Prabhupada Nectar

[Guest guest]

Srila Prabhupada memories By Tribhuvanath das

 

 

Class opens with a reading from Srila Prabhupada Lilamrta . Quote mentioning

the word dhira. Tribhuvanath prabhu....... The word dhira is very important

Prabhupada

was completely dhira , dira means undisturbed. Prabhupada was never disturbed

by anything. There are many examples of this. Srila Prabhupada was completely

transcendental, it was like Prabhupada was tuned into a completely different

energy than us. Generally our energy is the three modes of material nature and

we

react according to how much we are in those modes. If we are in the mode of

passion we react passionately . If we are in the mode of ignorance we react

ignorantly ,and if we are in the mode of goodness we act in goodness. But

Prabhupada actually he was on a different level,that is that Prabhupada was

completely Krsna conscious. You could never actually understand what Prabhupada

was thinking or what Prabhupada was doing,that was one of the things

that devotees always noticed about Prabhupada. He was totally unchangeable in

the sense that that many tines you would try to change

Prabhupadas,consciousness,for example on morning walks Prabhupada was very

very deep. Although a morning walk was very casual in the sense that we all

used

to walk with Prabhupada,Prabhupada would sometimes not say anything all

morning. I remember one time I went on one morning walk with Prabhupada on Juhu

beach and he didn't say anything the whole morning and then as we where just

about to leave the beach Prabhupada stopped looked straight at us and said

It is just like the elephant he accumulates , accumulates accumulates , and

then

Prabhupadas eyes got very big and he said but what is the result of this

accumulation?,and we were all sort of bewildered and he said ,Then he passes

big

stool. So at the time I was wondering why is he giving this example?We were

all sort of bewildered but Prabhupada was very serious, he wasn,t joking .

So then later on we found out that Hamsaduta prabhu had accumulated a lot of

money in the name of India . At that time he was selling records Bangladesh

records ,so he had accumulated a lot of money ,which he left in a safe and the

police raided the temple and got a million duich marks. So that was just at

that time that Prabhupada had heard that the money had been taken , so he was

giving that example very profound very simple yet very instructive. So like

that Prabhupada was very very deep, You always found that when Prabhupada said

things they had great profound meaning. I never noticed anything Prabhupada did

 

or said which didn,t show his transcendental position. In other words

Prabhupada

was infallible he never made a mistake . Sometimes you wouldn,t understand or

you would understand him , but because Prabhupada was directly linked with

supersoul everything he did was very very wonderful. Theres that famous example

where Prabhupada insisted on going to the airport two and a half hours early

and

everyone knew that the airport wasn,t that far away. So devotees said

Prabhupada

where just going to be sitting around in the airport but Prabhupada said no

immediately so everyone got ready and jumped into the car left for the airport

and then they got stuck in a traffic jam for nearly two hours . Arriving at the

airport just about half an hour before the flight was due to leave. But that

was typical it was totally illogical to go to the airport that early it was

only a few miles away. But

Prabhupada knew by supersoul realisation ,Prabhupada could see what was

happening . Another time Prabhupada was giving class in Vrindavana and

Prabhupada saw a man standing at the door. So Prabhupada looked over at this

man and he said this man is a thief and his father he was also a thief and his

father he was also a thief . So in this way Evam parampara praptam. So the

point is Prabhupada could tell things that we couldn,t tell. We thought that he

looked a bit shifty, but we couldn,t tell about his father or his fathers

father. So Prabhupada was extremely deep. I remember one time I was in London

with Isan so Isan was at that time massaging Prabhupada. I asked him how he was

getting on with Prabhupadas massage and Isan told me some very nice things. He

told me that while Prabhupada was being massaged it was as though Prabhupada

left his body.

