Remembering Srila Prabhupada - Personal: His Giving the Morning

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Personal: His Giving the Morning Srimad-Bhagavatam

Class

 

 

No matter what else he was doing, Srila Prabhupada put

it in his schedule, even when he was ill. Wherever he

traveled, he lived with the devotees and joined them

to give the morning class.

 

Here was the opportunity to watch his gestures and

expressions as he spoke, absorbed in

Srimad-Bhagavatam. A dull student might think that

Prabhupada was saying the same things, using the same

repertoire of verses, but Prabhupada was always

quoting the verses to prove different points in

different contexts. He was always discovering new

lights. He also said that repetition was necessary to

learn. For most devotees in the later years, this was

the one sure time to be with him in his personal form,

to sit and hear. It was formal, and one might wish for

other situations in which to ask personal questions

and to have a reply just for oneself, yet the lectures

were great mercy, and to the receptive student they

were very personal. Devotees have testified how in a

large audience, when Prabhupada said, "Distribute

books," they took it to heart and formed their lives

on that order. Many have testified that they found

Prabhupada looked at them and spoke especially to them

in his lecture, even though they knew he was speaking

to everyone else as well.

 

This was the time for all to be with him. Each morning

without fail he would begin, looking at the verse and

speaking As if he was entering a sacred river, he

immersed himself at once in Srimad-Bhagavatam. He

hardly ever chose another literature to speak from in

the morning. What an example, that the

Srimad-Bhagavatam contains all else and is perfect for

all our days!

 

He sat in one place in the traditional posture of the

guru -- legs crossed, sitting on the vyasasana -- with

spectacles, book in hand, microphone, gesturing and

looking up. He was a hundred percent Vyasadeva's

representative, giving us the transcendental wisdom.

Seeing Srila Prabhupada's personal example even today

by means of movies or tape recordings, all the

devotees of the Krsna consciousness movement may adopt

the same procedures and do as he taught. Like him, we

can precede the class by singing "Jaya Radha-Madhava"

with karatalas. Then we can recite om namo bhagavate

vasudevaya, then the Sanskrit, synonyms, translation,

purport. We have no need to invent something new.

After he showed us hundreds and hundreds of times, how

can we fail to grasp the instruction -- that we should

continue the morning tradition of sitting together and

hearing and speaking?

 

A devotee once told Srila Prabhupada that many

disciples slept during classes and Srila Prabhupada

replied that he knew. He said his classes were for

advanced students. Srila Prabhupada gave untiringly as

the loving instructor, but it was up to his disciples

to benefit. I confess that I was one of those who

sometimes slept in Srimad-Bhagavatam class. Once I

even asked Srila Prabhupada what to do about my sad

plight. At first he replied by making a joke. He said

there is an atheistic joke in India,

"Srimad-Bhagavatam is a sure cure for insomnia." When

Srila Prabhupada said this, I laughed, but I didn't

want it to be true of me. Sometimes when Prabhupada

found a devotee sleeping in his class, he would tell

him to stand up and go to the rear. Srimad-Bhagavatam

class was for his advanced students, but he kept

giving us chances to become more advanced.

 

Srila Prabhupada spoke with rhetorical power and

emotion, straight from his deep convictions. He had

great oratorical skill, emphasizing his points with

aesthetic effects, but none of it was done for show or

with lack of realization, not like the rasa dance

talks of bogus Bhagavatam reciters. Srila Prabhupada

wrote Bhagavatam purports and he lived the life of the

Bhagavatam. He was also the Bhagavatam's ideal

preacher; when he spoke, the emotions were always

right.

 

Srila Prabhupada kindly gave all of those classes, and

now, by tape recording, we hear them still, even as we

wake in the morning, while taking prasadam, driving

the car, flying in the plane, in sick bed or death

bed; these matchless gifts continue in our ears, to

cleanse our hearts and remind us that we are his

sisya. We are followers of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

 

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

 

 

- From the Prabhupada Nectar by HH Satsvarupa dasa

Goswami Maharaj

 

 

 

 

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