Srila Prabhupada, our Prophet and Visionary
“The sages were known as tri-kāla-jñā. Tri-kāla-jñā. Tri means three, and kāla means time. Time is experienced by three ways: past, present and future. Time limitation, past, present and … Whenever you speak of time, it is past, present or future. So the sages in those days were tri-kāla-jñā. Tri-kāla-jñā means they could understand, they could know what was in the past, what there shall be in the future, and what is at present.” (Srila Prabhupada Lecture, San Francisco, March 18, 1968)
“So we accept knowledge from such person who knows past, present, and future. Persons who do not know even present, what is going on, how we can accept knowledge from him? This is not our process. Our process is to receive knowledge from a person who knows past, present and future.
Just like Kṛṣṇa and the ācāryas. They know. So our knowledge is perfect because we are receiving knowledge from the perfect as it is.” (Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Los Angeles, September 29, 1972)
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nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāminn iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
The Year: 1967-1968
“I do not very much like this Western civilization. Do YOU like this Western civilization?”
Dear Srila Prabhupada, you often greeted me like this when I entered your room, steno pad in hand, to take dictation of your letters. You would grimace while contemplating the plight of modern man, and the vacant synthetic civilization that has grown up around us. A civilization with no focus on the soul.
How could I reply? I was only a 20 year old American girl, a former college student. This Western world is all I ever knew. I could only listen, and take notes, and memory files that remain for future reference.
“The time is coming when there will be no food in your cities.
The pet dogs will run in packs and attack and eat the people.
Your cities will be bloodbaths. There will be rioting and looting. The people will have to flee to the hills...”
“This Varnasankara (unwanted population) will make the whole world into a hell!”
Srila Prabhupada, when I would hear you make these dire predictions, I never objected nor disbelieved you. I believed you. Every word you said. I simply listened.
As a pure devotee of the Lord, you can not only see into MY soul, but you can also see into the soul of the world—the future of life on this planet. Of course, you told us fortunes can change—with pious and spiritual activities. Thus you created your “World Sankirtan Party” in 1968. You taught us well.
“This oil civilization is in its final phases. You will see everything collapse within your lifetime.”
”The rakshasas are ruling the world; this is their time, Kali-yuga, when demons emerge unchecked. Piety is crippled like the legs of the bull, Dharma.”
Now, it is 2021: The world today is hurtling toward chaos in this predestined time of Kali-yuga. And we are helpless witnesses. If we take the temperature of today’s world, we see it is well into the danger zone.
What did I think of all these dire predictions? Did I become negative or derogatory? Never. I simply listened with open ears and an open heart. And of course, I believed in you so I never contradicted you.
In 1968, when the “moon landing” occurred, all of America’s eyes were glued to television sets throughout the nation. You succinctly dismissed the whole thing as a hoax, mere media propaganda, much to the dismay of your disciples with scientific beliefs. For youth raised in a society trained to worship NASA from an early age, your discounting this “great achievement” created alarm. And sometimes a loss of faith.
You simply said, “It is not possible to go to other planets by spaceship. There ARE heavenly planets, like the moon planet, but they can only be entered by means of sukriti, pious activities, not by crude machinery.”
Unable to accept that the “moon landing” was a fraud, some disciples even left you in 1969. So you became quiet. You no longer spoke much about the future.You understood that Americans were unable to digest your predictions of times to come. Instead, you began to encourage us to become “self-sufficient.”
Now, in 2021, as we see cities and countries erupting in violence, protests, and mass confusion, we remember your words of warning. We remember your predictions of radical change within our lifetime. You predicted World War 3, and even said, “the preaching will be very good after the war.” Because the people will have had their shadow realities smashed by the cruel hands of Time.
“Time I am,” says Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, “Destroyer of worlds.” (Original edition) and now we are seeing many of your predictions take place before our eyes.
What is the solution? What advice did you give? “Chant Hare Krishna, read my books, hear my lectures, and spread the holy names all over the world, to every town and village. And become self-sufficient.”
You often said, “You must become self-sufficient. Grow your own food, leave the cities, every householder should have 5 acres, a cottage and a cow. That is human life.”
You sent a letter to all your temples in 1976: “All householder couples should move to our farms immediately.” Many devotees saw this letter. But it somehow vanished and is nowhere to be found on the Vedabase. Things get lost. Teachings get changed. Or even buried with ulterior motives. (There’s money in cities; no money in the country.) Yet the orders were given. You gave them.
