July 29, 1971 : Gainesville
Gainesville was a side trip for Prabhupada, a special day of preaching.
Amarendra: When Prabhupada gave his introductory lecture, he said quite appropriately, "I am very happy to be here in this very remote place; thousands and thousands of miles away from the birthplace of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Mayapur."
Ananga Manjari: Toward the end of his arrival lecture, he said, "I have one devotee named Kartikeya and his mother was on her deathbed." He was expressing the point that anyone who remembers Krishna at the time of death will go to Krishna. He said, "She was on her deathbed and she challenged, 'Where is Krishna? Is He here now? Where is your Krishna?' And then she died and she went to Krishna." Prabhupada leaned forward with eyes wide open and said, "This is stated in Bhagavad-gita. She went to Krishna."
Amarendra: There was one professor at the University, Mark Damon, who ran the PBS TV station, and as soon as he heard that Prabhupada was coming, he started calling me every day to get an interview with Prabhupada. The interview was later published by the BBT entitled Transcendental Broadcast. He had known the philosophy quite well and he had read some books to brush up before the interview. But he said he still wanted the program to be ratings-friendly so to speak, by trying to get Prabhupada to say, "The Christian religion is no good and everyone should become Hare Krishnas." Prabhupada said, "No, no, we are simply saying chant the name of God. You've got your name of God. You can chant that. That's okay. We're not saying you must chant our name of God. Just chant the name of God. That is our process." Prabhupada kept giving him these non-sectarian answers that kept cutting the professor to pieces. Because Prabhupada was doing it so smoothly, the professor didn't even know it. He couldn't even understand it.
Amarendra: When Prabhupada gave his introductory lecture, he said quite appropriately, "I am very happy to be here in this very remote place; thousands and thousands of miles away from the birthplace of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Mayapur."
Ananga Manjari: Toward the end of his arrival lecture, he said, "I have one devotee named Kartikeya and his mother was on her deathbed." He was expressing the point that anyone who remembers Krishna at the time of death will go to Krishna. He said, "She was on her deathbed and she challenged, 'Where is Krishna? Is He here now? Where is your Krishna?' And then she died and she went to Krishna." Prabhupada leaned forward with eyes wide open and said, "This is stated in Bhagavad-gita. She went to Krishna."
Amarendra: There was one professor at the University, Mark Damon, who ran the PBS TV station, and as soon as he heard that Prabhupada was coming, he started calling me every day to get an interview with Prabhupada. The interview was later published by the BBT entitled Transcendental Broadcast. He had known the philosophy quite well and he had read some books to brush up before the interview. But he said he still wanted the program to be ratings-friendly so to speak, by trying to get Prabhupada to say, "The Christian religion is no good and everyone should become Hare Krishnas." Prabhupada said, "No, no, we are simply saying chant the name of God. You've got your name of God. You can chant that. That's okay. We're not saying you must chant our name of God. Just chant the name of God. That is our process." Prabhupada kept giving him these non-sectarian answers that kept cutting the professor to pieces. Because Prabhupada was doing it so smoothly, the professor didn't even know it. He couldn't even understand it.
Reference: Srila Prabhupada Lilamrta Volume 4 - Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami & Srila Prabhupada-Remembrances - Siddhanta Dasa
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