Prafullamukhi devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 02

Prafullamukhi: When he first came to the temple, I wasn’t very conscious of who he was because I was a brand new devotee. He came into the temple room, and everyone paid their obeisances. When everyone had their heads down, I looked up at Srila Prabhupada and he laughed, he smiled at me. It was the first realization that I ever had, that he was the first person that had ever loved me. That was very clear, that he was the first person in my life that had ever loved me and that he knew clearly who I was and everything about me. I felt he saw right through me, not in a bad way, not like saw through my artificiality, but saw who I really was. That was a very special thing. Then everyone sat down and he spoke a little bit, and then someone brought him a plate of sweets. I remember he took a gulabjamon and he tossed it in his mouth from his lap, and I remember thinking that was so incredible. I’ve tried it in the past and it just lands on my forehead or over my shoulder, but it was so incredible to watch him. Everything he did was so perfect and aristocratic.

Interview DVD 04

Prafullamukhi: Cooking for the Deities and doing the aratiks, that was my service. So one time Srila Prabhupada was there when I did the aratik. I had a wonderful realization. I turned around…I was dirty because I’d been cooking all day and then they pushed me onto the altar, and I was totally embarrassed. But I turned around to offer incense to Srila Prabhupada and I realized that he was always there on the vyasasana, that it was absolutely no different. And I still feel like that, that he’s present, even though it would be nice to be able to see him more clearly. So he was staying in the small house at Madhavan, and I was standing outside and he came out. I suspect he came out to pass urine, which I realized years later but I didn’t know it at the time, and I was just standing there. He came out and I didn’t pay obeisances, I couldn’t say anything, I just stood there like a deer in the headlights of a car and was totally terrified. But it was a wonderful thing because he smiled. He was so gracious. He smiled and made me feel so at ease and not like I had done something stupid or that I was somehow lacking. He was so kind. He just stood there with me for a while, and then he smiled and turned around and went back in the building. He has always been kind to me like that because I’m very shy and I don’t ever put myself forward, so he would put himself out for me. I had experiences like that with him where he would reassure me. That’s what I felt like.