SEPTEMBER 1965

THURSDAY 9: Till 4 o'clock afternoon we have crossed over the Atlantic Ocean for twenty four hours. The whole day was clear and almost smooth. I am taking my food regularly and got some strength to struggle. There is slight lurching(?) of the ship and I am feeling slight headache also. But I am struggling and the nectarine of life is Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita the source of my all vitality.

10 FRIDAY: Today the ship is plying very smoothly. I feel today better. But I am feeling separation from Sri Vrindaban and my Lords Sri Govinda, Gopinath, Radha Damodar. The only solace is Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita in which I am tasting the nectarine of Lord Chaitanya's Leela. I have left Bharat Bhumi just to execute the order of Sri Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati in pursuance of Lord Chaitanya's order. I have no qualification, but I have taken up the risk just to carry out the order of His Divine Grace. I depend fully on Their mercy so far away from Vrindaban.

11 SATURDAY: Today the ship ran on very smoothly. The sky was clear and there was sunshine all the day. At about 7/30 in the morning we passed on the Azore group islands under the Portugal Republic. There was again rehearsal for life boat saving at 4/30 p.m. There was rehearsal of the fire brigadiers also. At night there was profuse moonlight on the ocean and considerable lurching also. But did not affect me very much as it used to do in the Arabian sea. The Atlantic Ocean is more kind to me than all other seas so far we have crossed over. It is all Lord Krishna's Grace.

12 SUNDAY: S. R. Day. Today there is a great deal of lurching although the sky is clear. Mrs. Pandiya although a little lady but very intelligent and learned also. She has foretold about my future. Thanks to her prediction. All blessings of Lord Krishna for her. The crisis which I suppose to have crossed is also mentioned by her. If I have crossed the crisis, then that is Good Will of Lord Krishna my friend and philosopher. In the evening there was too much lurching and I felt a bit sea-sickness. I could not take my food properly. A little sweets were accepted with some relish. The lurching continued till midnight.

MONDAY 13: Today is the 32nd day of our journey from Calcutta. After midnight yesterday the lurching decreased and I felt relief. In the morning also I could not take my breakfast properly. Then I cooked 'Bati-chachari(?).' It appeared to be delicious and I was able to take some food. Today I have disclosed my mind to my companion Lord Sri Krishna. There is a Bengali poem made by me today in this connection. At about eleven there is a little lurching. The captain tells that they had never such calmness of the Atlantic. I said it is Lord Krishna's mercy. His wife asked me to come back again with them so that they may have again a calm Atlantic Ocean. If Atlantic would have shown its usual face perhaps I would have died. But Lord Krishna has taken charge of the ship.

Markine Bhagavata-dharma

by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

at Boston Harbor, September 18, 1965

               baro-krpa kaile krsna adhamer prati
                ki lagiyanile hetha koro ebe gati

 Translation: My dear Lord Krsna, You are so kind upon this useless soul, but I do not know why You have brought me here. Now You can do whatever You like with me. 

                 ache kichu karja taba ei anumane
                 nahe keno aniben ei ugra-sthane

 Translation: But I guess You have some business here, otherwise why would You bring me to this terrible place? 

                rajas tamo gune era sabai acchanna
               basudeb-katha ruci nahe se prasanna

 Translation: Most of the population here is covered by the material modes of ignorance and passion. Absorbed in material life, they think themselves very happy and satisfied, and therefore they have no taste for the transcendental message of Vasudeva. I do not know how they will be able to understand it. 

                 tabe jadi taba krpa hoy ahaituki
               sakal-i sambhava hoy tumi se kautuki

 Translation: But I know Your causeless mercy can make everything possible because You are the most expert mystic. 

               ki bhave bujhale tara bujhe sei rasa
               eta krpa koro prabhu kori nija-basa

 Translation: How will they understand the mellows of devotional service? O Lord, I am simply praying for Your mercy so that I will be able to convince them about Your message. 

