Krishna’s Books, Written by Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada knew the value of his own books.  He said they were spoken by Krishna, not by himself.  If someone reads one page, his life could become perfect.  Prabhupada also said that history would prove that his books had saved the world from barbarism.  Without receiving the message of Krishna, people are degraded to less than animals – eating, mating, sleeping and defending.  Prabhupada’s books make the difference.  Prabhupada understood by personal experience that his books were needed.  Although he knew that the Bhagavatam described humanity devoid of Krishna consciousness as a species of “two-legged animals,” Prabhupada had personal experience with this.  He saw the neon signs for topless and bottomless dancing.  He would see the cover of Time magazine: “Crime.  Why and what to do?”  He personally saw the degraded students and hippies living in the parks, so fallen that they wouldn’t even respectfully listen to Prabhupada when he began to speak in public.  He rode in cars and saw the traffic jams on the highways.  All these experiences impelled him more and more to give Krishna’s message to the people.  He was convinced it would uplift them. 

Prabhupada was ambitious to help the world in a substantial way, but he recognized that it could only begin with the implementation of God-conscious education.  Prabhupada’s books were not his invention – there was nothing whimsical about them.  It was Krishna speaking according to time and place through Prabhupada’s words.  Prabhupada’s non-egotistical attitude as an author is expressed in the Nectar of Devotion:

“The author of Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Srila Rupa Gosvami, very humbly submits that he is just trying to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world, although he humbly thinks himself unfit for this work.  That should be the attitude of all preachers of the Krishna consciousness movement …” 

(Nectar of Devotion, Introduction, page xviii)

Although the books were actually spoken by Krishna, Prabhupada’s followers definitely saw them as Prabhupada’s books.  We like to see him reading his books.  We saw that it gave our spiritual master tremendous satisfaction.  He said that he felt that he had conquered an empire whenever a book was published.  Prabhupada ushered his followers into the consciousness of living for his books, of loving his books.  We will never be able to forget him because we have his books.  As long as we have his books, we will be close to Prabhupada.  Just looking at the books layout – the bold face print, the Sanskrit, the synonyms and then the purports – will bring us close to Prabhupada.  Because Prabhupada personally oversaw all the details of his book production, we can appreciate how they were done according to his own vision.

It is a spiritual act to hear one of Prabhupada’s purports read, or to speak on them in an ISKCON temple.  The same effect can be achieved by any person sitting in his home and opening the book, reading it respectfully with eager attention. 

Prabhupada liked to read his own books.  They amazed him because they were written by Krishna.  When he revealed his feelings about his own books to us, we were always astonished.  It was another aspect of Prabhupada’s relationship with Krishna and we were being invited to witness it.