Remembering Srila Prabhupada - Realizations of Srila

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Srila Prabhupada NectarRealizations of Srila

Prabhupada's disciples

 

One morning we were walking with Srila Prabhupada in

Battery Park in New York City. On this particular

morning Srila Prabhupada wasn't talking, and he just

told us, "Chant Hare Krsna." He wanted us to chant

japa, and he was also chanting japa. By a stroke of

good fortune my japa was coming out nicely that day.

So I was chanting my japa very enthusiastically, and

Prabhupada appreciated it. He was encouraging me by

his glances. It was an intimate, confidential thing.

I was feeling ecstatic, and Prabhupada was glancing at

me, acknowledging my ecstasy. As my spiritual master

he was encouraging me, and I was also looking to him

with great gratitude and reverence in understanding

that all of my ecstasy was actually coming from his

lotus feet.

Then as we were walking in the park, I suddenly

realised that we were in Vrndavana. By Prabhupada's

mercy, the whole park had been transformed into the

spiritual world. I felt I was in Vrndavana, and as I

was walking and chanting more enthusiastically, I

realised that Prabhupada by his causeless mercy upon

me had manifested the spiritual world within that park

in Brooklyn. I became more in ecstasy realising that

somehow or other Radha and Krsna and Lord Balarama and

the cowherd boys and everyone was somehow in that

park. As I was realising this, Prabhupada glanced at

me, and I realised that he was giving me his special

mercy. I was somehow getting this wonderful insight,

looking at him with gratitude as he glanced his

approval because I was chanting enthusiastically. Of

course, my realisation was completely insignificant

compared to Prabhupada's understanding, but still I

was like his child, and he was encouraging me in my

ecstasy."

-Hridayananda dasa Gosvami

 

"Prabhupada is here! Prabhupada is here! Everyone

was running outside the temple, so I joined. The car

had just pulled up and the door opened and out came

Prabhupada. As soon as I saw him for the first time,

then and there I said, 'I want to surrender.' I saw

the person who was everything that I had been looking

for. He had perfect taste, perfect bearing -

everything about him was perfect. I'd always been

seeking that perfection. I thought I would find it in

the Duke of Windsor. When I met him, he didn't have

it. I thought I would find it in John Kennedy. He

was killed . And then it turned out that he was not

so perfect. I thought I would find it in Martin

Luther King. I was getting involved in that movement,

and then he was killed. I thought I would find it in

Bobby Kennedy. He was killed. All these people I

though had the answer kept getting killed. It was

very discouraging. I always thought either this movie

star or actor or writer or social leader, one of these

heroes, would measure up. But none of them did. Yet

as soon as I saw Prabhupada, as he came out of that

car, the way he was dressed, the way he walked on down

the sidewalk and into the temple holding his hand out

in a special way, it was completely aristocratic. And

I knew that he was the person I could surrender to."

-Bhavananda dasa Gosvami

 

"I was talking with Srila Prabhupada when another

devotee brought in a tall glass of tea. I accepted

it, but Prabhupada said, "Why are you drinking this

tea?" He used a semi reprimanding tone. I replied

that I was taking it because a devotee had offered it

to me. Prabhupada said that tea is for taking if you

have a cold; it is not to be taken otherwise. I was

holding the glass of tea in my hand and instead of

just putting it down I looked at Prabhupada and said,

'Then I shouldn't take it?' I was thinking it wasn't

so serious, and that unless Prabhupada really insisted

I could go ahead and take it anyway. When Prabhupada

understood my mood, that I wasn't really taking the

whole thing very seriously, he chose to be lenient and

said that I could take it this time but not again. I

didn't want to sit there and drink it slowly in front

of Prabhupada, so I drank the whole glass down very

quickly. But then I began to feel guilty.

"Then after drinking the tea, while I was talking to

Prabhupada, I began to perspire on my face profusely,

and I felt embarrassed for that also. But Prabhupada

appeared to flow along with everything, and I had a

strong sense that he was just tolerating me. I knew

that he was never compromising in his principles, and

yet I feel that it was very wonderful that he was

willing to experience new, different things in

different people and that he was a very lenient and

flexible person. I considered this part of his

greatness, and I think it's mainly because I knew that

he actually, inwardly, was not making any compromises

at all. But we all felt very grateful and enlivened

with the way Prabhupada was interacting with us and

relating with us."

-Mukunda dasa Gosvami

 

"My strongest observation was that Prabhupada's whole

life was preaching. Every inch of his body and every

bit of his thought was dedicated to preaching Krsna

consciousness. Before going to bed he would be

preaching, and then would rest thinking about

preaching. As soon as he woke in the early morning,

he would have some transcendental idea about

preaching. His whole life was preaching. And by his

burning desire for spreading Krsna consciousness,

Prabhupada had manifested a perfect personality,

because a preacher has to be very careful."

-Yasomatinandana dasa

 

I don't know how I ever cooked under such austere

conditions for Prabhupada. In Bhubanesvar and

different places I would cook in a little shack in the

fields. I was covered with black, from the wood smoke

, and I was full of smoke, and my eyes would be

bloodshot red, constantly tearing, and I couldn't open

the door because all sorts of Indians were coming

constantly. If I opened the door, they would just

stand there and watch me cook, and I couldn't do that.

It was Prabhupada's offering. So every once in a

while, all of a sudden I'd get up, I wouldn't be able

to breathe hardly, and all of a sudden you'd hear me

because I just crash out of the door. The door would

fly open, and I'd just stand out there and pant, pant.

I would try to get air, just enough to go back in and

cook. Krsna empowered me to do that at that time

because I could never do such a thing again and I

don't know how I ever did it.

"I would just go to any place where Prabhupada was,

even if there were no facilities, and I would set up

and cook for him. It is Prabhupada's association. It

does something that is completely beyond this material

world. And I didn't mind it, I loved it the whole

time. I would go on like this cooking for him all

morning long. When it came time for me to serve him,

my white sari would be black. My face would have soot

over it, my eyes bloodshot, puffy and swollen from

crying. But when I went into Prabhupada's room with

his plate, he wouldn't even blink an eyelash. It

didn't phase him. It was just as though I was there

in the best of silk saris or something. It didn't

matter what things would go on, Prabhupada would be in

his transcendental position, equipoised.

-Palika devi dasi

- From the Nectar by HH Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami

 

Please Chant: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna

Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare

Hare And Be Happy

 

 

 

 

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