Spiritual commitment sometimes requires difficult choices between family duty and Krishna consciousness.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Room Conversation — June 18, 1972, Los Angeles 720618R1-LOS ANGELES [07:06 Minutes] Conv_720618R1-LOS ANGELES Śyāmasundara: Mr. Sarda has some relatives in London, and he was… The relatives were trying to force the girls to go to Nairobi, and they still, they did not want to go. So they ran away to Bombay.
Prabhupāda: Huh? Śyāmasundara: They went to Bombay.
Prabhupāda: They have gone to Bombay? Śyāmasundara: Yes. So they are living in our temple in Bombay. The two girls. And this father wants them to come home for some reason.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. I did not know all these things. Śyāmasundara: It's not very important. He can send a letter. So many… If you try to involve yourself with so many of these things… [laughs] There are so many things like this going on all over the world, and if you try to deal with all of them… Prabhupāda: So why they have gone to Bombay? Śyāmasundara: Because their parents were sending agents to force them to go off to Nairobi.
So they had to escape. They wanted to go to India.
Prabhupāda: So what is their objection to go to Nairobi? Śyāmasundara: They just don't… They want be..., remain devotees. They say their father eats meat, and they violate all the principles, and they force them to stay away from the temple.
Prabhupāda: Father eats meat? Śyāmasundara: They think that their parents will try to force them from coming to the temple. Prabhupāda: But how we can advise them not..., to disobey their father? Śyāmasundara: No. I told Dhanañjaya that if his father..., their father wants, then they should go to Nairobi. He called me to ask advice, and I said then they should go if their father and mother insist. And he said, "But they don't want to go.