Here some interesting entries into Srila Prabhupada’s passport. It was issued in 1971 and expired in 1974.

Srila Prabhupada's 1971-1974 passport

Note that on the page on the right Srila Prabhupada lists his father as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

Prabhupada's first visit to Australia is stamped May 9 1971

As a new immigrant to Australia I arrived in Sydney on May 16, the week after Srila Prabhupada’s first visit there. I just missed him by a couple of days. I met the devotees standing on a street corner, chanting and dancing, the first day we got off the boat. I bought my first BTG from Vaibhavi dasi, the wife of Charu dasa who for the last couple of decades have been staying at Spanish Fork in Utah.

It was volume 37 and it had a picture of the Rasa dance on the front cover:

I remember paying 20 cents for it and receiving an invitation to attend the ‘Sunday Love Feast’. I had no idea what a love feast was, and come Sunday it was raining so I didn’t go.

When I bought it we had just moved into an immigrants hostel provided by the Australian govt. for one week free. When we got back from our city excursion I pulled out the BTG and we all stared in complete uncomprehension at the multi-colored picture. Noone had a clue what it was. The nearest we came to understanding it was when one of our party, a tall thin fellow from Scotland called Bill whom we had met on the boat coming over, exclaimed, “I think those blue fellas are spirits!”

When I checked out the contents I couldn’t understand a word. The Sanskrit names and the topics were all completely foreign to me and I couldn’t make head nor tail of it. Yet instead of throwing it away, I kept it very carefully in my suitcase, thinking that at some point in the future I would have another read. I knew it was important and it felt like the magazine was somehow vibrant and alive.  I knew I had to keep it with me and that it would help me in my search for some meaning to my directionless life.

I did read it over the next few months and its contents were revealed to me more and more, till eventually, nine months later, I joined the Sydney temple–but that’s another story.

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