Question: You went with Srila Prabhupada to Panihati, what was your experience?

Jayapataka Swami: It was a wonderful experience! Next question! Ha! How fast I answer! You said there were lots of questions! We got our first Shaligram shila from Panihati dham! One pujari came out and gave a Shaligram shila to Srila Prabhupada. I was also present when he was showing the head pujari how to draw a face on the Shaligram shila. You know when Srila Prabhupada went anywhere, did anything, it was very memorable, I think at that time the house of Raghava Pandit was very old. Srila Prabhupada said that if they replace this, they should at least have a picture of the previous house, to show people that this is a very ancient place, so people won’t mistake and think it is a new place. It is very old and he went to the tree of Lord Nityananda, and he was very impressed that the tree was still there! And he wanted that we should somehow take a boat from Kolkata to Mayapur, stop in Panihati and give the people a breakfast of cida and dahi, yogurt, flat rice and fruits, and they go to Mayapur. So we have a boat, but unfortunately, it was not designed properly. It takes too long to go, very fancy boat, air conditioned and all that but it doesn’t go that fast as it should! So anyway, we are still trying to work on realizing fully Srila Prabhupada’s dream for Panihati. But His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami has obtained the land just next to that tree! So, we go there every year and distribute the flat rice, yogurt, fruits to about a hundred thousand people! That is a big festival! So, Srila Prabhupada went there and he had a vision, how we could develop the place. Eventually, the government changed from a Congress government to a Communist party, CPM and they could care less about the spiritual heritage of Bengal, unfortunately!
08-JANUARY-2020 NEW PANIHATI DHAM, ATLANTA, USA