Room Conversation [No Audio] – May 14, 1972, Honolulu

Govinda dasi: [chants japa] [testing microphone?] Stop. [indistinct background overtaping] [break]

Gaurasundara: [reading letter from Acyutananda] "…Swami, I will come to speak end quote. He invited me to Burdwan…"?

Prabhupada: Burdwan.

Gaurasundara: "…Burdwan, and will give me an English Koran, and I will present him with a Sri Īsopanisad. They are just ready for that."

Prabhupada: Yes. Very good.

Gaurasundara: "If Your Divine Grace writes to them, they will be very much encouraged." That he gives the address.

Prabhupada: Ha. Yes, I shall write.

Gaurasundara: "This will help the preaching in Bangladesh very much. Last week I paid my obeisances to Damodara Maharaja and touched his feet."

Prabhupada: And that's nice. I am… And he is satisfied?

Gaurasundara: "He was threatening all the local people that if they attend our functions he would call the police. I met him on the road, and he immediately started shouting. Then I started shouting, and then he left Mayapur for two weeks…"

Prabhupada: Hmm.

Gaurasundara: "…in which time everybody came back to the meetings, and now 250 to 300 men are taking prasadam."

Prabhupada: Ah, he was not satisfied. He touched his feet, but still…

Gaurasundara: Even after he started shouting.

Prabhupada: Then what can be done?

Gaurasundara: [laughs] So Acyutananda started shouting back. [laughs] And then he…

Prabhupada: He is a rascal, that Damodara Maharaja. Nobody likes him.

Gaurasundara: "And now there are 250 to 300 taking prasadam here every Saturday and Sunday."

Prabhupada: Very good.

Gaurasundara: "Now we are friends again."

Prabhupada: Ah, Damodara.

Gaurasundara: Yes.

Prabhupada: Ha. [laughs]

Gaurasundara: "And I am afraid the man is mad."

Prabhupada: I guess he is mad.

Gaurasundara: "He writes these very strange letters about Bengali history and trivia."

Prabhupada: His farce history.

Gaurasundara: "Your servant, Acyutananda Swami."

Prabhupada: I shall dictate all this.

Gaurasundara: Yeah, we can do it in the morning.

Prabhupada: Hmm. Morning is best.

Gaurasundara: Best time.

Prabhupada: So things are going nicely.

Gaurasundara: In Mayapur, very nice.

Prabhupada: Yeah.

Gaurasundara: So when you go back there…

Prabhupada: Lalita Prasada Thakura is in my favor. His men are giving little trouble.

Gaurasundara: Yeah.

Prabhupada: This is the…

Gaurasundara: And he doesn't want to…, to offend his men.

Prabhupada: That is natural.

Gaurasundara: So immediately you can fly from… When you go there you can go from this side to Calcutta and see how it is going on.

Prabhupada: So, we shall come again Hawaii?

Gaurasundara: Yeah, Hawaii, Japan.

Prabhupada: Naturally.

Gaurasundara: Australia.

Prabhupada: Hong Kong.

Gaurasundara: [laughs] Hong Kong. New Zealand. [laughs]

Govinda dasi: His smile is very much revealing.

Gaurasundara: [aside to Govinda dasi: You'd better start cooking]

Prabhupada: Not so many days. Two days, three days, like that.

Gaurasundara: Hah. Instead of two weeks.

Prabhupada: So, short visit will encourage everybody.

Gaurasundara: Yes.

Prabhupada: Now, we, our workers work hard and seriously and sincerely, this mission will, I mean, advance. There is no doubt about it. Because we are sincerely working. There is nothing bogus. Our Godbrothers have deliberately disobeyed my Guru Maharaja.

Gaurasundara: Ha.

Prabhupada: That is my charge against them. Deliberately. He never appointed an acarya. First of all they appointed one acarya, you see, and later on he proved to be a rascal.

Devotee: Now they have several different acaryas.

Prabhupada: Yes. That made the fracture, you see.

Gaurasundara: Madhava Maharaja.

Prabhupada: Eh?

Gaurasundara: Madhava Maharaja.

Prabhupada: No. Puri, Puri, Puri-another of my Godbrothers. He was duplicate [sic] number one. He was saying something on mouth, and...

Devotee: Hah.

Prabhupada: So he was appointed acarya. Whatever he may be, Guru Maharaja never designated any acarya. And the Sridhara Maharaja, he was the principal man to support him.

Gaurasundara: Sridhara?

Prabhupada: Ha. The Sridhara Swami from Bengal Matha. He made a great blunder, he and Professor Sanyal and Kesava Maharaja. At that time he was, these three men supported, and he proved later on to be false. Actually this Tirtha Maharaja, he wanted to be acarya. People did not like him, so they made another bad acarya. [laughs] Why acarya? They should have continued the preaching work uncontaminated. What is the use of acarya? Sadhu will have come out automatically by working, but they did not. Propaganda.

Devotee: There is one group that accepts Bhakti-sarahga as acarya also.

Prabhupada: So many.

Devotee: They have a Matha right down the street from our Mayapur.

Prabhupada: Hmm?

Devotee: And they have a big marble plaque on the wall that says how he went on a tour, and he brought back his Australian disciple with him.

Syamasundara: Lord Zetland and… It sounds from the plaque like he conquered the West. And he found his statue in Kensington Park, Krsna-mūrti. [laughs]

Govinda dasi: Lord Zetland?

Prabhupada: Let us not criticize others. Let us go on with our own work. Make your progress steady, you see. Where is that Australian student? [indistinct]

Devotee: Someone told you about that in Mayapur, and you said that you knew the story that he had simply met a man on a boat, [laughs] and he brought him back and pleaded with him, "Please stay for two weeks at our asrama." And he came and stayed for two weeks and went away.

Prabhupada: He was coming without any disciples. He made friendship, [laughs] canvassing that "You stay with us." And he canvassed that "I have brought such Australian student." Like that.

[pause] Now Ramakrishna Mission will understand that we are their enemy. [laughs] It will be good propaganda for all this nonsense. [pause] Yes. Take this spectacles and give them.

Gaurasundara: Pradyumna?

Pradyumna: Can you bring in the electric shaver and the [indistinct]? And Prabhupada's [indistinct].

Gaurasundara: Hey Syamasundara. I thought you guys were going to wait for me? I thought you were going to wait for me?

Syamasundara: Coming?

Gaurasundara: Well I can't come right this minute. Why can't you wait a few minutes?

Syamasundara: Better go?

Gaurasundara: Why not? [end]