Nectar from Praghosa Prabhu (ACBSP)

[Guest guest]

I'm remembering a wonderful pastime that I of all people ( A father

with six beautiful children) was so fortunate to witness in Vrndavana in

1975. It was early in the morning and Srila Prabhupada was going for his

morning walk . As was the case in those days, devotees were told that only

GBC's and sannyasis could go with His Divine Grace, in order to keep things

from overcrowding, and as was the case, some of the most hardheaded book

distributors would assume that did not apply to them and just go anyway! I

was of course a true hard head and usually found a way to go every day.

Fortunately this day was no exception and His Divine Grace was magical. He

baited the managers of the temple into revealing all sorts of deficiences in

their management and then proceeded to growl his disatisfaction to everyone

of them. "The fans weren't running in the temple- the grounds were

littered - beggars were sleeping in front of the temple on the grounds of

Krsna Balarama - there was running water in all the managers quarters but

not in Srila Prabhupada's quarters etc etc etc" It was absolute nectar

watching Srila Prabhupada just "light them up" and I could tell that HH

Tamal Krsna Goswami and others like Dhananjaya prabhu were a little

uncomfortable with the grilling but were getting a lot of mercy and were

actually feeling quite ecstatic! Suddenly His Divine Grace - in the midst of

a serious criticism - looked up the road - instantly changed his mood - and

began laughing very heartily! "Just see - just like our grhastras!" We all

looked forward upon Srila Prabhupada's direction and - Lo and Behold - the

Second Canto was coming to life before our very eyes! Two camels stood large

and lazy about 50 metres ahead of us and their necks were stretched upwards

to the extreme as as they pursued with great enthusiam the thorny branches

of a tree!! Instantly one grhasta devotee said, " You mean the grhamedis

don't you Srila Prabhupada? Srila Prabhupada looked up at him - smiled - and

said "You are talking grhamedi but I am talking grhasta. Just see these

camels. They are chewing the thorns and cutting their mouths and and tasting

their own blood - thinking, "Oh this is very nice". But it is their own

blood they are tasting. So in family life so much trouble is there - first

the pregnancy is so difficult and unpleasant for the woman - then the

delivery of the child - again so much pain and then the man, he has to take

responsibility and work so hard to provid all the necessities for his

dependent wife and child and still only one year later the wife she is

requesting "My dear husband, I want another - and then another - and then

another! In this way he is forced to drink his own blood and he is thinking

"Oh this is very nice"! Now at thispoint the grhasta devotee appeared a

little confused and he said, "Well Srila Prabhupada, I thought you said

every woman should be married and the purpose of marriage was children and

protection of women and men who would otherwise be prone to unrestricted

sex? Srila Prabhupada said, Oh yes they must be married! They must!" bu then

he stopped and looked lovingly into the eyes of his quizzical disciple and

said, "But always remember that you are marrying because of the influence of

the modes of nature"! (In otherwords it is passion - not compassion that

compels a man to accept a wife and unless a man is honest with himself he

will never profit form the ashrama!) At this point the devotee said, "Well

if at least some men don't marry and reproduce children then eventually the

population will dwindle down to nothing and the world would be completely

uninhabited"! Srila Prabhupada chuckled and asked,"Do you think that is

really going to happen soon"? At this everyone joined Srila Prabhupada in

laughing at the virtual impossibility of this happening. Then Srila

Prabhupada added with his transcendental insight, "Actually we are after

that - birth control - no more birth in this material world. Do you know

what is a mustard seed? Have you seen a bag of mustard seeds? So this

material universe is compared to a mustard seed! And there are innumerable

material universes emanating from the pores of MahaVishnu just as there are

innumerable mustard seeds in the bag of mustard seeds. If one mustard seed

is lost is it really a loss? No it is no loss! So if one material universe

is complete vacated by all the living entities who have rejected material

life and now only want Krsna - Is that a bad thing? Huh? Is that a bad

thing? So we will not stay here in this world any longer without our Lord

Krsna - Is that a bad mentality? No - that is a good mentality!

My Guru Maharaja used to say that if he could produce Krsna Conscious

children - He was prepared to have sex hundreds of times - BUT he remained

lifelong brahmacari - sannyasa - all his life! Just see!" I treasure this

moment with His Divine Grace more today then the day I heard him speak these

things! Unless I can deliver my sons and daughters to His Divine Grace as

committed servants, I am no different then those camels in Vrndavana who so

conveniently provided His Divine Grace the opportunity to preach to his

eager disciples!