secret of success

Upon arrival, although it was 2:30 P.M., Prabhupada went straight into the temple room and had a special darsana of the Deities: Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, Sri Sri Radha-Vallabha, and Sri Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra. He then gave a ten-minute lecture to the packed devotee audience. "Om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya/ cakshur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah. Now the time is too late. I wish to take my bath. I'll not speak very much now. But this much I must express, my obligation that you are worshiping the Deity so nicely. That is my great happiness, and that is your happiness also. The more gloriously you worship the Deity, decorate the Deity as gorgeously as possible, the more gorgeous you will be. That is the secret. The materialistic, they are trying to dress themselves very gorgeously, and gradually their dress is being taken away by maya, and voluntarily they are becoming hippies. Because they did not try to dress Krishna, therefore maya is taking their dresses. So the secret of success is that everything belongs to Krishna. Simply you have to collect them and offer for the pleasure of Krishna." He stressed that the "secret of success" is to offer everything to Krishna. He told the eager young devotees that he has given "a glimpse of the Krishna consciousness movement" in the Western countries, and it is now up to them to take it. After leaving the temple room he went up to his rooms. Still thinking of the Deities, he told us that the worship here is as good a standard as in New York and Los Angeles, even though there isn't as much expenditure. Last May, when Prabhupada officially opened this temple and installed the large, four-foot-high brass Deities of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, he referred to the temple as "Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir." Now, after seeing the beautiful Deities, his thoughts turned once again to the merciful nature of the two divine brothers, and he commented that Gaura-Nitai worship is so nice that They can be worshiped merely by performing kirtana. The temple property here?nearly an acre of land?consists of two large buildings and some small, well-tended gardens. The temple room is on the ground floor of a two-story red brick structure that formerly contained four schoolrooms. It has a split-level marble floor, carved marble altars from Jaipur, custom-built fancy columns and arches, and large glass chandeliers imported from India. The other building is a large mansion: ornate, stately, and listed by the National Trust for its historical importance. The devotees renamed it "Prabhupada House" and fitted out two rooms for him on the upper floor?a large one for work and darsana, with an attached bathroom, and an adjoining bedroom. Before ISKCON purchased the place the main room was a private chapel for the priests who ran the school. It looks impressive with its polished parquet floor, large ornamental ceiling roses, architraves, and stained-glass windows. Prabhupada likes his quarters here. Prabhupada took his massage immediately in the center of his darsana room; he bathed and then, at 4:30 P.M., honored prasadam prepared by the local devotees. Then he retired to his bedroom for about an hour. Shortly after Prabhupada got up, Gurukripa and Pushta Krishna maharajas had the private meeting with him that Gurukripa Swami had asked for on the drive from the airport. Pushta Krishna wouldn't disclose to me what it was about, but it appears connected to local affairs.