The vast hall was quiet with expectation as Srila Prabhupada put on his dark-rimmed spectacles and closed his eyes: "Munayah sadhu prsto 'ham bhavadbhir loka-mangalam, yat krtah krsna-samprasno yenatma suprasidati."
Srila Prabhupada had chosen to speak from verse 5 of the Second Chapter of the Srimad-Bhagavatam entitled "Divinity and Divine Service". Suta Gosvami addresses the sages at Naimisaranya who have assembled and questioned him on the Absolute Truth:
"O sages, I have been justly questioned by you. Your questions are worthy because they relate to Lord Krsna and so are of relevance to the world's welfare. Only questions of this sort are capable of completely satisfying the self."
Srila Prabhupada's voice was loud and strong. He stressed that the Krsna consciousness movement was not a new or concocted thing -- it was very old and authorised.
Prabhupada detailed the fragile condition of human life and the troubles of birth, death, disease and old age. "When we are within the womb of our mother, it is a very precarious condition. Any medical man knows this. We have to live there in this way, in a packed-up bag, practically without any air. Just imagine, if at this present moment you were put into an airtight condition, you would die within three minutes or three seconds. But in the womb of our mother, we have to live for a clear ten months or more in that airtight, packed-up condition. Just imagine how much troublesome this is! That is practical. We may have forgotten -- so many things we have forgotten, but that does not mean that the trouble was not there.
"Similarly, at the time of death the miserable condition is so acute, that we have to give up this body, and sometimes when a man becomes very much upset, he commits suicide; he cuts his own throat. Why? He cannot live in this body. Similarly, I, you, every one of us, experience trouble at the time of birth and at the time of death. We are living entities, living souls. Birth and death take place in this body. Death means sleeping for seven months. That's all. That is death. When this body is unfit for living, the soul gives up this body, and by superior arrangement the soul is again put into the womb of a particular type of mother, where the soul develops that particular type of body. So it is a great science, how the living soul comes in contact with this material body, and how he is transmigrating from one body to another."
Our particular body, Srila Prabhupada explained, had been given to us for our particular type of standard of living. "Just like you Australians, you have been given a particular standard of living." Prabhupada referred to the conversation he had just had in the car on the way to the Town Hall. "I was just speaking to my students. You have been given the chance of a particular high standard of living. Similarly, in India or in Africa or anywhere, the living entity has got a particular type of body, with its particular type of standard of living. A tiger has also got a particular standard of living, and also an elephant .. And also in the higher planets, there are higher beings, they also have a higher standard of living, and a vast duration of life. This information is there in the Vedic literatures."
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Suddenly, the audience became restless. The devotees looked to see a tall bearded man striding confidently down the aisle towards the microphone. A familiar sight around Melbourne, he was dressed as Merlin the Magician, complete with pointed black hat adorned with silver moon and stars, leotards and a flowing black cape. It was The Wizard!
A deregistered sociology student, and somewhat of a despot-cum-lunatic, he had been proclaimed the official wizard of the University of New South Wales. Specialising in clever public word jugglery and buffoonery, he claimed to be researching "Tension Resolution Through Absurd Behaviour". The devotees had encountered The Wizard on numerous occasions ever since they arrived in Melbourne. He had sometimes attempted to publicly humiliate them in the City Square. Although basically harmless, they found him at best a nuisance -- and often an annoying disturbance.
Now his brash, uninhibited behaviour had led him to approach Srila Prabhupada. The devotees wondered how Prabhupada would deal with him.
True to form, The Wizard took the microphone and, much to the outrage of older members of the audience and to the delight of his hippy following, spoke out in his usual loud, affected voice: "I would like to ask his Divine Grace a question, or I'd like to phrase my thinking at the moment. I know that I am a FOOL and a RASCAL, but I am thinking 'Am I the centre of the universe?' I think that I AM the centre of the universe! I think I must prove it some time next year .."
He rambled on pompously, his voice rising dramatically, until Hanuman Prasada Goswami unceremoniously wrenched the microphone from his hand. Srila Prabhupada turned to Syamasundara, "What is he saying?"
"He says he's the centre of the universe, Srila Prabhupada."
The hall was quiet. Prabhupada smiled and spoke calmly into the microphone. "So, everyone is thinking like that. Everyone has the concept that 'I am the supreme enjoyer and everything is there for my pleasure'. So you are not different from anyone else .. Actually, Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He is the centre of the universe, so your imitation will not last long."
The audience laughed, then stood up and applauded -- a standing ovation, accompanied by whistles and cheers. Srila Prabhupada had exposed him as just another materialistic fool. The Wizard had met his match!
Prabhupada indicated for a kirtana to begin and soon the hall was transformed by the combined sound of hundreds of voices chanting Hare Krsna. Never before in Melbourne had so many people come together in one spot to chant. The combined sound was tumultuous. Nanda Kumara's drum roared, and cymbals clashed like a runaway locomotive. Devotees and guests alike danced on stage, in the aisles and dress circles, losing themselves in the ecstasy of harinama. Towards the end of the kirtana, someone started throwing laddhus off the stage. The crowd went wild, leaping for the sweets. Even after Prabhupada left the stage, the chanting continued for a considerable time.
- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu
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