Reflections
Recollections by Śrīla Prabhupāda
of his journey to America
The following excerpts from Śrīla Prabhupāda's room conversations and letters give further insights into his voyage to America and the incidents surrounding it. These selections have been obtained from the computer database "The Complete Works of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami."
Excerpt from a room conversation with His Divine Grace in Bombay on November 7, 1970.
Prabhupāda: So I went in U.S.A. without any sponsor. No, I... That is the... One gentleman sponsored for one month; one month only. Not even one month. I remained there only three weeks, and then I chalked out my plan. He was my friend's son, and my friend wrote him that "You sponsor Swamiji for one month."
Guest (1): Some American gentleman?
Prabhupāda: No, Indian. One gentleman from Agra. So his son immediately sent me, sponsoring. But still, the government objected that "We cannot allow you to go there because you are sponsored by an individual person." But I wanted to see chief controller of, what is called, foreign exchange, Mr. Rao. So he kindly accepted: "Yes, Swamiji, you can go." He fought.(?)
Guest (2): That time it was very difficult. Passport I have got already.
Prabhupāda: Passport, visa... So there was no money with me and in an awkward position... My philosophy is completely different. I was to ask them to cease from four kinds of sinful activities, and they are habituated to these things. Illicit sex, and drinking, wine and intoxication and gambling-these are their daily affairs. So I was thinking, "I have to stop this. Who will hear me?" But Kṛṣṇa... Everything became...
Guest (1): May I ask one thing? How you chose this America to be your first....?
Prabhupāda: My Guru Mahārāja ordered me that "You go and preach this cult amongst the English-speaking public and specially in the Western countries." So first of all I thought of London, where is London, but I had no money. So I got the opportunity for going U.S.A. free on the..., on a trade ship by the Scindia Steam Navigation. They gave me their first-class cabinet, the proprietor's cabinet. I was well carried. But first of all I went free on a steamship. I had no money what to speak of aeroplane. So... What was your question?
Guest (1): My question was that how you selected America to be your...
Prabhupāda: Yes. So I got the opportunity to go to America because their ship goes to New York. So I accepted, "All right, we can see, either go to London or New York." New York is better place than London.
Excerpt from a room conversation with His Divine Grace in Los Angeles on June 8, 1976.
Prabhupāda: So I did not say anything seriously, but perhaps he took it very seriously, Gopal's father. So he might have written to Gopal that "Swami Bhaktivedanta wants to go to America. If you sponsor, then he can go." So whatever the correspondence was there between the father and son, I did not know. I simply asked him, "Why don't you ask your son Gopal to sponsor so that I can go there? I want to preach there." So after some months, three, four months, the No Objection Certificate from the Indian embassy in New York. Gopal sent to me, yes, that he had already sponsored my arrival there for one month. So all of a sudden I got the paper, No Objection Certificate, by the Indian embassy. After so much inquiry, I learned that so much inquiry was done and so on, so on. Then I tried to take a passport and paper process. So I got the passport. Then I approached that Sumati Morarji. She once gave me five hundred rupees in exchange of my Bhāgavata book, so I approached her, that "Give me one ticket." They have got their shipping company, Scindia Navigation. So she said, "Swamiji, you are so old, you are taking this so responsibility. Do you think it is right?" "No, it is all right." (laughs) At that time, I was seventy years old. So all the secretary, they thought that "Swamiji is going to die there." Anyway, they gave me the ticket, one return free ticket by their ship. Then arrangement was going on. So there is another process to get a P-form. You know.
Guest: P-form.
Prabhupāda: P-form sanctioned by the state government, yes, state government. So it was applied for. It was... No sanction was coming. Then I went to the State Bank of India, the officer Mr. Bhattacari. So he told me: "Swamiji, you are sponsored by private man. So we cannot accept it. If you are invited by some institution, then we could consider, but you are invited by a private man for one month, and, after one month, if you are in difficulty, and there will be so much obstacles and so on." "Well, I have already prepared everything to go." So I said that "You, what you have done?" "No, I have decided not to sanction your P-form." "No, no, don't do this. You better send to your superior. It should not be done like that." So he took my request and he sent the file to Chief Officer of Foreign Exchange, something like that. Anyway, he is the supreme man in the State Bank of India. So I went to see him. So I asked his secretary that "You have got such file? You kindly put to Mr...."-his name was Mr. Rao-"I want to see him." So the secretary agreed, and he put the file and put my slip that I wanted to see him. I was waiting. So Mr. Rao came personally. He said, "Swamiji, I have passed your case. Don't worry." (laughs) In this way.