Why? So that we would have viable farm communities when the inevitable time came. No. We can’t say it’s now, 2021, it may be later, or even sooner. But we can rely on your perspective because you are a great acarya, a pure devotee of the Lord in touch with Krishna at all times.
Truly, Srila Prabhupada, in today’s world you would be labeled a “conspiracy theorist”! But that term, meant to discourage truth seekers, had not yet been coined. In 1969, America was a rich and powerful country, and the people were somewhat innocent, even naive. Most people blindly believed whatever the news media cranked out on their newly purchased black and white televisions.
You also labeled “banking” as “fanking, and warned that paper money would lose value.
“Your this paper money will become worthless, just like your toilet paper. Only gold and silver hold value, not some printed paper.”
Impressively, you told me this in 1968, before the dollar was removed from the gold standard—which happened in 1971.
You often said there will be a 10,000 year sliver in the long hard Kali-yuga, called the “Golden Age.” This is predicted by Lord Shiva, by Narada, and by Lord Chaitanya Himself. During this 10,000 years, people will awaken to the reality of spiritual life, no longer lulled by the opiates of material enjoyment that have been totally destroyed by universal time.
You told us Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtana movement will expand all over the world, into every town and village. We have already seen that part of your amazing predictions take place. You also told us that your original books and teachings will be the “law books for the next 10,000 years.”
We have been fortunate to see much of this in our lifetimes. Even now, with many temples closed, the ongoing chanting of Hare Krishna is ringing through the airwaves via the internet. Devotees are having kirtanas all over the world, even if only in virtual reality.
Meanwhile, the asuras march on with their insidious plans. Plans like spaceships to Mars, transgenderism, transhumanism, mass abortions, questionable medicines, spraying chemicals for “dimming the sun,” poisonous pesticides, killing the bees, thus leading to crop failures and food shortages.
Now also there is suppression of public activities, such as kirtanas, as well as free speech and free movement. Rampant suffering is being invoked by abortions, drone wars,mass murders, and worst of all, the daily killing of millions of innocent animals.
Sadly, most Americans are focused on political party entertainment inspired by the media, and trapped between their TVs and cell phones, that are continuously spewing poisonous garbage. Well-censored media is convincing naive people to trust drug companies that have already in the past been legally convicted of peddling products that delivered death and disease.
Meanwhile horrendous sinful activities are taking place behind the fabricated headlines. Like magicians’ wielding spells, the mass media controls the peoples’ attention so much so that they cannot any longer see past the illusory maze.
So how can they hear you?
Who knows how it will end? Some speculate that this is already WW3. Some say it’s coming soon. We are but small blind creatures, as tiny as ants, scurrying about on one tiny planet in this vast universe. What can we possibly see of the future? Even our learned astrologers are stymied. We can only cling to your lotus feet, your words of wisdom, your advice and instructions, and chant Hare Krishna as much as possible.
You foresaw everything. This Kali-yuga, you explained, is very very dangerous. More dangerous than other Kali-yugas. Because the Lord Himself, Sri Krishna Caitanya, appeared in this particular Kali age.
It’s easy to lose one’s balance in a world gone mad. So much confusing propaganda coming from every direction! So we have to come back to the center. What did you, Srila Prabhupada, say? What did you predict? What did you tell us to do?
You taught us to pray daily to Lord Nrisinghadev, the “Raksho Bhuvana,” the Universal Protector. Lord Nrisinghadev, He who delights in seeking out and destroying the “sons of Diti,” the demons, and protecting the devotees of the Lord. Now, we need His help more than ever!
Today’s reality forces us to realize that life in this material world is very very temporary. Our situation is like the will’ o’ the wisp. The only lasting thing is our faith in God, our faith that you have so generously ignited, and given us in the lotus feet of Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda.
Thank you Srila Prabhupada, thank you for warning us. Thank you for loving us. In our well-fed and overly comfortable western upbringing in America, you loved us enough to warn us. You gave us a lifeline, both spiritually and materially, out of your love for us.
Thank you for telling us what we must do to protect our fragile devotional lives from the onslaught of the tentacles of Kali.
Your ultimate wisdom: “Chant Hare Krishna and be happy.”
Thank you my dear Master, Srila Prabhupada, for everything. Where would we be without you?
Your loving daughter,
Govinda dasi
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