1. Association (Good and bad)

Racitambara dasi: The first time I saw Srila Prabhupada was in the L.A. airport. I think it must have been about 200 devotees went to greet him. We were a huge crowd and the loud kirtan and everyone was pushing forward, and there was a space above the partition where the passengers were coming out and you were able to see if it was a tall person. I remember a Stetson hat came by and something else came by, and then we could understand…“Is that…? No, that’s not Prabhupada.” We kept pushing forward more and more and the kirtan was bigger and bigger; and then I felt someone pushing behind me and I thought that’s odd because I’m at the back of the crowd, I was a very new devotee. So then I turned to look and there were two businessmen behind me, mid-20’s, suits and briefcases and everything else, but they were looking and looking to see who we were waiting for. Then suddenly we saw a danda raised above the partition and we knew, “Oh, Prabhupada must be coming.” So then Prabhupada came out and we all paid our obeisances and there was the most amazing feeling like a tidal wave rushing through me from the very depths of my being and pouring out, and I cried and cried and cried. Then finally when I stood up to go and follow the devotees who were following Srila Prabhupada, I turned and these two businessmen were standing there with tears pouring down their faces. That was such an amazing experience to see how they were touched just by a moment’s association with Srila Prabhupada.

2. Attachment

Bahulasva das: Different people are coming to visit Prabhupada, so everybody is bringing Prabhupada something. So the first person comes in and gives Prabhupada a nice gold Omega watch, a real gold watch. Prabhupada says, “Thank you very much,” puts it on, takes the watch he had on and gives it to whoever was there. Then another person comes in, gives Prabhupada a gold Rolex watch that must have been at least thirty-five hundred bucks. So he takes off the gold Omega, gives that away to somebody, puts the gold Rolex watch on, “Thank you very much.” Then another person comes in and gives Prabhupada a Seiko, the cheapest of all three of them, maybe it was a hundred dollar watch. Prabhupada says, “Oh,” takes the gold Rolex, gives that away, puts the Seiko on, “Thank you very much.” You could see Prabhupada was simply accepting on behalf of Krishna. Nothing like, “Oh, wow, save this one for me, put it in my drawer,” nothing

like this. Just “Whatever you are giving, I am taking on Krishna’s behalf.” You would see that in Prabhupada all the time. No mundane attachment.

3. Back to Godhead

Narada Muni: I remember Srila Prabhupada once was asked the process for the disciple going back to Godhead. Srila Prabhupada said that the spiritual master had purchased your ticket. It's like if you want to get on a train you have to show your ticket. Srila Prabhupada said, "I have purchased your ticket. You simply have to get on board and you have to stay on the train till we get to the destination." So this is the meaning of jagat guru. Srila Prabhupada actually has the ability to purchase the ticket for everyone because he's the full manifestation of Krishna in the form of the spiritual master, speaking only what Krishna says.

4. Bogus Religionists

Rupa Vilasa das: There was a discussion. Prabhupada was talking about Vedanta, and he was saying that the Mayavadis couldn’t understand Vedanta. Then he began to question us: why couldn’t they understand? He was specifically mentioning Ramakrishna and other famous Mayavadis. He said, “Why couldn’t he understand?” So then Brahmananda replied, “Naham prakasah sarvasya yoga-maya,” that verse from Bhagavad-gita, and Prabhupada wasn’t satisfied with that answer. Then someone else gave another answer, but he wasn’t satisfied with that either. Then finally Dayananda sat bolt upright and he said, “They cannot understand because they haven’t got Bhaktivedanta.” So Prabhupada smiled and said, “Here is the answer.” And it was such a nice answer on two levels: one, that they didn’t have Prabhupada; and on the other level, they didn’t have any bhakti. So how could they understand the end of truth? So Prabhupada was really happy with that answer, and I remember I felt like all of us were slightly envious that Dayananda had come up with this fabulous answer.

5. Book Distribution

Ramesvara das: Prabhupada had become very disturbed. He had learned that his manuscripts that he had written through amazing sacrifice of sleep, he stayed up at night and dictated his books, they had been sent in to our New York BBT office and they had not done the production. He had written so many books with commentaries, and they were just lying there. So Prabhupada had flown into Los Angeles, and it was a very tense beach walk.

He was discussing how important it was to publish these books and how upset he was that they were lying there, and he was demanding that they be published right away. He then asked, “How long will it take?” So Radha-vallabha from New York was there because he had been the production manager. So we pulled ourselves back and we discussed, “How long will it take you to get me the books so I can send them to the printer?” And he told me that he thought we could do one book every two months. At this point, we were doing one book every four to six months. So we went back into the walk, we caught up again and we told Prabhupada, “We think we can do one book every two months.” So Prabhupada turned around and said, “I want all 17 books done in two months.” I just blurted out, “Srila Prabhupada, that’s impossible.” At that point, Prabhupada stopped walking and he had a cane and he planted it in the sand, and he turned around and looked at me very gravely and said, “Impossible is a word in a fool’s dictionary.” And there was complete silence. We were all stunned. We were just completely stunned. Here is Prabhupada, perfectly in touch with Krishna, telling us that this can be done. It seemed to defy the physical laws as we knew it. So after some very long moments of silence, Prabhupada started walking immediately and the senior devotees, they just turned and started staring at me like, “So what are you going to do?” So this was a matter of just absolute blind faith. Either you believed or you did not believe. It was that type of moment where you commit, never mind what your intelligence is telling you is possible. So Radha-vallabha and I fell back again and we started talking, “We have to do this, this can be done,” and all of a sudden we started coming up with ideas that we hadn’t thought of. And we started getting ideas of different parallel production lines and turning the production lines into 24-hour production lines with two or three shifts and recruiting devotees from all over to help us with this and on and on and on. And this was all happening in the span of just a few minutes that we were being flooded with these ideas, and we both realized that in order to do this we all had to be together in one central place. And it seemed more logical to do it in Los Angeles – we have the housing for everybody and we can expand easily. So then we caught up to the walk and we said to Srila Prabhupada, “If we are going to do this, we have to move the entire BBT division from New York to Los Angeles – the art department, the production, everything.” And Srila Prabhupada approved that. He said, “Fine. Do it immediately.” And we started.

