Srila Prabhupada's Early Days

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"Srila Prabhupada was born by the banks of the Ganges river in Tollygunge,

Calcutta. It was the time of the British Raj in India, September 1st 1896, the

day after Janmasthami, the birthday of Lord Krishna."

 

Born by the banks of the sacred Ganges river in 1896, Srila Prabhupada was

destined to become the greatest ever ambassador of India's spiritual knowledge

to the world. Completely rejecting that Vedic knowledge was only for those

born in a certain caste or for a certain race, he carried the spiritual message

of Godhead to all peoples of the world in a dynamic ministry which he began at

the age of seventy and which lasted barely thirteen years.

His writings were so prolific, his achievements so unprecedented that, but for a

few exceptions, his contribution to world religious knowledge is munificent

beyond compare. Whereas people everywhere are now familiar with "Hare Krishna"

due to his efforts, he never strived to make himself known. Who was this unique

personality who so selflessly did so much on behalf of God? His story is told in

the following display, taken from his biography "Srila Prabhupada-lilamrita".

 

Srila Prabhupada was born by the banks of the Ganges river in Tollygunge,

Calcutta. It was the time of the British Raj in India, September 1st 1896, the

day after Janmasthami, the birthday of Lord Krishna.Srila Prabhupada's mother

and father were both devoted to Lord Krishna, especially in His form of Lord

Chaitanya. His family line descended from the great sage Gautama. In Bhagavad

Gita, the central scripture of India, Lord Krishna states:

atha va yoginam eva kule bhavati dhimatametad dhi durlabhataram loke janma yad

idrsam "..(one who) takes birth in a family of transcendentalists who are

surely great in wisdom, certainly such a birth is rare in this world."Srila

Prabhupada spoke of his father who earned a humble but adequate living as a

cloth merchant:

"Actually his real business was worshipping Krishna, but for livelihood he did

some business. We would be sleeping and father would be worshipping the Lord.

Ding, ding, ding - we would hear the bell and wake up to see him bowing down

before Krishna"

The stars foretell his great destinyAccording to the custom, on the occasion of

his birth an astrologer was called. He calculated the birth-chart and

predicted, to the joy of all present, that when Srila Prabhupada would reach

the age of seventy he would cross the ocean, become a great exponent of

religion and open 108 temples.

 

 

Srila Prabhupada's father always treated him with great affection as a most

special person and saw to it that his son learned the practice of Krishna

consciousness from his very birth. He gave Srila Prabhupada Radha-Krishna

deities for his childhood play. He arranged mridanga drum and harmonium music

lessons and in time Srila Prabhupada became accomplished in devotional music.

He also made sure his son learned sanskrit, the practically inaccessable

language of the vedic scriptures that he would later translate for all the

world to understand. Later, when there was talk of Srila Prabhupada studying

Law in England , his father objected: "He will learn drinking and woman-hunting

- I do not want his money!" In these ways, Srila Prabhupada was always supported

by his affectionate father on the spiritual path.

 

When Srila Prabhupada was five years old, he decided to hold a Rath Yatra cart

festival like the religious one held annually in Jagannath Puri, attended by

millions. When he heard his father could not afford a new cart, his subsequent

crying attracted the attention of a passing Bengali woman who kindly let him

buy her old cart. Srila Prabhupada enlisted the help of the neighbourhood

children and their mothers in an elaborate eight-day spiritual festival that he

continued annually during his boyhood.

This same festival would eventually be established by Srila Prabhupada on five continents.

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