We Are Successful When We Please Krishna

Giriraj Swami: One of our best life members in Bombay was Sri Biharilal Khandelwal. He was a very pious man from a prominent industrial family. In fact, he was the first life member in India to pledge one lakh (one hundred thousand) rupees for any of Srila Prabhupada’s projects. One day his secretary phoned and gave us the bad news: Sri Biharilal Khandelwal had passed away. We were requested to come and perform kirtan in the presence of his widow and other family members. So I organized whatever devotees I could, and we went to the widow’s residence to chant and try to console her with some words from the Bhagavad-gita.

One devotee we could not inform was Haridasa Prabhu. That evening Haridasa was fanning Srila Prabhupada on the terrace on top of his apartment. At seven o’clock Srila Prabhupada noticed that there was no sound of kirtan from the temple. So he asked Haridasa why. "The devotees must have gone to the city to collect and not yet returned," Haridasa replied. Prabhupada said, "This was not my idea, that they should go to the city and collect all day and night. Our process is to please Krishna. They may go at nine and return by five, and then chant and dance in front of the Deities. Otherwise, they will become like karmis."

"We are successful because we try to please Krishna and Krishna is merciful and reciprocates with us. Otherwise, Mr. Nair was much more powerful than we were. He had money, influence, his own daily newspaper, he had contacts, so many politicians and government officers. And who were we? We had no money, no influence, and no support. Yet we were successful - by Krishna’s grace. So we should come and sing and dance in front of the Deities and please Them, and by Their grace, we will get all success. We are not successful by our own strength; we are successful by Krishna’s grace."