By Brahma Das
Submitted by Krpa
I worked extensively under Tamal Krishna Maharaja from 1975 through 1979. We met when I was in San Francisco working with Swami Tripurari on his BBT book distribution party. At that time Tamal Krishna Goswami asked me to join his party as leader of one of the new Radha-Damodar Buses.
Upon returning from India Tamal Krishna Goswami had teamed up with his old friend Visnujana Maharaja and turned his festival bus program into a dynamic preaching party. Together their preaching was so powerful that they recruited enough devotees to fill up two new buses. Soon those devotees were selling more Back to Godheads than any other zone in North America.
Therefore Back to Godhead featured ads for the Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party in every issue. This ad had a picture of Visnujana Maharaja chanting and playing harmonium, and it read: “Travel with advanced devotees of the Hare Krishna movement” and “Learn to play ancient Indian Instruments.”
Because of these ads, every devotee in the movement knew about the Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party and almost every brahmachari secretly wanted to travel and preach with Tamal Krishna Goswami and Visnujana Maharaja. New men were also joining as well, so Tamal Krishna Goswami commissioned two more buses and was looking for devotees to put in charge of them. It was at this time, in 1975, that Radha- Damodar visited San Francisco, and there is an amusing and insightful story regarding how I came to be part of the Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party team.
The first day the bus arrived in San Francisco, I was in the brahmachari ashram and came across Visnujana Maharaja singing in the shower. Everyone knew Visnujana Maharaja and loved him. He had a warm dramatic style that had the power to transport a person immediately to Vaikuntha.
As I stepped into the shower room, Maharaja recognized me and said, “Brahma, why are you here in San Francisco? Did you know that Tamal Krishna Goswami and I wanted to put you in charge of one of the new buses?”
I was shocked at this statement as I had only been in the movement three short years and was barely twenty-two years old. Certainly one had to have more experience and maturity than I to be in charge of a Radha-Damodar bus.
When my ego and mind recovered from the shock I asked Visnujana Swami what I would do if I became a bus leader. There, dripping from the shower, Visnujana Maharaja dramatically outlined everything to me in vivid terms.
He said,” You will be the spider.”
“The spider?” I replied with a puzzled look.
“Yes,” he said. ”
At the festivals, Radha-Damodar weave a web through the chanting of Their Holy Names, and various types of conditioned souls are caught on that web. You as the spider will have to find out which of the souls caught on their web of chanting are ready to surrender their lives to Radha-Damodar. Those souls who are worthy, you transport to your lair on the bus and turn them into shining new bhaktas for Krishna and Prabhupada.”
Then he opened his arms and leaned into the shower, and as the stream of water cascaded over his head, he chanted in a loud voice “Radha-Damodar Ki-Jai!”
Needles to say, I was spellbound by Visnujana’s ecstatic presentation and the picture it painted in my mind. I was now speechless, and in a half a minute, Visnujana Swami had turned my world upside down and I began to believe that Prabhupada and Radha-Damodhar wanted me to be the” spider” on a Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party bus.
Such was the power of Visnujana Swami’s amazing love for Radha-Damodar.
There was, however, a slight problem. Before I could join the Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party and begin spider training I would have to talk to Tripurari Maharaja, who had just recruited me to be in charge of the San Francisco airport book distribution party. Outside Visnujana Swami’s influence, I became confused and depressed at the thought of letting down Tripurari Maharaja and the BBT party. I was in a dilemma, but little did I know that Tamal Krishna Goswami, the great preacher, organizer, and problem solver, was about to work his magic behind the scenes.
First he called me in and asked if I wanted to join Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party. At this point, although I really wanted to be the spider, I was confused and told him I was undecided. He was not happy about this answer and gave me a strong lecture about taking on responsibility for Prabhupada. He said I had leadership potential and on Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party that potential could be developed for Krishna’s service.
I objected and said that I was distributing books for the BBT and knew that service was extremely pleasing to Prabhupada. At this, Tamal Krishna Goswami hesitated and thought for a moment. Something was going on in the back of his mind. He ended the conversation by saying, “Yes, book distribution is no doubt pleasing to Prabhupada,” and asked me to join him for prasadam after I came back from the airport the next day.
The next day at the airport, I was too disturbed to distribute many books. To be the spider or not to be the spider was the question disturbing my mind. And that was my mental state when I went to the bus for dinner with Tamal Krishna Goswami and Visnujana Swami. As I was dined and flattered by two of the most respected devotees in the movement, the bus book-distribution team came in to take prasadam.
One by one, Tamal Krishna Goswami introduced each devotee and asked how many books he had sold that day. Each devotee replied with a number that ranged from ten to thirty books. After he was done, he said this is Brahma Das. He is a very famous BBT book distributor. Then he asked how many books I had sold today. Having had a bad day I was embarrassed to report that I had only sold about fifteen books that afternoon.