6. Brahmacharya

Udayananda: I was on the Radha-Damodar party for a little over two years, and occasionally we met Prabhupada in different places—Chicago, Atlanta, Ratha-yatra in San Francisco—and he would speak to us. In a personal darshan in Atlanta, Prabhupada stressed the importance of brahmacharya in spiritual life. He encouraged us to remain brahmacharis and he said, "If you stay brahmachari then you have a 75 percent chance of going back to Godhead in this very life, but if you take up the grihastha ashram, 25 percent. Therefore, try to see all women as mataji, as mother, and address them as, 'my dear mataji.' Mataji is a respectful term that means you love and respect that person just as you love and respect your own mother. A mataji is one of the gurus—the Bhagavatam says you should not become father or mother unless you can save your dependents from repeated birth and death. So if you address all women as matajis, you will not look at them as objects of sense gratification."

7. Chanting , Chanting Offenselessly, Holy Name

Harivilas: Another time we were in a car going to the temple from the airport when I told Prabhupada that we were thinking about renting a store and calling it "Krishna Shop." Prabhupada said, "No. Call it 'Hare Krishna Shop.' Let them say'Hare Krishna' once in their life." Then he told a story from the Puranas about a man who was charged by a wild boar. When the boar injured him he screamed "Haram, haram," which means "untouchable dirty thing," and then he died. Prabhupada said, "He went back to Godhead because he said, 'ha-ram.'" Now, haram means "untouchable" in Urdu. But because it approximates the name of God, the man went back to Godhead. Prabhupada said, "This is the power of the holy name. Therefore call it 'Hare Krishna Shop.' Let them at least walk by and see the names of 'Hare' and 'Krishna.'" I was very pleased to hear that, and when we did open something, we called it "Hare Krishna Shop."

8. Cleanliness

Mahakratu: Prabhupada was about to climb onto the concrete platform when he noticed that some dahl prasadam had spilled and been left there. Prabhupada looked at it and then sat on his vyasasana. He said, "Who is responsible for not cleaning this?" Everybody looked at each other. Nobody took responsibility. Then Patita pulled out a little penknife, opened the blade, and was on his hands and knees about to start scraping up the dahl. Prabhupada bent over the vyasasana and looked down at Patita with the

knife in his hand. Patita looked up at Prabhupada, and Prabhupada said, "What is this for?" Patita said, "Cleaning." Prabhupada shook his head and said, "Use it for cutting. This is mleccha attitude. Brahmans use water to clean. Is there no brahman here?" Someone got a bucket of water and mopped up the dahl. Then Prabhupada gave a heavy lecture about cleanliness, uncleanliness, and brahminical standards.

9. Deity or Deity worship

Gurudas: Prabhupada liked how Saraswati, Malati and Shyamasundar's four-year-old daughter, helped encourage everyone to chant during kirtan. Later on he gave her a small Deity of Krishna. Saraswati became quite attached to her Deity, and one day Prabhupada hid her Deity behind his back. Saraswati was looking, "Where is Krishna?" Prabhupada also encouraged her, "Where is Krishna?" Saraswati became anxious, "Where is Krishna? Where is He?" When Prabhupada returned the Deity to her he pointed out how separation from Krishna can increase our awareness of Him and love for Him.

10. Destiny or will of providence

Prabhavishnu Swami: In the beginning of 1973, Prabhupada said, "I'm very pleased to hear the good news of the traveling party in England. I am pleased to hear that the people of that country are interested in Krishna consciousness and are taking our books. Go on in this way, traveling to every town and village. Don't worry about your destination. Go on preaching Krishna's message and distributing these books. Sometimes it must be very cold there, and you must not be getting proper sleep or proper food, but because you have properly understood the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, therefore you have surpassed the feats of millions of yogis and transcendentalists and have come to the topmost platform of surrendering to Krishna. My challenge is let anyone see how hard our devotees are working for Krishna and how they have surpassed the feats of all yogis and transcendentalists."

11. Desire

Prahladananda Swami: Once I asked, "Srila Prabhupada, should I control my desire to eat prasadam?" Prabhupada chuckled and said, "No, you can eat as much as you want, but don't fill yourself up to here." (points to his neck). Everyone laughed.

12. Determination

Candramauli Swami: In New Vrindavan a devotee asked, "Prabhupada, what happens if we have no determination?" Prabhupada said, "Then you are an animal. An animal cannot be determined. As soon as they hear a little sound, they run in fear. So no determination means animal life. You must have determination otherwise you can't execute Krishna consciousness." He made a strong and clear statement: "You are an animal if you can't become determined."

13. Devotee or Vaishnava

Jayapataka Swami: We were on a morning walk with Srila Prabhupada in north Calcutta. Srila Prabhupada said, "Oh, here is a Life Member's home." For some reason Prabhupada wanted to stop in at the house of a wealthy Life Member. He went in and told the servant, "Tell your master that Bhaktivedanta Swami is here." After a while the servant came out and said, "The master is worshiping his Deity. He will be here after some time." Prabhupada commented, "Krishna is more pleased when the devotee is served than when He is served. If this person was more advanced he would have appreciated, 'A spiritual master has come,' and left his Deity worship to receive the devotee of Krishna. But because he thinks that his Deity worship is more important than receiving the devotee of Krishna, that shows that he is a neophyte, or kanistha adhikari."

14. Devotional Service

Yogeshvara: At Bhaktivedanta Manor Prabhupada would sometimes sit with us in a circle on the lawn and chant japa. Sometimes we'd ask a question, and sometimes he'd ask us something. Once I said, "Srila Prabhupada, say that there are two people equally unqualified for devotional service. One becomes a devotee, and the other doesn't. What makes the difference?" He shot me a look and said, "Don't try to find some formula for causeless mercy. It's causeless. Ultimately it's up to the mercy-giver."