Prabhupada would just park his body there just like his car and then he would

go away. He appeared to leave his body and when you would be massaging him he

would be totally relaxed its an inconceivable sort of relaxation. Hari sauri

also says

that in his diary. He says that when Prabhupada was being massaged he was in a

certain kind of condition not exactly asleep but at the same time he didn,t

know weather Prabhupada was there or wasn,t there. And then just when he would

be about to leave Prabhupada would say ;O you are going. So Prabhupada was in a

different realm of consciousness and devotees who had close association with

him could see that. So this thing with Isan was quite interesting because Isan

was sent out to get some things for Prabhupada and this required him going on

the tube.

So Isan was on the tube and he was doing his japa.He had rounds left to finish

Because he was going to massage Srila prabhupada. He was in a rush. But as he

was going along on the tube he kept looking at the billboards, you know the

advertisements pretty scanty clad women womens underwear stuff like that ,So

Isan explained to me I was getting really in my head.I was trying to chant my

japa but but I had become distracted so then when I got back to the temple I

felt really in maya , and then I had to massage Prabhupada. And then what

happened was that as he was beginning the massage as always Prabhupada was very

very grave.

Tribhuvanath prabhu comments its hard to explain Prabhupada he was very

transcendental like it wasn,t like being with someone who was approachable and

yet at the same time Prabhupada was very approachable.It was like being with

no,one else.Anyway so as he was massaging Prabhupada,Prabhupada began to

speak. When I was a young boy and then he was silent for some time and Isan

carried on massaging ,then a little later he said I saw a box of matches . And

a little later Prabhupada said so I wanted to see how they scratch scratch, And

then again a little later Prabhupada said so I scratched the matches and my

doti caught fire and then Prabhupada was silent again .Then right at the end of

the massage Prabhupada turned to Isan and said so similarly if you are not

careful you will catch fire so be careful. So Isan knew that was exzacly the

instruction in relation to him

being inattentive while chanting. Tribhuvanath prabhu ..... So that was one of

the things about Prabhupada he was always very sober very serious but at the

same time Srila Prabhupada was also very ecstatic. And I remember being in

Prabhupadas rooms and when we where in those rooms there was just a complete

feeling of ecstasy. Anyone could tell you . I remember one time I felt so

wonderful

that just tears where coming down my eyes. I just couldn,t believe who is this

person sitting in this room. It was like you would get this feeling its hard

to explain

an incomprehensible sort of bewilderment. Who is this person because Prabhupada

was sitting there and when and when he was in his rooms giving darshana ,in the

evening he would be very very relaxed extremely relaxed it was a relaxation

like he was with Krsna in Vrindavana. A lot of the time he would put his knee

up and he would be rubbing it and he would tell a joke and he would laugh and

laugh, and even sometimes we wouldn,t understand the joke that much but he

would be laughing and laughing and banging his knee like a little boy. So he

used to always tell these stories about the king and he had a jester and his

jesters name was Gopal . So the king was always trying to outwit his jester and

similarly

the jester was always trying to outwit the king. So there was a competition

going on and Prabhupada liked these stories very much. So he told us that the

king knew that Gopal was building a new house. So in vedic culture if you are

building

a new house then until you purify the house by inviting brahmanas you dont do

anything there otherwise the house is considered a very inauspicious place. So

Gopal was having this new house built and the king found out about it. So he

wanted to contaminate the house so he hired one man to go to the house and one

of the worse things you can do in a new house before the fire sacrifice is to

use the toilet. It would completely contaminate the house . So therefore this

servant of the king went to Gopals house ,and another thing about vedic culture

is that the owner of a house can never refuse a guest,. So the kings servant

arrived at Gopals house and Gopal greeted him. And he asked Gopal please I

really need to use your toilet I have to pass stool . So Gopal said O because

he knew that it would

