Podcast with HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | Oct 23, 2025
Devotee: Hare Krishna, dear devotees. It’s a matter of great fortune. We’re just starting our podcast series and we are very fortunate to have His Holiness Bhanu Swami Maharaj here.
He is our GBC and our Siksha-guru and Maharaj has been the inspiration behind progress of our spiritual life. So we thought we’ll invite Maharaj for this first podcast and the topic for discussion is Celebrating Srila Prabhupad’s life and legacy and to hear more about it from Maharaj.
So Maharaj, would you take us back to your very first meeting with Srila Prabhupad? What impressions stayed with you?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, I first met Srila Prabhupad in Japan when he was on his way to India. He went there with about six other devotees. Many of them were sannyasis. So I got to meet him briefly, several times I met him at the airport. Then I had a personal audience in his room supplied by the printing company Dai Nippon. So and then also there was the famous Vyasa Puja that flopped [Laughs], I was there also. But I wasn’t there to repeat the next day when they did the actual ceremony. But I didn’t get to speak to Prabhupad so much, because I wasn’t even a devotee at the time. So I didn’t actually speak to him so much. I was a little bit distant. I didn’t know so much also.
Devotee: So what were those initial impressions that you still carried?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, the devotees, of course, there were about you know, one, two, three, about four devotees at the time. They were very excited when Prabhupad came and of course they were busy doing all preparations for welcoming and serving him. But as I said, I was not really a devotee at that time. So I just got, you know, some superficial presence of him [Laughs] at that time. But in any case, like all the people who did get to meet Sri Prabhupad, I was also impressed with his various serious approach to spiritual life. He was not taking it casually or something that was invented. He was interested in passing on something was an ancient tradition and it was following scripture.
Devotee: And Maharaj, so what quality of Srila Prabhupad, after that, of course, you had more association with Srila Prabhupad than his disciples. So what quality of Srila Prabhupad struck you the most in those initial years and something that perhaps still guides you?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, in all cases, I saw that Srila Prabhupad was very committed to the mission of spreading Lord Caitanya’s movement through preaching, even though the facilities were maybe not so good at that time. For instance, when we came to Kolkata, then many people invited him to programs, all in Bengali and it was, you know, Bengali audiences [Laughs], So Prabhupad was speaking, everybody else was also speaking [Laughs]. It was, you know, it was a very chaotic type of thing. But Prabhupad was very patient [Laughs] and he would accept all these invitations to go to speak at various places.
And through all of that, Prabhupad was trying to actually get some land. So he was trying to get land in Mayapur. He was trying to get land in other places in India, wherever someone would offer land. So he’d often meet with wealthy people. Then he would ask them quite boldly, you know, you please help us with this movement. You give us some land or, you know, donate to us like that. Unfortunately, nobody actually gave [Laughs]. This is the big problem. So he met many, you know, Raja’s and other places, like in Bombay side and Gujarat, but nobody was really willing to give at that time. Of course, finally, Prabhupad did get some land in Vrindavan and also in Hyderabad. Those are first two donations he actually got. So something was there, but he kept trying all the time to develop the movement in India by getting land and then building temples. So he was very persistent at that.
Devotee: Very persistent !!
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: And I think he had a vision for the future, even though the most of the movement was in the West at that time and all the money was in the West. There was no money in India. So we started life membership with thousand rupees [Laughs] ?
Devotee: one-one-one-one !! (1111 ₹).
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: [Laughs] That was the life membership. And that was like big money. Difficult to squeeze people for one thousand rupees [Laughs]. So, you know, we had to struggle a lot in India at that time and the money to even build Mayapur, to purchase the land for Mayapur, to build Vrindavan, to build Bombay temple all came from America or other countries around the world from their Sankirtan [Laughs]. So India actually wasn’t supporting so much at that time. But Prabhupad continued anyway.
