The Pure Devotee

One of the signs of a great devotee, a maha-bhagavata, is that he is generally born into a family of devotees. Sukadeva Gosvami was such a maha-bhagavata, for his father was Srila Vyasadeva, the literary incarnation of Krsna who compiled all the Vedic literature. Another was Maharaja Pariksit, whose grandfather was Arjuna and whose grandmother was Subhadra, Lord Krsna's sister. The great benefit for a child born in such a family is that he gets spiritual education right from birth. The early lives of great devotees are often similar. Just as Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was trained from birth by Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Bhaktivedanta Swami was also fortunate to be trained in Krsna consciousness by his own father.

Even in childhood, Srila Prabhupada expressed the perfection of transcendental devotion. Like Maharaja Pariksit, he worshiped the Deities his father had given him. He simply imitated the worship of Radha-Govinda he used to see in the nearby family temple. (Those early Deities of Srila Prabhupada's are still worshiped today by his sister in Calcutta.) As a child, Bhaktivedanta Swami would often spend his time studying the Indian Railways Timetable. He would see what trains were going from Calcutta to two other places: Vrndavana, the abode of Lord Krsna, and Puri, where Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu had resided. After calculating the fares, he would then scheme up different ways of raising the money to go.

Even as a boy, Srila Prabhupada showed a proclivity for preaching. In Jagannatha Puri, India, there is a yearly festival called Rathayatra, in which the Deity of Lord Jagannatha (Krsna) goes on procession in a huge ratha, or float. So, with a miniature ratha, Srila Prabhupada would hold neighborhood processions, invite all his family members and friends and distribute lots of prasada. To this day Srila Prabhupada has instructed his disciples to do just what he was doing as a child-to worship Radha-Krsna Deities and stage Rathayatra festivals all over the world.

His Divine Grace dedicates his book Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as follows: "To my father, Gour Mohan De (1849-1930, a pure devotee of Krsna who raised me as a Krsna conscious child from the very beginning of my life. In my boyhood ages he instructed me how to play the mrdahga [a drum for chanting Hare Krsna]. He gave me Radha-Krsna vigraha [Deities] to worship, and he gave me Jagannatha ratha to duly organize the festival as my childhood play. He was kind to me, and I imbibed from him the ideas later on solidified by my spiritual master, the eternal father."

As a member of one of Calcutta's aristocratic families, Srila Prabhupada was given the best education. He attended Scottish Churches College, run by British missionaries, where he studied economics, philosophy and history. As a follower of Gandhi's non-cooperation movement, however, Srila Prabhupada refused to accept his university degree. He married in 1918. An astrologer foretold that Srila Prabhupada would in time become as wealthy as the wealthiest man in India. Soon afterward, though still a young man, he was selected to manage a well-known pharmaceutical laboratory.

The all-important meeting with Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati occurred in 1922. [For a description of that meeting, see Part 2 of this article, in Back to Godhead No. 68.] Srila Prabhupada has remarked that although others would ask many questions of the spiritual master simply to make an impression, he asked only one: "How may I serve you?" After that initial meeting, Srila Prabhupada spent several years developing his firm into a very successful business, but he never forgot Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. He offered financial support to Bhaktisiddhanta's Gaudiya Mission and introduced some of Bhaktisiddhanta's sannyasis to his business associates. Srila Prabhupada would sometimes visit Bhaktisiddhanta's mission and discuss devotional philosophy with his disciples, but when the devotees urged him to take initiation from Bhaktisiddhanta, Srila Prabhupada avoided it, admitting that he just liked to come and associate with the devotees. Bhaktisiddhanta was very pleased with this remark. Thus Srila Prabhupada never took a very active part in the activities of the Gaudiya Matha. At one point, the disciples, understanding Srila Prabhupada's sincerity, encouraged him to become a full-time member and even to live with them, but then Bhaktisiddhanta prophetically declared that it would be better for Srila Prabhupada to remain apart. "One day he will join fully and do wonderful things," Bhaktisiddhanta said. Then in 1933 in Allahabad, where Srila Prabhupada was living with his family, he became an initiated disciple of Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja.