by Girirāja dāsa Brahmacārī (ISKCON-Bombay)

When the Hare Krsna chanters first appeared in America five years ago, Americans were surprised. Dressed in "Indian" dhotis and saris and chanting "Hindu" chants in Sanskrit, they were a novelty, but when they braved the winter snow and freezing temperatures to perform their saṅkirtana, people had to take them seriously.

Now it is time for the Indians to be surprised. For the first time in many years, Indians in the downtown sectors of her major cities are seeing this same performance of saṅkirtana, as taught and popularized by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who advented Himself in India, in West Bengal, 480 years ago. Yet instead of seeing Indians chanting, as one would expect in India, the Indians are astonished to see that the chanters are actually Americans and Europeans, dressed in the traditional garb of Indian sadhus or holy men. These American and European devotees are following the Vedic system even more strictly than the Indians. By dint of the determination and eagerness to chant the Lord's praises, Indians are beginning to understand the purpose of their chanting. No longer are the devotees viewed as curiosities or public entertainment, as they were taken to be when first appearing in the West. The serious purpose of the Krsna consciousness movement is a wonderful and welcome surprise to all.

These surprises are the mercy of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who came to America five years ago from India and just recently has returned to India from the West. As acarya or teacher for this modern age and founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Srila Prabhupada has been spreading the prime benediction for humanity-Lord Caitanya's saṅkirtana movement-to peoples of all countries. As a pure devotee of the Lord, he is taken as His personal representative on this planet. He enjoys the direct association of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and due to his transcendental position, is a constant source of surprise.

Srila Prabhupada has surprised the world with all his God-centered activities. The pure devotee shares in the qualities of Godhead, and therefore His Divine Grace is acintya, inconceivable, just like Krsna. His actions cannot be predicted. At the same time he is acyuta, infallible, for the pure devotee shares in none of the defects of the ordinary conditioned soul. The surprises provided by Srila Prabhupada are actually the surprises of the Supreme Personality of Godhead for whom Srila Prabhupada is the most confidential servitor and instrument. These surprises have actually been predicted by the great acaryas in disciplic succession, for such holy souls know something of the inner workings of the Lord.

Five hundred years ago Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the avatara or appearance of Krsna in this age, predicted that His name would be sung in every country, village and town throughout the world. Srila Prabhupada is specifically fulfilling that prediction. Thirty-five years ago Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja, the spiritual master of Srila Prabhupada, ordered his student to bring Krsna consciousness to the Western world. Srila Prabhupada has already fulfilled that order. Furthermore, at the turn of this century, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, father of Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and acarya of the time, predicted that the preaching of Krsna consciousness would one day come back to India from the West. Srila Prabhupada is now in India fulfilling that surprising prophecy.

When His Divine Grace came to the United States, he told us, "You are living in the greatest country in the world. If you take to this Krsna consciousness movement, the whole world will follow your example." Srila Prabhupada's plan has come true. Having left India on the instruction of his spiritual master at a time when the chanting of Hare Krsna was unknown outside of India, Srila Prabhupada has made "Hare Krsna" a household term in innumerable homes throughout the world to the degree that he is now in the position of bringing Hare Krsna back to India from the outside. There have been Krsna conscious hit records, television appearances, feature stories, and praise from the government, the churches, and the elite. Most importantly, there has been the publication of twenty books on the science of Krsna in the English language as well as the establishment of Back to Godhead Magazine in six different languages with a monthly circulation of one half million. Thus Srila Prabhupada, who left India with only five dollars and a carton of Srimad-Bhagavatams, is returning to India having fulfilled the order of his spiritual master in just five years. With him he is bringing thirty of his Western disciples, 100,000 books, and the most amazing success story in the recent history of Western spiritualism, just to show the Indians how the West has taken to Krsna consciousness and how practical Krsna consciousness really is.

In profound humility, Srila Prabhupada attributes all his success to his Guru Maharaja. He says that his only greatness is that he has not adulterated the teachings of the scriptures and his Guru Maharaja, but has presented them as they are, without personal motivation or interpretation, as they have been passed down through disciplic succession from Krsna Himself. He has taken as the prime duty of his life the fulfilling of the instructions of his Guru Maharaja, who, as a bona fide spiritual master, is a direct representative of Krsna. Here is the secret of his success. He has followed the instructions of his Guru Maharaja explicitly, not expecting personal results. For this selfless service and love, he has been granted complete success by guru and by God. Any student who undertakes to fulfill the order of his guru, assured that his guru is a bona fide representative in the disciplic succession, is guaranteed success in his endeavors because the bona fide spiritual master is a representative of God. As the direct representative of the supreme authority, whatever instruction the spiritual master gives is backed up by the Supreme Personality, just as an agreement signed by a bona fide representative of a company is binding on the corporation, and the corporation is responsible for commitments made by its representative. Thus Srila Prabhupada was assured his surprising success by strictly following the order of his Guru Maharaja, who is in direct succession from the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Still, Srila Prabhupada is endlessly exciting and ingenious, ever fresh and original and completely unpredictable in his plans to please the Lord and guru. How fortunate we are to witness the magnificence of his devotional service, as this chanting process turns this pandemonium of hell, our confusing material world, into Vaikuntha, the blissful spiritual abode of Krsna.

"We are so grateful to you for coming to us and showing us what you have learned. You have taken to this process-even greater than we have." "Yes, we feel ashamed that you have had to come here to teach us our own religion." "Yes, but what I want to know is what your parents think of your converting." These reactions have been common among many Indians we have met in India.

Indians are very anxiously observing the example of the West, desirous of becoming materially advanced like the Westerners, and they are forgetting Krsna. But we tell them that the West is disgusted with so-called material happiness and is now looking to India for spiritual guidance. In the past, India sent so many swamis who taught corrupt philosophies, preaching, "I am God, you are God, everybody is God, dog is God," or "All is one, all is void; do whatever you want, and just transcend." Such philosophies do not satisfy the spirit soul. But now the West has received a real source of transcendental knowledge and a respectable representative of Indian spiritual culture-His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He has given to the West what no other yogi has-the spiritual bliss of personalism, krsna-prema. Under his expert guidance, Srila Prabhupada's disciples are very quickly advancing to the platform of transcendental ecstasy. They are living proof in India that where money, sex, alcohol, divorce, coffee, cigarettes, washing machines, telephones, electric can openers, newspapers, schools, poverty programs, hamburgers and milk shakes, TV dinners, caterers, hedonism, impersonalism, altruism, baseball, etc., have failed to bring happiness, Krsna has succeeded. Krsna is always successful because He is God. Now His pure representative has returned to India, to remind the people of their blissful heritage. Once again, this great nation is taking to the spiritual pathway of devotional service to God. Misconceptions about Krsna are rampant in India, but these can be cleared away by reference to revealed scripture.