Tour of Srila Prabhupada's Rooms Bombay -- Giriraja Swami

We have a videotape of a tour of Srila Prabhupada's quarters, hosted by Giriraj Swami, who I understand has been in Bombay since its earliest beginnings. Let's take a look at that now. So this room was kept as a waiting room for people to sit in before they went to see Srila Prabhupada. Of course, now since Srila Prabhupada's disappearance, we're keeping these rooms as a memorial tribute to his divine grace.

Then this is a Bhagavad Gita that Srila Prabhupada used when he was living in Vrindaban. It's published by the Gita Press and it's in Hindi. But actually there have been so many editions of the Bhagavad Gita that in almost every case the translator or commentator has inserted his own ideas in the name of Bhagavad Gita. And thus the public in general has been deprived of the actual knowledge of the Gita as Krishna originally spoke it.

So Srila Prabhupada studied this book and he made many notes in the margin, pointing out the different discrepancies in the translation. And then, of course, ultimately he made his own edition of Bhagavad Gita called Bhagavad Gita As It Is, which is now being published and distributed throughout the world. So these are Srila Prabhupada's personal quarters. Right here is the table where Srila Prabhupada used to sit and translate.

Srila Prabhupada commented that when he was living in Vrindaban, Rupa Goswami personally requested him to write these books. So many times Srila Prabhupada would stay up the whole night at this table writing his translation of Srimad Bhagavatam and Chaitanya Charitamrita. And now you can see that actually these books have been published in more than 26 languages of the world. The Srimad Bhagavatam, Chaitanya Charitamrita, Bhagavad Gita, Isopanishad, Krishna, Teachings of Lord Chaitanya.

Altogether Srila Prabhupada wrote more than 80 books in a brief span of 12 years. So this is where Srila Prabhupada used to sit to meet people. He was actually a living example of the ideal person as described in the Vedic literatures. Therefore it is said that one should read the book Bhagavat and serve the person Bhagavat.

So Srila Prabhupada used to sit at that table and write the book Bhagavat. And here he would give his association as the person Bhagavat to the conditioned souls desiring to go back to Godhead. Then this is the table where Srila Prabhupada used to take prasad Srila Prabhupada once commented that When he was living in Vrindaban at the Radha Dhammadhar temple He had one small room that was about 8 feet by 12 feet And in one corner he used to translate In another corner he used to sit In another corner he used to take prasad So Srila Prabhupada commented that his quarters here are just like his quarters in Vrindavan, because in one corner he's translating, in another corner he's sitting, and in another corner he's taking prasad. So actually Srila Prabhupada was always very plain and simple.

So although to our capacity we were able to offer him a more elaborate arrangement here in Bombay, but his life was the same, translating, speaking about Krishna, taking Krishna Prasad. That's really something. Who designed it? This was designed by one of Srila Prabhupada's Dutch disciples, Surabhi Swami, who was also a very well-known architect.

Srila Prabhupada gave him the guidelines as to what he wanted, and Surabhi then drew the plans, which were again modified and revised and directed by Srila Prabhupada. It has a very beautiful temple. The Radha, Raspi, Hari deities preside over there, with deities of Sita, Ram, Lakshman, Hanuman, and an altar with deities of Gaudanitha. That's Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda.

They're very beautiful dioramas inside the temple on the side and in the courtyard, which depict the Krishna conscious philosophy. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta ji had decided that these dioramas be used to depict the Krishna conscious philosophy. So these dioramas are very popular. Then there are two towers which have about 60 rooms in them.

And these rooms are being used for our life members around the world and other well-wishers of the society and those who may want to understand about Vedic way of life. The Bombay Project also has a very nice restaurant in which we serve pure Krishna Prasad. Prasad is defined as foodstuff that is offered to God and by the eating of which the living entity improves his intelligence. But this restaurant is very, very popular.

People from all over Bombay come to eat over there. And I understand you also have a theater there. Yeah, we have a 400-seat theater called the Bhakti Kalashetra, which is known as the Center of Performing Arts. In the center, that's in the auditorium, We perform dramas, ballets based upon the ancient Vedic scriptures and bring out the philosophy about the goal of human life.

And over the years we've had important cultural artists like Hema Malini, Vijayanti Mala, Hari Omcharan, Purushotham Jalota, many important artists from Bombay and other parts of the world perform at our auditorium. what is the response been of the local residents there oh it's amazing the we get over 10,000 people every day to visit our temple and on Sundays and other important holidays there are at least 100 to 200 thousand people who over to the temple.