. There was no difficulty.
In this way, 1966, by selling these books, I had only $200, and I dared to take one apartment and storefront. Storefront one $125 per month, and apartment $75. So I had only $200 dollars. So I advanced him $200. I did not know how to pay next month’s rent. So I started in 1966, lecturing in a storefront and living in that apartment in 26 Second Avenue. Then gradually, these boys, American boys and girls, began to come.
And then I started my kirtana in Tompkinson Square. More and more, these younger Americans, they came to me, and things were organized. Then I registered this Krishna Consciousness Society under religious act of New York in 1966, and gradually people took interest. People means the younger section. All the boys and girls, they were from sixteen… Not all sixteen, but there were sixteen.
Krishna dasa was at that time sixteen years old. And… Between twenty to thirty. Only, I think, Keith—now Kirtanananda Maharaja—he was at that time twenty-nine. Hayagriva was, I think, twenty-nine. So in this way…This Hayagriva, I met him on the street. After renting the apartment and storefront, when I was returning, this Hayagriva, Professor Howard Wheeler, he was philosophically minded.
So he asked me, “Swamiji, are you coming from India?” So I told, “Yes, I am coming from India.” So, “Are you interested in Indian philosophy?” “Yes, sir.” “So why don’t you come? I have taken one storefront and apartment.” So I came back. I showed him, “Here is my storefront and apartment. You come in the evening.” So… (Hindi)
So the Hayagriva and Kirtanananda, Keith, and some other boys, I think, Satsvarupa…
Pradyumna: Ravindra Svarupa?
Prabhupada: Ravindra, yes, yes, he was there.
Tamala Krishna: Mukunda.
Prabhupada: Mukunda. In this way, five or six students used to come. Gradually, it developed. Then we started next branch in San Francisco, next branch in Montreal, next branch in Buffalo, Boston. In this way… Now we have got forty-five branches. So practically, we began work from 1968. ’66 I started, but… And ’67 I became very much sick. So I came back to India, and again I went there in 1968. Practically, this propaganda work began vigorously from 1968.
So from 1968, ’69, ’70, and this, ’71. So three, four years, all these branches have grown up, and now practically, throughout the whole continent, Europe and America, they know what is Hare Krishna maha-mantra. Due it to our propaganda. Just like these boys. You have seen they are chanting and dancing. We send street sankirtana even the most busiest quarter of New York, Fifth Avenue.
And they go. The American boys, they are very daring. Sometimes police arrest them. And police is not harassing. The public and police, both, they are now sympathetic, that, “Here is a movement which is actually genuine and very beneficial to our people.” They are sympathetic. And even some of the Christian priests, they are also very sympathetic.
They say that, “These boys, American boys, they are our boys. They’re so nice that they’re mad after God, but we could not give them. Swamiji has given them.” So they appreciate. Actually, these boys, they come from Christian family, Jewish family. There are many churches in America.
I was surprised. When I first went to Butler, that’s a small county, but I saw there about dozen of churches. So I thought the American people are very religiously- minded. And actually so. The history of the American people, mostly they came from England for this religious purpose. So they migrated in America for being religiously advanced.
So American people, I very much appreciate them. They are religious. They have got very good potency for understanding God consciousness. That is my opinion. And I do not know why I was inclined to go to America. It was also Krishna’s desire. Because I thought that, “If this movement, Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement…” Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that,
prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama
That is His prediction, that “As many towns and villages are there on the surface of the globe, everywhere, this message of Hare Krsna mantra and Lord Caitanya’s name will be there.” So I thought that, “I should go to America. If the American people take it seriously, then other people will take it.”
So actually, that is happening. These boys are so enthusiastic in preaching that on my word, they are going any part of the world. Any part of the world. They are prepared to go any part of the world.
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