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Utilize me in this way

Sriniketana das : On one morning walk, one young man came along. His name was Ramoo, and he was a nursing officer in the government. He was animating the conversation with Srila Prabhupada to such an extent that practically he monopolized the whole morning walk, and what happened afterwards is very unusual. We were coming into the house, and normally after morning walk of course, there was no Deities so we would do Guru Puja and then we gave the Bhagavatam class. But this morning Srila Prabhupada came right off the morning walk, sat on his vyasasan, and the Guru Puja paraphernalia was already there and someone was waiting, but he kept on talking to this gentleman and they were going back and forth. This man was proposing that "We will go to the villages and we will do kirtan. We put up a small tent and then, Swamiji," he said, "you could come, you give the lecture." Prabhupada would say, "But they don't understand English." He said, "No, but we can translate." "No, no, I will speak in Hindi," Prabhupada said. So it was going on like this, and Prabhupada became more and more enthusiastic. Finally at the conclusion, it was getting late, Prabhupada made the most outstanding comment. He said, "Yes, if you do organize, I shall stay. Param vijayate sri-Krishna-sankirtanam. Sri Krishna Sankirtan is so powerful that it will conquer, it will be victorious. So I am very glad to meet you. You do this program, and if you like I shall come back after one week and do. Utilize me in this way, I shall be very glad." Can you imagine Prabhupada saying "utilize me in this way"? So this is actually Prabhupada's greatness. When there was preaching to be done, he was always there. He was always ready to preach. He came to Mauritius for what? Because he was invited by the Prime Minister to come and see if Krishna consciousness could be spread. There was not much facility, there was nothing he could do at the present moment except enliven the devotees to carry on the mission, and that's what he definitely did. And when he talked to this man, we all became so inspired that we just wanted to go out. So the spirit of preaching has been implanted by Srila Prabhupada in the Mauritian yatra, and up to this day there are so many programs going on every day in the villages that every village has devotees residing there and having satsangs, having Rathayatras, having Harinam processions, and this was Prabhupada's mercy. He could see the great potential of this Mauritius island, and it was said that Mauritius could be the first Krishna conscious country in the world. After Srila Prabhupada's visit, there was a very nice article in Back To Godhead magazine, which I would like to read: "Srila Prabhupada proposed that an ideal state based on the instruction of Bhagavad-gita be set up in Mauritius. In a big state, especially in a highly industrialized state, it would not be possible. But in a small state like Mauritius, you can make it happen. In Vedic days, people lived strictly according to the principles of Bhagavad-gita. They made the test and proved that the principles are true. So you just have to follow what is already there. You simply have to accept the Vedic authority.'"


Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada-A Chronological Series by Sriniketana Dasa