The significance of Srila Prabhupada's appearance

By: Vidura dasa

“So my dear boys and girls, about six years ago I came to your country single-handed, with this pair of cymbals. Now you are so many chanting Hare Krsna. That is my success. It was the prediction of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu:

                                              

                                                prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama

                                                sarvatra pracara hoibe mora nama

                                                      (Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya 4.126)

 

Lord Caitanya desired that "In all the towns, in as many towns and villages as there are on the surface of the globe, My name will be broadcast." He is Krsna Himself, svayam krsna, krsna caitanya-namine, simply changing His name as Krsna Caitanya. So His prediction will never go in vain. That's a fact. So my plan was that "I shall go to America. America is the leading country of the world. If I can convince  younger generation of America, they will take up." I am old man. I came here at the age of seventy years; now I am seventy-six. So my warning is already there. In nineteen hundred and seventy-one, I had a severe heart attack. You know, all. So the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu is now in your hands. You are American boys and girls, very intelligent and graced by Krsna. You are not poverty-stricken. You have enough resources, prestige. Everything materially, you are all well-equipped. If you kindly take this Krsna consciousness movement seriously, your country will be saved, and the whole world will be saved.”

Arrival Lecture -- Los Angeles, May 18, 1972

 

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur predicted: 

 

"Soon there will appear a personality who will preach the holy name all over the world."

Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas, introduction, Prabhupada-approved 1974 edition

 

"Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted that His message should be broadcast all over the world, in every village and every town, and my Guru Maharaja attempted. Bhaktivinoda Thakura distributed his literature. I think, in 1896, he sent his first book, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, and I saw in McGill University that book. And I do not know. That was the year of my birth also, 1896. So somehow or other, later on, I came in contact with Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja in 1922, and he immediately asked me that 'Why don't you go to the foreign countries and preach Caitanya Mahaprabhu's blessings.'[...] In this way I started, first in New York, then in San Francisco, then Montreal, then Boston. In this way, now we have got about one hundred branches all over the world, forty branches in America. Big, big cities..."

Lectures : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 7.149-171 -- San Francisco, March 18, 1967

 

Devotee: ...you Srila Prabhupada. Only by your mercy you have brought us to this Krsna consciousness movement.

Srila Prabhupada: I am simply messenger. Mercy is of Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Prabhupada. Before your coming they predicted, that "Somebody will bring." Maybe that somebody I am. (chuckles) Bhaktivinoda Thakura predicted. So anyway, Krsna has given us nice place.

Arrival Talk in Room -- Mayapur, March 23, 1975

 

"He [Bhaktivinoda Thakura] sent his first book in 1896. Bhaktivinoda Thakura was the first origin of this movement. But he simply thought of it. And he was expecting some others that willing to take up the work. Well, somebody says that I am the same man. And I was born in 1896."

Room Conversation with Canadian Ambassador to Iran -- March 13, 1975, Iran

 

"Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura then comments: 'Without being empowered by the direct potency of Lord Krsna to fulfill His desire and without being specifically favored by the Lord, no human being can become the spiritual master of the whole world. He certainly cannot succeed by mental concoction, which is not meant for devotees or religious people. Only an empowered personality can distribute the holy name of the Lord and enjoin all fallen souls to worship Krsna. By distributing the holy name of the Lord, he cleanses the hearts of the most fallen people; therefore he extinguishes the blazing fire of the material world Not only that, he broadcasts the shining brightness of Krsna's effulgence throughout the world. Such an acarya, or spiritual master, should be considered nondifferent from Krsna-that is, he should be considered the incarnation of Lord Krsna's potency. Such a personality is krsnalingita-vigraha-that is, he is always embraced by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna. Such a person is above the considerations of the varnasrama institution. He is the guru or spiritual master for the entire world, a devotee on the topmost platform, the maha-bhagavata stage, and a paramahamsa-thakura, a spiritual form only fit to be addressed as paramahamsa or thakura."

C.C. Madhya Lila 25.9 How All the Residents of Varanasi Became Vaisnavas