oldchakra.com

Appearance Day of Srila Prabhupada
By Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

We would be sleeping, and father would be doing arati. Ding ding ding-we would hear the bell and wake up and see him bowing down before Krsna.
-Srila Prabhupada

It was Janmastami, the annual celebration of the advent of Lord Krsna Some five thousand years before. Residents of Calcutta, mostly Bengalis and other Indians, but also many Muslims and even some British, were observing the festive day, moving here and there through the city's streets to visit the temples of Lord Krsna. Devout Vaisnavas, fasting until midnight, chanted Hare Krsna and heard about the birth and activities of Lord Krsna from Srimad-Bhagavatam. They continued fasting, chanting, and worshiping throughout the night.

The next day (September 1, 1896), in a little house in the Tollygunge suburb of Calcutta, a male child was born. Since he was born on Nandotsava, the day Krsna's father, Nanda Maharaja, had observed a festival in honor of Krsna's birth, the boy's uncle called him Nandulal. But his father, Gour Mohan De, and his mother, Rajani, named him Abhay Charan, "one who is fearless, having taken shelter at Lord Krsna's lotus feet." In accordance with Bengali tradition, the mother had gone to the home of her parents for the delivery, and so it was that on the bank of the Adi Ganga, a few miles from his father's home, in a small two-room, mud-walled house with a tiled roof, underneath a jackfruit tree, Abhay Charan was born. A few days later, Abhay returned with his parents to their home at 151 Harrison Road.

An astrologer did a horoscope for the child, and the family was made jubilant by the auspicious reading. The astrologer made a specific prediction: When this child reached the age of seventy, he would cross the ocean, become a great exponent of religion, and open 108 temples.

© CHAKRA 29-Nov-2003

Go to the “Philosophy Page”