contaminate the whole house ,but he also knew that the king had sent him so he

said no problem you can use the toilet . So then when the man walked into the

toilet Gopal stood there with a big stick. So the man became a bit embarrassed

and he said Gopal I have to pass stool but you are in the toilet with me. So

Gopal

said yes I am in the toilet you can pass stool but if you pass one drop of

urine I

will beat you on the head with this stick. So Prabhupada would laugh his head

off

He would tell this story in such detail. But the point was that the king had

been out

witted by the jester because the servant had asked only to pass stool. So

Prabhupada would sit there with his hand on his knee laughing and when he would

laugh he would throw back his head. And his laugh was just oceanic . Prabhupada

would laugh and it was just like you where sucked into that laughter. It wasn,t

the

laugh of someone who was relatively happy. But Prabhupadas laughs where very

very ecstatic. And I remember one time Prabhupada was laughing and rubbing his

knee and then he turned around and said, Just see nowadays these old men they

don't know how to laugh. Prabhupada would also sometimes relate stories of his

own personal experiences and many times Prabhupada would know things that we

were fascinated by. In the early days Prabhupada would have discussions. He

would even give classes on history. It was fascinating how much history

Prabhupada actually knew. Prabhupada's knowledge was very extensive and one of

the things which was fascinating about him was that he would always study

mechanisms, he always liked to know how things worked so he would study them

just like when Prabhupada went on a train in India and if there was anything

new he would study it. He always liked to be in knowledge. So another thing

about Srila Prabhupada was that he was also very unpredictable in many ways,

one of the things that I noticed was that one boy Caranaravindam , he was about

6 foot and he was really eccentric, super eccentric! so in the early days we

used to have kirtans in the Manor in the theatre room and that room only holds

about 100 people and Prabhupada used to be very close to us because it was only

a temporary situation so Caranaravindam when he used to dance, he used to do

this crazy Egyptian dance, he used to have a long kind of a cloak thing , so

he'd be very close to Prabhupadas face and during the whole kirtan he would be

doing this far out Egyptian dance, so we just accepted that he was a bit

eccentric and he did that dancing in front of Prabhupada every morning. Tamal

Krsna Maharaja, he was very disturbed by it, he didn't like it, you could see

he didn't like it but no-body wanted to do anything because he was doing it in

front of Prabhupada, so what happened was on one morning walk I remember we

were walking around the temple room with Prabhupada and Tamal Krsna Maharaja he

said to Prabhupada This boy dancing, he dances very strange, this Caranaravinam

boy, I don't think it's bonafide Srila Prabhupada, and Prabhupada said No he

dances very nice. Prabhupada was so appreciative, He dances very nice. I

remember another time Caranaravindam in Vrndavan He built this big waterfall in

the middle of Prabhupadas garden and everyone was on his case because it was a

very big lotus flower and I don't know if you've ever seen Prabhupadas garden

in Vrndavan, well it's not very big and when he built this big lotus flower he

painted it pink and everyone was completely flipped out but Prabhupada came and

saw the lotus flower. He said Oh what is this? Caranaravindam said It's a water

fountain Srila Prabhupada, so Prabhupada asked How high can it go? so

Caranaravindam put it on and it went way up. Prabhupadas eyes got really big as

he was looking at it and he liked it very much! There's also another amazing

story about Prabhupadas rooms because what would happen is that all the

devotees would arrive in Vrndavan so Prabhupada was getting very strict about

the standard of administration and he used to chastise quite a lot. So this

particular time Prabhupada arrived and he was in his room and all the devotees

had also come into his room. So when the devotees left the room ,they left all

this mess behind because a lot of the devotees wear barefoot, so the temple

president was there, so Prabhupada was looking and he said Just see this is

very dirty you should clean , and Caranaravindam said That's not dirt Srila

Prabhupada, that's the dust of the feet of the vaisnavas and Prabhupada said O

just see you are the real Viasnava, you are seeing Vaisnava dust and I am

seeing dirt.