Devotee: So Maharaj, we have read in Lilamrita and other memories of other devotees that how the movement really expanded in 70s. Maybe India was struggling, but other, I mean almost all the major countries of the world, ISKCON was expanding. So you were the one who witnessed it first-hand. You know, temples opening at so many different locations and more and more devotees coming in, book scores going up. So what was it like to witness all that happening around, so much excitement in devotees.. ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, 1970s were a period of sudden growth of ISKCON and of course of publishing books, etc. Unfortunately, communications at that time was not very great. There was no videos, nothing like that. There was this, you know, 8mm movies or something [Laughs]. That was the thing, or big tape recorders. So it took time and for news to get around. So you may learn something about a year later sometimes [Laughs]. So it’s not that, you know, sudden things happen and everybody in the world knew. But, you know, gradually we knew.
Of course, it was back to Godhead magazine. So that would come out every, you know, month and then would publicize different things. So we got to know things that way. In one sense, it was sudden growth of, you know, around the world, especially in America and Europe. So all these temples sprung up in America, Canada and Europe. That was mainly where the growth took place.
So I was not witness to that at all, but somehow I just knew it was happening, you know [Laughs]. And there was no books in the beginning, hardly at all. People would carry around the three volumes that Prabhupad originally published in Calcutta, I think. No, Delhi, I guess it was. You know, the three volumes of Canto 1. So that’s, we didn’t even have a real Bhagavatham with them. And then finally, First Canto, Second Canto, and all these cantos began to come out over, I guess, from 1971 onwards to 1977.Continually things like that came on, came out. And then Caitanya-caritāmṛta also came out. So that was quite remarkable that all these things came out so quickly at that time. So that I could understand was something, you know, quite phenomenal [Laughs] that happened. But I wasn’t really witness to all the temples because, you know, we were isolated in India. Then I was in Japan, also isolated. So we didn’t get to, you know, see all these things happening.
Devotee: So, Maharaj, this brings me to a very interesting point that what held together, because constantly Prabhupad’s association was not there. Books, most of them were not around and the communication medium was only through letters. So what was it that was holding devotees together and making them commit and remain committed?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So the main thing that held people together was the presence of Srila Prabhupad, even though he was not personally present [Laughs]. So they were inspired by Srila Prabhupad and his very presence on the planet, even if they only saw him at a distance or whatever, you know, then many devotees and disciples never even got to talk to Prabhupad personally. Like even Mahanidhi Swami, the closest he got to Prabhupad, he came out of the car and went into the temple. And he was 20 feet away. He was offering his respects. That’s his contact with Srila Prabhupad [Laughs] in L.A. (Los Angels)., you know, like that. So many devotees are in that position. But everybody was dedicated to Srila Prabhupad by his mere presence.
Devotee: Maharaj, you have translated so many Acharya’s works, hundreds of them, actually !! And so how did that inspiration came from Srila Prabhupad for the Sanskrit, for the scriptures, for the study? How did it happen? Yes, how that you drew that inspiration from Srila Prabhupad? What made, what inspired you?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, originally when we were in Calcutta, then Achyutananda was there with Jayapataka Maharaj. And Achyutananda was singing some Bengali songs. Quite a lot of them were Bhakti Vinod Thakur’s songs. And he had this book on Bengali. So then he was trying to teach us the, you know, the words of the songs. And then he would write it down. So I got interested at that time to, you know, look at the actual Bengali script and then start copying songs from that. So then I learned the Bengali script and I started copying many of those songs that he sang that way. So that’s how I learned the script. Later on, I learned the grammar, etc. By that time, I learned the script.
And in the beginning, of course, there were even from Prabhupad’s Delhi version of the Bhagavatham, there were, there was a Sanskrit and then the Romani Sanskrit and the word for word and the translation, etc. But nobody really looked at the Sanskrit. But then when we came to Canto 2 and Prabhupad began giving classes, then he would chant the verse and have all the devotees chant the verse in Sanskrit. So then everyone got a little bit more interested in the Sanskrit at that time. So that’s the, you know, the first introduction to Sanskrit I had with Prabhupad would chant and then we would chant the verse, etc. So then I was just curious to see, you know, we’re chanting this, but what does it mean? [Laughs]. So later on in the 1970s, then I got a little grammar book and began studying on my own, just to figure out, you know, the structure of the Sanskrit language, etc.