At that, Tamal Krishna Goswami pointed his finger at me and said very sternly, “These men are all new bhaktas, and they have almost to a man each sold more books than you. With good training these devotees will be able to preach and sell more and more books, but none of them are qualified now or any time in the near future to be a Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party bus leader. These new men need experienced guidance, and that is why the best service for you is to take command of one of the new buses.”
Again I was speechless. Both Visnujana Swami and Tamal Krishna Goswami, each in his own way, had overwhelmed me in a matter of minutes. I knew at that time that these two were the most dynamic preaching team in the movement and I wanted to be part of that team.
But there was still the problem of my responsibilities to the BBT party. Tamal Krishna Goswami quickly took care of this problem to everyone’s satisfaction by offering three of his best book distributors as replacements for me on the BBT party. But before he did this Tamal Krishna Goswami asked me one important question: “Are you considering grhasta life?”
“Grhasta life is fine for Bhaktivinode Thakur but not for me,” I replied.
He then smiled and said that was the right answer, as he wanted only dedicated brahmachari or sannyasi leaders on his bus party. And with that, I was welcomed aboard.
I served on Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party for the next three years as a bus leader. Tamal Krishna Goswami was a hard taskmaster, but he was able to motivate me like no one had done before, and in turn, I was able to motivate others. He saw something of my potential for service, and I had faith and appreciation for him. As bus leader I had to call him from the field once a week, and those calls either left me tearful because I had let him down or elated because he was pleased. He had a powerful effect on my
life that has been with me ever since.
By 1979, the Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party buses were all broken down or dry-docked, and I was serving on the Indian library party out of Bombay. Tamal Krishna Goswami called me in Bombay and asked me to return to the United States to take a bus on the road again. I loved the bus party and was reunited again with many from my old party.
There was Hasyagrami, who had been my driver and festival equipment manager; Sunanda, the cook and kirtan leader; and Drista, the sincere leader of the book distribution party. We were all happy to be serving together again on the bus. Once our bus party alone consisted of twenty-eight brahmacharies packed together on a bus and accompanying three vans. Now we were going to Texas to distribute books, preach, and put on festivals with a total of seven devotees.
Times had changed, and now Tamal Krishna Goswami was in charge of temples rather than buses and had to put most of his energy into those responsibilities. We were on the road in Texas for about six months. Finally we parked the bus in Austin and started a restaurant preaching center near the University of Texas that Tamal Krishna Goswami named Govinda’s Super-Natural Foods.
That was the last ride of the Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party, but anyone who took that or any ride on the Radha-Damodar Traveling Sankirtan Party between 1974 and 1979 will never forget it. And all owe a debt of gratitude to Tamal Krishna Goswami for making it possible that Radha-Damodar and their devotees could travel down that historic road into the glorious history of the Krishna consciousness movement.
Sincerely,
Brahma Das
Hari Bolo! Jai!
Although I was on a different bus then the one Brahma Dasa described, I not only had the opportunity to travel and preach from one of the Radha Damodara Buses, but had it not been for that program I would have never become a devotee.
At that time I was in my senior year studying Industrial Design at the University Of Kansas and I just finished reading the recently published McMillan version of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is. I was immediately convinced that to become a Vaishnava was the highest purpose of human life however I was entangled in the messy lair of keeping my parents happy by finishing college. But I was Miserable. Every day when I went to class I knew it was all a big silly illusion and a waste of my time and intelligence. I started a Hare Krishna club and sold BTG’s on campus. I would see the photos of the Bus party in the Back To Godhead advertisement that Brahma spoke about and dream about what it would be like… but that was just a dream. All my feeble personal efforts just didn’t provide me with the nectar that my soul was crying out and hankering for.
I wanted association and I wanted to become a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. But How? I was in the middle of Kansas and the closest temple was St. Louis, which was over 300 miles away! Denver was even much further! I had only been to the temple on a few rare occasions and I just didn’t know what to do. I finally came to a stage where all I could do was pray very strongly that somehow, despite all the odds against it, that Krishna would please somehow get me out of this entangling mess! I would think… “Sure… how could that possibly happen?” Yet I prayed on sincerely. I simply could not do it by myself and I knew it. I would pray. “Krishna I am Yours… come get me!” Yet I could not phantom with my rational mind how that could possibly happen so my material mind, which was enamored by the illusion, was somewhat content that despite the prayers of my heart it would never happen. Quitting college on my own and seeking out a temple was just too much to even imagine. I had no idea which temple to go to or how I would be received and I wasn’t going to take the risk of dropping out of school in my senior year to find out that I wouldn’t be accepted after I did something as radical as that. All I could do was keep dragging along and pray for the deliverance that I could never imagine would ever happen!
