Anandamaya das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 04

Anandamaya: This pandal was organized for Srila Prabhupada after the Vrindavan meetings where Srila Prabhupada spoke on Nectar of Devotion in Rupa Goswami’s samadhi. So immediately afterwards we came to Hyderabad. This place was exhibition grounds in the center of Hyderabad city, and for about 10 days Prabhupada gave lectures morning and evening. These Deities are Radha-Madhava. That must be in the morning session, starting by kirtan. So there were quite a good number of devotees, maybe at least 50. It was very successful. That was the most successful program of Srila Prabhupada in Hyderabad. Every day not less than 5,000, sometimes 10,000 used to come, especially in the evenings—and morning, one or two thousand. It was the beginning of our mission in Hyderabad, and all the most important people attended as chief guests. There was a committee also formed of some of the most important businessmen. So they were very impressed by this program. One gentleman, Mr. G. Pulla Reddy, was having a sweet shop in Hyderabad. He came forward to donate a piece of land measuring about 950 square yards in the center of the city, and now ISKCON Hyderabad is situated there. At that time in Hyderabad, there had not been any rain for at least one year. During the last monsoon, there was no rain. But during our program there, in the last two or three days the rain started and Prabhupada mentioned this is due to our kirtan. It also came in newspapers that the sankirtan is bringing rain.

Interview DVD 06

Anandamaya: We had just constructed a temporary temple in the center of Hyderabad and the land had been donated by one prominent sweet merchant Sri G. Pulla Reddy. So Srila Prabhupada came and he offered arati to the Deities. At that time, we had not given any name to the Deities. We were just waiting. And immediately, Srila Prabhupada saw the Deities, he gave the name of Sri Sri Radha Madana-mohana. They had been brought from Jaipur by Srimate Palika devi dasi. There was no installation ceremony as such. That would be done later on when the main temple became completed in August, 1976. At that time Prabhupada came again and he installed all the Deities including Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, Sri Sri Jagannath, Subhadra, Baladev and Sri Sri Radha-Madana-mohana. So, two prominent sannyasis, disciples of Srila Prabhupada, can be seen in this movie. One is His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami, who was at that time GBC for the whole of India, and the other sannyasi is His Holiness Yasodanandana Swami, who was preaching at that time in South India. And he will be also present in the main installation ceremony.