15. Donating money for temple or KC activities

Brahmananda: I had been home to visit my mother, and she knew we were strict vegetarians. We wouldn't eat the food that she cooked because the pots were contaminated, and she was contaminated. The whole house was contaminated. She said, "Hey, what's happening here?" One evening

just before the kirtan she went to visit Prabhupada to see what we were getting into.

Prabhupada had a folding metal chair in his room, which was meant for VIPs who couldn't sit on the floor. My mother sat on this chair. Everyone else, including Prabhupada, sat on the floor. She asked Prabhupada, "What are you doing with my boys?" After explaining and preaching, Prabhupada told her, "I am taking care of your sons," because by that time Gargamuni and I had moved into the storefront. "I am feeding them, looking after them, and providing. Actually, we have no income here. Maybe you would like to give some donation?" My mother looked at us, looked at Prabhupada, and said, "Donation? I have already given a donation. I have donated my sons." Prabhupada said, "Oh, yes, very good." By her saying that, it was as if she gave us to Prabhupada.

16. Ekadashi

Prabhavishnu Swami: After we had toured the east coast of India, we came to see Srila Prabhupada in Hyderabad. Prabhupada called us into his room and asked us how many sets of books we distributed and what the professors thought about the books. He told us, "You should keep very good health on traveling sankirtan. It's best if you don't eat any grains. Just eat vegetables, fruits, milk products, and nuts, cashew nuts; every day like ekadasi. In this way you can keep your health very strong."

17. Enthusiasm

Jayadvaita Swami: Prabhupada’s health had deteriorated considerably. He had no muscular strength at that time. In Mayapur earlier, he extended his arm and flapped where his arm muscles were with his hand and said, “Flat tire.” So Prabhupada’s health had really gone down. He was practically deposited on his asana and just was there. One night the verse was “Hogs, dogs, camels and asses glorify a person who has no interest in hearing about the Personality of Godhead.” So the disciple was reading and Prabhupada hardly said anything, the reading was going on. But as it was going on, Prabhupada was getting more enlivened. So he would go from giving one sentence to giving two sentences and four sentences, and soon Prabhupada was speaking with full enthusiasm. He had so much energy. By the end of the lecture, practically Prabhupada was roaring.

18. Fixing mind on Krishna

Yogesvara das: The temple was not very big, hugely crowded. There were people from the area at the windows outside wondering what on earth is going on, and the Deities were very, very beautiful. It was a very exciting time. We had not had Krishna Deities in Paris before, so this was very meaningful to everyone. While the Deities were being dressed, that is to say after the bathing ceremony and while the Deities were being prepared for the first unveiling, Srila Prabhupada went out for a walk. When we came back from that walk, the curtains opened and Srila Prabhupada stood looking at the Deities for a long, long time. Kirtan was going on. Then he turned and walked down the marble temple room to his vyasasan, and we all noticed that there were tears streaming down his face. He sat on the vyasasan and used the edge of his dhoti to dry his eyes and started his lecture by saying that “The meditation on the Lord begins from the lotus feet. Therefore, I am inquiring why are there no ankle bells?” In our haste to dress the Deities in time for Prabhupada’s return from his walk, we had neglected to put Krishna’s ankle bells on. Prabhupada, of course, noticed. But it was a very touching moment because God must be real. Look at how much love this person has for Him. It was very obvious to everyone there that we have not been led into some kind of cultish practice or something. Here is Prabhupada, there is Krishna. Here is Prabhupada weeping out of love of seeing the Lord of his life. This is real.

19. Forgive

Yogeshvara: In the early days in Bombay a young man was discovered stealing checks out of the mail. When the devotees finally captured him, they brought him to Srila Prabhupada. "We found out why the bank is not getting the checks, Srila Prabhupada. We caught the culprit. What should we do with him?" Srila Prabhupada said, "There's only one thing to do. Forgive him." But if someone was a repeat offender, then Srila Prabhupada asked him to leave the temple because then he was just compounding his offenses.

20. Habits

Giriraj Swami: One of Srila Prabhupada's first disciples was in Calcutta and had started to smoke ganja again. When Srila Prabhupada was told about this, he said, "Tell him that if he does not give up this bad habit of smoking, I will reject him." One of the devotees asked Srila Prabhupada, "Is that true, that if he doesn't give up smoking ganja you will reject him?" Srila

Prabhupada said, "No. I cannot reject any disciple. I only said that to encourage him to stop smoking."

21. Happiness and Distress

An occasion in which I saw an involuntary smile was in Prabhupäda’s garden in Los Angeles. His disciple Nara-Näräyaëa däsa was relating how the devotees had been on harinäma on Venice Beach and been attacked by a motorcycle gang. It was a very frightening and violent scene, and he vigorously narrated it. A large group of devotees were walking along the beach chanting, including women and children. Suddenly a big group of “Hell’s Angels” had rushed upon the devotees and started beating them. Some of the devotees ran away, but some of them fought back.

Nara-Näräyaëa Prabhu has a very deep voice and, with all due respects, has a somewhat eccentric manner. In his heavy, amusing voice he went on telling Prabhupäda of the horrible fight. Nara-Näräyaëa said that most of the devotees were not physically fit because they sat all day in their offices. He said maybe it would be better if devotees kept themselves in better shape in order to respond to such emergencies. He said that the motorcycle thugs were big and strong. Nara-Näräyaëa said that he himself was carrying a pole and he used it to knock down the attackers. He said, “But one of them was so big and powerful I would knock him down and he just kept coming!”

Prabhupäda had been listening with a quiet look on his face. It was not a pleasant tale to hear, and perhaps it was one that should not have been told to the spiritual master, but Prabhupäda was hearing it. When Nara-Näräyaëa came to the part in his story of how he had knocked this guy down again and again but he kept coming, Prabhupäda gave an involuntary smile. One “explanation” of this smile is that everyone smiled at Nara-Näräyaëa because he sometimes behaved as a comedian.

