London, 1968
Swamiji had complete faith in Krishna and faith that his disciples’ bold, enthusiastic, and confident preaching would establish Krishna consciousness in Europe just as it had in North America. At Swamiji’s request, the same three couples who had started the San Francisco temple Mukunda and Janaki, Syamasundara and Malati (now with their infant daughter, Sarasvati), and Gurudasa and Yamuna went to London.
In London, with little money, living as separate couples in different parts of the city, and without tangible progress even after months of trying, the six of them sometimes became discouraged and talked of going back to America. Swamiji’s letters to them, however, gave them the inspiration and strength to continue. They’d read and re-read his words and dream of him joining them.
Yamuna: I had to move to a Jamaican ghetto, the top floor of one of the buildings. It was awful. Day after day after day I would sit and listen to a tape of Swamiji singing. It was a beautiful tape he had just done in Los Angeles. And I would pray to him, “Please come. Please come.”
Swamiji wrote to Yamuna: “Your appreciation of Srimad-Bhagavad-gita and Teachings of Lord Chaitanya is so nice. Please continue to study and preach in this way to all you meet. I am very happy to learn that you are going to various homes and lecture halls and holding kirtana and delivering lectures from these transcendental literatures. This is very nice. And if you continue in this way, gradually so many people will be attracted, and our London center will be very soon successful.” (October 3, 1968)
The six of them repeatedly tried to contact the Beatles, and after many failed attempts, in the middle of a winter of struggle, Syamasundara finally met George Harrison. George, searching for spirituality, was attracted to the devotees and offered to produce a record on the Apple label with the devotees singing.
On the day of the recording the devotees assembled at EMI studios on Abbey Road. Yamuna applied Vaishnava tilaka to the foreheads of the recording technicians, and then, with Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda, operating the control console, the session began. George played organ and Mukunda played mridanga. Yamuna, praying to Prabhupada for spiritual strength, sang the lead, with Syamasundara backing her and the other voices blended in a chorus. Afterward George said, “This is going to be big.” In a short time the song was on the top of the charts, a smash hit.
Eager to fulfill his spiritual master’s desire to bring Krishna conscious to Europe and drawn by his disciples’ dedication, Swamiji joined them in England. On the invitation of Beatle John Lennon he stayed with his disciples in John’s Tittenhurst Park estate. There, after his daily morning walk on the estate, Swamiji would sit alone and sing prayers, accompanying himself on the harmonium. Yamuna would sit silently on the stairs outside his room, listening and crying in appreciation. One morning when he’d finished singing, Swamiji called her. She went into his room, and he asked her what she was doing.
“I’m listening, Swamiji. Your singing is beautiful.”
"Do you want to come in and listen?”
“Yes, very much.”
“You can play drum and I will play harmonium. Purushottama can playkaratalas.”
For several mornings Yamuna recorded Swamiji singing a prayer by Narottama Dasa Thakura called Hari Hari Bifale. Swamiji explained the meaning: “O Lord Hari, I have wasted my life. Although I have taken a rare human birth, like a miser I have not served Radha and Krishna and thus I have knowingly drunk poison.”
Swamiji then said, “Yamuna Prabhu, what is your favorite prayer?”
“I like the Sikshashtaka prayers.”
“That’s very nice.”
“Swamiji, what is your favorite prayer?”
“This prayer, Hari Hari Bifale.”
Before Swamiji had arrived in England, the devotees had acquired a building at Bury Place in central London. When Syamasundara completed the renovation needed to turn it into a temple, Swamiji, now addressed by the more appropriate name Srila Prabhupada, installed beautiful white marble deities of Radha and Krishna.
Yamuna: This was a real growth period in London. Just as there was a burgeoning of youth interested in spiritual life and breaking out of the mold of the ’50s and ’60s in the United States, this happened in London at the same time. We attracted people mostly through the holy name. Prabhupada’s arrival in 1969 was the catalyst. We were the seeds being planted, and he was the blossoming creeper of Lord Chaitanya’s love. And when he came, everything ignited with the thunder and voracity and speed of a firestorm.
From the San Francisco days, Prabhupada had encouraged Yamuna to train newcomers in Krishna consciousness. He’d written her: “I am very glad to learn that you are training the two boys in Krishna consciousness. . . . You are a very nice girl and I have got full faith in you and I wish that you can develop this line of service to the society.” (May 23, 1968) And in London, Prabhupada’s desire that she train others continued: “I am very glad to learn that your training program is going on and the result is that now men are trained for opening and maintaining new branches. This is very encouraging to me.” (July 26, 1970)
Prabhupada also personally taught Yamuna deity worship and was pleased with her service: “Regarding our London Math at 7 Bury Place, it was very successfully opened and the seva puja operations are going on very, very nicely under the care of Srimati Yamuna Devi.” (January 21, 1970)
Based on Yamuna’s recommendations Srila Prabhupada accepted new disciples: “I received [Monique’s, Evelyne’s, and Joelle’s] respective letters and recommendations of initiation from Yamuna Devi, and I am sending the beads by separate mail duly chanted.” (February 8, 1970)
Also by letter Srila Prabhupada acknowledged Yamuna’s preaching in London: “I was so glad to learn that you have defeated four of the whips of the Rama Krishna Mission by giving quotation from the Bhagavad-gita.” (February 10, 1970) And he wrote, “If you carry on your service to Radha and Krishna according to the prescribed rules, your love of Krishna will increase more and more; this you are seeing practically by the grace of Krishna.” (January 16, 1970)
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