Jagat-caksur: So the first devotees who went to preach to Venezuela, they were from America and Canada, and from Canada was Hanuman Goswami at the time. He went to preach to the university, and he didn’t know that most of the students were Communist and Marxist. So he started to preach against atheism and Communism, and a big discussion happened and the students became very disturbed by his opinion. So they became so disturbed that they decided to hang him up. He was practically speaking running for his life. So this lawyer, his name is Bolivar, he was passing through with his car through the university, and he saw an orange-robed man running and so many people behind him shouting very angrily at him. So he stopped his car and opened the door. So the devotee, he ran and jumped in the car, and in this way he practically speaking saved the devotee’s life. My feeling is that because of that, he continued to have a relationship with the devotees and finally even with Srila Prabhupada himself. Actually, he was going every day to the morning walks with Prabhupada. One day he could not come for some urgent business. Prabhupada, as soon as he walked out of the car, asked for him, “Where is the lawyer?”
One question the lawyer asked during the morning walk was “Ancient South America before the Spanish went there, many things are similar to Vedic culture. Why there are so many similarities?” Prabhupada told him that actually in previous ages all the planet was following Vedic culture and that gradually filled it up. “Only in India a small amount of that culture is still there,” Prabhupada said, “but practically speaking, all over the world it has vanished.” Then Prabhupada told us about how Lord Ramacandra was taken to Brazil, to the Amazon. That was by Ravana’s capital, Ravana’s brother. Prabhupada said that Ravana’s soldiers took Him through a tunnel 8,000 miles from Sri Lanka to Brazil with the idea to sacrifice Ramacandra in front of Goddess Kali. So Ramacandra told them, “I am a prince, I don’t know how to bow down. You have to show Me how to do it.” So the demoniac soldiers bowed down and Ramacandra took advantage, take the sword and chop off their heads. And interestingly, near the ISKCON farm in Brazil there is a town called Hanuman, a very ancient town; and the original name of Brazil is Pindorama. So Rama’s name is there and Hanuman’s name is there even now. Another interesting question that the lawyer asked was about food shortage in the world. He said what our movement proposed to solve this problem. Prabhupada pointed to a tree and there was a small bird eating a fruit on a branch, and he told the lawyer, “You see that tree? You see that bird? Krishna is feeding this bird. Krishna is feeding all the living entities. So there is no scarcity of food. The only scarcity in this world is lack of God consciousness or Krishna consciousness, and we are trying to give people. Especially if the leaders take it up, then all this artificial problem of food shortage will be solved immediately.” Then Hridayananda Maharaj said, “Oh, Prabhupada, we have also our food relief in Mayapur. This can be done also here in South America.” Prabhupada said, “Why not? But it should be prasad, not ordinary food, because if you give them ordinary food they will become more lusty, more materialistic. It should be prasad.”