A good comedian makes you smile. And to some degree, a comedian is usually a bit of a clown also, and so you laugh at something he is doing. It seemed that Prabhupäda did not want to smile while hearing this unfortunate story, but it was being told so humorously—comic relief along with frightening descriptions—Prabhupäda “had to” smile.

This incident also showed me that although Prabhupäda was transcendental to happiness and distress, he was affected by the account that was being told. Prabhupäda is fearless, and yet he fears for the devotees and for the Kåñëa consciousness movement. Therefore, although Prabhupäda was not

showing his emotions, he was no doubt feeling hurt by the story of innocent devotees being beaten. These emotions were being manifested by Prabhupäda, but then suddenly, he smiled in response to the grotesque and humorous details of the narrator.

22. Holy Dhams

Praghosa das: I went into Prabhupada’s room, and I wanted to personally say to Srila Prabhupada, “Thank you for bringing us to Mayapur.” So in the darshan, we’re all sitting there listening; and when it was over, everybody offered their obeisances. So I stayed down on the floor longer and offered my obeisances very, very slowly so that when I stood up, pretty much everybody was out of the room. So I walk forward to Prabhupada sitting at his desk and he was going to drink some water, and I stepped forward and I said, “Srila Prabhupada,” and he was just about to drink and he said, “Yes?” I said, “I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you for bringing us all here to Mayapur.” Prabhupada slipped a little water and he said, “Oh, I have not brought you. Caitanya Mahaprabhu and my Guru Maharaj, they have brought you.” He said, “Mayapur, Vrindavan, this is your home. The West, that is for preaching.” Then he drank some water. When he stopped drinking the water, he looked back at me and he smiled and he said, “Or for sense gratification.” He said, “So you come every year, take inspiration here in the holy dham, and then go back to the West and preach vigorously. And then come back again and take inspiration.”

23. Human Life

Amogha: Once I was trying to understand the four hundred thousand species of human life. I asked Prabhupada, "Those four hundred thousand types of humans, are they on this planet? Are they divided by countries? Does it mean the Chinese, the Japanese, the Americans?" Prabhupada said, "No, you are thinking of this planet, but the Srimad-Bhagavatam is speaking of the entire universe."

24. Humility

Bhakti Caru Swami: In spite of being the world acharya, Srila Prabhupada was humble. Once in Amsterdam, when Prabhupada was about to give initiation, the devotees hadn't organized things properly and were making mistakes at every step. Prabhupada was getting increasingly annoyed and when he saw that the sacrificial altar had no fruits on it, he was

further disappointed. One devotee ran to the kitchen, cut some fruits and gave the fruit to Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada got still more upset because such fruits are supposed to be uncut.

A hippie who used to come to the temple regularly was present, and he had noticed that whenever someone became upset, the devotees would tell that person, "Why don't you chant Hare Krishna?" When this hippie saw that Prabhupada was agitated, he told Prabhupada, "Why don't you chant Hare Krishna?" Prabhupada quietly took his bead bag and started to chant.

25. Initiation

After some time, letters started arriving on a regular basis from my mother to Srila Prabhupada, asking about my welfare and holding him responsible for the fact that I had become so sick, even though it was my own undoing. Karandar became concerned as he was the temple president and he approached me and said that he felt it was better if I left and went home instead of serving. I said, "But Prabhupada's instructions are that the association of devotees should never be given up. Otherwise you will definitely fall into maya and it would be very difficult to return." But he was insistent that I leave and told me that Srila Prabhupada wanted to see me. I was very fearful because I thought "Oh, my God. What have I done wrong?" I entered his room and he was taking prasadam. I offered my obeisances and he looked up at me with big compassionate eyes. He said, "So there's some difficulty with your mother?" I said, "Yes, Srila Prabhupada." "She wants you to come home for some time." I said, "Yes, she does Prabhupada." He said, "You can go home for some time?" I said, "Yes." Then he said, "I'm going to initiate you with the name Nrsimhananda das and that way you'll always be protected from your parents. And then you can go home for sometime and come back." I was stunned. Then he gave me some prasadam and said, "So then, you can eat vegetarian at home?" I said, "Yes, Prabhupada." He said, "Then what is the difficulty?" And with that I paid my obeisances, went out, and made arrangements to go back to Chicago.

26. Joining the movement

Jayapataka Swami: I was on a morning walk with Srila Prabhupada when he stopped near a church. He looked at it and said that in the future our ISKCON temples were going to be something like the churches in that there would be some devotees living in the temples and many devotees living around the temples who would come on the weekends and for

festivals. At that time, 1970, there weren't many temples, and the whole mood was making temples, joining the temple, and becoming a temple devotee. But Prabhupada was saying that in the future the temples would be a center with big communities of devotees around them. Now I am coordinating congregation programs, and that instruction has a lot of importance to me, although at the time I really didn't know what to think of it. It was a prediction.

27. Karma

Sudama: When we were in Hawaii, Prabhupada told me how Hawaii was conducive for spiritual advancement. Outside of India, Hawaii was the prime place for spiritual advancement. It was always a comfortable 80 to 85 degrees, with trade winds blowing. You could live with no shoes and just a pair of shorts, picking pineapples, bananas, and fresh coconuts. Of course, I never did that but he said that it was a perfect place for that. We talked about the Samoans and different races. He said, "Unfortunately these people must have the worst karma on earth. They eat pigs and look like pigs." We were walking, and a Samoan family walked by us when he said this. I thought, "No, no!" But then I thought, "Wait a minute, I am with a pure devotee. I have God on my side in case they should get offended." But they weren't. Srila Prabhupada talked about what they looked like and how ugly they were and, literally using those terms, preached to them.

