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Srila Prabhupada entered Australia for his third visit on February 8, 1973.
- 1973 Australian visa and entry stamp
This time he made his entry intoMelbourne first and then went up to Sydney. He travelled out from India with a special entourage:
Wednesday, 7 February 1973
Prabhupada departed out of Calcutta for his flight to Melbourne via Bangkok. Two devotees accompanied him. Srutakirti, a bright young brahmacari, acted as his servant. Bali-mardana, now returning to Australia as a sannyasi, was his secretary.
Prabhupada had planned to install 60cm marble Radha-Krsna Deities in Melbourne. The Deities had been acquired in India and now Bali-mardana and Srutakirti carried one Deity each on the flight out to Australia. It was certainly a difficult task to carry the heavy marble Deities on and off planes, while simultaneously looking after Srila Prabhupada’s luggage and seeing to his comfort on the journey. Prabhupada was encouraging. He stressed to Srutakirti that this difficult austerity was very pleasing to Krsna. “To make spiritual advancement,” he assured, “one has to simply satisfy Krsna. There are so many ways of satisfying Krsna and this is one of them. Krsna is very pleased with your endeavours.”
Wednesday, 7 February 1973
Prabhupada departed out of Calcutta for his flight to Melbourne via Bangkok. Two devotees accompanied him. Srutakirti, a bright young brahmacari, acted as his servant. Bali-mardana, now returning to Australia as a sannyasi, was his secretary.
Prabhupada had planned to install 60cm marble Radha-Krsna Deities in Melbourne. The Deities had been acquired in India and now Bali-mardana and Srutakirti carried one Deity each on the flight out to Australia. It was certainly a difficult task to carry the heavy marble Deities on and off planes, while simultaneously looking after Srila Prabhupada’s luggage and seeing to his comfort on the journey. Prabhupada was encouraging. He stressed to Srutakirti that this difficult austerity was very pleasing to Krsna. “To make spiritual advancement,” he assured, “one has to simply satisfy Krsna. There are so many ways of satisfying Krsna and this is one of them. Krsna is very pleased with your endeavours.” — [The Great Transcendental Adventure by Kurma dasa]
Madhudvisa Swami had requested Srila Prabhupada to install the new marble Radha Krsna Deities and the devotees had worked hard for at least a month to build a new altar similar to the one at Bury Place in London where Radha and Krsna were on ground level and Lord Jagannatha was on a floor above Them. But when Bali Mardan saw the kitchen he complained to Prabhupada that it wasn’t upto the proper standard and he opposed the installation. Consequently the devotees spent all night cleaning and scrubbing and painting, and then Srila Prabhupada agreed to go ahead:
Sruta Kirti dasa, Srila Prabhupada, Smt. Radharani, Madhudvisa Swami
Srila Prabhupada gave the Deities the name Sri Sri Radha Vallabha. On a later visit in 1976 he praised the worship in Melbourne temple as being on par with Los Angeles and New York.
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