View source for Devotee of C.R. Dasa

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[[Category:devotee]]
[[Category:Devotee - different kinds of - Umbrella Category]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1973_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="6" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1973 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1973 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="RoomConversationMarch171973Mayapur_0" class="quote" parent="1973_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="10" link="Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur" link_text="Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur">
<div class="heading">I was nationalist, Congress party. I was a devotee of Mahatma Gandhi and C.R. Dāsa.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur|Room Conversation -- March 17, 1973, Mayapur]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna. So, our Swami Mahārāja has done a miracle! (Laughingly) He has done a miracle. What Bhaktivinoda conceived and (Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati) Prabhupada tried according to his conception to translate into action we find that through Swami Mahārāja in his last days these revelations have been fulfilled. We are happy, we are glad, we are proud of Swami Mahārāja, and of you all too. When any person comes to take diksa and stay at the Math, we say that after wandering for a long time in a foreign land he is again coming back to his home. Home means homeward, back to God "back to home, back to Godhead." Back to Godhead means back to home, sweet, sweet home. Our home and life is there and nowhere else. So we may be quite free there of any misgivings or misconduct with such bold and clear faith we can go on, onward and onward. Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna. Vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca....</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Jaya oṁ viṣṇupāda paramahaṁsa parivrājakācārya....So we are thinking we are very much fortunate to hear His Divine Grace Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Paramahaṁsa Parivrājakācārya Bhakti Raksaka Śrīdhara Mahārāja. He is, by age and experience, in both ways he is senior to me. I am also always fortunate to have his association for a very long timeperhaps since nineteen hundred and thirty or something like that. At that time, he did not accept sannyāsa; he just left home, vanaprastha. In his white dress he went to Allahabad. (Aside, to Śrīdhara Mahārāja:) Mahārāja, I think you remember this incident when you went to Allahabad.</p>
<p>Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, I do.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, thank you. Yes, at that time...</p>
<p>Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We took prasādam on the roof.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, thank you (devotees laugh). Yes. In that auspicious occasion we are connected. Before that, in 1920, ah 22, when I was manager in Dr. Bose's laboratory, young man, and I was nationalist, Congress party. I was a devotee of Mahatma Gandhi and C.R. Dāsa. At that time...</p>
<p>Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When I was (indistinct).</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes.</p>
<p>Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That was the beginning of our...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, I was in connection with Congress (?) in 1917.</p>
<p>Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Seventeen.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, 17, when Anivesan (?) became the Congress president, yes. Then I became serious in 1920, and I gave up my education. So one of my friends, that friend he is also now, perhaps you know Mahārāja, that Naren Mullik?</p>
<p>Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, yes.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. He was my intimate friend. So in their house, old Tīrtha Mahārāja went to beg some alms—they are very rich man. So, he informed me that "One nice sannyāsī came to our house," and he was invited, "in Ultadanga there is Gauḍīya Maṭha, so he has invited me. I wish to go there. Why don't you come? Let us go together." He was my very intimate friend. So at that time I was a little pessimistic (?), "I know all these sādhus there, I am not going." So he forced me, "Oh, why not come? Let us go." "All right, let us go." So I went to see His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura in 1922 in that Ultadanga building, and that time Prabhupāda was sitting on the roof. There was small house (indistinct) room, and we were welcome, because they thought Naren Mullik was very rich man and he has contributed some money. So, we went to see Prabhupāda, offered our obeisances. So immediately he said that "You are all educated young men, why don't you preach Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu's message throughout the whole world?" So I replied him, "Sir, we are dependent nation, who will hear our message? We can talk all these things after we get independence," because I was politically-minded at that time. So he refuted my argument. Certainly I was defeated, and I took his words very seriously, I appreciated. Then we were offered some prasādam, we came down, and my friend Naren Mullik asked me, "How did you like this sādhu?" "Yes, here is a sādhu in whose hands Caitanya Mahāprabhu's message is there, and it will be done. I think this is very nice." That was my appreciation. Then 1923, I resigned my post as manager in Bose's laboratory, and I accepted the agency of whole U.P., beginning from Mughalsarai (?) up to Delhi, and I made my head office in Allahabad. So I was always thinking, "Oh yes, I met a very nice sādhu." From the very beginning, that was my impression, that "I have met a real sādhu." So, actually the words, lava mātra sādhu saṅge sarva siddhi haya ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 22.54|CC Madhya 22.54]]), was actually... I perceived a kind (?) for a moment, and he impressed so much, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, that it was, it continued. Then in 1928, when there was Kumbha-melā... Mahārāja, when you joined Gauḍīya Maṭha?</p>
<p>Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Twenty-seven.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Twenty-seven. That means...</p>
<p>Śrīdhara Mahārāja: (in background, indistinct)</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So 1928 there was a Kumbha-melā, I think. And during that Kumbha-melā, Tīrtha Mahārāja with a party came to my shop, Prayāg pharmacy, all of a sudden, and I thought, "Oh, these are the people I saw, Gauḍīya Maṭha. Yes." So, I was so glad. So Tīrtha Mahārāja asked me that "We are come new here. We are going to establish a temple in Allahabad. We have heard your name, so we have come to you. Please help us." "Yes, I will help you." So in this way I contributed, my attending physician contributed, and some other friends. In this way we became friends, and Tīrtha Mahārāja, old Tīrtha Mahārāja had first meeting in my house at Allahabad, with I think the Sarvesva (?) brahmacārī and Dhīra Kṛṣṇa brahmacārī...</p>
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