What Defines a Person’s Importance, Birthplace or Activities?

Below is a narration of a conversation between His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and Bhavananda prabhu in Mayapur, 1977:

In 1977 I was on the roof of the Lotus Building with Srila Prabhupada. He was walking the perimeter and chanting japa. At one point he stopped on the North side and was looking across the rice fields towards the Yoga Pitha temple. In 1977 it was open fields all the way to the Yoga Pitha. Imagine there were no other buildings of any sort. Prabhupada turned to me and said, “What is more important about a man? Where he was born or the activities he performed?” I replied that I thought the activities were more important. Prabhupada replied, “Exactly. So that is the birthplace temple of Lord Chaitanya and this ISKCON campus is the preaching activities of Lord Chaitanya. I want you to build a temple that is so wonderful that no one will go to the birthplace temple but everyone will come here to ISKCON”.

This story is a wonderful example of Srila Prabhupada’s preaching mood and dedication to the spreading of Krishna consciousness, specifically in this case through the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium. And that mood permeated everything he said and did during his lifetime of serving the order of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati.

It also represents Prabhupada’s keen philosophical perspective of all aspects of life in relation to Krishna consciousness. He wasn’t a dreamer or a mere sentimentalist, but a thinker and visionary on the most practical and down-to-earth level, what to speak of the most sublime spiritual level. Everything had its place in proper Krishna conscious perspective and could also be explained in a practical and implementable way.

He said in simple and clear words, “I want you to build a temple that is so wonderful that no one will go to the birthplace temple but everyone will come here to ISKCON”. This is the order and command from Lord Caitanya’s Senapati Bhakta, our Commander in Chief. It must be fulfilled by all of us, his dedicated followers and servants.

We humbly beg all the worldwide ISKCON community to continue to offer your support to this project, now scheduled for its Grand Opening in 2024. Make a donation if you haven’t yet, make another donation if you have given already or fulfill your pledge as soon as possible. There are over twenty available donation options to choose from according to your means. And the Prabhupada Seva 125 India Govt. minted commemorative coin is now available.

Please visit the Seva Opportunities Page today and show your support and gratitude to Srila Prabhupada by building that temple to which the whole world will come.

“Now you all together make this Vedic Planetarium very nice, so that people will come and see. From the description in the Srimad Bhagavatam you prepare this Vedic Planetarium. My idea is to attract people of the whole world to Mayapur.”

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