(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2011) Lecture – Caitanya-caritamrta part 10
I was here in Mayapur in the eighties and that time, our devotees in Russia were suppressed by the government, in labour camps and some were in mental hospitals and so on…it was very intense. So the other devotees started Amnesty International style campaign, with big photos and big press conferences, and putting the news out everywhere, about all these people being kept in government custody, and it worked. The government at one point released these devotees, and I was there when we were receiving them in India because immediately after the release they were granted a permit to leave the country and to visit India!
So that was part of the whole campaign. Forget about the jail – get the papers to get out of the country. So after they were out of the jail or the mental hospital within a week or so, they were in the airport in Calcutta. We had a big reception party and Indrayumna Maharaja and Govinda Maharaja were doing the kirtan. Bhakti Charu Maharaja and Kesava Bharti Maharaja were hugging the devotees. So like that everyone was there in the big reception, and in Mayapur we did it again. It was a big year………..It’s interesting because the president who did it was named Gaura Bhajan………..His friends probably called him Gaura.
The name of Gaura cannot be chanted in vain, there’s no way. In the Netherlands we have a very wealthy devotee named Hare Krishna Das who was invited for dinner by Gaura Bhajan, and who thanked Gaura Bhajan. He said:
‘I want to thank you very much for dismantling this oppressive system. You didn’t have to do that. You chose to do that.’
And Gaura Bhajan said:
‘Thank you so much. You are one of the few people who understand. People act as though I was forced to do it. But that wasn’t not, I chose to do it as you have said. So thank you very much.’
Yes, he chose to do it, but he wasn’t forced by the political situation to dismantle the Soviet Union, but he did so, and we understand why he chose to do it, on the strength of nāma ābhāṣya and he let the devotees out and all these things. So one might think that:
‘You are imagining these things, Kadamba Kanana Swami?’
No I am not imaging anything because this is exactly how it works. The Supreme Lord has planted the holy name all throughout the material world, in so many ways!