Hari-sauri: He knew you from before, or...?
Prabhupāda: No. He did not know me. So somebody saw him in Bombay, so he reminded that "I know Swamiji when he went to U.S.A." Somebody was telling me.
Hari-śauri: He remembered.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. The name is there, he remembered. After all, he is officer. He knows so many things. So it is a great history. (laughs) There was two days I was attacked in heart on the ship. So hardship.
Trivikrama: Then you had a dream?
Prabhupāda: Hmm.
Hari-śauri: What was that, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: That is... (laughs) The dream was I must come here.
Hari-śauri: It was some instruction that you got?
Prabhupāda: The dream was that Kṛṣṇa in His many forms was bowing the row. What is called?
Hari-śauri: Rowing the boat.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Trivikrama: Jaya.
Prabhupāda: And when I arrived in Boston I wrote that poetry.
Hari-śauri: If you were only sponsored for one month, how is it that you were able to extend your visa all the time?
Prabhupāda: I was extending. The immigration officer came in Boston in my boat. He inquired about this. So he asked me, "Sir, Swamiji, how long you want to stay?" So I thought that I have no shelter, I have no money, but I have got the return ticket. So I did not know how long I... (laughs) He asked me, "How long you want to stay?" So I thought, "In these circumstances, I can stay at most two months, because I have no means where to stay, how to eat, and where shall I go? So I may struggle for two months." So I told him: "I may stay at most two months." He immediately, two months, sanctioned immediately. I could not think that I shall be able to... (laughs) That one month were there, sponsoring. So I thought, "Another one month, that's all," that "This gentleman has sponsored for one month. So that is guaranteed. Then I can stay another one month. That's all." So after that, so I was staying here and there without any fixity. So I was extending the visa. Each time, I was paying ten dollars. Another three months, another three months, like that. And when one year was finished, they refused: "No extension."
Hari-śauri: But by that time you had some kind of...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hari-śauri: ...organization going?
Prabhupāda: Yes, hmm, at that time I was at Second Avenue. So then Rayarāma took the help of a lawyer. He took the case, that he'll give me permanent residence. So he was extending only, and each time he was taking hundred and fifty dollars. So in this way, I entered in 1965, September, up to July-no, up to May-and in the May, month of May, there was heart stroke.
Hari-śauri: That was when, '67?
Trivikrama: '66.
Prabhupāda: '66. Yes. '66. Yes, after one and a half year.
Hari-śauri: No. That was '67 then.
Prabhupāda: Because the time was taken, extension. Then, in 1967, in July, I thought, "Now the health is broken." I was very sick after heartstroke. So I thought, "Now I shall not exist. So let me go to Vṛndāvana and die there." So I came back in July 1967. So this Brahmānanda and others, they were crying when I got on the boat. Hm? The heart was so weak...
Pusta Krsna: You went back to India by boat?
Prabhupāda: No, by plane. I think...
Pusta Krsna: From San Francisco.
Prabhupāda: Hm. At that time, I got some money. Five thousand was given by Jayānanda. He gave me five thousand, and Brahmānanda also gave me. So I spent some money for acquiring some... I had about six thousand. So then I purchased ticket coming back with Kīrtanānanda. In this way, came back to India.
Hari-śauri: You were just saying...
Prabhupāda: And again I paid five thousand rupees to Kīrtanānanda to come back. (aside:) What is that?
Radhavallabha: Kirtirāja Prabhu bought this for your rocking chair.
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Radhavallabha: Should I put it on?
Prabhupāda: Rock and roll. (devotees laugh)
Hari-śauri: So when did you come back again?
Prabhupāda: I came back in 1968, no, '67, December.
Hari-śauri: Oh, you weren't gone long then.
Trivikrama: Six months.
Prabhupāda: Yes, July to December.
Trivikrama: And your health was better?
Prabhupāda: Not very good. So many troubles. When I came back there's always a bad sound going on, gong gong gong, in my brain. Very disturbing, in this Los Angeles. I was staying in some... I forgot.
Trivikrama: La Cienega?
Prabhupāda: No, no, La Cienega later on. I was staying near Pico. Is that Pico? There was a... I think Washington Boulevard? Near there. I forgot that quarter.
Excerpt from a room conversation with His Divine Grace in Vṛndāvana on September 9, 1976.
