Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita
Tue, 2014-05-13 — Niranjana Swami
Over the course of the last week, having found myself confined to a lying position much more than standing, walking, and especially sitting, I decided to take up a reading project. I decided to dedicate all of my reading time to readings about Srila Prabhupada.
I first starting reading “Memories – Anecdotes of a Modern-Saint”, which is a collection of interviews recorded by Siddhanta Prabhu when he decided to interview devotees for his “Remembrances of Srila Prabhupada” video series. As I was reading and very much relishing these memories, I began thinking how nice it would be to read Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita once again. So I started reading the “Memories” book and “Srila Prabhupada Lilamarita” side by side… switching back and forth between the two books over the course of the day.
I must confess that the last time I read the entire “Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita” was when each book of the seven-book series first came out during the 1980’s. I had forgotten many of the details. I have a tendency to read every book about Srila Prabhupada as soon as it’s published. The same thing happened when “Miracle on Second Avenue” came out a few years back by H.H. Mukunda Goswami. I was given an advance copy by the publisher in Mayapura, so I sat and read it in two days, finding myself unable to put it down. I’ve noticed, however, that after I finish reading a biography of Srila Prabhupada, I just think of it as a book “already read.” So I don’t go back and read it again. I’ve now discovered that tendency as a terrible mistake.
So far I’ve read the first two volumes of Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita along with my other readings about Srila Prabhupada. I can’t begin to express how inspirational it’s been for me reflect on the evolution of Srila Prabhupada’s missionary spirit, beginning from his first meeting with Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. I’m feeling so fortunate and very grateful for having such a detailed account of Srila Prabhupada’s struggles and constant endeavors to serve the orders given to him by his spiritual master.
Having served in the same zone as H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami in the early 1980’s leading up to my acceptance of sannyasa from him in 1986, I’m well aware of the extent of the research both he and his assistants had to do in preparation for “Srila Prabhupada Lilamrta.” So much information was unearthed about Srila Prabhupada’s early years as a householder, the people who remembered him during his householder years, the people who remotely assisted him during his years just prior to accepting sannyasa, the efforts he made to work conjointly with his godbrothers for fulfilling Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur’s wishes for spreading Krsna consciousness to the English-speaking world, his preaching in India, and especially his relentless commitment to writing and publishing Back to Godhead, other works, and then his three-volume translation and commentary of the First Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam completed just weeks prior to his month-long journey to the United States.
I’ve found myself overwhelmed with gratitude, both to Satsvarupa Maharaja and especially to Srila Prabhupada, and at the same time, immensely humbled by reflecting upon the tiny and insignificant efforts I’ve made in this life to spread Krsna consciousness in comparison to what Srila Prabhupada has done to expand Krsna consciousness throughout this world. In fact, I’ve realized that it would be an offense on my part to even attempt to make such a comparison.
I’m reminded of the purport in the Ninth Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam wherein Srila Prabhupada writes:
“Mother Ganges is worshiped by the water of the Ganges: a devotee takes a little water from the Ganges and offers it back to the Ganges. When the devotee takes the water, mother Ganges does not lose anything, and when the water is offered back, mother Ganges does not increase, but in this way the worshiper of the Ganges is benefited. Similarly, a devotee of the Lord offers the Lord patram puspam phalam toyam [Bg. 9.26] — a leaf, flower, fruit or water — in great devotion, but everything, including the leaf, flower, fruit and water, belongs to the Lord, and therefore there is nothing to renounce or to accept. One must simply take advantage of the bhakti process because by following this process one does not lose anything but one gains the favor of the Supreme Person.” (S.B. 9.9.12)
Any little effort I’ve made to spread Krsna consciousness has come from Srila Prabhupada’s unlimited efforts to give this whole planet Krsna consciousness… an effort which, somehow, by my incomparable fortune, captured this tiny jiva within Srila Prabhupada’s loving network of Lord Caitanya’s mercy. How can I compare something I’ve done with somebody who is completely responsible for anything good that I’ve done? I should not be so foolish.
While reading “Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita”, I was also reminded of so many of Srila Prabhupada’s early writings such as his early “Back to Godhead” magazines, which are available, going back as early as 1944, his essays published in the “Gaudiya Patrika” in 1948 and 1949 under the title “Renunciation Through Wisdom”, and his “Light of the Bhagavata” which Srila Prabhupada wrote in 1961 in response to an invitation he received to attend a world conference, the Congress for Cultivating the Human Spirit, held in Japan. So many of his early writings are coming to mind that I’m making a list of them for my future readings in order to help me further capture his preaching mood in those earlier days for my own self-reflection.
I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage every one of my readers to please, please, please (that’s three times for emphasis) read the whole “Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita” from cover to cover. Please don’t let your life pass by without making the effort to increase your awareness and appreciation of Srila Prabhupada.
Of course, when I first thought about writing this blog, I checked to see if the full seven volume “Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita” has been translated into Russian yet. To my dismay, I discovered that, to date, only the abridged version of “Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita” has been published in Russian. So today I spoke with Bhakti Vijnana Goswami and inquired when, and if, the full version will be published in Russian. I was relieved to learn that the first volume, “A Lifetime in Preparation” will be available for distribution some time this summer. Subsequent volumes will also be coming, hopefully, soon thereafter. Please be sure to keep abreast of it’s release date so that you can acquire a copy as soon as it becomes available.
Hare Krsna