JB After the Opening 1978.01.16–24
There was tremendous momentum from the grand opening, and I was enthusiastic to offer Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari’s mercy to everyone—but there was also much work to be done. Now that the temple complex had been opened, our challenge was to manage and use it as Prabhupada wanted. His vision for Juhu included many programs, and I reviewed his instructions to me:
“Recently we have received one letter from Cox & Kings, one of the world’s biggest travel agencies, requesting us to kindly assist them by providing facilities for all the tourists coming from foreign places who are interested in seeing the real spiritual life of India. So in this way we shall work here.” (December 28, 1971)
“As soon as possible we should open our own school and teach children Krishna consciousness through English medium—that is one of our programs. Our school will not be government recognized, because we cannot follow the government syllabus. We want to teach only Krishna consciousness. . . . Try to introduce immediately Krishna conscious instruction to the students through English medium. I know many parents are eager to educate their wards through English medium. If we can introduce this system, our girl disciples may be engaged for teaching them—a little English grammar, reading and writing, geography, arithmetic, history, Sanskrit, but all of them should be Krishna conscious—that is Bhagavata program: kaumara acaret prajno dharman bhagavatan iha.” (April 12, 1972)
“This food distribution program is to be done very, very nicely . . . Generally people make a plea that why are there so many hungry and naked. So we invite all hungry and naked people to come to us and we will give them food and clothing and Krishna consciousness as well. . . . Our temple should be the via media for feeding the poor with food and spiritual knowledge. Our Bombay program should be based on giving Krishna consciousness through the English medium and distribution of prasadam without any discrimination. This will enhance our prestige and will accelerate our spiritual life as well.” (April 23, 1972)
“You can introduce the bhetnama system, whereby one person purchases the use of one room or some rooms for his lifetime, and whenever he may come to stay, the room must be vacated immediately for his residence for as long as he likes, but if he leaves, someone else may use the room in his absence. . . . All good men should spend their weekends with us, away from business, and they may bring family, and it will be Vaikuntha in Hare Krishna Land.” (June 8, 1972)
“If we make our Deity worship program extremely opulent and gorgeous, and if all of the devotees are always attending arati and holding kirtan in front of the Deities, that will be the best program for attracting the Indian people to Krishna Consciousness Movement. So you try to give the pujaris all assistance to improve the standard of Deity worship and always render Radha and Krishna the most sincere attention.” (June 8, 1972)
He had also written in a Bhagavatam purport (3.25.36), “It is a prescribed duty in temple worship that not only should one visit the temple to see the Deity nicely decorated, but at the same time he should hear the recitation of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita, or some similar literature, which is regularly recited in the temple. It is the system in Vrndavana that in every temple there is recitation of the sastras. Even third-class devotees who have no literary knowledge or no time to read Srimad-Bhagavatam or Bhagavad-gita get the opportunity to hear about the pastimes of the Lord. In this way their minds may remain always absorbed in the thought of the Lord—His form, His activities, and His transcendental nature.” So we knew that sastra recitation—preaching—had to be part of our regular temple program.
The temple would no doubt attract throngs of visitors, but they would come with different mentalities and motives, and our mission would be to purify them and engage them and elevate them in Krishna consciousness. Some visitors would come just to offer obeisances to the Deities and pray, put some money in the box, and leave feeling good, considering that they had done some pious act and hoping for some material return. The Balaji Deity in Tirupati, for instance, had the reputation that if you gave Him some amount, you would get more in return. So people give with that hope and sometimes they try to strike a deal with the Deity: “I will give you such-and-such donation if You give me such-and-such a result.”
