Vegavan frantically explained his plight to Srila Prabhupada, who calmly walked over to the Immigration men and spoke a few words to them in Hindi; after a few minutes, they let Vegavan through.
This was to be an extensive world tour. Although Srila Prabhupada's itinerary was indefinite, his general plan was to travel widely for a few months, starting in Malaysia, through Sydney, back to Calcutta and then on to Moscow, Paris, Los Angeles, San Francisco for the Ratha-yatra festival, then back to Los Angeles, Detroit, New York, London, and finally to Bombay. As far as Moscow was concerned, he was still awaiting a letter of permission from the Soviet Government.
Previously, Srila Prabhupada had toured extensively in America and India. However, apart from a few weeks in Hamburg and Tokyo and a few months in England, this was Srila Prabhupada's first main tour of the world. Srila Prabhupada was travelling as a mendicant missionary like Narada Muni. And, just as Narada Muni travelled throughout the universe spreading transcendental sound, Srila Prabhupada was now similarly journeying to all parts of the world. As a news journalist in India had appropriately called him, he was a "Jet Age Parivrajakacarya".
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Whereas this was to be Srila Prabhupada's first visit to Australia, it was the second visit for Radha and Krsna! Perhaps only a handful of people at the time knew the circumstances behind this amazing fact.
Many months before, while the Sydney devotees were still residing in the beach-side suburb of Bondi, the temple was visited by an Indian gentleman named Mr. Singh. He was happy to see Krsna consciousness established in Australia and promised to send some Radha-Krsna Deities to the Sydney temple when he returned to India. The devotees thanked him, but did not take his offer very seriously, and the whole incident was soon forgotten.
Mr Singh, however, had meant what he had said. On returning to India, he purchased a small set of Deities, packed them in a crate and sent them by boat to the Bondi temple address. By the time the crate arrived, the Sydney temple had relocated to Paddington. The devotees had left no forwarding address, and so the unclaimed crate was put into bond storage and finally shipped back to the sender's address in Bombay.
Mr. Singh was understandably disappointed. Still wanting to donate the Deities to ISKCON, he had offered them to Srila Prabhupada, who subsequently installed them to temporarily preside over the Cross Maidan pandal and then receive worship at the Akasha Ganga apartment temple. Now, by Their own sweet will, Radha and Krsna were returning to Australia, this time under the careful and loving auspices of Their intimate servant, Srila Prabhupada.
- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu
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