Another time in Amsterdam, they were doing the installation of the temple, the

Jagannath temple in Amsterdam and devotees made a lot of mistakes. They hadn't

got the alter very nicely set up and one of the things was that at the fire

sacrifice they didn't have any fruit. Now in Vedic system you have to have

whole fruit around the sacrifice, so the TV cameras were there and everyone was

there and Prabhupada could see when he came to do the fire sacrifice that

things were not arranged very nicely for Lord Jagannath so Prabhupada was

becoming angry, Why is there no flowers? Where is the fruit? You didn't bring

Lord Jagannath fruit?? Then a devotee ran off and about 20 minutes later came

back with a fruit salad so Prabhupada got even angrier You are bringing fruit

salad for fire sacrifice? So he started blasting the temple president right

there in front of the TV cameras. He was giving him the sauce and when

Prabhupada got angry I tell you it was like Lord Nrsimhadeva but it was an

anger that was completely transcendental, it's so hard to explain ,but it was

so powerful Prabhupada was shouting You are not fit to be temple president,

Lord Jagannath is neglected, you are calling Him to come and now you are

neglecting Him, So what happened was there was one boy in the temple, he was a

hippie , he was a really crazy hippie and one of the things about this boy was

that he was always getting angry, so devotees kept telling him , Listen don't

get angry, just chant Hare Krsna. So when he saw Prabhupada getting angry he

said Don't get angry, just chant Hare Krsna. So Prabhupada looked at him and

said Oh You have given me very good advise, you have done the best thing today,

so immediately Prabhupada called for his bead bag and started chanting japa. So

then after the fire sacrifice Prabhupada started leaving and devotees were

devastated they had displeased Prabhupada because it was early days and they

didn't really know what they were doing, so as he was leaving Prabhupada said

to his servant Nanda Kumara, So you have brought me some of Lord Jagannaths

feast? and the servant said ,No Prabhupada I didn't bring you any, so

Prabhupada said Please bring me some, so they were sitting in the car and

Prabhupada was sitting in the front with the driver and Nanda Kumara went back

in and got a plate of prsadam for Prabhupada. Then when he got in the back, he

put it on the seat and when the car pulled off it fell off into the floor. So

Nanda Kumara was thinking if I move right now to pick it up Prabhupada will see

it and he'll blast me but if I leave it there maybe Prabhupada will never

notice and when we get to the apartment I can pick it up, so when they got to

the apartment Prabhupada said ,Where's my prsadam? Nanda Kumara said ,Oh Srila

Prabhupada I dropped it, it fell on the floor, so Prabhupada said ,You bring me

that prsadam! so Nanda Kumar said again, But it's on the floor Srila

Prabhupada. Prabhupada said Never mind, you bring it, so he went downstairs and

started scraping up this prsadam onto the plate, there was dirt in it, there

was grit in it and everything, but he tried to clean it as best as he could and

get it ready. Now Nanda Kumara was saying that actually, normally when

Prabhupada took prsadam, a lot of the time he would leave some remnants but

this time he ate it all. Prabhupada ate every speck of that prsadam. So back at

the temple the devotees were feeling very disturbed that they had displeased

Srila Prabhupada so the temple president who was Rubhagananda prabhu, he was a

sannyasi and a senior man, so he decided to go apologise to Srila Prabhupada.

So he went to Prabhupadas apartment and as he walked into Prabhupadas room he

explained that Prabhupada looked ecstatic, he was just like gleaming with

bliss. Rubhagananda prabhu couldn't understand because half an hour ago

Prabhupada had been very angry and had really blasted the devotees. Then he

said to Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada I can't understand it, just half an hour