Later on, then I saw there were many works, which were very interesting, but weren’t translated, but would be useful for devotees. So there was a book called the Navadvipa Dhama Mahatmya, which was, you know, devotees would use if they knew Bengali [Laughs], but when they went on Parikramas around, you know, Gaura Purnima time. So then I thought, well, I should translate the book, you know. So then I started translating that book. So that’s the first Bengali book that I translated.
I never got into Sanskrit until much later. I think 80s or something, 90s or something. Anyway, when Mahanidhi Swami was translating things, and then he came to me because his work on what Champu was it? Kavikarna Pura’s Champu (Ananda Vrindavana Champu) was there, and it was a little slow. So then I began working with him. I didn’t know the Sanskrit at that time really, its much, but there was a Bengali translation with it, which is also quite difficult, Bengali. So anyway, I was able to translate that and I would type it out on the computer, send it to him, and then he would do it. So that’s how I began the Sanskrit stuff [Laughs].
And after a few things like that, then I thought, well, maybe I should look at Vishwanatha Chakravarti’s Bhagavad Gita commentary. And so I looked at it. It wasn’t very difficult, actually. So I began translating. I took about two months to do or something like that. So I was quite surprised it wasn’t so difficult to translate after all. So that’s how I began translating, mainly because devotees have questions and sometimes they can’t find the answer. And the information is there, but it’s not in English language. So if they have those books available, if they have questions, they can look there and get the answer quite easily.
Devotee: So Maharaj, you also spend a lot of time, at least some time, what I heard is in Bangladesh. And so that is part of the larger Gaur Mandal Bhoomi. How was your experience there? I’ve not really heard much about that.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Oh, OK. Well, of course, Bangladesh and Bengal are quite similar. They speak the same language. Of course, the preaching goes on and it’s a little bit, you know, muted because of the government situation. But the devotees, they’re also very enthusiastic in spite of all the political problems and their isolation. So Prabha Vishnu and a group of devotees began preaching there in the.., I guess, 80s they were there. Yeah. So I didn’t go all the time. A few times, maybe three or four times, I went there and helped them with the preaching work there.
One remarkable thing, of course, about that, we had one little temple in Dhaka at that time [Laughs]. Then we got someone donated another temple in Chittagong, Pundarik Vidhyanidhi’s place in Chittagong. So we had a temple there. But since that time, then so many temples have been donated to ISKCON. So many temples and there’s so many devotees there. So since I was there last, it’s grown like anything [Laughs]. I was there when there’s two temples. Now there’s like 60 temples or something, you know, and so many thousands of devotees. So it’s very, very, very quickly, the movement caught on there.
Devotee: Maharaj, can you also give us an insight into those initial days and what kind of services you would do and your experience doing those services? I heard that you would, at times, cook Rajbhog also for the deities.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Oh, well, early days, we did everything. Every devotee did everything, more or less [Laughs]. So I was in Japan, I was the pujari and the cook. And in India, no. But a little bit, pujari work in Calcutta when I was first there. But then in Japan, I was the pujari and the cook, but also I did book distribution there. And that continued for some time. Later on, when I came back to India, then I wasn’t involved so much in that. I began more translating work.
Devotee: Okay, so you knew cooking, I mean.. ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: We experimented [Laughs]. These are early days, we didn’t know anything [Laughs]. So we just experimented [Laughs].
Devotee: Even for deity worship, Maharaj, I heard that initially, even just after first initiation, they would actually worship installed deities, worship of, after second initiation came later.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, well, they tried to encourage second initiation, but I think some were, you know, worshipping at first initiation also. Anyway, the system was quite simple in the very beginning. And it was not so standardized also. Then the Gaudiya Mutt had published a simple Archana book. So one devotee translated that. So that was actually the basis upon which most of the temples in the world began doing their worship, according to that standard, after that point. And of course, similar to that is the Pancharatra Pradeepa that we have now. That’s an expansion, more or less, of those principles also.
Devotee: Maharaj, we also see that Srila Prabhupad, I mean, works like Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam can be very confounding in terms of the various principles that are mentioned there. But we see that Srila Prabhupad’s way, he presented these Vedic truths for the modern audiences to understand.. So, I mean, what is your comment on that? I mean, how Srila Prabhupad took those complex topics and presented them in a way that anybody would read, would actually get the highest truth.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, of course, that is maybe the duty of the Acharya to communicate to the people at that particular time, because he wants to spread Lord Caitanya’s movement. So anyone who wants to preach, they have to speak to the people at that time. And we see that was the case with Bhakti Vinod Thakur also. He was speaking to the people of that time. And therefore, he introduced all sorts of methods of doing that, including writing little novels and things like that.