28. Krishna's protection

Nanda Kumar: There was a time when Prabhupada was having some physical challenges. I had come from a health-food background, and there was a doctor in India that also said, "Prabhupada should eat raw food." I thought, "Yes, yes, this is good. I can do that. I can make raw-food preparations." I told Prabhupada, "This person has suggested eating a very light diet without ghee." Prabhupada said, "I will do this." I thought, "This is going to be really good. Prabhupada's health will become strong." I prepared one meal like that, and Prabhupada said, "This is very good." The next morning—his morning prasad was almost always simple things like fruits and milk—I said, "What would you like for lunch?" Prabhupada said, "Dahl, rice, chapatis, halava." I asked him about the raw diet. He said, "Since I was a child, I have always loved prasadam, and I'm not going to give it up now. I will eat prasadam, and Krishna will protect me."

29. Lust

Uttamasloka: One time I asked, "Prabhupada, if somebody's having trouble with sex desire, what should he do?" He said, "Chant Hare Krishna more, that's all."

30. Mangala-arati

Giriraj Swami: Srila Prabhupada never asked us to do anything that he wasn't ready to do himself. Whatever austerities he asked us to accept, he accepted more. When we went to Kumbha Mela in 1971, we were living in tents, and it was freezing cold. Srila Prabhupada was right there with us in the next tent. His tent was a little bigger, because he would receive people and preach. It was so cold we could see our breath in the air, and in the mornings I wouldn't want to get out of my sleeping bag. When devotees started to miss attending mangal arati, Srila Prabhupada got concerned. Generally a devotee used to heat water for him, and he would take bath later in the day, but just to set an example for us, one morning he took a freezing cold bucket of water from the pump and bathed in the cold. He may have gotten a little sick from that, but he did it. When we saw Prabhupada taking a cold bath, how could we stay in our sleeping bags? He was compassionate and sympathetic, but at the same time he wanted to elevate us. And he would push us.

31. Material Enjoyment

Bhavananda: When I was in Mayapur, in the mornings Prabhupada would walk on the little raised banks between the rice fields. One morning when we were leaving the back of the building Prabhupada said, "Bhavananda [accent on the second syllable]. Do you know what Bhavananda [accent on second syllable] means?" Gargamuni Maharaj said, "Yes, it means one who's absorbed in the ecstasy of bhava [accent on first syllable]." Prabhupada said, "No, that's Bhavananda [accent on first syllable], but his name is Bhavananda [accent on second syllable]." Prabhupada said, "It means one who takes endless enjoyment in this material world." I should have taken that as a warning. I said, "Prabhupada!" He said, "Yes, but that is because 'bhava' [accent on second syllable] means 'birth in this world.' That is a devotee. A devotee takes endless enjoyment in this material world because it offers endless opportunities for preaching."

32. Maya

Sudama: Srila Prabhupada saw me come in. I paid my obeisances, and he jumped all over me. "What is this? Why you have left? Why you are dressed like that?" He asked me all these questions for twenty minutes. I was sweating, crying, very upset, very confused, very on edge, very on trial in front of my God-brothers, who were really strangers. I had gotten a temple that was too big, and my men had been stolen. It was the old politics game. Srila Prabhupada said, "I want to know one thing before I send you out of here. Do you still love Krishna? Do you believe in Krishna?" I said, "Yes." He said, "All right. You will be okay." Then he turned to everybody in the room and said, "This is disgusting. This is not how Vaishnavas behave. You knew that Sudama needed help. You knew that Sudama was crying out in maya, and you ignored him. This is not Vaishnava behavior. A true Vaishnava," he said, "would have taken him by the hand earlier on so that this would never have taken place."

33. Misery & Hardships

Nara-Narayana: Prabhupada was lecturing at the Brahma Samaj in Nairobi and crushed demigod worship. He said, "Durga is riding on a tiger and she has got eight arms. In each of these arms there is a weapon. One of these weapons is a trident. The trident has got three prongs and what are these three prongs? It is the threefold miseries; adidaivik, adibotik, adiatmik." Staring at the audience he said, "And what is she doing with that trident?" He said, "She is stabbing demons" and as he said that Prabhupada made a stabbing motion with his arms. "And who are those demons?", he cried out. He looked around the group of fifteen hundred or so people and said, "We are those demons." He said, "Whoever is suffering from the threefold miseries, adidaivik, adibotik, adiatmik is being stabbed by the trident of Durga." He looked at the audience with a curled lip of utter disdain and as he waved his hand across and pointing to the crowd he said, "And they are worshiping." So that is how he crushed Durga worship in Africa and also created a big base for real Vaishnav preaching without compromise. Prabhupada saved everyone even though the people in the room were absolutely stricken because of Prabhupada's intense words. But like the doctor may sometimes, even without an anesthetic with the person screaming, cut away something in the body that is terribly injurious for the health of the patient, so Prabhupada was strong to cut out the desire to

worship demigods. From Prabhupada's example I learned not to mince words even if there was some risk of antagonizing someone.

34. Modern civilization

Lokanath Swami: The theme that Prabhupada had chosen was that the material civilization, modern civilization is total failure, only solution is Krishna consciousness. And he was speaking on this theme every night. Bhavananda, a lot of times some others would read a text from Bhagavatam, purport, and then Prabhupada would comment. The memory I have is how strongly he was preaching, like a roaring, scaring these fellow citizens, trying to wake them up, shake them up. I don’t remember any other time Prabhupada was as strongly, forcefully, emphatically making his points, reminding them bharata-bhumite manusya-janma haila yara, janma sarthaka kari’ kara para-upakara. “You are born in India. If you want to make your life perfect, don’t lead the life of cats and dogs. Do para-upakara, take to Krishna consciousness.”

35. Money or material opulence

Dhananjaya: He said, "Do you know what the four principles are?" I said, "Yes." "And you are chanting a minimum of sixteen rounds?" I said, "Yes." On that premise he accepted me, and then he said, "Your name is Dhananjaya das, a name for Arjuna which means 'conqueror of wealth.' You will have no difficulty in acquiring wealth. Actually there is so much wealth everywhere, money is flying in all directions," and he put his hands up in the air, "you simply have to learn the art of catching it."

