Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

​

So today we are here to speak at a condolence meeting for Pankajanghri Prabhu(1). Very, very dear disciple of Srila Prabhupada(2), very dear. When Srila Prabhupada was leaving his body at that time in Vrindavan(3) and some devotees were going from Mayapur, I didn’t go because I was looking after the deities(4) in Mayapur, anyway, when the devotees went there Prabhupada greeted them and asked them how was everything in Mayapur and he specifically mentioned ‘how is Pankajanghri and Jananivasa?’. Srila Prabhupada was remembering Pankajanghri at that time when he wasn’t even physically present, so we can all meet again, Prabhupada is with Krishna and we can all meet again and see Pankajanghri when we go back home back to Bardarossa(5). We understand Krishna’s instructions and Krishna’s plans. Srila Prabhupada’s lamentations over the loss or happiness over gain is not a really big consideration for the devotees, who absorb themselves in service now and when they leave devoting and go back to doing the same things, service to Krishna. Bhaktivinoda Thakur(6) says in the Navitama Hoffnia(7), anyone who leaves his body in Mayapur for any reason, accident, illness, virus, he attains devotion to Krishna he performs devotion. Where do they perform devotion to Krishna? It is back to Godhead(8) no devotion in the material world and one immediately as Prabhupada said, living and dying in the Dham(9) is the same. 

Anyway, Pankajanghri, I will speak of his earlier life. You don’t know, and maybe you would like to know. Pankajanghri Prabhu was born in March 1944, in Barnet on the outskirts of London town in England and he born as a twin brother to Jananivasa, as a younger brother, and his mother had 10 children and so it was a handful for her. Her husband was a rogue, he had TB, but he was actually a millionaire. He had a big block of flats in Mansion House in London, which his father donated to him as a wedding present. So, he was really rich, but he was also attached to intoxication and gambling. He used to gamble on the horses and take intoxication and so he wasn’t a very good father. He squandered all the money and so my mother was there with ten kids and no money, what to do? Mother loved us very much and she gave birth to a daughter after us, it was her last daughter and she said to us that ‘when I was in the hospital with my new born little baby girl (someone was at home looking after the twins) I was crying to the nurses, where are my twins, where are my twins, I want my twins?’ The nurse said, well you’ve got your new born baby, you’ve got enough to look after here, and she said, ‘no I don’t want my baby I want my twins’. She was very much attached to her twins.

My memories start when I was about 4 years old, when things became sequential, but before that I just remember one or two things. 

We were born in 1944 and the Second World War was going on and Hitler was blitzing England (blitzing means barrage, bomb after bomb after bomb) and they had another kind of weapon called Doodlebug it was a flying rocket, a flying bomb. It could get from France to England. France was occupied by Germany, and they were sending these Doodlebugs. They had enough fuel to get across the English channel and then the fuel would run out and it would start to go down and it would make a sound, sssshhhhhh, and everyone would start running for shelters. And I remember, just a flash of a memory, we jumped under a wooden eating table. Most people had an Anderson shelter, a corrugated iron shelter, that was installed in their gardens. And so every time we heard these sounds coming, when the engine shut off, then you knew the bomb was starting to fall and so everyone would rush to their different shelters and, oh Krishna, I can’t remember it exactly but that was stuck in my mind because it was a shock.

My mum couldn’t look after us all, 10 kids at once and no husband and he had gambled all the money and so we were sent to a home. I cannot remember the actual place, it was in the countryside, it was a nunnery. The nuns lived there and they were taking children and everything during the war. So my Mum took us up to Waterloo train station in London, because we had to go the nunnery and stay there for some time. It was a Gurukula(10), I am a Gurukuli because I went to a nunnery for some time, from 5 years old. There we were in Waterloo Station and Mother’s asking us to get on the train and we said ‘no we are not going to get on the train and go away’. They had a nurse with them from the WVS, the Woman’s Voluntary Service, very active during the war period and so they had sent someone to take me and Pankajanghri to the nunnery. She (the WVS volunteer) had been in the war, in a blast herself. And her nose was missing and mother was saying ‘hold onto these babies’ hands’ and she will take you, but she had no nose and mother was leaving and we were crying and crying. I had a bottle of orange juice and a bottle of, and you may not believe it but, cod liver oil. This was given by the government so that people could remain healthy. Fish oil is one of the things that is full of nutrition, but the orange juice was good! Anyway, we both had a bottle of each because we were going on this journey and I drank my bottle and the Pankajanghri dropped his bottle and it smashed all over the floor and we were both crying. Then we were taken away on the train and we went to the nunnery. The Sisters came out to greet us and they said what is your name, Pankajanghri said Roy Worthington. ‘Oh Worthingtons’ they looked at each other and they smiled, because it is the name of a famous beer, an alcoholic beer, ‘nice name’. 

