A write-up on mission of Srila Prabhupad as flashed on the f.b. on Jan.20,2011.

Bishwa Nath Singh
:
Yesterday, I had tried my best to project the life-history of Shrila Prabhupada in brief,,now, I would like to describe about the most pious mission of his spiritual life. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, more affectionately known as Shrila Prabhupada, is the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, or mor...e popularly known as the Hare Krishna Movement. The movement was inaugurated in our country by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu nearly over five hundred years ago. The age that we currently live in is full of quarrel and dissent and the only means of self-realization is through the constant chanting of the holy name of God. The Hare Krishna mantra, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, is found in the ancient scriptures of India, and is the most powerful of mantras in this age since it directly addresses God and His energy in a loving way. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu freely distributed this mantra to all of India through congregational chanting. Shrila Prabhupada, a spiritual master in the disciple succession descending from Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu preached this same movement in the mid 1960s beginning in America and eventually spreading throughout the universe.

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(Picture of Srila Prabhupad)


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Bishwa Nath Singh :
Abhay Charan De who was born on September 1, 1896 n Calcutta of India; he grew up, educated,married, started a pharmaceutical business and had five children. He met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami, a prominent... Vaishnavite guru in the tradition of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a medieval Hindu religious leader, in 1922. He became his student and, in 1933, his formally initiated disciple. In the following years, he devoted more of his time to assisting his guru's work and less to his family and business and in 1954 (to his wife's horror) sent her and the children back to her father. He travelled to the holy city of Vrndavana, where he lived in humble circumstances in the historic temple of Radha-Damodara. He entered the renounced order of life (sanyasa) in 1959 and began his writing and translating work - mainly a multivolume commentated translation of the eighteen-thousand-verse Srimad-Bhagavatam known widely as Bhagavata Purana .He begged passage on the Jaladuta, a cargo carrier of the Scindia Steamship Corporation, travelled 35 days where he had two heart attacks on the journey, and arrived in New York City with $8 worth of rupees in September 1965, to fulfil the mission of his spiritual master of spreading the Vaishavite worship of Krishna to the West. He established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, in July of 1966, and gathered devotees by public preaching, dancing and devotional chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, (Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Hare Krishna Krishna Hare Rama Hare Rama Hare Hare Rama Rama), street begging and distribution of free food at his temples by his shaven-headed saffron-robed followers. He received much publicity through the interest of Beatle George Harrison who became a follower in 1969. By the time of his death on November 14, 1977, he had guided the Society and seen it grow to a worldwide confederation of more than one hundred asramas, schools, temples, institutes, and farm communities and had initiated over four thousand followers. Their public presence and media image was always far greater than the number of converts due to their chanting and dancing in city streets and the disapproval caused by their appearance and clothing, street begging and worship of statues of Krishna and his consort Radha and of 'His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada' (Srila Prabhupada for short). Prabhupadha also engendered public controversy with his fundamentalist, medieval Hindu viewpoints, especially on the place of women and cows in his society, the evils of Western society and his refusal to accept the astronauts landing on the Moon as being real since the Moon was a heaven for demi-gods and Krishna, not for NASA. His followers believe that Prabhupada's persona was flawless and perfect. He was a 'pure devotee' who knows real love of God and had reached the stage of being in a direct and personal relationship with Krishna - the Supreme God. His devotees were taught that he was incapable of making a mistake. Despite his uncompromising views and personality, no scandalous accusations have been made about Prabhupada personally. He was a sick man of seventy three and had no longer prey to physical allurements and desires.Prabhupada concentrated on ends and to some extent ignored means, a combination nearly always fatal to spiritual endeavors. His organization’s main mission was the printing and distribution of Prabhupada's books and the creation of new opulent temples and initiation of more devotees. From early in it's history the amount of money gathered became more important than the methods used. Like the Moonies, the Krishna's became involved in deception and cheating in their public collection of money and irretrievably cheapened and degraded the name of Krishna in the West. From there it was a small step to outright lies and then to theft and drug selling and smuggling. Prabhupada had a simple ideology and an obvious belief in it's efficacy. When expelling "demons" from the New York temple in 1976 he stated:"Krishna Consciousness is very simple. If your leaders chant and obey the regulative principles, they are practicing Krishna Consciousness, If they do not, they are demons disguised as devotees". Unfortunately the method he preached, chanting the 'Hare Krishna' mantra, was not powerful enough to allow all the devotees to remain practicing the regulative principles (no illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, no meat-eating and chant a minimum of sixteen rounds of maha-mantra japa every day) and enjoying the simple blissful lifestyle that he preached, practised and demanded of them. In fact the life he demanded of his followers increased the likelihood of problems. This was especially so in regards to the children of devotees. He preached that loving family ties were an illusion and hindrances to spiritual life but encouraged families (in many cases marriage partners were decided by him) to have children (sex was only allowed for procreation) and send them away to 'gurukula' schools. Therefore parents were not able to supervise their childrens' lives and the people Prabhupada appointed or accepted to control and educate them, physically, mentally and sexually abused them. In New Vrindaban, public, anal penetration of children at the front of the classroom was accepted by Kirtananda as acceptable, even desirable. In just twelve years, despite his advanced age, Srila Prabhupada went round the world fourteen times on lecture tours that took him to six continents. His writings have been translated into over fifty languages. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, established in 1972 to publish his works, had become the world's largest publisher of books in the field of Indian religion and philosophy. Over thirty years of his death only a shell of his vision was left and of the millions of copies of his books printed and sold. Srila Prabhupada left this mortal world on November 14, 1977 to rejoin Lord Sri Krishna in the eternal abode of Vaikuntha, from which perfect, liberated devotees descend for the transcendental benefit of the conditioned souls. One should never think that Srila Prabhupada, a pure devotee of the Supreme Lord Krishna, died. It is not enough to find a guru who believes in his teachings, is personally trustworthy and ethical, the teachings themselves must have the power and truth he claims else the consequences of following them may turn out to be very disappointing. Internally, Srila Prabhupada chose His own time of departure. Externally, He was poisoned by arsenic, unable to eat and His body withered away due to malnutrition and toxic cellular obliteration. It is our duty as Srila Prabhupada's diksha and siksha followers to defend Him, better late than never. First we must establish the truth, then take appropriate action. In 1996, the Government of India had recognized Prabhupada's accomplishments by issuing a commemorative stamp in his honour as a part of Prabhupada Centennial celebrations.Let us pay our humble obeisance to his lotus fee and respectful homahe to him!

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f.b.
Jan.20,2011.

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