Śrīla Prabhupāda in TOVP (2021)
Information – Installed in October 2021 during the auspicious month of Dāmodara, this life-size murti of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda, Founder-Ācārya of ISKCON, commemorates his 125th Appearance Anniversary. Expertly sculpted by His Grace Locana dāsa (ACBSP), a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda who has dedicated decades to creating Prabhupāda murtis for ISKCON temples worldwide, this unique murti portrays Śrīla Prabhupāda in a reverential worship pose with folded hands.
Unlike any other Prabhupāda murti, it beautifully embodies his heartfelt declaration, “Māyāpur is my place of worship.” Seated on his grand Vyāsāsana before Śrī Śrī Rādhā Mādhava and the Pañca-tattva, Śrīla Prabhupāda is eternally offering his worship to the Lord while welcoming pilgrims from around the world. As in all ISKCON temples, the murti is worshiped daily, and devotees understand Śrīla Prabhupāda to be personally present, accepting their service and bestowing his blessings.
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine.
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krishna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet. Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Chaitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
Kṛṣṇa is Mahāprabhu, and all others, they are prabhus. And the spiritual master who has got many prabhus to abide by his order, he is addressed as Prabhupāda. This is the system.
(710810 - Lecture SB 01.02.02 - London)
Religion without philosophy is sentiment, or sometimes fanaticism, while philosophy without religion is mental speculation. The ultimate goal is Kṛṣṇa, because the philosophers who are also sincerely searching after the Absolute Truth come in the end to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.
(BG 3.3 purport)
Śrīla Prabhupāda Audio
Hear the original words of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
I think by the beginning of December, 1936, I wrote one letter to Guru Mahārāja. I knew he was little kind upon me, so I wrote that "Guru Mahārāja, you have got many disciples. I am also one of them. But they are doing direct service to you. There some of them are brahmacārīs, some of them sannyāsīs, but I am a householder. I cannot . . ." Of course, I was giving sometimes some monetary help, but I could not give any direct service, so I asked him that, "If there is any particular service I can do for you?"
So that letter was replied in 13th December, dated 13th December, from Purī. And he passed away on the 31st December. Just a fortnight before. So the reply was the same as he wanted me to do this preaching work in 1922, when I first met him that, "You try to preach whatever you have learned from me, the English-knowing people in English. That will do good to you and to the people to whom you shall preach. That is my instruction." So I took up that . . . and then he passed away in 1936, 31st December.
(690207 - Lecture Festival Appearance Day, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati - Los Angeles)
Reporter (2): What will happen to the movement in the United States when you die?
Prabhupāda: I will never die.
Devotees: Jaya! Hari boli! (laughter)
Prabhupāda: I shall live for my books, and you will utilize.
(750716 - Interview - San Francisco)
So Kṛṣṇa understanding is not so easy. It is very difficult. Kṛṣṇa says. But by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, because He wanted to distribute Himself, Caitanya Mahāprabhu giving us Kṛṣṇa freely . . . kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te (CC Madhya 19.53). Rūpa Gosvāmī says that namo mahā-vadānyāya. Kṛṣṇa was also not so liberal. He simply asked us, "Surrender," but He did not distribute Himself. But in the form of Caitanya Mahāprabhu He distributed Himself, "Take Me, take Me, take Me. Without any price, take Me."
This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is Kṛṣṇa, and He has come in the form of Caitanya, Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, to distribute Himself. Therefore He is recognized, namo mahā-vadānyāya, "The most munificent." No other incarnation, even Rāmacandra or Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, They were not so liberal. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu is so liberal. Pāpī tāpī jata chilo hari-nāme uddhārilo (Hari Hari Bifale 3). They distributed Himself through the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.
(721031 - Lecture SB 01.02.20 - Vrndavana)