Srila Prabhupada and his god brothers

[Guest guest]

(Narrated by HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaja)

 

I remember we went with Srila Prabhupada to see one of his god brothers. And

Srila Prabhupada, he was very conscious about relationships between the

different devotees. He would never allow us to criticize his god brothers.

"They are my god brothers. I can criticize them. I can, you can’t. We have a

different relationship."

If one of his disciples started to become.. like Srila Prabhupada sometimes

to warn off , he would say that "this godbrother has this problem and that

one has that problem and you be careful. Because they may criticize like

this, but don’t listen.", and then maybe one of his secretaries would start

to repeat that, "your godbrother has this problem, your godbrother has that

problem."

 

Srila Prabhupada would get upset and impatient: "You cannot criticize my

godbrothers.." Which seemed like a contradiction superficially, because

"Srila Prabhupada was just criticizing, why can’t I?" But then Prabhupada

explained that "I can, because he is my godbrother. I am telling you to

protect you; you may go and listen to him and he may say so many things. So

just to warn you I am telling you these problems. But not that you have the

right then to take it up and then you can criticize. That wasn’t the

purpose. The purpose is simply to caution you to not be affected in case

they criticize."

 

Similarly, I remember one day in Prabhupada’s god brother’s Ashram.

Prabhupada was taking shower there. He was going to take prasadam with his

god brother. We were also invited to take prasadam with Srila Prabhupada. At

that time this devotee. there was a young brahmachari in the Ashram. He came

and said, "time to come and have prasadam." Prabhupada was about to go. The

brahmachari had a certain attitude about him like he really knew it all. He

just said, "No! you don’t have Tilak!". He said to Prabhupada with a little

bit ordering tone. It wasn’t humble or something. He didn’t say," did you

know that you don’ t have your Tilak on?" It was like the way you talk to

the people in the Ashram, your fellow Bhakta or something. "Hey, you forgot

your Tilak." Almost to that degree.

 

So then Prabhupada looked at him and said, "Paramahamsas don’t have to

follow these rules and regulations!" He was put back in place. Prabhupada

put on his Tilak.

 

It is very interesting to see how Srila Prabhupada was dealing with

different people. In the west there was just disciples, Prabhupada and

material people, but in India in Mayapur, he would deal with god brothers

and other vaishnavas, other disciples of god brothers. He definitely his

relationships very clear.

This is the important part.