The Events of August 3, 1975

On this day, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada gave two distinct lectures in Detroit:

Morning Class (This Lecture): Based on Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.50, held at the local Detroit temple. In this talk, he discussed the "ocean of ignorance," the seventeen items of the material body, and the need for tapasya (austerity).

University Lecture: Based on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.9, given at Wayne State University.

The Fisher Mansion Purchase:

During this trip, Prabhupada toured the palatial estate and negotiated its purchase from a "materialistic and greedy" owner for $350,000. He famously asked the owner to simply "give" the building to the monks, though they eventually settled on a price. 

The former estate was a 23,000 sq ft “Auto-baron” residence on four acres next to a canal off the Detroit River. Seemingly designed as a temple, the grand ballroom was a perfect residence for Pancha Tattva (at the time), Sri Sri Radha Kunjabihari and Lord Jagannath. There were also three boat wells that could be turned into dry docks. The smaller two built for speedboats that raced on the Detroit River soon became the F.A.T.E. museum.  The larger, ninety-five foot long yacht well later became Sri Nathji hall connected to the main temple room.  

The Benefactors: The mansion was purchased jointly by two high-profile heirs: Alfred Brush Ford (great-grandson of Henry Ford, initiated as Ambarish Das) and Elisabeth Reuther Dickmeyer (daughter of UAW president Walter Reuther, initiated as Lekhasravanti Dasi).

The Transformation: Under the direction of Govardhan dasa, the estate was converted into the beautiful Bhaktivedanta Cultural Center, which became a major Detroit landmark featuring Vedic art and architecture.

Atmosphere: Media reports from the time, such as the Detroit Free Press, noted the "continuous chanting" and ritual dances adopted by the new disciples, including Ford and Reuther, which stood in stark contrast to their wealthy social backgrounds.

Among the devotees present, we felt it was a most magical time. The Krsna Balaram Mandir in Vrindavan had opened, Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari temple in Mumbai (Bombay) was opening, Sri Sri Radha Govinda’s midtown skyscraper in New York City was being purchased and Bhaktivedanta Manor in London was established.   It felt like we had matured as a movement and were now in a position to expand Srila Prabhupada’s movement exponentially. 

Video Highlights:

Jaya Radha-Madhava led by Srila Prabhupada.

Images from Srila Prabhupada’s actual visit to Detroit courtesy of BBT Archives. The images include Srila Prabhupada leading kirtan, giving classes in both the temple and at Wayne State University along with general images of Srila Prabhupada’s visit.  The final photo is of Srila Prabhupada with all devotees present in front of the Jefferson Avenue temple.  (Gopati dasa is on the right behind other devotees with his arms raised)

Kirtan: Closing congregational chanting led by Ali Keshava dasa with Srila Prabhupada present. 

Timeline:

0:00 – Jaya Radha-Madhava (Srila Prabhupada)

4:55 – Recitation of SB 6.1.50 and Translation (Nitai dasa)

9:10 – Philosophical Discourse by Srila Prabhupada

35:20 – Closing Kirtan led by Ali Keshava dasa

The Recording:

1975 original recording by Gopati dasa (ACBSP)

2024 remaster by Uttamasloka dasa (ACBSP)

Images courtesy of BBT Archives (Please Donate) 

ClassTranscript

Nitāi dasa: 

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.

pañcabhiḥ kurute svārthān

pañca vedātha pañcabhiḥ

ekas tu ṣoḍaśena trīn

svayaṁ saptadaśo ‘śnute

[SB 6.1.50]

"The mind is the sixteenth item, and above the mind, the soul is the seventeenth item. He is the living being; therefore he is one only. In cooperation with the other fifteen items along with the mind, the living entity is enjoying the material world alone. The instruments are the five sense organs, the five working organs and the five objects of the senses. Thus the mind is sixteen and the living entity himself is seventeen. In this way the living entity is enjoying different situations of three types, namely happiness, distress or a mixture of both."