Then one day in October 1975, I got a phone call from a devotee called Budhara Das. He was the lead contact for Sudama & Drystadyumna’s bus. They had come down from Chicago, and he had picked up my phone number from the St. Louis temple which I had visited six months earlier during my last spring break. The fact that the temple could still find my phone number was just the first of several miracles that all came together like clockwork. There were so many statistically impossible things that actually came together for my seemingly impossible dream to come true that whenever I have even the slightest doubt about the very real capacity for Krishna to intervene in my life I recall how I became a devotee and it all immediately vanishes. I am not elaborating on all those amazing sequential coincidences and keeping this story brief as a courtesy to the reader.
I was told that not just one devotee… but a WHOLE BUS of devotees was going to come to University of Kansas to do Kirtan and hold speaking engagements for a week. I simply could not believe what I was hearing! Because I had started a Hare Krishna club I could book several engagements for the bus party which included a Television Interview on Sunflower Cable Vision between Drystadyumna Swami an the KU Professor of philosophy Alphonso Verdu I took a photo during that live interview and it eventually ended up in Back to Godhead Magazine “Questions and Answers” #12-06-1977. (Their discussion can also be found in the Veda Base)
I knew this was the answer to my prayers although my rational mind kept resisting admitting it. Wow… what was happening! I was imprisoned by my own mind and concepts of mundane responsibility and yet the most impossible thing that I never expected could ever happen was playing out right in front of me in vivid living color! It was as if Krishna had sent his personal army of specially trained marine devotees to go behind enemy lines and break me out of being a captive soldier in maya’s prisoner of war camp! It was just so dramatic and obvious that even my rational mind had to admit that if I did not immediately quit school and go with the devotees, that I knew He had personally sent to rescue me, I would never have the chance again to become a disciple of His Divine Grace. It was as obvious as the sun in the sky. It was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time! Within two weeks I had dropped out of school, sold everything I owned, cut off my long hippie hair and donned the saffron cloth and tilok. Whew… what a rescue!
I never regretted that decision. I knew I could always go back to school to finish my degree, which I eventually did, but I also knew that was a moment in time that would not come again. Within two years after I got initiated Srila Prabhupada moved on to serve Krishna in some other capacity and the era of opportunity to become his immediate disciple had ended.
So I actually owe that tremendous mystical experience to the efforts of Tamal Krishna Goswami. Had he not started the Radha Damodara Bus program, I would have never been liberated from a very mundane life of designing toasters, pencil sharpeners and garden hoses etc. The answer to my prayers was a mirical in every respect. Who would have thought that in the middle of the country… nowhere close to any temple or Vaishnava, I could have been found like that. Had it not been for that dramatic rescue… I would have never become a devotee and my life would have been one wasted mishap and anxioty after another.
Thank you Tamal Krishna Goswami, .. and Thank you Brahma for reminding me of how fortunate I was because of his efforts and all the other Radha Damodara devotees such as yourself that made it possible for my impossible dream to come true and become one of Krishna’s active “Marine Core” devotees.
Hare Krishna!
mayesvara dasa
md @ jagannatha.com
I was working for Brown & Sharpe in North Kingston, RI as an Engineer and was just returning from a two week vacation in Hawaii when, on the spur of the moment, I decided to visit the Boston temple. Instead of going straight back to Rhode Island I jumped on the subway at Logan airport and zoomed into Harvard Square with the idea that I’d visit the Hare Krishna temple before heading back to North Kingston. I’d been to the temple a few times for the vegetarian feast and even stayed over night for awhile. When I emerged from the subway in Harvard Square there were devotees everywhere and they were distributing books and prasadam and there was an all out Hari Nama going full blast. Some devotees talked briefly with me and almost immediately they took me to see Vishnu Jana and Tamal Krishna. In the course of my conversation with them I mentioned that I hadn’t been able to join the Boston temple and they both reassured me that that was OK and that I would be much better off traveling with them on their bus program. I spent the day with the devotees and then headed back to Rhode Island and my job with Brown & Sharpe. My first day back at work I had a brief talk with Gene Cilanto my boss, who I was very greatful to. He’d hired me and helped me negotiate a few promotions. I told him I was going to join the Hare Krishnas and he said when he’d been my age he was thinking seriously about becoming a Catholic priest but then he gestured to the pictures on his desk and indicated that other things had developed in his life. That was it. I was free. I packed up a few belongings. Stashed a few things in a garage and headed for Boston and Radha-Damodar. The rest is history. Srila Prabhupada ki jai!