36. Patience

Pusta Krishna: In New Zealand, after Prabhupada had given a lecture, he asked if there were any questions. One after another, fathers and mothers came forward and said, "Srila Prabhupada, please give my child a name." Prabhupada gave one name, then another, and it went on and on until finally when someone said, "Please name my daughter," Prabhupada said, "Rose." His patience had been tested at that point.

37. Pleasing Krishna

Every afternoon Srila Prabhupada would take a leisurely hour-long massage. He had so many things to do, but he was leisurely about

everything he did. I went and sat there for a while. Then I told Srila Prabhupada, "I'm worried that I'm not progressing correctly in spiritual life. In Bhagavad-gita it says, brahma-bhutah prasannatma na socati na kanksati, that when one attains the brahma-bhutah platform or is Krishna conscious, anxiety and lamentation are gone. But I'm always in anxiety and I'm concerned that I'm making an error in my spiritual life. Srila Prabhupada, please correct me."

Prabhupada's reply was amazing. Prabhupada looked at me softly and kindly and said, "No. Your anxiety is all about pleasing Krishna. Mother Yasoda is always in anxiety, that this demon Trinavarta might steal Krishna or that Krishna might be hungry. So, all your anxieties are simply in relation to pleasing Krishna and are transcendental." He was so kind.

38. Prajalpa

Çréla Prabhupäda sat in his quarters, he overheard Upendra gossiping in the adjoining room. Prabhupäda called for Upendra, who entered, shamefaced.

“You were laughing?”

“Yes.”

“Gossiping?”

Upendra responded coyly, “Is talking about other devotees gossiping, Çréla Prabhupäda?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, I was gossiping.”

Prabhupäda was concerned for his disciple’s well-being. Again he chastised Upendra. “This devotee, that devotee! Life is short. Do not waste your time uselessly!”

39. Prasadam

Badrinarayana: A devotee was telling Srila Prabhupada that he was selling prasadam, Bengali sweets, at a stand in front of UC Berkeley. He was going on and on about this. Prabhupada stopped him and asked Tripurari,

"How many books did you sell?" Tripurari told him some amazing figure. Prabhupada said, "This is the real Bengali sweet, Caitanya-caritamrta."

40. Preaching

Caru: The whole temple room in the Lotus Building in Mayapur was packed with devotees. Prabhupada was lecturing and for a moment he looked at us—20-year-old kids—and said, "I am an old man, I may go at any time. But there are hundreds of you young men and women, and all of you have at least 50 years left." I got a sense of how exciting every day was for him, preaching Krishna consciousness, captaining a world movement, as it was exciting for all of us who participated in it. At that moment, Prabhupada was transcendentally envious of us, that he was going to have to go and we had 50 years—so he started crying out of sheer enthusiasm to preach.

41. Pride

Mahatma: In 1972 the devotees on book distribution started wearing karmi clothes, mainly because they were getting kicked out of malls. They thought that if they wore Western dress they won't be noticed, and then they found that they did better wearing Western dress. A controversy arose about whether or not we should do this. A lot of devotees, like me, who had been doing straight preaching, resented wearing karmi clothes, although we did it. During the 1973 marathon, a group of us in San Diego decided we would go out in dhotis and kurtas, and the women would go in saris. We felt that if we had faith and purity, we would be successful, and we started getting very good results. We were ecstatic, and we thought, "Just see, you don't need to wear Western dress. That's a compromise. It's watered down preaching for weaker devotees who don't have faith." We felt proud and self-righteous to be the pure ones, and we were very excited to write a letter to Prabhupada telling him of our success. We thought Prabhupada would appreciate it and tell all the other devotees not to wear Western dress. But Prabhupada, knowing everything, being expert, replied, "Yes, if you do not feel comfortable in Western dress, then you can wear a dhoti." He shattered our false pride. You would think it would be the other way, that "If you don't feel comfortable in a dhoti, you can wear Western dress," but Prabhupada said, "If you don't feel comfortable in Western dress, I've no objection; you can wear a dhoti." We were flattened. Our egos were popped. Prabhupada knew the mentality of the devotees. He was so expert that he would say just the right thing to the right person.

42. Purification

Rupa-Vilasa: Venkata Bhatta Prabhu told me that at the Kumbha-mela a devotee asked Prabhupada about bathing at auspicious moments. The devotee said, "Is this something we Vaishnavas should do?" Prabhupada said, "Vaishnava? You are trying to become Vaishnava. Vaishnava is not an ordinary thing." In other words, we are at the stage of Vaishnava praya, which means almost a Vaishnava. We're thinking we're Vaishnavas but we are only approaching the precincts of becoming a Vaishnava. Prabhupada indicated, "You're thinking this is not for you, but you need all the help you can get, so go ahead and bathe at auspicious moments."

43. Reading Books

Vrndavanesvari: Many people have heard about the famous festival in New Vrindavan in 1972 for Janmastami and Vyasa Puja. But the ending was actually quite different than anyone else has ever told the story. I think people were half asleep. I was a little trained up in New Dwarka how to run up ahead so I could get myself situated so I could be very close to Prabhupada. I ran down the mountain about fifteen minutes early knowing the temple would be very crowded and planted myself very close to the vyasasana. After the midnight arati as everybody knows, Prabhupada said, "Let's read Krsna Book." This went on for about two hours. I remember I was sitting about four feet away from Prabhupada, right dead center, and I was watching him the whole time. He was just so blissfully absorbed and looking around the temple as devotees were falling asleep, and he was just saying, "More, more, keep passing the book." Then suddenly the lights went out, and it was pitch black. I couldn't see my hands in front of my face. All you could hear was the scrambling of the New Vrindavan devotees, and it seemed like a very long time. It could have been five minutes. It could have been ten minutes. I kept thinking that "I want to see Prabhupada's expression when the lights come on." I had my head facing Prabhupada's direction because I couldn't see a thing. I was wondering if he would be angry or what. After some very long period of time the lights finally came on and Prabhupada had this beautiful ear-to-ear grin. He said, "So Krishna is now sitting on the lap of Mother Yasoda. I think you are all tired and we can stop here." Everyone roared, but my hair stood on end because I was listening and just before the lights went out there was a battle going on in the Krsna Book. Krishna wasn't sitting on the lap of Mother Yasoda. I was wondering, "What happened during the time when the lights were off?" I pictured a little blue boy sitting on his

shoulders and it was so ecstatic because Prabhupada said Krishna is now sitting on the lap of Mother Yasoda and we weren't talking about that. I wanted to share that because no one has seemed to mention that in any of the other "Memories" stories and to me it was the most significant thing; that here Prabhupada is seeing Krishna sitting on the lap of Mother Yasoda. It was ecstatic and he was so happy. Prabhupada was so blissful and compassionate just telling the devotees, "Now you can go. Go now. It is okay. Krishna is sitting on the lap of Mother Yasoda."

