Remembering Srila Prabhupada - This is the Vedic Custom

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This is the Vedic Custom.

 

 

While visiting Vrndavana before the Krishna-Balaram

Mandir was built, Srila Prabhupada used to sometimes

stay in his original rooms at the Radha-Damodara

temple. On one visit, Yamuna-devi dasi asked if she

could cook for him and Srila Prabhupada agreed. While

Yamuna was cooking capatis in one half of the kitchen

and Srila Prabhupada was eating prasadam at the far

end of the same room, Prabhupada's servant,

Srutakirti, entered the room to watch.

 

"So, you have taken prasadam?" Srila Prabhupada asked.

 

"No," Srutakirti replied. "I just bathed."

 

"Yamuna, fix him a plate of prasadam," said Srila

Prabhupada.

 

"No," Srutakirti protested, "that's all right. I'll

wait until you're finished, Srila Prabhupada."

 

"No," said Prabhupada. "Sit down and take prasadam."

So Srutakirti sat down and received a plate from

Yamuna. Under Prabhupada's direction, she continued

making capatis and serving both Prabhupada and his

servant.

 

"So today she has fixed your lunch," said Prabhupada.

"Now tomorrow you cook for her. This is the Vedic

custom. Today she has done some service for you; now

tomorrow you must serve her."

 

"Yes, Prabhupada," said Srutakirti.

 

Looking through the latticework into the courtyard of

Rupa Gosvami's samadhi, Prabhupada began to reminisce.

He said that often he would sit here and take prasadam

and look at the samadhi and bhajana kutir of Rupa

Gosvami. He said he was hoping Rupa Gosvami would give

him facility to spread the Krsna consciousness

movement.

 

During the same period, a startling incident took

place with a monkey. Srila Prabhupada was lecturing to

a group of people in his small room. One man had

brought a bunch of bananas and placed them at

Prabhupada's feet. All of a sudden, a monkey ran into

the room and grabbed for the bananas. Prabhupada also

grabbed for the bananas and got most of them, while

the monkey got one or two and ran out the other door.

 

The whole thing had happened very quickly, and

Prabhupada was also quick to use the incident for

teaching Krsna consciousness. "Just see how expert the

monkey is," Prabhupada explained. He said that every

species of life has their expertise to get some food.

 

Srutakirti dasa, interview. Despite Prabhupada's

request that Srutakirti cook for Yamuna, he never did.

The spirit of Prabhupada's request was one he repeated

in different ways: devotees should render service to

other devotees. Prabhupada used to explain this while

defining the word prabhu. He said that prabhu means

"master." If we call a devotee prabhu but always try

to accept service from him, then we are accepting

service from your "master." If we call a devotee

prabhu, that means we must also render service to him.

 

When compiling several versions of the same Prabhupada

incident, I usually try to blend them into one

rendition. However, I would like to quote Pancadravida

Swami's version of the thieving monkey, because he

tells it with his own flavor:

 

"The room was very crowded. One guest had come in and

offered Prabhupada a big bunch of bananas. What we

could not see was that behind the swinging doors near

the entrance to the temple a monkey was watching. He

was watching everything, and all of a sudden he

entered the room and ran. The room was narrow. He ran

the entire length of it, grabbed the bananas, and was

running out with the whole bunch when someone yelled,

'Stop him!' The monkey was exhibiting nice

broken-field running, dodging people, but Prabhupada

managed to grab most of the bananas. Prabhupada was

laughing, saying, 'See how they are so intelligent in

eating and defending.'"

 

 

- From the Prabhupada Nectar by HH Satsvarupa dasa

Goswami Maharaj

 

 

 

 

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