THE PRABHUPADA CONNECTION
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Holy Pilgrimage to Port Said
(Docks on the Suez Canal, Port Said)
(Compiled by Padmapani dasa, Victoria, B.C. Canada}
Egypt was the first country in which Srila Prabhupada set foot outside of India. He stopped in Port Said on September 2, 1965 and visited the town with the captain of the Jaladuta steamship. Prabhupada said he liked it.
As I was based in Cairo from 1978 to 1983, I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Port Said in 1979 as a pilgrimage to this historic city. Walking around the docks where the big freighters stopped to gather supplies en route to their worldly destinations provided me with a rare chance to solemnly meditate on Srila Prabhupada’s divine mission. Who could imagine the great spiritual significance of such a journey by one lone passenger on an Indian steamship bound for New York? It was the beginning of the worldwide Hare Krishna revolution.
While in Port Said I did some research to find out the exact place where Srila Prabhupada and Captain Pandiya would have disembarked in 1965. I took a photo of that place (see below). I’ve also included some relevant information regarding the spiritual significance of Port Said in Srila Prabhupada’s lila. Needless to say, visiting that important city was a milestone in my life and a trip I’ll never forget.
In the port of Calcutta on August 13, 1965, carrying only a small suitcase, an umbrella, and a bag of dry cereal, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, as he was known at the time, climbed up the steep gangway onto a cargo ship named the Jaladuta. The ensuing journey presented considerable hardship. Srila Prabhupada wrote of some sea-sickness, and on the thirteenth day of the voyage, during the passage through the Arabian Sea, he suffered a massive heart attack. He was concerned that he might pass away, but in his uneasy sleep that night he had a dream, a vision. Lord Krishna appeared. The Lord was in an open boat, along with His other incarnations. Krishna was rowing the boat, and the boat was pulling Srila Prabhupada’s ship with a rope. Krishna was smiling at Srila Prabhupada and was pulling the ship all the way to America! Srila Prabhupada did not write about this occurrence in his diary but simply drew a line through those troubled days, declaring that he had passed over a great crisis in the struggle between life and death. Years later he related these events to his followers.” (The Jaladuta Diary, Introduction)
Srila Prabhupada’s Diary:
23 MONDAY
Today Annada Ekadashi
We started towards Red sea on the western front at about 12/30 noon. The sky was almost clear and there was sunshine since the starting of the trip from Cochin port. We are floating now on the Arabian sea. My sea sickness again began. Headache vomiting tendency no hunger dizziness and no energy to work. It is continuing. There are sometimes showers of rain but for a short time. There was a fellow passenger in my cabin. He is also attacked with sea sickness. The whole night passed
24 TUESDAY
Today at about 1/30 p.m. I enquired from wheel-room that we have come only 400 miles off the Indian coast. My sea-sickness is still continuing. I take my meals once only but today I could not take my full meals also although I was fasting yesterday. I (am) feeling uncomfortable.
25 WEDNESDAY
Beginning from today down
26 THURSDAY
27 FRIDAY
28 SATURDAY
29 SUNDAY
30 MONDAY
31 TUESDAY
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Passed over a great crisis on the struggle for life and death.
A separate statement has to be written on this crisis area.
1 WEDNESDAY
Port Suez
2 THURSDAY
Suez Canal & Port Said
3 FRIDAY
We started from Port Said today at about 1 p.m. The Port Said city is nice. It has long narrow neat and clean roads with lofty buildings. The city is not at all congested. While passing the rear point of Suez towards Mediterranean Sea, the city is clearly seen. But it is a small city with some industrial factories. Although in the desert in the city all varieties of vegetables available. There is also a Marine drive like Bombay Chowpatty beach. I could see a good park in the city.
“To cross the Atlantic Ocean took ten days. This great sea is usually full of storms and fog and is very disturbing. But by the mercy of Krishna, there was no disturbance. The captain of the ship, the main officer, told me, ‘This kind of quiet Atlantic I have never seen in my life.’ I told them that this is only by Krishna’s mercy, nothing else. After the troublesome storm in the Arabian Sea, I knew that if I had had to face a storm like that again, I would die…
“Afterwards, the captain of the ship purchased an electric stove for me in Port Said. I then cooked for myself and took prasada. If they hadn’t managed this stove for me, maybe there would have been no possibility of me reaching America. I could have died on the way, but instead Krishna mercifully brought me here. Why Krishna has brought me here, only He knows.”
(Srila Prabhupada letter, October 4, 1965)
Srila Prabhupada: It was heart attack.
Hari-sauri: Yeah.
Srila Prabhupada: Otherwise I could not understand. So I passed through third heart attacks. One, two, three. They say that anyone who gets heart attack, the third attack, he must expire. Heart attack.
