Srila Prabhupada Realizations By Guru Maharaja Part-3

He rather suggested that his disciples collectively
maintain the institution. He did not name anybody as Acarya. He said manage the institution collectively through a governing body. But, unfortunately soon after his disappearance there was a split in the institution. Some thought that the institution should be maintained collectively through a collective management as Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakur pointed out but some others felt that how can a spiritual organization be maintained by a group of managers. Therefore there is a need for an Acarya. Although Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakur did not appoint an Acarya, they appointed an Acarya. And that personality was an extremely brilliant personality. I heard that he was so brilliant, in those days they used to take notes, there was no tape recorder and if they missed out some parts, they used to ask this person. And his memory was so sharp that he could repeat what Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati Thakur had said. If Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakur got stuck with some verse, some scriptures, he used to provide. He was an extremely brilliant personality. It was decided that he should become an Acarya. Those that proposed that he become an Acarya, were themselves extremely brilliant personalities. I had the good fortune of being very close to the personality who was the orchestrator of this thing. He was a very brilliant personality as well. Srila Prabhupada was also very close to him. He himself didn’t want to become an Acarya. His name was Ananta Vasudev. If he was such a brilliant personality then you can imagine how brilliant a personality was person appointed as Acarya. But unfortunately after some time it was detected that he was having an affair with a woman. They found some love letters written by him and then he was exposed. In this way when the Acarya fell down you can imagine what happened. The structure collapsed. Already the institution was divided.
Now there was a further division, and the substance was lost. That strength that it was standing on the spiritual potency of the Acarya was not there. In course of time we saw how the Gaudiya math disintegrated. Although they are there, their temples are there, the spiritual activities are going on, they’re giving initiation, their preaching and their cultivating is going on and so forth, but the dynamic movement that Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati established, that was not there. Then fortunately Srila Prabhupada came, our Srila Prabhupada came. Prabhupada was actually an insignificant personality during that time, it is not that he was lacking in his brilliance by any chance. But nobody could see that. I discovered some early writings of Srila Prabhupada from 1948, 1940 onwards of the Gaudiya Math
magazines. I discovered some early writings and I could see they were such brilliant writings. But Srila Prabhupada was not really recognized. Because they saw him as a householder so there was no exposure to his brilliance, although it was there. It was not that all of a sudden he became saktyaveshar avatar, as some less intelligent persons think. They think that Srila Prabhupada was a nobody and then suddenly he became a saktyaveshar avatar. But that is not the case. Srila Prabhupada has always been that great personality. From his writing and his actions we saw Srila Prabhupada’s surrender and sacrifice. Who can make such a sacrifice? At the age of 26, a householder, married, with a child and a very very coveted job, Srila Prabhupada practically sacrificed everything for the sake of fulfilling the mission of his spiritual master. Where do we find this kind of sacrifice? At that time Gaudiya math was not that prominently established. It was just one small little house and Srila Prabhupada was one of the first people who actually went to listen to Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakur He just came after 10 years of tapasya at Mayapur, chanting 1 billion names, which meant for 10 years Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakur chanted 300 000 names, meaning 192 rounds a day without fail. He completed 100crore names, which means 1 billion names (1000 million names) of the Lord. To fulfill that vow he was there for 10 years. When he completed it he came to Calcutta to start to preach. He rented a part of a small 2 story building and it became his ashram. Some people were coming to listen to him and some became impressed. One of Prabhupada’s friends became very impressed with him. Prabhupada was the leader of his group. For example whenever they did anything they wanted his approval. So they wanted to verify the caliber of this sadhu that they came across.
So they wanted Srila Prabhupada to come, ‘Come and tell us what you think of this sadhu.’ Prabhupada ‘s initial response was that ‘I am not interested in this sadhu. I have seen many sadhus and I know what they are. They are just a bunch of professional beggars. They just come and don’t have any spiritual profundity, any spiritual depth.’ And his friend who was coming from a very wealthy family, one of the richest families of Calcutta of that time, the Mallik family, insisted that ‘No Abhay, please come. This sadhu is not like that. Please come. He seems to be very learned, very scholarly. There is something very special about him.’ Then Prabhupada finally went and you all know what is the consequence of that meeting. In the first meeting, Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakur saw Srila Prabhupada and just addressed him that ‘Educated young men like you should spread the message of Caitanya Mahaprabhu throughout the world in the English language.’ Prabhupada couldn’t figure out who he was actually addressing. ‘Me?’ ‘Yes, you.’ Prabhupada was there with other friends, other young men, but when finally Bhaktisiddanta
Sarasvati pointed out that ‘You I am talking to.’ When they were returning home, his friend asked him, Naren Mallik, that ‘Abhay what do you think of it’? Srila Prabhupada response was that now that the message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has come through such a personality, he will do something about it. Not only that but Srila Prabhupada commented that something is going to happen but Prabhupada himself committed to this mission. He quit his job and practically left all the other responsibilities to commit himself to this mission. This is how Prabhupada’s spiritual life started. Prabhupada did not get involved straight away. Prabhupada was ———-? He did not join Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati’s institution then and there on a fulltime basis. He was carrying on with his own life, preparing himself how to spread this Krishna consciousness all over the world. Once I heard Prabhupada telling himself that at that time he thought that he would make a lot of money by running a business. And with that money, he would go to the West and fulfill this mission. But Prabhupada was not successful in his business. It was a struggle. He quit his job and started a business but his business was a failure. But Prabhupada did not give up.
And Prabhupada mentioned that finally when Caitanya Mahaprabhu sent him to the West, he sent him as a pauper, without any money, without any resources.