On February 2, 1966, before he had made any Western disciples, before he had founded his ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder for $54.02. On February 19 and 20, he recorded his “Introduction to Geetopanisad.” This is the earliest recording in the Bhaktivedanta Archives. When I listen to it, aware of his struggle to endure in a foreign land, I envision a solitary figure facing the microphone, seated in an almost bare office on New York’s West 72nd Street. The reels turn slowly, moving a thin magnetic tape impregnated with the words of the pure devotee, words born from the collective past acaryas, indeed from Krsna Himself. These very words embrace us now and will enfold future generations in the world of Vaisnava history and tradition. Although those words were spoken to the four walls of a cold and sparse room, they have galvanized another solid link in the chain of the parampara, the line of disciplic succession that goes back to Krsna Himself. While Srila Prabhupada spent pennies on his bodily sustenance, he spent dollars on that tape recorder to carry his mission to those he was yet to meet.

Parama-rupa dasa
Director of Preservation
Bhaktivedanta Archives