Prabhupada: ...position. It is not a good position.

Hari-sauri: No, it's not very clear. I was just wondering who the other two were.

Prabhupada: I took sannyasa from him.

Hari-sauri: Who is that?

Prabhupada: Sannyasa has to be taken from a sannyasi, so I took sannyasa from him.

Hari-sauri: Yes, I was wondering what his name was.

Prabhupada: Oh, his name is Kesava Maharaja. He's one of the Godbrothers. He's also one of my Godbrothers.

Hari-sauri: And he took it the same time.

Prabhupada: They are now dead and gone.

Hari-sauri: Yes. This man, he looks very old already. The other one.

Prabhupada: Oh yes. He was... He is of my age, middle. The other one, he was older.

Hari-sauri: Harikesa said the day before you took sannyasa you were gored by a cow or something? A cow hit you in the stomach?

Prabhupada: Before?

Hari-sauri: The day before you took sannyasa?

Prabhupada: No. No. (laughing)

Hari-sauri: I was told that. I don't know whether it was... Or some time around then.

Prabhupada: That was long before.

Hari-sauri: Oh, that was a long time.

Prabhupada: I took sannyasa sometime in '59, and... No, that is after I took sannyasa. No, no. Before, yes. Before or after,...

Hari-sauri: He said it was the day before.

Prabhupada: No. That was an incident in Delhi. Now I think it was... It was before. Before. That was sometime in 1956.

Hari-sauri: Oh, that's a long time before.

Prabhupada: And I took sannyasa in 1959.

Hari-sauri: That was in Vrndavana or Delhi?

Prabhupada: No, Delhi. Vanaprastha. I was alone. But my paper was going on, Back to Godhead. In Delhi I was alone. I was doing everything. Editing, selling, collecting, cooking.

Hari-sauri: There was no Godbrothers helping at all?

Prabhupada: I did not take. They wanted. I did not like.

Hari-sauri: Did you ever think at that time that you would be able to expand or...

Prabhupada: I was trying to do. It was a struggle at that time. At that time, I lived with some of my Godbrothers, but I did not like, and I left their temple, and I was living alone. Then in Imlitala you know here? Imlitala, Seva-kunj there is a...

Hari-sauri: No, I'm not familiar.

Prabhupada: My Godbrother's temple. He had a temple in Delhi, Karol Bagh. I left Jhansi and came to Mathura. I lived there for few months. Then I went to Delhi. In this way, here, there.

Hari-sauri: The boy at the front, he's reading one of your old Bhagavatams. He has one of your original Bhagavatams. The boy at the front that's on guard. Aksaya, the boy that guards. He's been reading one of your original Bhagavatams, the 1.1.

Prabhupada: Oh.

Hari-sauri: And I was looking at the front and it gives your residence in Vrndavana at Radha-Damodara and your office in Delhi.

Prabhupada: It was not unpleasant. When I was living alone, doing everything, it was not unpleasant. I was... Very nice. That was an accident. Otherwise, it was not unpleasant. Alone everything I was doing. Rather, I had not so much anxiety for management. Even my, this son came to live with me. I said, "No, you don't."

Hari-sauri: Who was that? Vrndavana there?

Prabhupada: Hmm. They sent, my family, to go and live with me. He came twice, thrice. The reason is that I asked him "If you want to live with me then you have to live with me as sannyasi, brahmacari.

Hari-sauri: And he couldn't.

Prabhupada: Otherwise... From 1954, '55. Up to '54... 1950, I left home 1950. From '50 to '54 I lived in Jhansi.

Hari-sauri: That was when you started the League of Devotees?

Prabhupada: Hmm. At that time there were many students. They were not my disciples, but they were coming. Like... that Prabhakara?

Hari-sauri: Yes, Prabhakara Acarya.

Prabhupada: He was the head.

Hari-sauri: (laughs) You were teaching Vaisnavism or...

Prabhupada: Yes. I wanted to start from there. It was very nice, big house. But this K. Munshi's wife tactfully wanted me to... The Governor's wife. That was a very big house.

Hari-sauri: Oh, there were some politics. I didn't know.

Prabhupada: But he peacefully took it. I could have fought but I did not like. All the pleaders in Jhansi, they said, "Don't leave." She was pressing through the collectors, to the manager. That house belonged to some zamindar. But it was under the management of another man, Reba Shankara(?). So he was proprietor of one cinema hall. So the governor's wife was pressing him through the collector because the license has to be renewed from the collector. Collector was insisting that "You give that house, Lilavati Munshi. Indirectly. Otherwise, your license will not be issued."

Hari-sauri: They didn't leave you very much choice.

Prabhupada: I thought, I could not do something tangible. That's a fact. (indistinct) Somehow or other, I thought, let me go to Vrndavana. What is the use of fighting? Otherwise, all the big lawyers in Jhansi, they were my friends. They said that "You not go. We shall arrange." I thought that "I have left my home, for this reason I am going to, again litigation. I don't want this house. Let her do something."

Hari-sauri: The League of Devotees, was that Godbrothers again? Was that some Godbrothers that you joined up with or was that just...

Prabhupada: No, after leaving Jhansi I went to this Godbrother.

Hari-sauri: Kesava.

Prabhupada: I lived there for few months. Then I went to another Godbrother, that Imlitala, Delhi. Then I left there. I used to live alone in Delhi. Then I took one house in Kesi-ghata. Then the Radha-Damodara men they called me that "You can live here. We give you two rooms. We don't charge. We give you the place." I came to Radha-Damodara. And from Radha-Damodara temple I went U.S.A.

Hari-sauri: I was just wondering what exactly the League of Devotees was.

Prabhupada: Oh, League was that, that was... I was trying to collect some devotees. Some of them, they were medical... Yes. Medical students. So they came and used to live with me. But still, I lived there for two years. From 1954 to '56. I had some surgical operation in my testicles there. They were taking care. This Prabhakara and... They were not full time. They were students. That's all. They were living with me.

Hari-sauri: But your Bhagavatams, it says they were published by the League of Devotees. Does that just mean yourself or there were others?

Prabhupada: (laughs) That was... League of Devotees was my organization. Therefore I gave that name.

Hari-sauri: But actually it was just you. Oh.

Prabhupada: That League of Devotees, I was alone doing. (laughs)

Hari-sauri: I was trying to understand who it could be.

Prabhupada: I am everything at that time. There were some students, but they were not any active. I was doing everything. That League of Devotees means I am everything. I wanted to organize with this Prabhakara Misra and others. But they were not interested to be...

Hari-sauri: Not to become Vaisnavas.

Prabhupada: No, to devote whole time. They were... Just like Prabhakara comes still. But if you ask him to do full time work, that he'll not do. Therefore I did not initiate others. He was initiated, Haridasa. But they were all learned scholars, Sanskrit.

Hari-sauri: Do any of them come now? Do any of them come now apart from Prabhakara?

Prabhupada: Hmm? No, they are, they have gone in the... They are practicing as medical men. They were students, medical students. Now they are practicing.

Hari-sauri: They don't come to see you or anything now?

Prabhupada: Sometime they came. Long time it is passed. That was in 1956 or '55. No, '54.

Hari-sauri: In Jhansi.

Prabhupada: So, twenty years past. More than twenty years. You can speak of twenty years history. What is that? (end)