44. Regulative principles

Tribhuvanath: At the initiation Prabhupada was very grave when he chanted on the beads. I was sitting just below the vyasasana when a boy came up and Prabhupada said to him, "What are the four regulative principles?" The boy said, "No intoxication, no gambling, no meat eating, no illicit sex." Prabhupada shot back, "So, which one do you like the best?" The boy went bright red. I thought it was funny, because Prabhupada had been so grave. It was a serious occasion, yet he talked like that.

45. Reversals

Prabhanu: There was a darshan in Prabhupada's room I remember in Mayapur along with Sudama Swami and Siddhaswarup Maharaj. Siddhaswarup was effulgent as far as I was concerned. He was a very interesting person. But there were some politics going on between him and some other sannyasis and GBCs. When he came in the room, Prabhupada turned to Siddhaswarup and said, "So Siddhaswarup Maharaj, I understand that you have a different philosophy than we do?" Siddhaswarup said, "Well, Prabhupada…" Prabhupada interrupted him and said, "Isn't it Sudama?" Sudama kind of hung his head as he didn't want to get involved. Then Siddhaswarup said, "Well Prabhupada, sometimes I preach to the householders that they should live outside the temple and have their own independence." Prabhupada said, "Yes, that's a very good idea." And then Siddhaswarup said, "Prabhupada, you know, sometimes I just don't feel qualified…" Prabhupada cut him off and said, "Qualified or unqualified, I love you." I was stunned at the way he said that with such compassion. I thought that was the most liberal and affectionate statement that could come out of anybody's mouth, especially such an elevated personality as Srila Prabhupada. "Qualified or unqualified, I love you."

46. Sankirtan

Atma Tattva: The next day Prabhupada walked around the yard and saw the bullock cart. It had a semi-circular banner saying BHAKTIVEDANTA BULLOCK CART TRAVELING SANKIRTAN PARTY. Prabhupada read the sign and said, "Jaya." Then he fed the bulls some grass, patted them on the cheeks, and said, "These bulls are carrying Gaura-Nitai for preaching. They will go back home, back to Godhead. They won't have another life."

47. Secret of success

Jayapataka Swami: Once, at a disappearance festival for Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Prabhupada was explaining how the disciple tries to carry out the order of his guru and the previous guru, the grandfather guru, as well as the order of the previous acharyas. He gave us the example of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, how he had begged door-to-door to build the first temple at Mayapur Dham, and he explained how the different acharyas had contributed to the development of Mayapur Dham. Prabhupada said, "To please my spiritual master and the previous acharyas, I am also trying to do something in Mayapur Dham. I am very grateful to everyone who is helping me." Then he couldn't speak any further. He choked up and started crying. There was a long silence. We didn't know what to do. Prabhupada finally said, "The secret of success is to satisfy the desires of the previous acharyas."

48. Sense Gratification

Tamal Krishna Goswami: Prabhupada wrote me in a letter, "Throughout my life I had so many opportunities for sense gratification, but Krishna always saved me. I never knew what is meat-eating, gambling, intoxication or illicit sex." He wrote, "There was never a moment when I was ever forgetful of Krishna." He actually wrote that in a letter to me. He said, "There was never a moment when I was ever forgetful of Krishna."

49. Service Attitude

Bhagavat: One of the things that struck me about Srila Prabhupada was how concerned he was about the welfare of his disciples. That especially struck me in Bombay. I had cut my foot, and Prabhupada noticed it during guru-puja. At that time he was receiving worship from a hundred devotees, and arati was going on. He called me to the vyasasana, completely ignoring

everyone in the room for that moment, and said, "What happened to your foot?" I said, "I cut myself." He said, "Are you all right? Is it very bad? Have you gone to the doctor? Do you need medicine?" I assured him that I had taken care of it. Then he said, "Remember, if you need anything, come and see me, and I will help."

50. Service to spiritual master

Balai: In the Boston temple it was nearing either the appearance or disappearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati. Satsvarupa Maharaj, who was the temple president, asked all the devotees to write a poem or a little essay about Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati. We all did that and he sent it to Srila Prabhupada who was in Los Angeles at the time and he asked that all these poems and everything be read in the temple room. Srila Prabhupada said, "I have nothing to offer my Guru Maharaj except these prayers from my disciples." Later he asked that the prayers be published in the Back to Godhead magazine.

51. Surrender

Giriraj Swami: On the first night of the Calcutta pandal, there were many Naxalites (communists in Bengal) in the audience ready to disturb the program. On two sides of the pandal there were folding wooden chairs for VIPs to sit on, and in the middle and at the rear there was a carpet for everyone else to sit on. The Naxalites began making agitation, "Why do some people have chairs and not others?" They started to smash chairs together while Prabhupada was trying to speak. It was a big disturbance, and some devotees, went to talk to them, but the Naxalites starting shouting at the devotees and the devotees starting shouting at the Naxalites. The disturbance became worse, and we didn't know what to do.

