Brahmananda das: Prabhupada was invited to this convention of sadhus, so we all went. Of course, the whole thing was in Hindi. The first order of business, out of respect for Prabhupada they voted Prabhupada to be the president of the convention. Of course, everyone had a chance to speak, but that also meant that the president would speak last. So Prabhupada had to sit…there were the Mauna people who don’t speak, they use chalkboards to write, and the Jains with their mouths covered, and then all the Mayavadis and the yogis and paramahamsas and everyone, they were talking, and then Prabhupada, I don’t know how he sat through all of this stuff. Then finally at the endContenu they asked Prabhupada to speak.
And Prabhupada, he spoke in Hindi but, oh, he was so animated and he was quoting slokas and you could tell he was giving them the sauce. From the slokas we could understand, “Bhagavatam kicks out cheating religion.” They were all quiet, they couldn’t say anything. Of course, in the end then Prabhupada said, “What is the use of these conventions? They talk about unity and peace, but they’ll never achieve it. They all have their own idea. Unless they surrender to Krishna, how can there be any unity?”
Srutakirti das: After he spoke, Prabhupada said, “Let’s go.” Right away he sat down and he said, “So, did you understand what I was saying?” We said, “A little bit, Prabhupada.” He said, “Yes. I told them everyone is speaking so many things but not once did anyone mention Krishna, Who is the speaker of Bhagavad-gita, as being the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” He said, “So all of your activities here will be useless. You won’t accomplish anything.” So he was still going on in the car.
Prabhupada was a defender of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So he just told them all off, and then he got in the car and he left. I remember on the way back, we headed back to Delhi, and there was a big typhoon and it was pouring rain and trees were blowing down in front of us and behind us. It was like all hell broke loose after Prabhupada left this assembly.