Memories Of Srila Prabhupada

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The "Memories of Srila Prabhupada" video series now features a 90 minute interview of Shyamasundar dasa. Shyamasundar is one of the first devotees to join ISKCON along with Mukunda Goswami. Shyamasundar reflects on his association with Srila Prabhupada, including the making of the first Jagannatha deities, the establishing of the London Yatra and his meeting with George Harrison and the Beatles.

 

Shyamsundara's insightful stories take us on a rollercoaster ride of emotions from laughter to tears. The interview took place in Vrndavana, India and is now available on VHS in North America from ITV (Illumination Television) by calling 800-310-VIDEO, 4114 Motor Ave., Culver City, CA 90232 or in Europe from the Bhaktivedanta Archives, Petite Somme 2, Septon, Durbuy 6940, Belgium. (itv@flash.net)

 

Excerpt from Shyamasundar interview:

 

Prabhupada treated George like an old, old, friend. (tears up). I spent some time with George this summer. I'm talking 1999, now. And George has reached a very high level of spiritual development, I am happy to say. He chants Hare Krishna every day. And he is totally serene and he has accepted life as it is. He has actually realized--he has actually achieved a much higher level of self-realization that I can ever hope to achieve. He is peaceful and serene to a degree that is rare in a person, and at such a young age. Same age as I am. Prabhupada benefited him so much. I mean, he knew the buttons to push and not to push because of their natural hesitancy to have anything public to do with Prabhupada. Because they would see us then as just going after their money or their fame and not giving them the real thing. So I tried and Prabhupada, by his example, showed me the way to treat them is like this. "Always give them, just keep giving them stuff, giving them, giving them, giving. Never ask them for anything." Although one time, Prabhupada did call me into his room and said, "You know we only have one book. We have Bhagavad-gita, that's it." And maybe there was Nectar of Devotion. He said, "Krishna Book has been finished for some time and I got news today that it is ready for publication. How can we publish? We need this book." He said, "I want you to go and ask George for the money for this book." So, then I said, "Aww, no, Prabhupada. You know the reason that we are this far with George, and he has helped us so much to date is that I've never asked him for anything. I always wait until he offers." And Prabhupada says, "Yes, but we really need this." And I go, "Well, how much is it?Nineteen thousand dollars." In those days that was like saying a hundred thousand dollars. Whew. So I said, "I don't really think it is a good idea, Prabhupada." And he said, "Yes, yes it is. You'll see. Krishna will help you. Watch this." So the next day we had made arrangements to go look at marble. George had said that he would donate a new slab of marble for the altar. To help us select this marble, he had called on his friend, David Winn, who is the sculptor laureate of England, a very famous sculptor who had designed the coinage and who done famous busts of Queen Elizabeth and the Beatles, too. And so we went with David Winn to the marble yards and afterwards we went to David Winn's house for dinner. And all this time I was trying to screw up my courage. Because I had one mission that day, "How am I going to ask George for this money? Here he has given us this three or four thousand pound slab of marble. How can I ask him for something more on top of that today?" So we had dinner and we were all finished eating and it was getting late at night, it was dark. And it was a long ways from where I had to go in London. And George had to go all the way out someplace in the suburbs. So, finally I just did it. I said, "George . . ." I made Prabhupada the bad guy. "Srila Prabhupada asked me to ask you if you would donate money to print Krishna Book. And I explained what Krishna Book was. And his face just got increasingly got grimmer and grimmer. And I could see this whole thing passing through his face thinking, "Oh man, they are just another one of these groups. Here it comes." Then the room went quiet for a moment while he thought about it and fixed me with this really belligerent stare. And suddenly the lights went! All the lights in the house went out. And BWAM! This bolt of lighting hit the house. True story. The whole house shook. The sound and the light were simultaneous. (laughs) And we sat in silence for some minutes after that, stunned. The lights came back on and I looked over at George and he had this huge grin on his face and he said, "Well, how much is it then?" (laughs) And I told him and he said, "Well, what can I do after that?" (laughs) And he came the next day and talked to Prabhupada about it.