Swami Prabhupada The Divine Grace

Srila Prabhupada was neither enamored by western education nor was he ambitious for scholastic achievement. He was always thinking about religious and philosophical or devotional things about God

Srila Prabhupada's father believed that with a good education his son would have a much more promising career, then in 1916 he arranged for him to attend Scottish Churches' College, then to the top British college in Calcutta. However, Srila Prabhupada was a good student and took part in college activities. His college senior was Subhash Chandra Bose, who later became the famous freedom fighter.

The college was strict in forbidding anti government propaganda, but the students were sympathetic to the cause of home rule. The leaders of the svaraj movement held that the glory of India's sanatana dharma, could not shine forth for the world's benefit until India become free from the burden of the British rule, which blasphemed and castigated the teaching of the Vedic scriptures and those who followed them.

Like most of his contemporaries, Srila Prabhupada supported svaraj. When he passed all of his final examinations, he supported Gandhi's call to boycott all things British and as a result he refused his degree from the British college. However, in due course of time he took to wearing the khadi cloth of the Indian Nationalist party.

One night during his college days, his Deities appeared to him in a dream and asked him, why he had but them away in a box. Then they went on to tell him that he should take them out and worship him again. Despite his college assignments, he took them out. A college friend of Srila Prabhupada, who was known as Naren Mullick, took him to hear a scholarly and reputed devotee of the Lord Krishna, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati.

Although he was some what skeptical of all holy men in general, Srila Prabhupada was very impressed by this saintly person's lecture. He even felt obliged to challenge him in the light of Indian nationalism. He wanted to know who would hear his Chaitanya's message since they were a dependent county. Next, he told him that India must become independent, because the spread of Indian culture could not be done if they were still under British rule.

The Krishna consciousness does not have to wait for a change to occur in Indian politics, nor is it dependent on who rules India. Krishna consciousness is so important, that it can not wait. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur made a prophetic request to Srila Prabhupada at their very first meeting in 1922. He wanted to know why he did not preach the Krishna consciousness through the whole world.

Then, in 1936, which was just two months before leaving this world, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, who was now Srila Prabhupada's spiritual master, again requested that he was fully confident that their thoughts and arguments to the people who were not conversant in the language could be explained in English. He went on to explain that he truly hope that he would turn himself into a very good English preacher going about teaching the Indian culture.

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