Remembering Srila Prabhupada - Charity Begins at Home

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Charity Begins at Home

 

 

Whenever Prabhupada visited the New York temple, the

devotees there would perform a play. Once the devotees

performed "The Kidnapping of Rukmini" and Prabhupada

enjoyed the performance. He laughed when an envious

prince, played by Nayanabhirama dasa, saw Rukmini and

said he was going to faint. And when Balarama cut off

Rukmi's beard, Prabhupada said, "Oh, now he is more

than dead." When the play was over, Prabhupada said

that seeing the drama was better than reading the

book.

 

On another occasion Prabhupada asked the New York

devotees to stage a performance of the Ramayana. The

devotees had no time to memorize lines, so they

arranged to have a narrator read the lines from

offstage. The actors stood in a line and performed

mudras while a devotee played a guitar.

 

After the performance, Prabhupada called for

Nayanabhirama dasa and complimented him and the other

actors for their good performance. He then suggested

some ways the play could be improved. He said that in

India, different people read the lines offstage

according to the different roles the actors play.

Prabhupada said he liked that style and he asked the

devotees to practice it more. Nayanabhirama asked if

it was all right to include guitar music rather than

sitar. Prabhupada said a guitar played expertly is

better than a sitar played poorly.

 

 

 

Srila Prabhupada's airport arrivals were always

ecstatic events, with the devotees performing kirtana

and dancing (unless prevented from doing so by the

airport authorities).

 

Whenever Prabhupada arrived in New York, Nayanabhirama

dasa would always be ready at the airport with some

fruit which he would offer to Prabhupada and then

distribute to the devotees. When Prabhupada arrived in

New York in April, 1969, Prabhupada himself danced

along with the devotees, and the ecstatic kirtana

attracted a large crowd of spectators.

 

After his visit to the New York temple, Prabhupada was

to fly to Buffalo. On the day of his departure, the

devotees accompanied Prabhupada to the airport, but

this time the airport authorities stopped their

kirtana. The devotees then began chanting japa on

their beads. Again Nayanabhirama offered Prabhupada

fruit and he began distributing the remnants to the

nondevotees in the airport. Prabhupada then surprised

Nayanabhirama by calling him back. He told his

disciple to distribute his prasadam to the devotees

first. "Charity begins at home," he said.

 

Nayanabhirama dasa, interview.

 

 

- From the Prabhupada Nectar by HH Satsvarupa dasa

Goswami Maharaj

 

 

 

 

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