By following the guru's order with faith and persistence, Krishna consciousness naturally spreads throughout the world.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Appearance Day of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura — February 11, 1974, Vṛndāvana 740211BA-VRNDAVAN [25:47 Minutes] BhaktisiddhantaApp_740211BA-VRNDAVAN [poor recording] Prabhupāda: [prema-dhvani prayers] So, all these garlands, the Vaiṣṇava who has come, garland. Hare Kṛṣṇa. [break] Dr. Kapoor: Most revered Prabhupāda, my brother and sisters of ISKCON and devotees.
It's not a, it is not merely an act of formality that I rise to speak on this occasion. The appearance day of Śrīla Prabhupāda. It is a day of great importance to me as with everybody else who has come here today to celebrate this function. I do not know how to explain the importance of this day.
Should I say that on this day was laid the very foundation for the beautiful mansion of ISKCON which Prabhupāda is building and which promises to be the 'Taj', so to say, of the spiritual world. The greatest wonder of the spiritual world. Should I say that on this day, fell a seed from the spiritual tree of Kṛṣṇa prema which was sown by Mādhavendra Purī and of which the trunk was Śrīmān Mahāprabhu and the branches were Advaita, Advaita Ācārya, Nityānanda Prabhu, Rūpa, Sanātana and those. A seed fell from this tree on this day in the form of Śrīla Prabhupāda Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja. It has sprouted in the form of Gaudya mission and it is now growing in the form of ISKCON and I hope you will continue to grow until the prophecy of Mahāprabhu is fulfilled. The prophecy, the teachings of Mahāprabhu will be carried to every nook and corner of the world. But I should like to express the importance of this day in a different way which is more dear to me.
I should like to say that on this day was born a great spiritual scientist, a great spiritual alchemist, who worked wonders with the science of spiritual alchemy. You know the science of alchemy changes baser metals into gold and silver. Now this spiritual alchemist had the wonderful power of changing baser men into superior men. Of changing sinners into saints, of changing nonbelievers into believers.
Non-Vaisnava's into Vaisnavas and when I say this, I speak from my personal experience. Should I tell you, that I was a very different man some 45 years ago. I was a rank ah, rank ah, I shouldn't say non-believer, but I was a rank Māyāvādī. A firm believer in the doctrine of Advaita-ism.
As a student of philosophy and as a favourite student of Dr Reddy the head of the philosophy Department of Allahabad University. I had come to believe that there was no philosophy on the face of earth higher than the philosophy of Advaita-ism. The philosophy of Māyāvād and there was no end superior to the end of the attainment of nirvikul samādhi in which one realises one's complete identity with Brahma. [break] This was my firm belief, and it was impossible for anyone to dislodge me from it.
But you know..., and you’ll not believe what happened one day when I first met my Prabhupāda, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Goswāmī Mahārāja, at Allahabad at the house of one Mr. De, sometime in the month of August 1931. As I went to see him, he stared into my eyes, seemed to be looking deep into me, and it appeared that he had discovered something that nobody had discovered. He had discovered the ghost in me, the ghost of Māyāvāda, which had possessed me.