                tomara icchaya saba hoy maya-basa
                 tomara icchaya nasa mayar parasa

 Translation: All living entities have become under the control of the illusory energy by Your will, and therefore, if You like, by Your will they can also be released from the clutches of illusion. 

                taba iccha hoy jadi tadera uddhar
                bujhibe niscai tabe katha se tomar

 Translation: I wish that You may deliver them. Therefore if You so desire their deliverance, then only will they be able to understand Your message. 

                 bhagavater katha se taba avatar
                dhira haiya sune jadi kane bar bar

 Translation: The words of Srimad-Bhagavatam are Your incarnation, and if a sober person repeatedly receives it with submissive aural reception, then he will be able to understand Your message. 

 It is said in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.17-21): 

                    srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah
                      punya-sravana-kirtanah
                   hrdy antah-stho hy abhadrani
                      vidhunoti suhrt satam
                     nasta-prayesv abhadresu
                     nityam bhagavata-sevaya
                      bhagavaty uttama-sloke
                    bhaktir bhavati naisthiki
                      tada rajas-tamo-bhavah
                      kama-lobhadayas ca ye
                      ceta etair anaviddham
                     sthitam sattve prasidati

                       evam prasanna-manaso
                     bhagavad-bhakti-yogatah
                     bhagavat-tattva-vijnanam
                      mukta-sangasya jayate

                     bhidyate hrdaya-granthis
                     chidyante sarva-samsayah
                      ksiyante casya karmani
                       drsta evatmanisvare

 "Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramatma [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted. By regular attendance in classes on the Bhagavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact. As soon as irrevocable loving service is established in the heart, the effects of nature's modes of passion and ignorance, such as lust, desire and hankering, disappear from the heart. Then the devotee is established in goodness, and he becomes completely happy. Thus established in the mode of unalloyed goodness, the man whose mind has been enlivened by contact with devotional service to the Lord gains positive scientific knowledge of the Personality of Godhead in the stage of liberation from all material association. Thus the knot in the heart is pierced, and all misgivings are cut to pieces. The chain of fruitive actions is terminated when one sees the self as master." 

                rajas tamo hate tabe paibe nistar
                hrdayer abhadra sate ghucibe tahar

 Translation: He will become liberated from the influence of the modes of ignorance and passion and thus all inauspicious things accumulated in the core of the heart will disappear. 

               ki ko're bujhabo katha baro sei cahi
               khudra ami dina hina kono sakti nahi

 Translation: How will I make them understand this message of Krsna consciousness? I am very unfortunate, unqualified and the most fallen. Therefore I am seeking Your benediction so that I can convince them, for I am powerless to do so on my own. 

               athaca enecho prabhu katha bolibare
                je tomar iccha prabhu koro ei bare

 Translation: Somehow or other, O Lord, You have brought me here to speak about You. Now, my Lord, it is up to You to make me a success or failure as You like. 

                akhila jagat-guru! bacana se amar
                  alankrta koribar khamata tomar

 Translation: O spiritual master of all the worlds! I can simply repeat Your message, so if You like You can make my power of speaking suitable for their understanding. 

              taba krpa ha'le mor katha suddha habe
               suniya sabara soka duhkha je ghucibe

 Translation: Only by Your causeless mercy will my words become pure. I am sure that when this transcendental message penetrates their hearts they will certainly feel engladdened and thus become liberated from all unhappy conditions of life. 

                aniyacho jadi prabhu amare nacate
                 nacao nacao prabhu nacao se-mate
               kasthera puttali jatha nacao se-mate

 Translation: O Lord, I am just like a puppet in Your hands. So if You have brought me here to dance, then make me dance, make me dance, O Lord, make me dance as You like. 

                bhakti nai beda nai name khub daro
               "bhaktivedanta" nam ebe sarthak kor

 Translation: I have no devotion, nor do I have any knowledge, but I have strong faith in the holy name of Krsna. I have been designated as Bhaktivedanta, and now, if You like, You can fulfill the real purport of Bhaktivedanta. 

