The Three Couples' Unrelenting, Unstoppable Desire To Serve

Radhanath Swami

They had nothing except a desire to serve – unrelenting, unstoppable desire to serve! Incredible! They got a storefront. They had nothing to get it with, but they got it. They made a big Mantra rock dance, the Avalon Ballroom, was a historical event. Some of the most famous bands in the whole western world were playing practically for nothing and they were all in the program second to Srila Prabhupada, who nobody ever heard of. Now to convince these bands to do that, these famous bands, they have some ego. So often I have heard because I know people from these circles, they don’t want to be second to somebody. They want to be the top and here they are all second for this completely unknown Swami. This was how convincing these devotees were. And there in San Francisco, Yamuna Devi, she learned kirtan, she learned cooking, they were going here and there, they established the first Rath Yatra, they made the first Jagannath Deities, and it’s quite incredible! New York City, Srila Prabhupada established the Krishna Consciousness movement at 26, 2nd avenue. But it was there in the heart of “Haight-Ashbury” the highest place of pilgrimage for the counter culture of the 1960’s that actually Krishna consciousness became known to all of America from nothing because of these devotees’ incredible devotion. They saw that Prabhupada could do anything, nothing was impossible and they took that spirit and did the impossible. Srila Prabhupada was so pleased with them and he had such faith in them. At that time now there were three married couples, Srila Prabhupada sent them to London. They went Montreal to get Srila Prabhupada’s blessings. And from there and when they arrived in London they knew no one, they had nothing except fearless enthusiasm to serve. They were living scattered out in different places, sometimes they were trying to get jobs, sometimes they would having little Kirtans, sometimes they were meeting, it was very difficult, they were in poverty. How they even got in London was extraordinary. Srila Prabhupada, when he have talked about these three Grihasta families he said, these three families are as good or better than sanyaasi’s as far as their fearless empowered capacity to spread Krishna consciousness because no one had even done it in a substantial way in London.