Srila Bhaktisidhanta told SP - "If you ever get money print books."
This order did not include that SP should go to do that in the west.
We are most fortunate, of course, that he did so, but what was
the crucial point for SP to decide to come to the west?
Devotees speak of this in sense that he tried to preach in India,
he printed Back to Godhead, and he founded the League of Devotees
in Jhansi in 1953, etc, but was dissapointed with the response of
Indians to their own heritage.
Is there some particular event that turned his mind to definitely
decide to, in the age of 70, embark Jaladuta and come to the west?
Srila Bhaktisidhanta told SP - "If you ever get money print books."
This order did not include that SP should go to do that in the west.
BSST's desire for preaching in the west was evident by his sending BH Bon Maharaj west in the 1930's. I can't remember exactly why, but Prabhupada understood the superiority of the U.S. in the years that followed that first west-ward GV preaching as bringing greater possibilities; the U.S. was the most influential western country in the world. BSST also asked Prabhupada to preach specifically in English. .
Srila Prabhupada often referred to Srila Sarasvati Thakura's suggestion that he preach to English-speaking people, which he took as an order. There is a particular incident, described by Prabhupada's godbrother Nayanananda das babaji that seems to indicate BSST's strong desire for preaching in the West, and his expectation that our Prabhupada would effect this. At one gathering, I believe after the return of the devotees from England, BSST told the devotees that preaching in the West and worldwide was the order given him by his spiritual master, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and that his mother's deathbed order to him was to make it happen. (So you can imagine how seriously a Bengali man takes such a request from his mother.) He acknowledged that the attempt made so far hadn't gone very well, but he said that the next devotee to go to the West would bring the whole world back. Babaji Maharaja said that, as BSST said those words he was looking directly at our Prabhupada.
Also, as we've heard from GM, Srila Sridhara Maharaja told us that BSST sometimes said that if he had another ten years, he would like to have gone to New York. SSM opined that our Prabhupada gave him those ten years, and more.
Here's how Babaji Maharaja told the pastime, as found in Mulaprkriti's book, Our Srila Prabhupada, a Friend to All:
The last year that our gurudeva organized and performed Gauda Mandala Parikrama, thousands and thousands of pilgrims assembled at our Campahati mandira. There was a whole village of tents in all directions. On the afternoon of the last day, one of our godbrothers had just arrived in Navadvipa, having returned from London by boat. He had gone to preach, but had returned without meeting with full success. In the evening, while Guru Maharaja was giving pravacana, he explained that it was his earnest desire that the teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu should be spread in the Western countries. He told how it was the vision of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura that this would happen, and it was also the last request of his mother, Srimati Bhagavati devi, to him before she left this world. Consequently, he had been willing to take the lifeblood of the Gaudiya Matha in funds to send devotees there to preach, but so far these attempts had been largely unsuccessful.
At this moment in his talk, I noticed that something very mysterious was happening. Guru Maharaja was looking out at the large crowd of devotees, especially in the front where all the sannyasis and brahmacaris in red cloth were. Then he turned his head and looked over to his left side, where I was standing. He was looking intently at someone and became silent for a long moment. I happened to look behind me and I clearly saw that the person with whom he was making eye contact was Abhaya Caranaravinda Prabhu. I thought that they were looking at each other in a special way. Then Guru Maharaja again addressed the audience in front of him and said, ‘But I have a prediction. However long in the future it may be, I predict that one of my disciples will cross the ocean, and that devotee will bring back the whole world.’ I remembered this incident, and Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja truly made it come to pass exactly in this way.