Srila Prabhupāda:

pañcabhiḥ kurute svārthān

pañca vedātha pañcabhiḥ

ekas tu ṣoḍaśena trīn

svayaṁ saptadaśo 'śnute

[SB 6.1.50]

So we are fallen into great ocean of nescience, covered. First of all the five senses, knowledge-acquiring senses, jñānendriya; and karmendriya, working senses, ten; and sense object... We have got eyes; therefore eyes are engaged for seeing something beautiful, rūpa. Rasa. Rasa means taste. That is the business of the tongue. And to see beautiful thing, that is the business of the eyes. Rūpa, rasa, śabda. Śabda means sound. The ear..., we have got ear. We want to hear nice songs, music, radio, television. So ear is there; the objects are there. Rūpa, rasa, śabda, gandha, smelling. There is good odor also, bad odor also. Rūpa, rasa, gandha, śabda, sparśā. In this way we are entangled, completely under the laws of material nature. I am the spirit soul. Saptadaśaḥ. I have given my power of attorney to the mind, and mind is creating different varieties of the śabda, sparśā..., rūpa, rasa, gandha, śabda, sparśā. In this way, life after life, as it is explained in the previous verse,

yathājñas tamasā

upāste vyaktam eva hi

na veda pūrvam aparaṁ

naṣṭa-janma-smṛtis tathā

[SB 6.1.49]

So naṣṭa-jan... I do not know. "I do not know" means I cannot remember what I did in my past life and what is going to happen in the next life. In ignorance, tamasā. Ajñas tamasā upāste. This is tamo-guṇa. The present life as it is, we try to enjoy, that's all, without caring for the next life or without understanding what was my past life. But human being should be intelligent enough that "Why...? I am enjoying or I am suffering. The other person, he is differently enjoying or suffering differently. Why the differences are there?" This is intelligence. Why not one kind of enjoyment? Why not everyone millionaire? Why not everyone pauper, or poor? There are varieties. So they do not consider it. They are so fool, they... They should, that "Why I am put into this condition? Why he is put into another condition? Why the other is put in another condition?" That is called tamasā. They do not care to know also. Tamasā. Tamase ca.

So this is not life. This is animal life. Therefore Vedic injunction is, "Don't keep in this animal life." Tamasi mā: "Don't keep yourself in this darkness." Jyotir gama: "Come to the light." So jyotir gama means... That is tapasya. To come to the platform of light, it requires tapasya, austerity. That is required. The human life is meant for tapasya, to come to the life platform. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattva [SB 5.5.1]. Tamasic or tamas, or darkness, means just like a person is attacked with tuberculosis, but he doesn't care for it. But intelligent man goes to the physician, asks that "Why I am suffering? What is the medicine?" That is intelligence. So human life begins when one is inquisitive to know, "Why I am suffering?" That is human life. And if he keeps himself in darkness---"Oh, this is... Suffering is suffering. Let me enjoy..." Sometimes they want to forget the suffering by another suffering, drinking or LSD, to forget suffering. That is another suffering, another suffering so much so that one becomes crazy and commits suicide. This is going on, a very precarious life. And human life is the only opportunity to rectify these mistakes and come to his original position, constitutional position, means the spiritual platform.

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā

na śocati na kāṅkṣati

samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu

mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

[Bg. 18.54]

That is wanted. Brahma-bhūtaḥ. As soon as one becomes brahma-bhūtaḥ, then immediately he becomes prasannātmā, jubilant. Just like one is suffering from a disease, and some way or other, when he is relieved from that disease, immediately he becomes jubilant. That is required. That is wanted. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā [Bg. 18.54]. And when one becomes jubilant, then in that attitude, one can enter into devotional service of the Lord, not in the material condition, which is always suffering. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam [Bg. 8.15]. But we go on suffering just like animal. Animal is being taken to the slaughterhouse; still, he is eating very jubilantly. Next item, he will be killed. So this kind of consciousness is called animal consciousness.

yasyātma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhātuke

svā-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ

yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij

...sa eva go-kharaḥ

[SB 10.84.13]

Go-kharaḥ.

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement means to deliver people from this ignorant..., ignorance platform and bring him to the light platform, or..., and knowledge platform, so that one can understand what is his constitutional position, how he can stop the sufferings of life, and how one can become eternally blissful life of knowledge. [break] ...consciousness. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He has given us the Śikṣāṣṭaka. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12]. By chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra... [break] ...in the Bhāgavata says tapasā. Tapasā means by undergoing severe austerities, penances. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena vā [SB 6.1.13]. This is the instruction in the śāstra. One has to become perfect by tapasā, by austerities. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa. And becoming brahmacārī, celibate. What is called? Celibate life? Eh?

