2015 The 1977 Conversations

Dear followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace. This year my Vyāsa-pūjā offering is addressed to you all. It is about a memorable journey that I recently finished.

That journey simply began as some newly released recordings to listen to, but ended up being a rite of passage with Śrīla Prabhupāda on his final lesson. Along the way we would travel to places like Kumbha-melā, Bhubhaneswar, and Hrishikesh, returning to reside forever in Vṛndāvana.

I am referring to the complete set of recordings of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s conversations for 1977. Unlike earlier recorded lectures, morning walks, or conversations in different places, under different conditions, and on different topics, here are recordings that are thematic and structured, one after the other.

The topics discussed were many: book publication in India, responding to deprogrammers, the completion of the Bombay temple, and more. But underlying them all was the theme of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s continuously waning health. In time, all other issues became secondary to this main theme, one that would consume Śrīla Prabhupāda’s life and put to the test those devotees who cared for and served him.

The unfolding of that theme was the vehicle that took me on a journey in which I lived with Śrīla Prabhupāda and his care-givers. A journey whose conclusion left me at a dead end and forced me to go back and start again at January 1977. There was nowhere else to go.

I could write more. A lot more. Why not a book? But every one of us has their own journey with Śrīla Prabhupāda. These recordings will enhance that journey and reveal many wonders. For me the most notable ones were Śrīla Prabhupāda’s continuing adherence to the same spiritual principles that he had always taught us, and the extraordinary love shared between him and his disciples.

On this Vyāsa-pūjā day I invite all followers of His Divine Grace to worship the memory of his appearance, his life, and his passing by listening to these recordings. I believe that it will be a transcendental rite of passage for all who do. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Your servant,
Śivarāma Swami