Srila Prabhupada lectures at the City Hall, Oct 12 1975.

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Srila Prabhupada),  lectured at the grand City Hall (above), a national heritage site, on Sunday October 12 1975. Below is an extract from the book- Destination South Africa, by Riddha dasa that describes his visit to Pietermaritzburg.

“At 2.30 p.m. Srila Prabhupada was due to lecture at Pietermaritzburg City Hall. During an hour-long journey by road to Pietermaritzburg, Prabhupada passed a number of large white buildings several hundred yards from the roadside. They were being used by a farmer to raise chickens for slaughter.

Srila Prabhupada said, surprisingly, “Why do they bother? Why don’t they just take some liquid and cover it with some kind of shell and make a chicken?  But,” he continued, “they cannot do that.” He spoke about this for perhaps fifteen minutes, relishing the concept that life comes from the soul. Life cannot be fabricated by mixing chemicals. He was making statements about the necessity of the presence of the soul in the existence of even a chicken embryo. He repeated his challenge, saying, “What is the difficulty? You take some liquid and then cover it with some firm shell-like thing, and then make a chicken. But these fools and rascals cannot do this.”

In this way, even in the course of an uneventful drive, Pusta Krsna Swami could see how Srila  Prabhupada was critically studying his surroundings and finding preaching opportunities.
Srila Prabhupada’s South African tour had been publicised in the Natal Witness newspaper on Saturday, October 11th 1975. It carried a notification of the city hall programme in Pietermaritzburg with the heading “Swami to Give Lecture in City.”

Word soon got around, and the deputy principal and staff of a local high school were encouraged to attend by the principal. At the programme, the film The World of Hare Krishna and Prabhupada’s lecture had a lasting effect on many of the several hundred Hindus who attended. For them this was the opportunity of a lifetime and the seeds of devotion were planted. Many people obtained books, such as Bhagavad-gita As It Is, which would nurture their spiritual being. This was no ordinary meeting.

As a result of this interaction, years later the deputy principal became a full-time devotee, now known as Lokabandhu dasa. Srila Prabhupada enjoyed his tour in South Africa so much he told Pusta kKsna Swami that if the programmes were to continue in this way he was prepared to stay on, indefinitely.”

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