a memory from Madhudvisa Prabhu

[Guest guest]

MADHUDVISA: Another incident that comes to mind was in 1968 or 69. We

had a very well attended temple on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The devotees went to Griffith Park in Los Angeles and chanted and

distributed prasadam. Visnujan had little puppets and we would have

puppet shows there and bring people from Griffith Park to the temple. We

also went to the meditation room in "The Mystic Arts Book Store" in

Laguna Beach. They let us have kirtan there and we would bring van loads

of people from Laguna Beach to Los Angeles for the feast. In this way

the feast was very well attended. On this particular day Srila

Prabhupada was going preside over an initiation and a fire yajna

ceremony. The temple was very full with people. At that time an Italian

film making crew was filming at the temple. If somebody could get that

film, it would be a historical piece of footage.

A lady named Syama Devi, who was the guru of many Hindus, came into the

temple and sat in the back. (Syama Devi now has an ashram right next to

the Krishna Balaram temple in Vrindavan.) Her disciples, older Hindu

ladies and gentlemen, rolled out a carpet, she sat down on it, and they

sat around her while Srila Prabhupada performed the yajna. After Srila

Prabhupada finished he sat on the stage. Prabhupada’s Vyasasana was on

the stage at the same level as the altar. Srila Prabhupada was playing

his kartals and leading a kirtan. Then he told someone else to lead. In

those days the kirtans were ecstatic but they weren’t uproarious because

we did the swami step. The swami step was a choreographed step in which

everybody would dance by putting one foot in front of the other while

their arms were upraised. The devotees were in two long aisles facing

one another as we all chanted and danced. During the course of this

kirtan Srila Prabhupada got off his Vyasasana and did the swami step

with us. We were all doing the swami step. Then Srila Prabhupada did

something that he had never done before. Nobody had ever experienced

this before. Srila Prabhupada stopped doing the swami step and started

to jump up and down. We had never done this jumping up and down. We just

knew the swami step and we were all happy doing the swami step. But now

Srila Prabhupada was jumping up and down. It was the most amazing thing

because it seemed like the whole universe was rocking when Srila

Prabhupada started jumping up and down. We looked at each other and

said, “Wow! Prabhupada is jumping up and down. I guess we can jump up

and down too.” Kirtan has never been the same since then. The swami step

is still there but it’s only done by very conservative devotees.

Everybody likes to jump up and down and get into the uproarious kirtan.

So Srila Prabhupada was jumping up and down and all the devotees were

jumping up and down, bouncing off the walls. It was fantastic. Meanwhile

one of Syama Devi's disciples opens a bag and gives her a little

mridanga. In those days it was usually one mridanga per temple and only

devotees who were good mridanga players and who wouldn’t drop it or put

their hand through the end of it could play that mridanga. They had to

be very concerned that the mridanga didn’t get damaged because in those

days we didn’t have our American made plastic mridangas. If the mridanga

got broken, we would have to send it off to India for repair, which took

a long time. But they pulled out a small clay mridanga and gave it to

her and she started playing the mridanga. We stepped aside and she moved

up to the front. Srila Prabhupada was jumping up and down dancing. All

the devotees were dancing and Syama Devi was playing this mridanga and

also started to dance, taking little steps and floating around like a

butterfly. She was a very conservative elderly lady--about 50 or 60--but

she danced around like a little butterfly, with her sari over her head,

while she played the mridanga like a gopi. All the female devotees

thought, “All right, Prabhupada obviously approves of this Vaisnavi who

could play the mridanga and who was dancing." Then Prabhupada jumped off

the stage and joins the devotees jumping up and down chanting Hare

Krishna. Syama Devi is still playing the mridanga and dancing. Then the

kirtan ended and Srila Prabhupada said to her, “Now you lead.” So she

started to lead the kirtan. Now the women were really ecstatic. This is

another precedent: “We can jump, we can dance, we can play the mridanga,

and now we can also lead kirtan because here, this old lady is doing it

and Prabhupada allowed her to do it.” Everybody was in total euphoria.

Syama Devi led the most melodious kirtan. It went on and on. Srila

Prabhupada was dancing and she was dancing and it built up and it was

the most fantastic experience that all the devotees could have had.

Before the dust even settled from the kirtan, a devotee was on a phone

saying, “Prabhupada is jumping!” “What do you mean he is jumping?” “You

don’t have to do the swami step anymore. Prabhupada is jumping up and

down. Kirtan was going on. Prabhupada was jumping up and down.” And

Brahmananda said, “Well, how do you it? How do you jump?” “You just jump

up and down. Just be ecstatic. Put your hands up in the air and just

jump as high as you can.” Brahmananda told Boston. Boston called

Montreal and in a matter of hours the whole country was jumping. Kirtan

has never been the same since.