ago you looked so angry and now you look completely ecstatic. Prabhupada looked

at him and said ,Don't be disturbed, for the devotee it is just like the ocean,

on the surface there may be many,many big waves and there may be so much

turmoil but Prabhupada said ,As you go deeper into the ocean there is calm. So

Prabhupada then what he did Rubhagananda prabhu said it was the most startling

thing he had ever seen. Prabhupada went over to his bed ,lay down, he put both

his knees up to his chest and he was just lying on the bed rolling from side to

side saying Haribol, Haribol, Haribol ,Haribol!!! Rubhugananda prabhu could see

that Prabhupada was just associating with Mahaprabhu, he was just completely in

another dimension, it's so hard to explain but Prabhupada was always in

association with Krsna and these pastimes were all ecstasies pastimes of

Prabhupada, he showed this many times just like Jamuna was explaining that in

the early days when Prabhupada would sing vande ham, he would sometimes sing it

for about 20 minutes and if you looked in his eyes you could see that

Prabhupada was completely not on this planet, he was in Vrndavan and his body

would be shivering in ecstasy. There are many examples of Prabhupada in

complete ecstasy. I remember one time in London Prabhupada was talking about

the gopies and he was just shaking his head for many, many minutes, he couldn't

speak and you could tell that Prabhupada was just holding back the symptoms, he

was speaking about the gopies complete surrender to Krsna and he couldn't go

on. I remember also many times in the early days in Bury place, devotees would

hear Prabhupada speaking in his room, devotees would be bewildered, Prabhupada

is alone. I remember that many times. So many times in London also when

Prabhupada was leading kirtans every morning, you could tell that Prabhupada

was is such ecstasy, the kartals would stop, the kirtan would be going full

blast, I mean we had some incredible kirtans and Prabhupada would be chanting

with us and then he would just stop for a while, then suddenly he would come in

again, but whenever he came back in he would come in at exactly were we were on

the mantra. It was like Prabhupada was moving into waves of ecstasy from the

chanting of the devotees. So there's that story that one time Prabhupada was on

stage in Oxford town hall. When Prabhupada started singing prayers to Narada

Muni and Jamuna, she was leading the kirtan, she would chant Hare Krsna maha

mantra and Prabhupada would offer prayers to Narada Muni and this went on and

the atmosphere was incredible. Prabhupada was dancing, the devotees were going

wild, the audience didn't know what was going on. Than later on Jamuna said to

Prabhupada, Prabhupada, why did you sing these prayers? She didn't even know

what they were but she knew they were about Narada Muni. Prabhupada said You

didn't see Narada Muni there? You didn't see? Lord Brahma was also there, you

didn't see? Prabhupada was genuinely puzzled that she didn't see it. That

happened on a couple of occasions actually, Narada Muni came and Prabhupada

started offering all these mantras. The thing with Srila Prabhupada was always

that if you saw Prabhupada, you knew that this person was seeing God, you knew.

There was nothing that you could question about Srila Prabhupada!!! I know that

devotees may question a lot of things about ISKCON but nobody ever questioned

Prabhupada. If you meet any devotee thats left the movement who had any

association with Srila Prabhupada, they would never question that Srila

Prabhupada was 100% a pure devotee because everyone was watching Prabhupada all

of the time, now some people can fool some of the people some of the time, some

people can fool all of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of

the people all of the time. Prabhupada was always completely scrutinised

because everyone knew that he was a pure devotee and nobody was ever

disillusioned, maybe some people might have a difficulty with the philosophy

but never with Prabhupada and I remember the same principle was there even with

the reporters, they would judt accept that Prabhupada was a spiritual master,

they never questioned it. I remember once there was a whole bunch of reporters

around Prabhupada and one reporter a woman from the daily mirror she was doing

an article on bogus gurus, so Prabhupada said to her, so what is bogus guru?

and she said, Well bogus guru means someone who has a big car and Prabhupada

said I've a big car and she said Oh I don't mean.. and Prabhupada said There is

no such thing as bogus guru. Guru means guru, the guru can never be bogus. So

then Prabhupada started to get on her case and I remember she just took it.

Prabbhupada chastised her, How can you write , you don't even know, and you are

writing article, What is this?? this is cheating. She was one of the top

reporters for the Daily Mirror. Then I remember another time Prabhupada was

speaking to reporters in Edinburough and one reporter he asked Prabhupada , So

you can see God Swami? Can you see God? and Prabhuapada said Yes, and the

reporter was taken back, then he asked Can you see God like I see you? Can you

see God Like that? And Prabhupada said yes. So now he was completely amazed so

he said, Are you telling me that you can just see God? Prabhupada said Yes, so

he couldn't say anything more but the way Prabhupada said it, it was just so

transcendental that he couldn't disbelieve. Prabhupada was actually seeing God,

he was actually seeing Krsna. Another time Prabhupada was asked Are you seeing

God? Or do you see God? and Prabhupada said if I answer will you believe it?

will you accept it? will you accept ,that is the point? And then the person

said , Yes if you tell me I will accept. Prabhupada said I'm seeing God 24

hours a day.

