Public Address at Viplava Festival

Prabhupada's vision for India

0:01Hare Krishna. I'm very happy to be with all of you tonight. And I'm trying to imagine how Srila Prabhupada would be pleased if he was here tonight. Srila Prabhupada said that my spiritual master sent me to the West

0:32Prabhupada said that Bharatiya program, the program in India is my own invention. It's not the order of my spiritual master. Sila Prabhupada definitely had a very grand vision for the whole world,

0:59but he was especially desiring to return Vedic culture to India. His heart was painting when he saw that India was following the West. He knew very well that the Western way of life leads to nowhere.

1:20It's actually a very empty life and he wanted to bring

Sharing the spiritual wealth

1:26Vedic culture to the whole world, but he also very much wanted to return that Vedic culture to be established in India.

1:34Once Prabhupada was in England and he was asked by one journalist, why are you coming here? Why did you come here? Prabhupada said, you Britishers, you looked at India.

1:48You took all the Indian riches to Britain, but you have forgotten one rich which creates the spiritual wealth of India. So Prabhupada said, I'm like a delivery boy. I just brought to you the wealth which you forgot today.

2:16So we have to really understand what wealth do we have here? And when we understand it very deeply within our heart, we will want to share this wealth with others.

Realizing and distributing Vedic knowledge

2:32His call is about this, to understand deeply how important the message of Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is. And then after understanding it deeply, realising it within our heart, we will be able to give this gift to others.

2:49Sila Prabhupada was realizing and practicing this knowledge for many many years, for 40 plus years in Vrindavan, doing very intense bhajan.

3:00But by his mercy, his followers within one, two years can do the same miracles as Prabhupada did. This is Śrīla Prabhupāda's glory. His influence is so great.

3:16I've seen one little video where first followers of Srila Prabhupada in New York were interviewed.

3:24They were in the temple in little makeshift temple in the Second Avenue for maybe one month, two months, maybe half a year, not more.

3:35And they were talking about love of gopīs to Kṛṣṇa. This is the most elevated topic here.

Bhakti as the central Vedic message

3:44So Srila Prabhupada's influence is so much that just by reading his books for a short while we will be able to also realize this knowledge and give it to others. One professor once wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada.

4:06He said, your books are very nice, but you always talk about Bhakti, Bhakti, Bhakti, so much about Bhakti. Krishna is teaching about karma-yoga. Śrīla Prabhupāda translates bhakti-yoga.

4:18Krishna speaks about yoga in general and Śrīla Prabhupāda translates bhakti- yoga. Śrīla Prabhupāda was smiling after receiving this letter. He said, no, it's not a doṣa. It's a praśaṁsā of my books.

4:37He said I wrote these books in such a way that nobody will be able to misunderstand that the main message of all the Vedas is bhakti.

4:49So that's the glory of Prabhupāda, and we have to be eternally grateful to him for giving this gift to the whole world and especially to India.

5:02And as a return, being grateful to him, we have to distribute this knowledge to others. Thank you very much.