SP story

[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.

> >