Prabhupada stopped speaking, closed his eyes, and with intense absorption and love for Krishna, began to sing the Govindam prayers, Govindam adi-purusamtam aham bhajami, over the microphone. Prabhupada was not thinking of anything else. Gradually the Naxalites were overcome by the influence of Srila Prabhupada's devotion. They quieted down, put the chairs back in order, and left. Srila Prabhupada had complete faith in Krishna and in His holy name, more than he had faith in his personal strength or ability. When we act in the same way, depending on Krishna and Krishna's mercy, Krishna always reciprocates.

52. Tapasya

Jahnava dasi: The next year I took this walk with Purusottam and Jadurani and Srila Prabhupada, and it was snowing. There were a couple of young teenage girls standing across the street and they had on mini skirts and, like I said, it was snowing. So Jadurani and I naturally were glancing across the street, thinking it was very odd for these two young teenage girls to have mini skirts on in the snow, and the teenage girls were looking across the street at Jadurani and I having these saris on. So Srila Prabhupada noted the humor and he said, “You are looking at them, and they are looking at you.” He said, “Their austerity is for sex life, and your austerity is for Krishna.”

53. Temple

Soma: In Boston in 1971 Prabhupada came to the temple and he gave a short address speech. Then we brought him into his room that we had fixed up. It was just a small room, maybe 10 foot by 12 foot. Because it was late, Satsvarupa Maharaj said, "Oh, Srila Prabhupada, it's late and we've rented a hotel room for you." Srila Prabhupada's eyes got really big and said, "Hotel? I'm not going." He quoted a verse and said, "The country is in the mode of goodness, the city is in the mode of passion, but a hotel is simply a brothel. I'm not going." He said, "But the temple is Vaikuntha. I'll stay here." And he did. The two and a half days that he was in Boston he just stayed in this one simple room. He was so happy to stay there instead of going some place else. We of course, as devotees, loved it that he was there staying with us for that time. One older gentleman had convinced Satsvarupa that the temple wasn't good enough for Srila Prabhupada to stay in. He rented and paid for the penthouse suite at the best hotel in Boston, the Four Seasons, but Prabhupada wouldn't go there.

54. Tolerance

Prabhupada das: There was one encounter that showed Srila Prabhupada's tolerance and also his skillful means on how to deal with an unusual situation. Once I came in and whimsically started remodeling Prabhupada's apartment. I started moving a lamp and putting it on the floor and changing things around without any rhyme or reason. There were a couple of hippies there and they didn't do anything to protect Prabhupada. They were just watching as if they were watching a movie. Srila Prabhupada

had to deal with me personally. He stood up and very politely came over to me, extended his hand to shake hands. I got more or less of a handshake from Prabhupada. Then he said, "I am so glad you came. Thank you very much for coming. This is nice, very good, and by the way, the door is right over there". He gracefully ushered me out. That little incident showed his genius on how to deal with a crazy person. He could have been a lot rougher. If it was anyone else I don't think he would have been as graceful as that.

55. Vaishnava aparadha

Mahatma: Prabhupada was giving a lecture, and the verse was about how brahmans, women, children, and elderly people are never offenders, that they should always be protected and forgiven. During the class, children started crying right after Prabhupada was making the point that children are never offenders, brahmans are never offenders, saintly persons are never offenders, and women are never offenders. As soon as Prabhupada paused, Bahulasva, one of the leaders in the Berkeley temple, made an announcement. Bahulasva was sometimes heavy and assertive, and he strongly said, "All the children should be taken out of class immediately. They're disturbing." It was as if he said, "Get out of here. You're disturbing Prabhupada." Immediately Prabhupada stopped him. Prabhupada said, "Here in this assembly we have only women, children, saintly persons, and brahmans, so there is no offense. No one here can make any offense." Prabhupada mellowed the atmosphere. Bahulasva had told the mothers to take out their crying children, but Prabhupada said, "No, there's no offense. Only women, children, sadhus, brahmans are present here, so there's no offense."

56. Yukta Vairagya

Pusta Krishna: During Prabhupada's lecture, he stressed studying the philosophy. He was concerned that we thoroughly understand the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. He said to me, "Do as I am doing. Sometimes I am managing, sometimes I am preaching, sometimes I am cooking, and sometimes I am cleaning. In that way, whatever needs to be done you do. That's sannyas." In this way he was teaching yukta vairagya, that real renunciation is to do whatever is required for the service of Krishna. It is not remaining aloof and maintaining some false posture of being only a preacher.

57. Anger

Romapada Swami: Prabhupada rang the bell on his desk, and his servant came in and offered obeisances. The servant was supposed to have done something but he had neglected to do it. Prabhupada's mood shifted from one of happily appreciating the devotees' artwork to being strong and firm with his servant. Everybody in the room became silent. As soon as the servant left, Prabhupada withdrew that anger and was again as before. Anger did not control him, but he used that mood to instruct a disciple and help that disciple stay properly situated in devotional service.

58. Greed

Pushkar: Prabhupada met Mr. Sethi just after Mr. Sethi had had a car accident. He was wearing a big brace on his neck, and the doctor had told him that he had to wear it for six months. Prabhupada said, "Why do you have this on your neck?" Mr. Sethi said, "The doctor said I need it for six months." Prabhupada said, "Take it off; you don't need it." Mr. Sethi thought, "What is this? Prabhupada tells me to take it off, but the doctor tells me to wear it for six months?" He took the brace off and didn't need it. He was perfectly all right. He also told me that once his father was sick in Chandigram. Mr. Sethi was in Bombay when he got a telegram, "You must come immediately. It is very serious." Mr. Sethi told Prabhupada, "Prabhupada, I'm going to Chandigram. My father is very sick. It's serious." Prabhupada said, "He's not serious." Mr. Sethi said, "I just got a telegram." Prabhupada said, "Your father will meet you at the bus station." Mr. Sethi took a train and then a bus to Chandigram, and when he got to the bus station, his father was there, perfectly all right. Another time Mrs. Nair, the wife of the infamous rascal who tried to cheat Prabhupada, came with an attorney to Mr. Sethi's house. Prabhupada asked her, "Why is your husband so greedy? He only has a few days to live." Three days later Mr. Nair was dead. You don't want to offend Prabhupada.