Number 298 Birrell Street was a small house in a busy thoroughfare lined with the distinctly Australian phenomenon, milk bars, as well as delicatessens, fruit and vegetable shops and grocers. Home for many Europeans who had migrated to Australia after the Second World War, the street now hosted the Hare Krishna temple. Before long, the regular guests had re-adjusted themselves to the new location. A small group continued attending the kirtanas and classes. On Sundays, as the guests arrived for the feast with their customary offering of fruits or flowers, the devotees would greet them at the door by carefully marking their foreheads with traditional Vaishnava tilak. Bali-mardana reported to Srila Prabhupada about the new centre. He was feeling more settled and had mustered renewed determination to stay in Sydney.
Prabhupada was happy with his disciples new resolve:
I am glad to learn that you have decided to live in Sydney. Sydney is your jurisdiction, so you cannot leave this place unless there is a very urgent engagement in another place. You have got to organise this centre very nicely. Please therefore do everything with enthusiasm. That will satisfy me and Krishna also, and as a result of which you will be satisfied transcendentally, this is our position.
Prabhupada was also happy to hear that Upendra and Bali-mardana were trying harder to settle their differences, and that the Sydney centre had moved to a larger and better location. “All this is very good news,” said Prabhupada, and “I beg to thank you very much.” Upendra could now cook in a bigger and better-equipped kitchen. His feasts had become memorable events and attracted many new guests.
But still his mind troubled him. Ever since his early days in San Francisco, Upendra had struggled with sex desire. Previously Srila Prabhupada had advised him to stay away from rich foods: “Eat starvishly, take unspiced dal and chapatis without butter.” But sometimes Upendra’s problems seemed insurmountable.
On a particularly low day, he wrote and told Srila Prabhupada of his weaknesses. Prabhupada replied:
I know you are a sincere servant of Krishna, so sometimes we may do something which is not very congenial, but Krishna is so kind, that one who is engaged in His transcendental loving service is corrected immediately from within as Krishna is sitting within everyone’s heart. So you have gone there with a great responsibility on behalf of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and try to convince people about the importance of Krishna consciousness, that will make everything nice and in order. So far as responsibility is concerned, there is an action in Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, to be executed by the devotee which is called Krishna arthe akhila ceshta, which means to take all kinds of responsibilities for Krishna’s sake. Sometimes I also think that, let me go back to Vrindavana, in that peaceful situation, to live without any responsibilities; still, in this old age, I take the responsibility of managing our quite big institution now and I have to reply to so many letters from different centres to give them instruction. As an old man I can take relief from this work immediately, but for Krishna’s sake I am pulling on even though there is sometimes personal inconveniences. So let us act in that way altogether for Krishna’s sake.
Reference: The Great Transcendental Adventure by Kurma Dasa