Prabhupāda: ...because as soon as the ship stopped, Commonwealth Pier, Boston, the immigration department came and took their papers. So I entered America in Boston. There was no checking in New York. The ship stopped in Boston. The official entrance was done there. Then when I came to New York, it is just like one day's travel.
Harikeśa: And then you went directly to Pennsylvania? By bus?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Yes. Then one agent, appointed by my host, Gopal Agarwal... He was in Butler. So he arranged with some professional, what is called, host.
Harikeśa: Travel agent?
Prabhupāda: Maybe travel agent. He came to see me, that "I am sent by Gopal Agarwal, so I'll arrange for your dispatch. You come with me."
Hari-śauri: Dr. Agarwal was your sponsor?
Prabhupāda: Yes. His father came to see me some time in Agra. Agra. His father, mother came.
Hari-śauri: And then they suggested that he be your sponsor.
Prabhupāda: It was all by chance. I was for a few days guest at his father's place in Agra. I did not know that his son is in America. So he was talking about his family. He was little sorry that his eldest son went to America to study electric engineering, and he was entrapped by an English girl, and he married and settled there and did not come back. In this way... So I took the opportunity, that "Why don't you ask your son to sponsor me?" I wanted to go to America. So I did not know how seriously he took it. But I simply told him that "Why don't you ask your son to sponsor me at least for one month? So I am thinking of going to America." Then that was talking, beginning and end, that's all. I did not know that he took it very seriously. Then after two, three months, some documents came. I was receiving my letters in a postbox. So when I left Delhi I used to keep my key of postbox with some nice bookseller, Atmaram, he was manager. So he opened that, he got that documents. That is No Objection Certificate, Sponsor, and everything. I was out of Delhi. Then when I came back I took it. So everything was there, that sheet (indistinct) from the Indian Consulate, No Objection Certificate. Then I applied for a passport. In this way I had to go. So Gopal was unknown to me, but his father was, his father was known to me. His father was... Then his agent got me on the bus. So on the bus (I) went to Pennsylvania.
Hari-śauri: That's a long drive.
Prabhupāda: Yes, nine hours on the bus. And I took a little chipped rice, and whatever I had with me. So I got down from the ship about one o'clock. Then I had to wait for the bus till five o'clock. Then at five o'clock the bus started. About two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning, I went to Pennsylvania, and just in front of the bus Gopal was standing with his car, that... What is called? Van car?
Harikeśa: Station wagon.
Prabhupāda: Station wagon. So he took my luggage, and from there thirty miles off, the Butler County. So I went there. Then at night he took my (indistinct). The next day, he had no many rooms in his apartment, he arranged for my stay in the YMCA nearby them.
Hari-śauri: You never actually stayed with him, then.
Prabhupāda: I was going. I was taking my meals there.
Hari-śauri: Oh. And just keeping a room at the YMCA.
Prabhupāda: Because he had no room, so I was staying there.
Hari-śauri: And then he arranged programs, speaking programs?
Prabhupāda: His wife, Sally. His wife, Sally, she was arranging. A very intelligent girl. They were of the same age, about thirty. Gopal was more than thirty and she was (indistinct). I saw that she was feeding her child, one boy, meat powder.
Harikeśa: Beef bouillon?
Prabhupāda: I do not know what is the name. But I asked. She said, "It is meat powder." That is the system?
Hari-śauri: When they're very young and they can't eat solids.
Prabhupāda: With hot water.
Hari-śauri: Yes, they have instant meals for children. All different kinds of things.
Prabhupāda: So Gopal was very much pleased that he could get some Indian cāpātis, like this.
Hari-śauri: So he had you cook for him. You took your cooker with you? Is that the same one?
Prabhupāda: No. So I lived with him for twenty-one days. Then I came to New York.
Hari-śauri: Yes, that picture in the Butler Eagle. It's in the Vyāsa-Pūjā book this year.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Butler County, it is good (indistinct), there were many churches, (indistinct) people have got so many churches (indistinct) (break) ...some time, that one piece of wire Iying in one place, one piece of bamboo was Iying in another place, and one dry shell of a squash was Iying. So one intelligent man collected. So this dry shell became the tambura's what is called...
Hari-śauri: I don't know. Like sound chamber. What do you call it?
Prabhupāda: Sound chamber may be called. So with that dry squash he made the sound chamber. The bamboo he fixed up and the wire upon it, and then it became a "tin, tin, tin, tin..." (laughs) Our organization is like that. I was loitering in the street. Somebody was over there, somebody was there. Not combined together. International Society String Band. Yes. Separately we are all useless. Eh?