The main thing is that Prabhupada actually loved Krsna, he was actually in love

with Krsna, you could tell he was in love with Krsna because when he would sit

in front of the deities you could feel the ecstasy of love, Prabhupadas concern

for the deities and how the temples were run, it was very,very deep and there

were many ecstatic moments for Prabhupada in front of deites. One time

Prabhupada was sitting in front of Radha Londonisvara and he turned arount to

us and his face was all flushed and then Prabhupada looked at us and he said

Krsna demands 100% and then he said He will not accept 85%,90% or 95%, He wants

100%. It was so profound the way Prabhupada said it. He was explaining to us

that if we wanted Krsna we would have to give 100%, then another time at Bury

place Prabhupada, he was just like a young boy, it's so hard to explain, again

it was a very ecstatic mood and he said I have captured Krsna and I am holding

Him here for you, so he put his arms out and then held them to his heart and

then he said Now you come, I can't remember the exact words but it was a very

ecstatic moment. That was in front of Radha Londonisvara also. If you saw any

installations, Prabhupada would deal with the deities in such a personal way.

Saksad dharitvena samasta sastrair, Uktas tatha bhavyata eva sabhih---If you

study those prayers, Sri SRI gurv astaka, you could see them in Prabhupada

completely, like for instance even at the installation of Radha Loondonisvara,

when the canopy above Radha Krsna, the actual arches fell, somebody knocked

them accidentally, so the whole thing, Lord Jaggannath, Baladeva and Subhadra

were falling in top of Radha Krsna. Jamuna at the time , she was standing right

next to Prabhupada. She said that within a split second , It was impossible for

any human being to do it, because even she was there and she was nearer the

pillar than Prabhupada was. Prabhupada was actually at that time was beginning

to bathe Krsna and Srimate Radharani for the instillation and she said within a

split second Prabhupada put his hand an Radharanis hand and with the other hand

he was holding up the whole pillar. After Prabhupada let go it took 3 people to

hold. He didn't even put two hands, one hand on Radharanis hand and the other

hand held everything up, so the way that Prabhpada dealt with the deities was

always as a person out of love, it wasn't that Prabhupada would just speak

philosophy , but you could see that Prabhupada had

pure love for Krsna ,he was in love with Krsna Prabhupada was in love .And

thats the thing about a pure devotee you can tell just like Prabhupada told

them when

they asked him how can you find a spiritual master . Prabhupada said find

someone who is madly in love with Krsna. So Prabhupada was intimately in love

with Krsna.And that showed in the way that he delt. Whatever Prabhupada did for

for Krsna it was 100% attentive. And then for himself he accepted so many

inconveniences. I remember one time Prabhupada arrived at the airport and

devotees

had miscalculated his flight . And when Prabhupada arrived all we had was an

old

vegetable van we thought he was coming 2 hours later. So it was a battered up

old transit we used to take to the vegetable market , but we didn,t know that

he

was coming so soon and we thought that we would bring out this big nice car

later. When we thought Prabhupada would arrive. But when this devotee arrived

at

the airport in the van,Prabhupada walked out of immigration . So he phoned us

Prabhupada is here I saw him him the boy was freaking out. So we all waited at

the temple because it was too late to go to the airport. When Prabhupada

arrived

at Bury place I can remember distinctly I can see the van coming down the road.

Prabhupada was sitting in the front of this old beaten up transit. It was a

real wreck

it was just about road worthy. And it stunk of vegetables from the back. So

when

they stopped I opened the door and my heart just sunk but Prabhupada face was

emanating like the moon. He was so pleased to see the devotees, Prabhupada was

always very very excited to see his disciples. You can tell that Prabhupada had

so much love for his disciples. Prabhupada was just an ocean of love and he

would get very, very emotional about his disciples. One time Subal was telling

me also that Prabhupada, when he arrived at one airport he was so excited to go

and see his disciples, that he went out the wrong exit door, so there were two

stairs coming down from the plane, so devotees were waiting at one stairs and

Prabhupada came down the other one. Then Prabhupada walked up behind them all.

