TAGORE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK Inc.
CORDIALLY INVITES YOU
to a lecture:
“GOD CONSCIOUSNESS”
by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Date:  Sunday, November 28, 1965
Time:  Lecture, 3:30 P.M.  Tea, 4:30 P.M.
Place:  New India House, 3 East 64th Street
A widely respected scholar and religious leader in India,
Swami Bhaktivedanta is briefly visiting New York.  He
has been engaged in a monumental endeavor of
translating the sixty-volume Śrīmad Bhagwatam from
Sanskrit into English.

November 28

Daoud Haroon had never met Śrīla Prabhupāda.  He was a musician living downtown, and he used to attend the meetings of the Tagore Society up on Sixty-fourth Street. 

Daoud Haroon:  I went uptown and walked into the auditorium, and I noticed that the stage was empty and a few people were sitting toward the rear of the auditorium.  I walked forward down the center aisle, because I usually like to sit up front.  Then I saw an old gentleman sitting over to the right, and he sort of drew me over to him.  So I went over and sat beside him, and then I noticed that he was saying his beads.  Even though he had his beads in a bag, I could hear them, and I could see his body moving.  And I felt very comfortable, because this was something I was used to.

As I was sitting there looking around the auditorium, he just turned around and smiled at me very nicely.  He nodded his head, and I nodded my head, and he smiled and turned around.  Then he turned back to me again and softly asked me if I was from India.  I said, “No, sir, I’m not from India.  I am from here, the United States.”  He turned back, and he kept chanting with his beads.  Then he turned around the next time and asked if I was a Hindu.  I said, “No, sir, I’m not a Hindu.  I’m a Muslim.” And he said, “Oh, very good, very good.  Yes, many times I hear the children in India reciting the Koran.”  And then he turned back around and his body was moving, rocking, and he was working with his beads.

Then there were a few more exchanges of pleasantries, sort of intermittent.  And then a lady came up on the stage and announced that the lecture was to begin and if the folks could give the speaker a round of applause they would welcome him to the stage.  At that point, the man I was sitting next to put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Excuse me, sir, could you do me a favor?”  And I said, “Yes, anything.”  He said, “Would you watch over my books?”  I looked down on the floor, and he had several boxes of books and an umbrella and several other articles.  I said yes I would watch over these.  And he said, “Excuse me.”  He walked up the aisle, and surprisingly, he walked up on the stage.  And it was the man I had come to hear – Swami Bhaktivedanta!

He walked up on the stage and introduced himself to the people and tried to get them to come forward.  He said, “Come forward, come forward.”  A few of them came up to the front.  There were mixed couples, many Indians, male and female, mostly middle-aged and some college aged, a lot of professor-types and ladies were there.

Then he began his speech.  He dove right into it.  He just started exclaiming, proclaiming, the greatness of the Creator and that the most important thing is to remember the Creator and remember God.  He began to expand on God consciousness, what God consciousness is and how God is everywhere and how it behooves us all to remember God – no matter what we call Him, what names we call Him by, but that we should call Him.  He gave a demonstration which was very moving.  He chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rāma and spoke about the power and saving grace in the mantra.  He took a little break about halfway through and had some water.

The last thing he said as he was coming down from the podium was that he had copies of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.  He explained that he had been working on them and that they came in three volumes and were sixteen dollars.  Then he concluded and came down.

A lot of people went over to him.  Some were timid, some were enthusiastic.  Some people shook his hand and were asking for books.  At first there were about fifteen people gathered around him talking to him and asking questions.  With so many people around, he came over to me and said, “Sir, would you do me one more favor?  Will you kindly take over the selling of the books?  People will be coming to you for the books, so you sell the books and put the money in this little box, and I will be with you in a minute.”  I said, “Fine.”

So while he talked to the people, others came up to me.  They must have thought I was somehow his secretary or his traveling companion, and people were coming over to me and asking me personal questions about him, which I couldn’t really answer because I didn’t know.  Some people were buying the books or looking through them.  So this went on, and I was trying to listen to him carry on his conversations with people and carry on the book-selling at the same time.

Some of the people were looking for a guru and trying to find out what he was supposed to be.  Some of them were really interrogating him.  But he just smiled and answered all their questions simply.  I remember he told them, “You will know.  There’s no pressure.  You will know if I am your guru.”  He suggested that people go over and read the books.

And then the group dwindled down to about half a dozen, and the few remaining were just looking at him, and some were too timid to approach him.  He walked over to them and spoke to them, putting them at ease.  Later he came over, and we counted the collection, and I helped him pack up his box and carry downstairs the boxes of books that were left.  As we parted he thanked me very much, and I gave him my name and address and phone number and purchased a set of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatams.