The Journalist’s Question

A lwAys E mbr A c E d by K åñë A

can give them ten crores. Gopala Kåñëa: But they’ll never be able to... Çréla Prabhupäda: No! That you cannot say! It is all in the hands of Krsna. Not one crore. Say a few lakhs. He’s ready to go town-to-town, village, in Orissa. He wants that in my absence somebody must be there to look after the construction. That is quite reasonable. Gopala Kåñëa: O, yes, definitely. Çréla Prabhupäda: So, I have told them “Any amount I can invest. You print books and sell.” This is my open secret. Print books, and distribute, and spend half in whichever life you do and half, again print books. That is my ambition (vision?). I want to see our philosophy is widely spread by different literatures. That I want to do. Gopala Kåñëa: Yes. That will be very good. There are a few people like, Vijetä, who is Saurabha’s assistant, he could probably go to Bhubaneshwar and supervise the construction. Çréla Prabhupäda: Yes. So, arrange. Gopala Kåñëa: There are too many people here. We don’t need that many in Bombay for the Bombay construction. Çréla Prabhupäda: So, let him come to Bhubaneshwar. I am going after Kumbha-melä. And begin the work immediately. We have got one gentleman, professor. He is good learned scholar. I can engage him for translating. Gopala Kåñëa: Oriya. Very nice. Çréla Prabhupäda: He was writing…That machine…. I can see the manuscript. In this way, arrangement make. Gopala Kåñëa: Very good. We just printed two books in Oriya, Topmost yoga and one more. One more. Çréla Prabhupäda: He likes Oriya language. Gopala Kåñëa: Who? Gour Govinda Swami? He is a very sincere devotee. Çréla Prabhupäda: O, yes, undoubtedly. Gopala Kåñëa: Very sincere.

C hapter 5 a t emple in B hu B aneswar

Çréla Prabhupäda: Kåñëa sent him. He… In Våndävana, he said that “Please give me shelter.” I thought that “There are so many Indian who come and go.” So, when he insisted, “Alright, you stay.” * Hari-çauri: Yeah. He took sannyäsa at the opening of the temple [Våndävana 1975 Räma-navamé festival] I remember that. Çréla Prabhupäda: He’s a good boy. Hari-çauri: He has stuck it out for a long time in Orissa. He’s been there a long time, by himself a lot of the time too. Çréla Prabhupäda: Yes. Yes. He’s organising nicely. Gopala Kåñëa: He’s very sincere. He follows all the regulations very rigidly. He gets up [very early] in the morning, ideal example. ** Jagadisa: He understands the philosophy quite well. *** Çréla Prabhupäda: Oh yes. And he is educated. He is B.Sc. he knows Hindi also. Gopala Kåñëa: He worked on Hindi translation for some time.

*Author’s comment: It is clear from the discussion that Çréla Prabhupäda had a high opinion of Çréla Gour Govinda Swami. He valued him for his loyalty and his devotion to Kåñëa, his strictness in observing the regulative principles, his willingness to accept hardships to fulfil Çréla Prabhupäda’s vision, his understanding of Gauòéya Vaiñëava philosophy, his education and his intelligence. **Author’s comment (2): There was never a time when Çréla Gurudeva did not follow the principles of Kåñëa consciousness (Vedic Dharma) and did not rise early in the morning to perform his sädhana. *** Author’s comment (3): As far as this comment by one aspirant on the path of bhakti [aspiring Vaiñëava] above. Çréla Gurudeva was studying the scriptures and chanting Hare Kåñëa from a very young age, as has already been stated in Part One of this Volume, well before most of Çréla Prabhupäda’s other disciples were even born, or had even heard about Vedic culture, varëäçrama-dharma and the Brahmä-Mädhva-Gauòéya-sampradäya, of which ISKCON is one branch. Çréla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda states, “...Kåñëadäsa Kaviräja Gosvämé therefore offers equal respect to all the preachers of the cult of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu, who are compared to the branches of the tree. ISKCON is one of these branches...” (Çré Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi-lélä 10.7 purport)