Devotees were ecstatic, so at that time I could see that Prabhupada was

completely unconcerned that we had picked him up in an old banger and I spoke

later to Prabhupadas servant and he told me that Prabhupada was feeling great

separation from the devotees when he arrived at the airport. For himself

Prabhupada would tolerate so many inconveniences. I remember at the

construction of the Bury place temple Prabhpada had a very nice apartment away

from the noisy temple room construction, but Prabhupada wanted to stay at the

temple in his room that was just above the temple room which was being

constructed for the installation of Radha Londonisvara. Devotees didn't want

Prabhupada to stay there because there was banging going on all night. One

devotee said to Prabhupada , But Srila Prabhupada if you stay in your room,

there will be banging all night. Prabhupada said, This banging is sweet music

to my ears. Because they were doing it for Krsna therefore it was not a

disturbance, but if it was for anyone else it would disturb Prabhupada. Another

time also Prabhupada was visiting in Los Angeles and he was actually visiting

the artists and Jadarani at this time was doing a painting and Prabhupada was

talking to another artist and of coarse they all stopped painting ,but then she

started up again because it was quite a while that Prabhupada had been standing

there and she wanted to get something done, but Prabhupada had been standing in

front of her model. Prabhupada was speaking with this devotee and Jadarani was

just trying to see this model and Prabhupada looked at her and he saw that he

was in the way. Prabhupada looked over at her and he said Oh I'm in your way.

He was really apologetic, so Jadarani said ,No Prabhupada, it's just that...

and Prabhupada said, No I'm in your way, why you didn't ask me to move?