Hari-aauri: You had three attacks on the ship.
Srila Prabhupada: Two.
Hari-sauri: Oh. And then one when you got to…
Srila Prabhupada: New York. Third one — paralyzed.
Hari-sauri: Very bad one.
Srila Prabhupada: Left side paralyzed. I do not know how we were saved.
Hari-sauri: Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada: And one girl, that captain’s wife, she studied astrology. She was… She said, “Swamiji, if you can survive your seventieth year, then you’ll live for one hundred years.” So, somehow or other, I survived my seventieth year. I do not know whether I shall live for hundred years, but seventieth year was severe — three heart attacks and paralysis.
Hari-sauri: All in the same year.
Srila Prabhupada: Then without any family. At that time none of you were with me. I was alone. I was completely dependent on anyone.
Hari-sauri: Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada: But on the ship I saw that “Krishna is with me.” I was going for this reas… (someone enters) Hare Krishna.
(Srila Prabhupada conversation, Puri, India January 25, 1977)
It’s interesting to note that Srila Prabhupada wrote the following in his diary:
“The Port Said city is nice. It has long narrow neat and clean roads with lofty buildings. The city is not at all congested. While passing the rear point of Suez towards Mediterranean sea, the city is clearly seen. But it is a small city with some industrial factories. Although in the desert in the city all varieties of vegetables available. There is also a Marine drive like Bombay Chowpatty beach. I could see a good park in the city.”
Here is some historical information to confirm the words of Krishna’s pure devotee:
“Port Said was where Western ideas of urban space met the East. Port Said was planned to become a city, laid out on a checkerboard pattern with wide, straight streets intersecting at right angles. Port Said’s streets were lit by gaslight in 1876, and by 1891, only nine years after New York, Port Said had electricity. Its rigid geometry was in marked contrast to traditional Middle Eastern cities, with narrow and winding medieval alleys. Egypt’s Viceroy Ismail was impressed, and sought to emulate the European model by reconstructing parts of Cairo in belle époque style.”
Port Said’s private buildings were a hybrid style, combining the inclined roof of Europe, to ward off winter rains, with the veranda of Asia, to moderate the heat of summer. Height restrictions emulating Paris limited building height to five stories. Colonnaded ground floors provided shaded walkways for pedestrians and shoppers. Above ground level ornate wood balustrades became typical of Port Said, as did louvered shutters that could be adjusted to block the sun while manipulating air currents to ventilate the rooms. Later complicated ironwork decorations and elegant moldings were added to facades as the Beaux-Arts style, popular across the European colonial world, and Moorish revival designs embellished the city. Today, Port Said is still characterized by intricate wooden balconies and high verandas that overhang old wooden doors and faded pastel facades. Though many have been torn down and replaced with standard modern concrete and glass, those that remain leave Port Said with an appealing, albeit fading, colonial ambience.”
I can honestly say from my own personal experience of having lived and traveled extensively in nine Middle Eastern countries that Port Said is the most remarkable city of all. It’s no surprise to me that Srila Prabhupada liked it. Walking along the beach there is certainly reminiscent of “Marine drive like Bombay Chowpatty beach,” as Prabhupada remarked.
“Port Said acted as a global city since its establishment and flourished particularly during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century when it was inhabited by various nationalities and religions. Most of them were from Mediterranean countries, and they coexisted in tolerance, forming a cosmopolitan community. Referring to this fact Rudyard Kipling once said ‘If you truly wish to find someone you have known and who travels, there are two points on the globe you have but to sit and wait, sooner or later your man will come there: the docks of London and Port Said.'”
(Wikipedia)
Despite the once grandiose Egyptian culture and society, Srila Prabhupada put everything in perspective when he preached the philosophy of Krishna consciousness:
“And whatever plan he’s making, it will be all frustrated. That is the whole history. Big, big emperor, big, big politicians, they have tried. Roman Empire, the Carthagian Empire, Greece Empire, Egyptian Empire, and Mogul Empire, British Empire — all frustrated. It will never be successful. For a few days, hundred, two hundred years or five hundred years, it may go on. So real plan is how to become Krishna conscious. Then everything is successful. Ahankara-vimudhatma kartaham iti manyate (BG 3.27). These rascals, on account of false prestigious position, trying to be happy without God… That is not possible. Throughout the history you study. So many rascals have tried. The Napoleon, the Hitler, the Gandhi, this, that. What they have achieved? Nothing. If we honestly study their lives and activities, what they have achieved? Hm? Do you think they have achieved anything?”
(Srila Prabhupada room conversation, Bhuvanesvara, January 28, 1977)
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.