His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
spoken by His Holiness Prabhavishnu Swami
When I first had the idea of going to Malaysia, I wanted ask Srila Prabhupada. I went to Vrindavan in October '77. Srila Prabhupada was very ill. His secretary said it wasn't appropriate to ask him about coming here.
I had been preaching in Nepal and I was going to give a report and then ask about coming here also. But his secretary said he was too ill. Then I went back to Nepal, because at one point it seemed like his health was getting better. But then a few weeks later we got the news that Prabhupada had departed.
I came back for the ceremony in Vrindavan, which took place I think eleven days after Prabhupada's departure. Devotees had made a small Samadhi by then, with just a picture of Prabhupada inside. I met Bhaktivrajendranandan Maharaj and we were sitting outside Prabhupada's Samadhi. We were just discussing the idea about coming to Malaysia and starting up a center here. At that time Prabhupada's garland fell off, and the pujari came and gave it to us. We took that as a sign from Prabhupada.
(Prabhavishnu Swami, Bhaktivrajendranandan Swami and another devotee subsequently went to Malaysia to open a centre. The Hare Krsna Movement grew steadily since that time. There are Temples and centers all over the country, extensive youth groups, nama hatta preaching(meetings in homes), and nearly 30 annual Rathayatras.)
Jayapataka Swami, Rathayatra kirtan in Penang
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