Return to India

When he returned to India in 1967, I met him and his disciple, Kīrtanānanda dāsa, at the airport in Delhi. He had instructed me to do this in his telegram. When we met, he told me many wonderful accounts and details about his preaching in America, and how miraculous were the results. Humbly, he felt that all this was only the mercy of his gurudeva, and the desire of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His associates. One special thing he told me was how he first chanted the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra in Tompkins Square Park in New York City. Chanting for several hours, he had kept his eyes closed, deeply hearing and depending completely on that mercy.

We stayed together in Delhi for seven days at the Chippiwada RādhāKṛṣṇa Temple. Because Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja was sometimes feeling ill, he would send me along with Kīrtanānanda dāsa to represent him in his preaching programs. He always encouraged us to preach very strongly. He wanted everyone to see his Western Vaiṣṇava, and so he took us to chant and preach to people he knew in Delhi.

After a few weeks, another of Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja’s disciples, Acyutānanda dāsa, came to stay in Vṛndāvana. Because these two were Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja’s disciples, I sat together with them and honored the mahā-prasāda they had prepared.

All the caste Gosvāmīs, and almost all of Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja’s godbrothers, would never take any prasāda or even the water that Kīrtanānanda dāsa and Acyutānanda dāsa offered them. The reason they refused was that those disciples were Westerners and had previously eaten flesh. I spoke out against this policy and encouraged others to accept Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja’s disciples as bona fide. I explained how Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja’s preaching to foreigners was completely authorized and directly in the line of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and our guru-varga. I think that most of the Indian Vaiṣṇavas have now accepted this.

During this first trip back to India in 1967, parama-pujyapāda Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja came to visit my gurudeva, his sannyāsa-guru.

At that time, my gurudeva was in weak health and was confined to his bed in Calcutta. They had a confidential visit then, and this was their last time together in this world. My gurudeva was overjoyed at Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja’s devotional service to their Śrīla Prabhupādā. He expressed his appreciation and glorified his extensive preaching, and he pledged to cooperate in that preaching work. They also discussed my gurudeva’s helping to arrange a donation of land for Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja’s future Māyāpura temple. Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Trivikrama Mahārāja and Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Mahārāja were also present on that occassion.

After Śrīla Gurudeva departed from this world in 1968, Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja, along with his disciples, sent us a telegram of condolence.He also sent a long letter to Śrīla Trivikrama Mahārāja in Navadvīpa. He also delivered a lecture about Śrīla Gurudeva in Seattle, Washington, and there he described the history of his awarding him sannyāsa. He spoke about the great appreciation and affection he had for him, and how he had now entered Kṛṣṇa’s abode. We heard later from some of his disciples that he shed tears when he received the telegram telling of our gurudeva’s entering nityā-līlā.

In his letter to Śrīla Trivikrama Mahārāja, Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja asked him to send a photo of Gurudeva, because he wanted to place it on his temple altars in the West. He also wrote and asked me to send a picture to him. I remember that in one letter he requested me, “Please send me a picture of your gurudeva so I can have a portrait painted for displaying with our disciplic succession in all of our temples.”