“Make Me Dance”

One of my favorite lines from the poems that Prabhupada wrote is, “Make me dance, make me dance, O Lord make me dance as You like.”  Prabhupada declared himself a puppet in the hands of Krishna, and he asked Krishna to please fulfill the actual meaning of the name Bhaktivedanta.  That poem wasn’t written as the musings of a reclusive scholar, it was written on board the Jaladuta, a freighter with one Indian-style passenger cabin.  The one passenger, Bhaktivedanta Swami, had no money, yet he was striking out for America.  The poem was written by a preacher, who although fearless, appeared to be momentarily overcome by his first sight of an American city.  Even Lord Krishna hesitated when He faced the Aghasura demon.  Srila Prabhupada didn’t hesitate in his purpose or waver in his determination, but he realized and admitted his helpless situation to Krishna, his friend. 

Prabhupada was always turning to Krishna, but it is natural for a devotee to turn even more to Krishna when he is in a difficult situation.  Nanda Maharaja also did this.  When Nanda Maharaja was returning from Mathura, he began to fear that something may have happened to Krishna, his baby in Gokula, so he began to think of Krishna very intensely and chant the Holy Names.  Similarly, Prabhupada’s Krishna consciousness was intensified on that boat-crossing as he suffered heart attacks and seasickness.  He expressed himself intimately to his spiritual master and to Krishna in poems.

The cry, “Please make me dance,” is from the heart.  Just as a poor man cries out, “Give me money,” so the preacher who is faced with the tremendous task of preaching to foreigners, to people who have demoniac habits, also cries out, “Please make me dance.  Please fulfill the purport of my name: преданность и knowledge.”  It took an extraordinary combination of devotion and knowledge to make even the slightest impression on these proud and dirty-minded Americans who Prabhupada saw that day with his first glimpse of Boston, Massachusetts.

How would he do it?  Prabhupada found the clue in the "Шримад-Бхагаватам".  In his poem, he selected several verses describing in a systematic way the words “the Lord is working within the heart of every conditioned soul for his betterment.  This takes place, according to "Шримад-Бхагаватам", when one hears the glories of Krishna, the modes of nature which grip each person’s heart are broken up, and liberation is possible.  By recalling these verses, Prabhupada took heart for the task of preaching in America.  He gathered his determination just before officially entering the country through immigration in New York City.  When the boat docked at its final destination, although outwardly he may have appeared to be an immigrant lost in the foreignness of a new country, inwardly he had gained resolve.  As he expressed in his poem, he was already fully surrendered to the task and awaiting Krishna to direct his steps.