But when, some time before the temple opened, Prabhupada’s friend Brijratan Mohatta had told him, “If you want to get a lot of money in the donation box, you have to start spreading rumors that people who give money to these Deities get good results; they get a lot of benefit,” Prabhupada had replied, “No! We don’t make business with our God.” So our challenge now was to give people the message of Krishna consciousness so that they would actually surrender to the process and engage in unmotivated devotional service. In Calcutta, Prabhupada’s son Vrindavan Chandra had asked Tamal Krishna and me, “Now with Prabhupada gone, who will speak to people about Krishna the way he did?” And Tamal Krishna looked at me and said, “That is a very good question.”
Prabhupada had explained to me how he spoke about Krishna. In January 1972 he had written me, “The fact is that I am the only one in India who is openly criticizing, not only impersonalism and demigod worship, but everything that falls short of complete surrender to Krishna. My guru maharaja never compromised in his preaching, nor will I, nor should any of my students. We are firmly convinced that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that all others are His part and parcel servants. This we must declare boldly to the whole world, that they should not foolishly dream of world peace unless they are prepared to surrender fully to Krishna as Supreme Lord.”
That was Prabhupada’s mood, that had been his guru maharaja’s mood, and that was the mood he wanted us to have. But I felt so tiny compared with them. And with all humility, feeling quite inadequate, I prayed that I, we, would be able to represent Prabhupada and present his message properly.
I was also concerned that we would not be distracted by the opulence and facility of the temple. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura had built a grand temple in Bagh Bazaar in Calcutta for his disciples to preach, but later he lamented that they hadn’t really used the project as he had intended. They had become attached to the opulence and fought over who would occupy which office. Even in our current situation, I thought there was a risk that neophyte devotees could become attached to the opulence and prestige of the big temple and use it for their own personal gain—for power and prestige, money and facility—and I was determined that we should not fall prey to such material allurements, to maya.
Prabhupada had explained his purpose in constructing such big temples—and his concern that we use them in the proper mood—in a talk in Mayapur in 1974: “We have got this nice, grand building. If we think, ‘This is my building,’ then there will be mishap. My guru maharaja personally said, ‘When we were living in a rented house, if we could collect two hundred or three hundred rupees we were living very nicely at Ultadanga. But since we have been given this marble palace, there is friction between our men: “Who will occupy this room? Who will occupy that room? Who will be proprietor of room?” ’ Everyone was planning in different way. . . . If we forget our position—if we become pound-shilling men, property men—then Krishna will be lost, because Krishna is akincana-gocara. Therefore we should always remember that we possess this nice house not for our comfort, but so people will come, because they are not accustomed. If we would have invited people, ‘Come and sit down on this ground,’ there would have been no possibility. Therefore we must keep Krishna’s temple very nice so that people will come, and we shall preach. That is the philosophy—not that because we have got this nice house, therefore we should be very much attached. Attachment must be there, but for Krishna’s service. The temple must be very clean. The establishment must be very nice. What for? For attracting devotees. This is the purpose. Not for our personal benefit. That is the way.”
I prayed for us to be proper instruments of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, to use the temple for the purposes for which it was intended—to practice and preach pure devotional service—and not be distracted or become materially attached.
Prabhupada had told me that Sripada Madhvacharya had established mathas just to give his disciples a platform to preach. “In the same way,” he had told me, “I am giving you this temple.” Thinking of his words now, I felt honored and humbled. And when in Calcutta I had asked him, “Suppose in the course of time I become a perfect preacher and at the same time a perfect manager, what should I do?” he had replied, “You should preach.”
But there was so much management. All along I had preferred preaching, and Prabhupada had encouraged me to preach—and also to do whatever was needed, just as he did. But if we neglected the management, everything would be spoiled. In Juhu Prabhupada had told Tamal Krishna, “Do not let one inch of my property deteriorate.” So I was trying my best to manage also, but I felt quite burdened by it.
A few days after the grand opening, I met Bhavananda at the entrance to the guest house. I told him that I was chafing under the weight of management—that I wanted to preach.
“We only think that we are preachers,” he told me. “Actually, Srila Prabhupada is the preacher. You just follow his instructions and maintain his project, and he will do the preaching.”