Spiritualঅথচ এেনেছা ϕভΦ কথা বিলবাের েয েতামার ইИা ϕভΦ কর এই বাের (১২)
athaca enecha prabhu kathā balibāre ye tomāra icchā prabhu kara ei bāre athaca—nevertheless; enecha—You have brought; prabhu—O Lord; kathā—message; balibāre—to speak; ye—which; tomāra icchā— Your will; prabhu—O Lord; kara—do; ei-bāre—now.
Somehow or other, O Lord, You have brought me here to speak about You. Now, my Lord, it is up to You to make me a success or failure as You like.
Commentary A devotee sees himself as an instrument in the hands of the Lord. Śrīla Prabhupāda understood himself as Kṛṣṇa’s mouthpiece to the English-speaking world. He had come to the West on the order of his spiritual master, the Lord’s representative. In that sense, it was Lord Caitanya who had ordered him—through his spiritual master— to spread the saṅkīrtana movement outside of India. The Lord had brought him here, and now it was up to the all-powerful Lord to make suitable arrangements for his preaching to become successful. He would try his best, but the result was up to Kṛṣṇa. Latter, he would give the same advice to his disciples who, in the early days, followed his example and embarked on veritable adventures to bring Kṛṣṇa consciousness to new frontiers. One shining example is Śivānanda Prabhu, who joined Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1967 in Montreal and, from there, went all by himself to Europe in the summer of 1968. Without any money and without knowing the language, he came first to Amsterdam, but then decided to go to Berlin and established a preaching center there. Śivānanda recalls: Sometimes I would sit down and have kīrtana on Ku'damm, Berlin's famous shopping street. In Montreal, Haṁsadūta Prabhu had given me a begging bowl and some cards that read 'Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and your life will be sublime!' I put the bowl and cards in front of me and began to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and naturally people would throw some coins into the bowl. When a big enough crowd gathered, I would stop chanting and preach. Because I did not know any German, I had to find somebody in the crowd who understood both English and German and could translate. West Berlin has a big university, and there were always some students around who volunteered, so I rarely had a problem. Being all by himself, Śivānanda was at times doubtful whether he would be able to attract people to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so he wrote to his spiritual master expressing his anxiety. Knowing from experience how daunting such a task was, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to him: I am glad that you are going to West Berlin, and I hope you will duly receive this letter, and be courageous and always chant Hare Krishna. You will be successful. Similarly, I came in New York, in 1965, in the same position, and gradually many students like you have come to me. So don't be disappointed. Do and try your best and Krishna will give you all help. As Prabhupāda had predicted, gradually some young people began to show interest and joined the temple—and the rest is history.