A Humble Request to Sri Radha Gopinatha
Kurma Dasa: Srila Prabhupada sat in the tiny temple room, surrounded by his new disciples in front of the Deities of Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha. Srila Prabhupada had his reasons for bringing Radha and Krishna to Australia, some of them apparent, others so deep that perhaps only he and Radha and Krishna could understand them. Of course, he was always expanding his movement, of which Deity worship was an important part, so that was one reason for bringing Radha and Krishna to Australia: to strengthen the devotees and to establish more solidly his movement there. And Prabhupada loved these Deities. They had presided over the Bombay pandal, and, when They hadn't been on-stage, he had kept them in his room where he could look at them during the day. He had brought the Deities from Bombay to Malaysia to Sydney, and now he had installed them in this fledgling ISKCON centre. As he had described in the original ISKCON charter, Srila Prabhupada had wanted to erect a holy place of transcendental pastimes dedicated to the Personality of Krishna. Number 118 Oxford Street was no longer simply a Sydney shop-front. It was now the home for Radha and Krishna, and had thus been spiritualised. People could take shelter here. Plain and small as it was, Prabhupada considered it as a holy place of transcendental pastimes.
Srila Prabhupada told the devotees sitting before him that now they had a great responsibility to take care of Radha and Krishna. They should be very serious about their Krishna consciousness and keep themselves pure. Prabhupada knew that the devotees in Sydney were not up to the standard required for worshiping Radha and Krishna and he knew he was taking a risk, entrusting Their worship to neophyte disciples. Yet, as an empowered acharya and representative of Lord Caitanya, he had to implant Krishna consciousness anywhere it could take root. The world was in desperate need. If his disciples followed the process he had given them, chanting, hearing and observing the regulative principles he knew they would quickly become purified. Prabhupada rose to leave for the airport. After less than a week in Sydney, he was leaving for a big pandal festival in Calcutta, then on to Moscow, Paris and Los Angeles. As he stood before the Deities of Radha Gopinatha, with folded hands Prabhupada silently submitted an extraordinary request: "Now I am leaving You in the hands of the mlecchas. I cannot take the responsibility. You please guide these boys and girls and give them the intelligence to worship You nicely."
The devotees in Sydney were, no doubt, particularly immature, but they were sincere, hardworking and eager to hear. Prabhupada's few days with them had helped strengthen their resolve. Now, although Prabhupada would not be personally present with them, the work would continue. ISKCON still had but little influence in the world, not to speak of Australia; people considered it a small, exotic religious sect. But by the blessings of Srila Prabhupada it was growing.
Reference: The Great Transcendental Adventure by Kurma Dasa
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