The eternal soul must revive its natural, constitutional position as servant of Krishna through bhakti.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Lecture at MPV College — December 24, 1970, Surat 701224LE-SURAT [25:27 Minutes] Lecture_701224LE-SURAT Prabhupāda: oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ [I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my guru, my spiritual master, opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him.] śrī-caitanya-mano-'bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam [I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him. When will Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī Prabhupāda, who has established within this material world the mission to fulfill the desire of Lord Caitanya, give me shelter under his lotus feet?] vande ‘haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitaṁ taṁ sa-jīvam [I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master and unto the feet of all Vaiṣṇavas. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī along with his elder brother Sanātana Gosvāmī, as well as Raghunātha Dāsa and Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa, and Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī. I offer my respectful obeisances to Lord Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda along with Advaita Ācārya, Gadādhara, Śrīvāsa, and other associates. I offer my respectful obeisances to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and Śrī Kṛṣṇa along with Their associates Śrī Lalitā and Viśākhā.] he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate gopeśa gopikā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo 'stu te [O my dear Kṛṣṇa, ocean of mercy, You are the friend of the distressed and the source of creation. You are the master of the cowherd men and the lover of the gopīs, especially Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.] tapta-kāñcana-gaurāṅgī rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari vṛṣabhānu-sute devī praṇamāmi hari-priye [I offer my respects to Rādhārāṇī, whose bodily complexion is like molten gold and who is the Queen of Vṛndāvana. You are the daughter of King Vṛṣabhānu, and You are very dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa.] [01:05] Mr. Principal, boys and girls, I am very happy to meet you, and I shall try to explain what is this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement that we have inaugurated from the Western world. I was… Long before, I wrote one letter to Mahatma Gandhi, perhaps in the year 1946, requesting him to preach the gospel of Bhagavad-gītā as it is.
I told him that "Mahatmajī, your position is unique, and you are lover of Bhagavad-gītā. Now, somehow or other, your people have attained independence; you can retire from this politics and take to the business of preaching Bhagavad-gītā as it is." Unfortunately, I did not receive any reply from him. He was so busy. The fact is that since a very long time, I was thinking that throughout the whole world there are so many parties for political emancipation, which is only temporary thing, but there is no party representing Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That was my dream, that if Lenin and other big, big political leaders, they could form their party, why not Bhagavad-gītā, or the followers of the Bhagavad-gītā, or the devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa do form a party to preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all over the world?
That was my ambition. But I tried to start this movement in India. I saw Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, I saw President Radhakrishnan, I saw Lal Bihari Shastri, many prominent men, and requested them that this is Indian original culture—Kṛṣṇa consciousness—and if we present this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in its right form, people will accept it, and the whole world will be benefited. But… Of course, I was sympathetically received by Lal Bihari Shastri. He was very much sympathetic with me. And our President Radhakrishnan, he promised that "Swāmījī, maybe after retirement I shall join you." Anyway, I could not get any help either from the politicians or from any other party.
Then I decided that I should go to America. And I was dreaming that if the American people will accept this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, maybe our Indian brothers may follow them. So I went to America in 1965, September, alone, without… You know government does not allow any money to be carried, so I had only forty rupees with me. And somehow or other I secured a free passage to New York, and I got my P-form passed also by the then chief controller of foreign exchange, Mr. Rao.
Some way or other I reached Boston on the seventeenth of September, 1965. But I was thinking that "Who will hear about my mission?" Because according to our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, one must be free from all sinful reaction. Without being freed from sinful activities, nobody can understand the science of God. Most of you have read Bhagavad-gītā. You will find there in the Tenth Chapter Arjuna is addressing Krsna as: paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān [Bg. 10.12] So God, or Kṛṣṇa, is pavitraṁ paramaṁ—supreme pure.
So if you want to understand God, if you want to see God, if you want to associate with God, then you should also become pure. Without being pure… Just like without being fire, nobody can enter into the fire. The temperature must be the same. Similarly, without being brāhmaṇa, nobody can understand Brahman.
Therefore according to Vedic injunction a brāhmaṇa is supposed to understand the Brahman. Brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ. So Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa also says, yeṣāṁ anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ. Means anyone who is completely freed from the contamination of sinful activities, yeṣāṁ anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām [Bg. 7.28] Persons who are engaged in pious activities. Because if you are engaged in pious activities, then there is no scope of engaging yourself in impious activities.