That was the best lecture

Amarendra : Obviously the first time someone meets Prabhupada it’s the seminal event, the watershed event of their life. We hear, “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” People have these historical events they associate with. For every devotee whoever got the opportunity to meet Prabhupada, this was the seminal event in their lives. That’s the highlight of their entire existence when they meet Prabhupada for the first time. When Prabhupada came to Gainesville, it was actually a very meaningful visit in the sense that Prabhupada wasn’t there for any managerial purpose. Gainesville was not a big important temple. If I had said to anybody at the time, “I am from Gainesville, Florida”, they would look at me like I was crazy. “Where are you from? Where is that?” No one had heard of Gainesville. It wasn’t even on the ISKCON map so to speak. For Prabhupada to come to this place in the middle of nowhere was actually a very amazing event.

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 birth place of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Mayapur.” Actually every place in America is somewhat remote from Mayapur. In L.A. for example, you can get on a plane and be in Calcutta in twenty-two hours or so, three hours more by car, and finally you’re in Mayapur. On this trip Prabhupada had come from New York but he had to fly to Atlanta to change planes to go to Jacksonville and then drove two hours to get to Gainesville. By the time he got to Gainesville, he said, “I’m very happy to be in this very remote place and I am so happy to see all these boys and girls who are chanting and dancing in the middle of nowhere.” A reporter was there, who was quite friendly with the devotees, and she asked Prabhupada one significant question, “Why are there only young people in your movement? Why aren’t there any old people?” He gave a very good analogy. He said, “At the university, what do you see there? You see only young people. You don’t see any old people. Why is that? Because when you are young, that is the time for your spirituality. That is the best period of your life for taking to this process. It is too late for the old fools.” Everybody laughed and nobody was offended but it got the point across quite effectively.

After his arrival he came out to the University of Florida Plaza of the Americas and gave a very philosophical lecture on Sankya yoga from the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita to seven hundred students. This was the same place where anti-war demonstrations were held and it reminded me of Tompkins Square Park where Prabhupada started the movement in New York. Everyone was sitting down on the grass and as he was speaking, I was thinking, “How are they going to understand this? I can barely understand this! This is so intellectual and philosophical that how are these students going to understand this?” Afterwards, all the students came up and were saying, “That was the best lecture I have ever heard in my life. That was great! That was wonderful. I enjoyed it so much!” Prabhupada knew exactly where he was and who his audience was at all times. He was cognizant of the message he wanted to present to the audience and for this group of students he chose the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. It made a big impression on them. Years later, people who were there still remembered that lecture and it was a watershed moment in their lives. They’ll take that memory with them forever, whether they’ll become a devotee or not.