A Source of New Life

Moving out of the yoga studio into the small office downstairs gave Prabhupada what he was looking for – his own place – but not even euphemistically could that place be called a temple.  His name was on the door; anyone seeking him there could find him.  Who would come there?  By its opulence and beauty, a temple was supposed to attract people.  But Room 307 was just the opposite: it was bare poverty.  Even a person interested in spiritual topics would find it uncomfortable to sit on the rugless floor of the room shaped like a narrow railroad car. 

One of Dr. Mishra’s students had donated a reel-to-reel tape recorder and Prabhupada recorded some of his solitary bhajanas, which he sang to his own accompaniment on hand cymbals.  He also recorded a long, philosophical essay, Introduction to Gitopanisad.  “Even if no one attends,” Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati had told him, “you can go on chanting to the four walls.”  But since he was now free to speak his message in the new situation God had provided, he decided to lecture three evenings a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) to whoever would come. 

His first audiences consisted mainly of people who had heard about him, or met him, at Dr. Mishra’s yoga studio.  And despite the poverty of his room, the meetings became a source of new life to him.