Hamsavatar: When I first saw Prabhupada in New York City he exuded such humility. I never met anyone else like him, as he knew everything. He was so knowledgeable. He spoke about God, about our relationship with God, about Krishna, about this material world not being our home. All the other gurus I had been to seemed to want to impress me to believe that they were like Jesus. But when I saw Srila Prabhupada, I knew I finally met my guru. I started to study his books and I realized spiritual life is something very serious and at the same time is something very sweet.
One day we had a terrible car accident in downtown Honolulu. Afterwards we came to see Prabhupada who was so compassionate. He wanted to know how we were doing. We both suffered as we still do today, and as the weeks went on I couldn’t keep up with the pujari service. I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t walk. I was crawling and so I told Srutakirti, “I really need to speak to Srila Prabhupada because I can’t do my service. I have to recuperate. The doctor said I would never walk again if I don’t do something.” The word got out that I was going to say that I had to leave. Before I came up to the room to see Srila Prabhupada and tell him, Gurukripa, one of the temple leaders, who was very strict said, “Prabhupada’s going to give you the sauce.” However, Prabhupada just smiled and looked right at Gurukripa and then back at me and said, “So what is the difficulty? The sannyasis are traveling. So you travel.” He said, “Worship the deities at home. Follow the regulative principles. Chant sixteen rounds. What is the difficulty?” He was teaching me a lesson and at the same time I’m sure he was teaching our dear God-brother Gurukripa a lesson as well; if he wasn’t going to be so hard on me, maybe Gurukripa shouldn’t either.
I wanted to study Jyotish, the Vedic method of astrology, and I asked Prabhupada, “Could I study Jyotish?” Prabhupada said, “It’s not very important.” He said it’s not such an important thing and he really didn’t give it much thought at all. I was crest-fallen because I thought this was a great thing to use in preaching Krishna consciousness because Jyotish is very exacting. If you are good in understanding the astronomical positions you can tell a person almost everything about their lives so they become very respectful of you. I got to ask him again a few days later when I got to bring him his lunch. I said, “I had this idea and I know you said it was not very important, but I had this idea that I could preach if I learned Jyotish.” All of a sudden Prabhupada’s eyes lit up and he said, “Oh, for preaching? Then it is alright.” I smiled and said, “Thank you, Srila Prabhupada.” I was happy because the devotees had told me that it was nonsense, but Prabhupada gave me a window for preaching.
For me the quality in Srila Prabhupada that stood out more than anything at the time was his humility. I had never met someone so great before. I had never met someone with such energy that beamed in the way his did. When you were in Prabhupada’s presence it seemed like you were in the presence of a giant. But in actual stature Prabhupada was barely five feet and a few inches tall. But he was so powerful, so full of chi at his age but at the same time so humble. I remember him saying so many times that that is the first quality; that if you don’t have humility, then how can you possibly expect to make any advancement in spiritual life? So that was it for me. He didn’t ask for any worship. He didn’t say remember my name. You didn’t see his name up in lights anywhere. All he said was, “Please chant Hare Krishna.” So I owe Srila Prabhupada my whole existence.
