Are you men ready for combat?

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami: In 1972, I had gone to Dallas to assist in starting the gurukula. While there as headmaster, I heard that Srila Prabhupada thought his GBC secretaries (of which I was one) were sitting behind their desks too much and not preaching. He was inviting us to take sannyasa to disentangle us from management so that we could travel and preach. I wrote to Srila Prabhupada asking permission to be included, and he said that I should go to Los Angeles where he would soon be giving sannyasa initiations.

Because of my duties, I already had been separated from my wife (who was living in New York and painting for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Art Department) for over a year. I wrote her a note telling her that Prabhupada had accepted me for sannyasa, and I went to Los Angeles. One particular entry seems to warrant some background. In Los Angeles, shortly before the sannyasa initiation, a GBC meeting was held to reapportion the preaching zones. This meeting (which is described in the entry titled, GBC Meeting Verbatim Notes from Srila Prabhupada) was one of the heaviest meetings I and others who were present ever had with Srila Prabhupada. Almost all of us present were GBC members. He challenged us by asking, "do you believe that Krishna is God?"

He said he believed, and believed in fact, but did we? What he was really asking was, are you actually ready to follow me and be strong preachers on behalf of Krishna? It was almost as if he expected us to answer him then and there. No one did. The room was quiet but tense. He drove us inside ourselves to ask, do I believe Krishna is God? I felt my shortcomings. I knew my convictions were untested and theoretical. I very much appreciated Prabhupada's own statements of conviction and that he was giving us a glimpse into his own deep Krishna consciousness. It was similar to a war-time general looking over his newly commissioned officers, seeing their inexperience and weakness, and asking them, Are you men ready for combat? I consulted with other devotees afterward and they said they had been as uncomfortable as I was. Also, in this entry, Srila Prabhupada gives a definition of what it means to be a GBC member. This is useful information because it is still sometimes debated. At this time, he emphasized that a GBC member should be a preacher and a chanter of the Hare Krishna mantra, at least sixteen rounds daily.