We stayed in that place for some time and then we came back to our home. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was giving a class one time and he was saying that children should be sent to Gurukula at the age of 5, because that is when they start to function nicely. It struck me when he said that, because my thinking and everything starts from that time, when I was 4 or 5 years old, when we were separated from mother. I know the sequences after that. Children should leave home and go to the Gurukula at the age of five, and so that was my own experience. I can start remembering from that time, five years old. 

Then we went to another place for a little while, because Mum was having difficulty in looking after ten kids. We went to another place in Watford, near Bhaktivedanta Manor(11). Then we were bigger and went back home after that.

We went to the local school. There was a character in a comic book called the terrible twins, there were two characters, who always got into mischief. It was in the Beano or the Dandy, if anybody knows the comic books at that time. These terrible twins, they would always perform mischief. Somehow or another, people used to call us the terrible twins, we weren’t terrible actually. We were very nice and played, but people said we were the terrible twins. At school at one time, I remember the Headmistress and she said, ‘I have heard about you and now I am going to teach you a lesson’. She had like a walking stick with a big ribbon tied on it and she was going to come and give us the cane because we broke something. We said ‘no we didn’t break anything’ it wasn’t us. The teacher turned to the little girl and said, ‘you said it was the twins, the terrible twins’ and then the little girl started crying and said ‘no, no I just said that as I didn’t want to get into trouble, so I said it was the twins that broke it’.

Then me and Pankajanghri went to regular school. We left when we were about 15. As soon as we could leave, we wanted to leave school and it was great. School had finished and we had no more responsibilities and we thought we were going to have a good time, but then my elder brother said, ‘you can’t just go round for yourself, you have got to support your mother’, ‘nobody is supporting her you have to support her you have to go out and work’. We said ‘no’, we didn’t leave school to go to work we only wanted to play. ‘No, no you have to do work and get some money otherwise who is going to maintain you?’ So then we had to start to work. All varieties of work, and yeah we went through working. What young boys go through when they are growing up!

Then in the late 60’s we had the counter-culture. The hippy movement started in England and America, which was great. Every generation of young children, they want to rebel in some way or another, through their dress, through their style, through their talking, through their music. They are going to express their freedom. Young men who have just got a man’s body and wants to ....(12) so we were part of the cult you could say. I came to India. Well I wasn’t intending to go to India, I wanted to go to some place that was very mystical and so I thought Istanbul is like mystical. You’ve got the domes and the wailing is going on, like Arabian Nights and fairy-tale kind of stuff. So I was going to go to Istanbul and Pankajanghri said ‘I am going to Morocco’ which is North Africa and at that time there was going to be the ‘World Love In’ from the hippy movement a love in means everybody everyone comes in to love, promoting love and peace and it was going to be in Marrakesh and so Pankajanghri said ‘I am going to Marrakesh’ and I said ‘okay I am going to Istanbul’, ‘I’ll come back and meet you’.

Somehow or another I got to India from there, someone invited me to go with him, he said ‘I will pay your fare’. We were doing a little bit of wheeling and dealing on the way so that we could get a little bit of money. Anyway, I fell in love with India as soon as I came here and then I came back. I had some kind of enlightenment. People were talking about enlightenment in those days, peace love, enlightenment and yoga! All of these things new for England. So somehow or another I had some enlightenment. I must of come to it. I was going to temples in India, and maybe I met some Sadhu(13) or something like that. Anyway, somehow or another I got the blessing, oh no that is another story. I got some enlightenment from the Supreme Lord, spiritual emotions manifesting themselves in my heart, and so I went back to England and I said Pankajanghri ’let’s go to the holy land’. He said ‘where is that, Jerusalem?’, I said ‘forget Jerusalem go to India’, ‘that’s a place of knowledge!’. 

