Srila PRabhupada - how he first thought about preaching in west
Shuklambhara Dasa
A couple of interesting questions came up during the walk this morning. Païca Draviòa Mahäräja asked Çréla Prabhupäda what he was thinking when he first went to the West. What idea for a program did he have?
Prabhupäda replied with a laugh. "This idea: I shall speak to don't eat meat, and they'll immediately kick me out!" Everyone laughed.
"That was my program. I was going to say 'Don't eat meat. No illicit sex,' and immediately they will kick me out! 'All right.' I never thought that you would accept it. That is the idea of my poetry [written on the boat when he first arrived]. I was asking Kåñëa, 'I do not know why You have brought me here. As soon as I will say these things, they will kick me out. What is Your program, I do not know.'" Prabhupäda chuckled to himself.
Lokanätha Swami offered, "You are so expert. For one year you did not mention those rules and regulations, I heard."
"No, I simply said, 'Come and join and chant.'"
"And when they developed higher taste, then you said, 'Now no more meat-eating.'"
Lokanätha Mahäräja also had a question about the local people here in Våndävana. "Çréla Prabhupäda, what is the position of the Brijväsés, those who are living in Våndävana now? What happens to them next life?"
"Simply by living, if they do not commit anything sinful, they'll go back to home. Simply by living, without committing any sinful activities. Always remember Kåñëa, this is Kåñëa's land; that will deliver them."
"They don't need a spiritual master?" Madhudviña asked.
"Yes," Prabhupäda replied. "Spiritual master is always needed. Without abiding by the orders of spiritual master and serving him, nobody can be... Otherwise rascal."
I began to say, "So all these local Brajaväsés, they all accept..."
Prabhupäda immediately thought of the farmer the other morning who offered his respects because he'd walked on his land. "No, Brajaväsés, they are generally, naturally, they are Kåñëa conscious. Otherwise how is this illiterate farmer, he is offering? This is natural."
Païca Draviòa asked, "But he has no spiritual master?"
"No, no, he has a spiritual master. And even without spiritual master they have already elevated to Kåñëa consciousness."
"So they will go back home?"
"Oh, yes," Prabhupäda assured him, "because spiritual master is within, caitya-guru."
From what he told us about the position of the Brajaväsés, it may seem that it is an easy way to go back to home, back to Godhead. But, of course, getting a birth in Våndävana is not easy. – HSD’s Transcendental Dairy Vol 1 – Apr 8th 1976