Planning A Conference

The idea of organizing a Conference came at that time in May 1977. I suggested to Srila Prabhupada that we would have conferences annually and bring lot of scholars from around the world. I told Srila Prabhupada that in the US there is a very prestigious annual conference called the Gordon Conference named after a great scientist Gordon and we should also organize annual conferences in that style. I suggested that our conference should be called the Bhaktivedanta Conference. Srila Prabhupada said that a conference was a very good idea and asked us to organize a conference that year. Srila Prabhupada, Dr. Sharma who was the principal of the Gurukula, and myself discussed about the conference. Dr. Sharma was very enthusiastic and was ready to help me organize the conference. He was very elderly and would speak to Srila Prabhupada like a friend. He and Srila Prabhupada decided that the conference should be held in Vrndavana.

I told Srila Prabhupada that all facilities were not there. So it was decided that we must build a new Auditorium. The land was allocated and Surabhi Maharaja made a design. I had suggested to Srila Prabhupada that the conference should be titled "Bhaktivedanta Conference" but he did not like the idea. He said that it wouldn't be attractive to the scientists. Instead, he suggested that we should title the conference "Life Comes From Life". Finally, it was decided that the conference will be called "The First International Conference on Life Comes From Life" and will be held in Vrndavana in October 1977.