So Prabhupad also had that mood of adapting to the modern world and speaking in their terms. So we’ll see that he would often address current topics about government and you know democracy and wars and starvation or environment or whatever problems [Laughs] were there in the world. And so he would often comment on that. Very rarely do we see our Acharyas make any reference to their surroundings at that time, because they simply confine themselves to giving a meaning to the words and the context of the verse. Basically, that’s what they do. So Prabhupad, of course, made his translations based on that. But then in his commentaries, he was often relating it to the people in the modern world, so they could grasp it in an easier way.
Devotee: So that relevancy remained. People could easily see the relevance.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah Yeah !!
Devotee: And sometimes even now, Maharaj, we read and then we sometimes wonder that what Prabhupad has written 50 years back is actually so relevant at this point in time.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: [Laughs] Well, I think because it’s Kali Yuga and it’s predictable what’s going to happen [Laughs] in Kali Yuga. So he was predicting what the future would be for us [Laughs].
Devotee: So Maharaj, after so many decades of preaching and your translations and your wonderful scholarship, how do you personally stay connected to Srila Prabhupad’s presence? Prabhupad was there physically present. So how that connection is continuing for you personally?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: I think the main idea of Srila Prabhupad was to keep everything very simple. And therefore, we have some basic things. Kirtan, the study of scripture [Laughs]. These two things [Laughs]. Taking prasadam [Laughs]. So he kept the principles very simple. And even though we can, you know, learn philosophy and have many projects and open more temples and preach in various ways, we must always be firmly fixed on these very basic principles in order to be successful, both ourselves, our own spiritual advancement, and also how we spread the movement in a very concrete way.
Devotee: We see that there is, like we had industrial revolution around the turn of the previous century. And we have another, it’s a huge change that is coming in with social media and how people are just into their mobile phones. I mean, if you just move around, we see everybody stuck with their mobile phones and now AI coming up. And soon we’ll have that artificial general intelligence. So what do you think that how devotees can maintain these core principles, the essence of bhakti when there is so much happening, which probably is unprecedented in the previous times?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, well, the principle remains the same, whether it is 5000 years ago or the present time. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes that we’re in the material world and the danger is our senses are uncontrolled [Laughs], our mind is uncontrolled, and they get caught with material things. So it may be in the modern world, different things, electronic things. This is what our material enjoyment. It’s the same principle, though. So they didn’t have electronics and they had other things that people get distracted by. So it’s the basic, the same thing.
So in the present time, then people have to be aware that even though it looks different, it is still material energy and it’s still distracting for us if we want to practice spiritual life in either case. So we have to make a choice of whether we want to advance in spiritual life or not. And if so, then we cannot be too attached to all these other things.
Devotee: Because Maharaj, these days there’s so much discussion about dopamine addiction. There’s so much of constant engagement, constant stimulus that people are getting really addicted to, which may not be, you know, even some 20-25 years back was not so much. And TV was there, people watching for some few hours in the evening, but that was about it. Now it’s available all around the time.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah. Of course, we don’t really know the effects of all this. Will all of this exposure ultimately change the human being in his evolution and make him into some other creature because we’re getting new chemicals in our brain [Laughs] and everything. So we don’t know what the future is for the human race. We have to be very, very careful [Laughs].
Devotee: So Maharaj, what would be that one message of Srila Prabhupad that you’d like every listener of this first podcast to carry home, carry to their heart?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, of course, Prabhupad said, chant and be happy. So that’s the basic principle. Of course, happiness, we have to define. Ultimately, we mean spiritual happiness is eternal happiness. That’s real happiness. And the process is Nama Sankirtan. So that’s the very basic principle that we base everything on.
Devotee: So thank you very much, Maharaj. We are very, very grateful to you. And I hope all our audiences would be greatly benefited by this conversation and receive your blessings. Thank you very much.
Hare Krsna !