                Signed--the most unfortunate, insignificant beggar
                                        A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami,
                    on board the ship Jaladuta, Commonwealth Pier,
                                     Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
                                     dated 18th of September, 1965

INDIA'S MESSAGE OF PEACE AND GOODWILL

Srila Prabhupada's pamphlet for the spreading of Lord Krsna's teachings
 

"SRIMAD BHAGWATAM"

INDIA'S MESSAGE OF PEACE AND GOODWILL

          Sixty Volumes of Elaborate English Version by
                         Tridandi Goswami
                    A. C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI

 CARRIED BY 
 THE SCINDIA STEAM NAV. CO., LIMITED 
 BOMBAY 
 All over the world for scientific knowledge of God. 

 The sufferings of the entire human society can at once be brought under control simply by individual practice of "Bhaktiyoga" a simple and easy process of chanting the holy Name of God. Every country, every nation and every community throughout the world has some conception of the holy Name of God and as such either the Hindus or the Mohammedans or the Christians every one can easily chant the holy Name of God in a meditative mood and that will bring about the required peace and good will in the present problematic human society. 
 Any enquiry in this connection will be gladly answered by Sri Swamiji. 
 The Hindus generally chant the holy Name of God in sixteen chain of transcendental sound composed of 32 alphabets as "Hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna hare hare., Hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare." The Vedic literatures like the Upanisads and the Puranas do recommend chanting of the abovementioned sixteen holy Names at a stretch and Lord Sri Chaitanya, Who preached this cult of chanting the holy Name of God, gave special importance on these transcendental sounds. In this age of Kali or the age of hate, hypocrisy, corruption and quarrel, the only remedial measure is that every man should chant the holy Name of the Lord both individually and collectively. 

   The Glories of the holy Name have been described by Sri Chaitanya in His eight verses of "Siksastak" which run as follows:-
    1. Glory to the Sri Krishna Samkirtanam which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years together and thus the fire of conditional life of repeated birth and death is extinguished. Such Samkirtan movement is the prime benediction for the humanity at large because it spreads rays of the benediction - Moon. It is the life of transcendental knowledge, it increases the ocean of transcendental bliss and it helps to have a taste of the full nectarine for which always anxious we are.
    2. Oh my Lord! Your holy Name can alone render all benediction upon the living being and therefore you have hundreds and millions of Names like Krishna, Govinda etc. In these transcendental Names you have invested all your transcendental potencies and there is no hard and fast rules for chanting these holy Names. Oh my Lord! You have so kindly made easy approach to you by your holy Names but unfortunate as I am, I have no attraction for them.
    3. One can chant the holy Names of the Lord in an humble state of mind thinking himself as lower than the straw on the streets, tolerant more than the tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and being ready to offer all kinds of respects to others.
    4. Oh the Almighty Lord, I have no desire for accumulating wealth nor I have any desire to enjoy beautiful woman; neither I want any number of followers of mine. What I want only is that I may have your causeless devotional service in my life birth after birth.
    5. Oh the son of Maharaj Nanda, I am your eternal servitor and although I  am so, some how or other I have fallen on the ocean of birth and death. Please therefore pick me up from the ocean of death and fix me up as one of the atoms of your lotus feet.
    6. Oh my Lord when shall my eyes be decorated with tears of love flowing incessantly by chanting your holy Name? And when all the holes of hairs on my body will have erruptions by the recitation of your Name?
    7. Oh Govinda, feeling your separation, I am considering a moment as 12 twelve years or more than that and tears flowing down my cheeks like the torrents of rains. I am feeling all vacant in the world without your presence.
    8. I do not know any one except Krishna as my Lord and He shall remain as such even if he handles me roughly by His embrace or He may make me broken hearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything but he is always my worshipful Lord, unconditionally.