Jadarani said, Prabhupada, I wouldn't ask you to move and then Prabhupada said

,For Krsnas service you can kick me in the head.. There are so many instances

like that where Prabhupada would tolerate anything for Krsna but for himself he

liked to be simple. There are so many examples of that. You could see in Bombay

Prabhupada was staying in a very simple room eating on the roof. He never

wanted anything, he loved it. In India Prabhupada was very relaxed. Personally

Prabhupada said, I would prefer to live in a mud hut than all these big

buildings. Prabhupada liked simplicity very much. He was always very simple. I

remember one time I was in one room and I had great fortune because Prabhupada

was there for many, many weeks and of course you would get to be with

Prabhupada because there wasn't many devotees, only about ten. I remember one

time I was sitting in that room because you were allowed to sit in there with

Prabhupada and chant japa and Prabhuapda never objected. It was Prabhupadas

servants that always objected. Anyway I was just in Prabhupadas room mumbling

on my beads and suddenly I heard this voice, Tribhuvanath prabhu, there was

only Prabhupada and I in the room so I looked up and there was Prabhupada, he

had been writing at his desk and he said Tribhuvanath prabhu, could you put the

light on please? It was so humble the way Prabhupada was speaking, it was

almost as though he was speaking to a superior. I was just a young devotee, but

Prabhupada was always very, very respectful, he was a gentleman, Prabhupada was

an absolute gentleman. I turned the light on anyway and I just looked at

Prabhupada. Prabhupada looked at me and I just kind of nudged closer to

Prabhupada and I just started glorifying him because Always wanted to glorify

him and I never had the courage, but I thought this time, especially after

Prabhupada calling me prabhu, I thought I better get in there quick so I

started glorifying Srila Prabhupada, I sais, Srila Prabhupada, It's just

incredible what you have done in such a short time, you have built up this huge

movement. All of Prabhupadas books were on display by his side and so I said,

You have written so many books, such wonderful purports , and I just started

glorifying Prabhupada in so many ways. After I had finished Prabhupada just sat

there looking at me and I was looking at him and then a voice from very deep

down said, Whatever you are seeing, it is my Guru Maharaja he said he has done

everything

I have done nothing . You could see it was a genuine humility of Prabhupadas he

was feeling that everything was being done by his Guru Maharaja. It wasn,t just

some sentiment it was a realisation. And that was very clear whenever

Prabhupada

ever took any praise of anything it was always in service. I never ever saw

Prabhupada being fussy just like Remember one time Prabhupada was given a

cowboy shirt it had these frills you know like Roy Rodgers would wear it was

like that. And Prabhupada wore it. Another time Prabhupada was given this chain

a little like these tulsi chains but with other things on it . And Prabhupada

wore it. There is also that other example of Prabhupada being that huge doti

and he wore it.He was just accepting the service, and whatever you gave

Prabhupada he would

always treat it completely personally. Prabhupada was just 100% personal. I

remember I gave him some socks at that time ,I got initiated I was just a

Brahmacari and I remember I didn,t have a penny. So for Guru dakshin I went out

and I think I collected about a pound or something. In those days it was really

tough to collect and a pound was a lot of money, it was 1970 . I went to this

little shop and I bought Prabhupada a little conch shell because at that time

he was worshipping his deities. I also bought him some incense and socks. And

Prabhupada wrote back and first of all he said thankyou very much for your kind

gift

and then he said I am engaging them very nicely in lord Krsnas service.

Prabhupada was appreciating the offer and yet sometimes people would give him

an offering and if it wasn't given in love then Prabhupada didn't show so much

appreciation. There is the famous example, someone had given a very big cheque

to Prabhupada. Prabhupada accepted it, but then a child came a little later and

he gave Prabhupada a flower and Prabhupada spent ages looking at the flower and

reciprocating with the child like he was really appreciating the love of the

child. I remember one time in Glasgow, there were these children dancing in

front of Prabhupada and they were like street urchins coming into the hall,

they were really scruffy kids and they came in and they were dancing like

anything in front of Prabhupaada and Prabhupada was beckoning them to dance and

there was a whole thing going on for about an hour. You could see that

Prabhupada was very conscious of these children, now most of the other devotees

you could see that they just kind of wanted to get rid of them and then when we

got out of the hall and we were just sitting in the car and I was driving and

Prabhupada was sitting beside me. He was going to stay a hotel near the airport

that night and fly out the next morning and immediately we were talking about

the program. Prabhupada was saying how much he liked it. There was a big

audience and they gave Prabhupada a standing novation for about five or six

minutes. They really appreciated Prabhupada. Then Danajaya said Yes but those

children Srila Prabhupada. Oh yes Prabhupada said, those children, they are

very great devotees. Danajaya said , Devotees? They were filthy Prabhupada. But

Prabhupada said, No, that is their appearance, they are neglected but actually

they are very great devotees. You could see that these children actually had a

relationship with Prabhupada, it wasn't a disciple-guru relationship but it was

something very hard to understand, it wasn't an ordinary thing, Prabhupada was

very protective, No, you must not criticise, they are devotees and he didn't

just say devotees, he said great devotees.

In John Lenin's estate ,there were 5 trees and Mother Jamuna said that

Prabhupada would sometimes talk to those trees and one morning Prabhupada was

very near her and she said she was sure there was some conversation going on

between Prabhuapada and those trees, it was like Prabhupada had some

relationship with those trees and he told Jamuna what those trees were but as

soon as Prabhupada left, those trees were all destroyed by a storm. There are

many examples like this. There was one dog that came on Rath-yatra and he was

just completely attached to Prabhupada. He was just looking up at Prabhupada

and barking at Prabhupada and he got run over by the Rathayatra cart and left

his body right in front of Prabhupada and Lord Jagannath. Later Prabhupada said

he was a devotee.

When I first met Prabhupada I knew he was my spiritual master, just by looking

at Prabhupada i knew, when Prabhupada looked at you, it wasn't like he was

looking at you but it was another thing altogether, it was like he was looking

into your soul. Many devotees could tell you that Prabhupada could look, it's

very hard to describe, Prabhupada was there, but he wasn't there, that's the

only way you could say it, it was just like another dimension.

 

Jaya Srila Prabhupada!

 

Taken from a class given by Tribhuvanth prabhu at one nama hata program in

Dublin Ireland 1994.