Jagadīśa dasa: Celibacy.

Srila Prabhupāda: Celibacy, yes. Life of celibacy, controlling the sex desire. This is tapasya. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa śamena damena vā [SB 6.1.13]. These things are education. And what is this nonsense education how to become a big mechanics of motorcar parts? This is not education. This is śūdra, śūdra education. It is not education. It is called śilpa. Śilpa-vidyā, brahma-vidyā. Vidyā means brahma-vidyā. Therefore, in the Vedic society, education was meant for the brāhmaṇas. Education was not meant for the śūdras. Education was meant for the brāhmaṇas, and partially of the kṣatriyas, neither of the vaiśyas nor of the śūdras. What education? Vaiśya's livelihood is, or his occupational duty is, how to produce food, how to give protection to the cows, and if there is excess stock, how to trade with it. So anyone can learn by seeing only. It doesn't require any high education. If the father is tilling the field, the son can learn it by seeing it. If the father... Just like in Vṛndāvana, we... Kṛṣṇa... Kṛṣṇa was going to tend the cows and calves of Nanda Mahārāja. There was no education. It can be learned simply by seeing others doing that.

So at the present moment education means many Indians are coming to America to learn how to polish motorcar parts or how to create technology. So this is not education. This is not education. But the Europeans and Americans, they are going to India for learning brahma-vidya. That is education. The Europeans and Americans, when they go to Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur, they do not go there to see how we have manufactured cycle and machine for sewing. They have seen enough of this. We may be very proud in India = "Now we are manufacturing cycle and sewing machine or some motor parts, advanced." This is not advanced. Education means how to make one brāhmaṇa, how to teach him how he become sense controlled, śama, dama, mind control, how to become truthful, how to become clean, how to become simple, how to become full of knowledge, how to apply knowledge in practical life, how to know God. This is education. This is education.

So the present situation of the human civilization is very, very dark, tamasā. They want to live in the city without working for producing their food. And there are butchers, they kill innocent animals. And in the city they eat the meat, and to digest they drink and work like hogs and dogs whole day and night. This is civilization. This is not civilization. This is darkness, darkness of life. So we are in the darkness of life at the present moment because it is Kali-yuga, and... The system is always there so long the material world is there and the living entities are fallen in this material world. So they are implicated more or less. So in the Satya-yuga, Tretā-yuga, Dvāpara-yuga, they were not so implicated as they are implicated at this moment, Kali-yuga, because the age of misunderstanding... And the duration of age is also very short. Prāyeṇa alpa āyuṣaḥ. In this age people are living not very long. Although the limit is hundred years, nobody is living hundred years. It is reduced, reduced, more and more. In the Kali-yuga the memory will be reduced, the duration of life will be reduced, the strength of the body will be reduced, people's sense of mercifulness will be reduced. In this way there are eight items mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it will be reduced.

So this is the age of Kali, and we are in darkness, and a mode of life just like animals. So this is our position. But the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, He is sympathetic. He comes, therefore. He comes... He came in the Dvāpara-yuga, by the end of Dvāpara-yuga, and He left behind Him this Bhagavad-gītā, being merciful upon these conditioned soul, that "You make your life perfect by reading this Bhagavad-gītā. I am leaving behind him. Arjuna is My friend." So in the way of questions or answers and in the way of Arjuna's falling in difficulty... Arjuna was not difficulty. He is personal friend of Kṛṣṇa. But in order to derive the instruction of Bhagavad-gītā, he showed himself as in ignorance. The benefit is our..., that we have got this Bhagavad-gītā. But still, we are so fallen. Because Kṛṣṇa said that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, therefore people misunderstood. Again Kṛṣṇa came in this Kali-yuga as Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya nāmne. The Rūpa Gosvāmī, he prayed to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, namo mahā-vadānyāya. Kṛṣṇa came. That's all right. But He was not so liberal. He wanted first of all surrender.

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi...