So, we both came to India the second time. We travelled all around India. Pankajanghri said ‘this has been the best time of my life’. Completely free and independent wandering around like we were on a Sadhu trip. Then I met the devotees at Chackanatpouri(14) and I immediately accepted Krishna consciousness and they preached to me. Everything was perfect and all the unanswered questions I had were answered perfectly. Krishna is the supreme person or God and that’s what we were searching for. Searching for that ultimate personality and the absolute truth. That was Krishna. This is what you are searching for I became so happy. My search is over. So then I stayed here. Pankajanghri said ‘I am not ready to be a holy Joe at the moment, but you go pursue your path be strong, go on’. 

He went back to England. He was going to the Bhaktivedanta temple, to his home and then back to his temple every day. He began losing interest in going back to his house and more interested in Bhaktivedanta and so he said, ‘I might as well stay in the temple’. He stayed in Bhaktivedanta temple and he took initiation from Srila Prabhupada. He was staying in England and I was in Mayapur. 

I was all alone here in 1971. Vrndavan(15) came here in 1972, it was the first Iskcon festival. I was asked to come when I was in Calcutta. I joined in Calcutta and was then asked to come to Mayapur to cook for the devotees. They were going to establish a pandal(16) programme for the first Mayapur festival Iskcon. I was here cooking for the devotees, there were three or four of us living there(17) then.

The next year(18), 1971 I took initiation, 1972 the second initiation, I was asked to do the Puja(19). There was a lot to do and only one person to do it. So, I was praying to Krishna, to please bring Pankajanghri to Mayapur. To come here and to serve here, because I can get along with you. We have no ego, because we know each other too well. Born together, we have slept together, lived together. We cannot pull any false ego out on each other. We know each other too well. Anyway, I was praying to Krishna, ‘please send Pankajanghri, we can just serve to our hearts content here’. Pankajanghri came just after that. Krishna answered my prayers.

Pankajanghri stayed and he became here. He used to be in charge of temple cleaning. In the beginning he was an Astron teacher(20). He had quite a lot of little boys here at that time. Pankajanghri joined in 1973. Pankajanghri was saying, because when he was in India he met a lot of gurus, and he went to one: The Divine Light(21). You can see the light, the white light when you press your eyes. 

Pankajanghri was telling me that in Bhaktivedanta Manor and Prabhupada was giving his lecture and suddenly Prabhupada from his eyes came this white light. Pankajanghri said ‘he’s got it, he’s got it, this is what we are looking for!’ Other gurus were talking about white light and Prabhupada has got the white light. Then Pankajanghri joined. He got initiation from Prabhupada and then he came to India and served me continuously. 

Prabhupada said about Pankajanghri ‘those boys know nothing but service’. Nothing but service. It was a fact. Morning until night. It was just the deities and service all day, for 24 hours. 

So service is there in any situation. We have service, and when Prabhupada left everyone was saying ‘what do we do, what do we do, we are confused’ and the conclusion was now it’s service as usual or even more than usual now that Prabhupada had left! We do service as usual and more, for it is our position really. Eternal servants for Krishna service never stops for us, whether we are here or not. We serve here or go back home to Godhead and serve there, but service you see. Through that service, attitude we can express our love for Krishna. You cannot express it any other way, it has to be service. We are the eternal servants of Krishna. Pankajanghri is wherever. We like to feel he definitely went back to Godhead. Of course, he did go back to Godhead because he was in the Dahm. So, wherever Pankajanghri is now he will be doing the same thing. He will be doing seva(22), we do our seva here, so we are all packed up. Prabhupada said you are the other side of the world. ‘You are chanting Hare Krishna’, ‘I am here chanting Hare Krishna’, ‘but by chanting Hare Krishna, we are all packed up together’. So like that we are still packed up together with Pankajanghri, through his service he has established the worship for Lord Nrsimhadeva(23). So we all met again. We’ll all meet again. 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Pankajanghri Prabhu devotee(24)

Back to home

Back to Godhead heed

Yet I go permanently 

 

1.     Prabhu means master or the Prince in Sanskrit and many of the Indian languages; it is a name sometimes applied to God. The term is also used by male devotees of Krishna as a title and form of address. If a man sees another male devotee whom he does not know, he will address him as "Prabhu"

2.     Srila Prabhupada (1896-1977), also known as A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, was the founder of the Hare Krishna movement.

