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This is Columbus, he could do it

Mahamana Dasa: One time when he was in Hyderabad, he was in his room at that time and Srila Prabhupada wanted to... He had very beautiful picture of his Guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. He wanted to hang this suitably so he could see that. He asked some of his disciples. Unfortunately the shape of the room, the corners... for whatever reasons, it was designed in that particular way, no matter how hard the disciple tried, he just could not hang this beautiful picture of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. Srila Prabhupada wanted very much to have this photo. Then Prabhupada told the disciple, "Give the picture to me, I will show you how to hang it." And Prabhupada hanged it. I am not sure of the details how he did it, but it’s recorded in the story that Prabhupada hanged it. And in that connection, Prabhupada said, "This is Columbus, he could do it.

And in connection with the Gaudiya Matha also, this is how Prabhupada said that. From his own lotus mouth, Prabhupada gives a story in the Folio. It is recounted that Columbus was a very brave and very intelligent person. And also Prabhupada in other places mentions, this intelligence is also due to Krishna. In the Bhagavad-gita, it is said paurusam nrsu (Bg 7.8), I am the intelligence of all people.

So Columbus, he is accredited with discovery of many things. Amongst his discoveries is that, he discovered or established rather that this world is round. So if you go from one particular place and go, keep on going in one direction, you will come back to the same place. Other philosophers and geographers also had postulated it, but Columbus is the one who actually proved it or established it. So he did that; that supposing you want to come from Spain, where you are staying, to India, you don't have to only go East. You can also come by your Western route. So anyway he discovered America and some other places, although some other people got the credit for it. I am not going to get into historical and geographical details here.

When he returned to Spain, there was a party held in his honour. The king, if I remember, King Ferdinand and his wife Isabella, were also present. So this party was held. By and large all the people were appreciating his great monumental work. Just having two or three small ships, not even ships, they could be called only a boat. Three boats, and going all the way from Spain and discovering America. And everyone was really appreciating him. It was an appreciable work which he had done.

However, in that party, there was one very envious person who would always chide or he would always find faults with Columbus. "I don't understand why he has been given so much importance. We Spanish are all very brave people. Anyone of us could have done what Columbus has done. It’s beyond me to understand why he is been given so much recognition." He would say openly like that.

So Columbus tolerated all this. Because a great man, he does not care for all this fault finding. He is well established in his own glory. There is a saying: 'When the caravan passes, well so many things happen, but the caravan goes on.' And in Hindi there is a saying: 'When an elephant goes, the dogs will bark, but the elephant does not care for that.' The elephant keeps on walking. So Columbus, he tolerated all this. "It doesn’t affect my position at all.

But when this person became a little too much, so Columbus wanted to teach him a lesson. And so he told him... at that time Columbus was eating or they were having in the party, boiled eggs. So he took one boiled egg and he challenged everyone, "Make this egg stand vertically without any external support. Horizontally is easy, anyone can do. But make it stand vertically without any external support."

So he challenged to everyone. "Can anyone do it?" So everyone denied, "No, we cannot do." Then Columbus challenged this person who was very envious, "Now you try it, you are talking so much. Let's see you try this." And this man said, "No, I cannot do, and Columbus you mark my words, you won't be able to do it either. You will just make a mockery of yourself." Columbus said, "No, I can do it, and I will show you how to do it.

So he took that boiled egg and took a knife. He scraped the bottom part of it, made it level and lo! the egg was standing vertically without any external support, only by itself. So this man and others also, "Columbus this is very easy, we could have all done this." Columbus said, "I have shown you how to do it, now you are saying it is very easy.

So similarly some of the godbrothers of Prabhupada, who were saying that they could have done it, they even said that, "This was going to happen anyway." Some of the godbrothers said that. Why was it going to happen anyway? Because it says right in the Chaitanya-bhagavata (Antya 4.126): prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama, sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself has said that His names will be spread all over the world. But if that is so, why did it not happen until Srila Prabhupada made it happen? He actually made it happen. So this story nicely illustrates. It takes special intelligence, Prabhupada had that.

One famous sociologist has made a very interesting observation that, "If you are planning to do something which will last for one year, then you just plant rice." Because that's the time it takes to fructify or mature. Within one year the rice will be ready. If you are looking only for one year, planning only for one year, then do only rice. But, if you are planning something for little longer, say twenty years, then you should plant trees. Trees take twenty years to grow. Something like that. Just a general quotation. But, if you are planning something which will last for centuries, then you should plant men. And that’s what Srila Prabhupada did. He planted men, he cultivated men. That's why this movement will go on for hundred centuries, which is ten thousand years. This is predicted in the shastra: it will go on for ten thousand years. 



Reference: SPF Interviews