Acceptance of Sannyas By Srila A.C Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada

Radhanath Swami

So, during the ceremony, Srila Keshav Maharaj gave his sanyas initiation talk and then he does something that was very unprecedented. He asked one of the people who is going to be initiated, Bhaktivedanta Prabhu, He said “now you give a lecture.” There was no invitations sent out because it was very certainly decision when the sanyas initiation would be, they wanted to have on this auspicious day of Visvaroop Mahotsav. So, the only people at the matha were just the regular brahmcharis and devotees and except for Keshav Maharaj, Nararayan Maharaj and a few others Krishna das Babaji, none of them spoke English. They were all either Hindi speaking or mostly Bengali speaking. Srila Prabhupada knew all these languages fluently. Though he was asked to speak, he understood what his Guru Maharaj desired and he gave his lecture in English. Because He was taking sanyasi for the purpose of spreading Krishna Consciousness all over the world in the English language because that is the world’s language. And then he accepted the order and he was given the name “A.C. Bhaktivedanda Swami Maharaj.”