3.     Srila Prabhupada died on 14 November 1977 at the age of 81, in Vrindavan, India. His body was buried in Krishna Balaram Mandir in Vrindavan

4.     Deities are the gods and goddesses: the Hindu trinity, also known are tridev, consists of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer and reincarnator. Their feminine counterparts are Saraswati, the wife of Brahma, Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, and Parvati the wife of Shiva. These are the major deities. There are a large number of minor deities.

5.     Baradrossa – I don’t know what this is a reference to (a place perhaps)? I don’t know the spelling.

6.     Bhaktivinoda Thakur (1838-1914) was a Hindu philosopher. His son and spiritual heir was Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's disciple was Srila Prabhupada who continued his guru's Western mission when in 1966 he founded the Hare Krishna movementin the USA.

7.     Navitama Hoffnia – I don’t know what this is a reference to (a book perhaps)? I don’t know the spelling.

8.     Godhead can mean God or Krishna’s kingdom/abode. Srila Prabhupada titled his magazine ‘Back to Godhead’. He took inspiration from a phrase spoken by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In Prabhupada's opening essay in the first issue of the magazine, he quoted the Archbishop saying that people, ‘want the kingdom of God without God’ and ‘Our resolve must be back to God’. In that article and others, Prabhupada, like the dictionary, used the term Godhead to mean God. But in the phrase ‘back to Godhead’, which appears thousands of times in his writings, the context suggests that by Godhead, Prabhupada often means the kingdom of God. 

9.     Among all holy places Sri Dham Mayapur is especially significant: ’Srila Prabhupada traversed the globe and during his lifetime established 108 temples, but among all of these temples, one holds special significance: the World Headquarters of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir, located in Sri Dham Mayapur.

10.   Gurukula is a term used in Sanskrit to reference a spiritual school. Srila Prabhupada, (founder of the Hare Krishna Movement) saw these kind of schools as the basis for improving future generations of society. He thought that children should be sent to Boarding schools at 5 years of age. The schools were known as gurukulas or houses of the guru.

11.   Bhaktivedanta Manor (previously known as Piggott's Manor) was donated to the Hare Krishna movement in February 1973 by George Harrison, after the Radha Krishna Temple in central London had become inadequate to house the growing number of devotees.

12.   Jananivasa didn’t say what the young men might want to do, he left it to the imagination of the audience.

13.   A Sadhu is a religious ascetic or any holy person in Hinduism, who has renounced the worldly life. They are sometimes alternatively referred to as yogi sannyasi or Bairagi.

14.   Chackanatpouri – A place perhaps. I don’t know what or where it is or how to spell it.

15.   Vrndavan was the first festival in Mayapur. In 1972-73, 50 devotees attended the festival and at that time it was considered a large gathering. Srila Prabhupada stressed that everyone should attend the festival, even though for some it is expensive to visit Mayapur.

16.   In Hinduism, a pandal is a fabricated temporary structure set up to usually venerate the God and Goddess. A tent of sorts.

17.   Jananivasa named some people who he ‘thinks’ were there, but I left that bit out as I could not work out who any of the people where. He did conclude by saying ‘there were three or four of us there’ and so what is quoted is broadly correct.

18.   1973. The first Iskcon festival was 1972 and so the ‘next year’ is 1973. He mentions 1971 and 1972 as that is the backstory i.e. he is letting us know when he took first initiation and when he took second initiation. 

19.   A Puja is a worship ritual performed by Hindus to offer devotional homage and prayer to one or more deities, to host and honour a guest, or to spiritually celebrate an event. The word puja is Sanskrit, and means reverence, honour, homage, adoration and worship. Puja, the loving offering of light, flowers, and water or food to the divine, is the essential ritual of Hinduism. The interaction between human and deity, between human and guru, is called darshan.

20.   Astron teacher – an astronomy teacher perhaps?

21.   Pankajanghri mentions The Divine Light in his letter to his mother 28th September 1971: ‘At the moment, I’m staying in an ashram called The Divine Light Mission, which is run by a fourteen-year-old guru’. 

22.   The word Seva is a Sanskrit word meaning service. 

23.   Lord Nrsimhadeva is the incarnation of Lord Krishna that appeared to protect his young devotee Prahlada. He appeared as half-man half-lion and killed the envious, atheistic demon, Hiranyakashipu who was materialism personified. Devotees pray to Lord Nrsimhadeva for protection and to kill their material desires.

24.   The last line of the chant should be ‘Rama Rama Hare Hare’, but Jananivasa movingly swapped in a reference to Pankajanghri instead.