[Bg. 18.66]

Kṛṣṇa made condition. Kṛṣṇa is personal Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. He came to show His mercy, and therefore He left Bhagavad-gītā to be read by common... Any common man can understand. But the rascals are so rigid that they will misinterpret. Kṛṣṇa left it for reading it by everyone. Any common man can understand. Dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre samavetā yuyutsavaḥ [Bg. 1.1]. This is the beginning. Any common man can understand. The Kurukṣetra is still there, and it is dharma-kṣetra. Still people go there to take bath in the Brahma-kunda during lunar and solar eclipse. It is a great dharma-kṣetra. But they will interpret, "Dharma-kṣetra, kuru-kṣetra means this body." Where they get this meaning? Where is the dictionary? No, because he is scholar, he has invented some meaning. This is going on, and people are misled.

So the time is very, very bad, and even there is attempt to deliver them, they are so rigid and so stubborn, dog obstinacy, they want to remain in the doggish condition of life. It is very, very difficult. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu is so kind. Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad-gītā,

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu

kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ

kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ

[Bg. 7.3]

To understand Kṛṣṇa is not so easy thing. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu After many, many millions of persons, one tries to become siddha. Siddha means to understand what he is, jñāna. That is brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā [Bg. 18.54]. And yatatām api siddhānām... [Bg. 7.3]. Just like there are two classes of transcendentalist = the Māyāvādī and the Vaiṣṇava. That is all over the world. So Māyāvādī, they are supposed to be siddhas. They are not siddha, but they are trying to become siddha, to understand the spiritual position. Neti neti: "I am not this; I am not this; I am not this." But they are not siddhas. Siddhas, when they will understand that vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ [Bg. 7.19], when they will understand Kṛṣṇa, that "Kṛṣṇa is everything," sa mahātmā, that mahātmā, not this ordinary mahātmā, "Nārāyaṇa, namo nārāyaṇa..." He is ordinary. Sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. Very rare mahātmā. Who is? Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā [Bg. 7.19] = "Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa, is everything." That is siddha. Siddha. And again, yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ [Bg. 7.3].

So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is very kind, that without considering whether he is a siddha or viddha or anything else, "Let them take kṛṣṇa-prema." Therefore Rūpa Gosvāmī prayed to Caitanya Mahāprabhu,

namo mahā-vadānyāya

kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te

kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-

nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

[Cc. Madhya 19.53]

He understood that "Here is Kṛṣṇa, but He has come now in the most liberal way. Everyone He is giving kṛṣṇa-prema." How? "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, dance, and become a lover of Kṛṣṇa." So nice. Simply by chanting and dancing, one is becoming... Practical, it is. All these boys and girls, four or five years ago they did not know who is Kṛṣṇa. That is surprising to everyone. The whole world is praising this movement because they see practically that how these European-American boys and girls are so much, I mean, absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's gift. Namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te, kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-nāmne [Cc. Madhya 19.53].

So very simple thing. Don't think I have played something wonder. No, it is not my wonder. The process is wonderful, the process itself. You have to simply accept; then your life will be successful. It is not that "Bhaktivedanta Swami has brought this." They say. They give me the credit. That is my good fortune also. But actually I am just like a peon. I have brought, but I am delivering it without any adulteration. That may be my credit. And if you take it without any adulteration and practice it, then your life is successful. This is the secret of success. Chant, dance, take prasādam, live very happily and look very brilliant, and next life go to home, back to Godhead.

So kindly... I am very pleased that you are doing nicely. But don't be proud. Always remain humble, meek, that "I am nothing. I cannot..." That will be nice. And if you think, "Now I have become liberated. I can chant and dance," no, don't think like that. Just like even Caitanya-caritāmṛta author, he says, purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha [Cc. Ādi 5.205] = "I am lower than the worm in the stool." Jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha: "I am more sinner than Jagāi-Mādhāi." In this way... That is not artificial. A Vaiṣṇava must think like that, that "I am rotten. I have no value." Don't be proud. Then the things will go on nicely. And as soon as you become proud, then māyā---"Yes, you are God. Come on. I will kick you on your face. Come on." [chuckles] [laughter] These rascals becomes God, and the māyā kicks on the face, and they think that they have become God. Don't become like that. Always remain humble servant, and you will be happy.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda! 

Adi Kesava dasa leads kirtan with Srila Prabhupada present. The kirtan ends and Srila Prabhupada recites the Pranam Prayers