Urmila devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada: Difference between revisions
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==Prabhupada Memories== | |||
===Interview 01=== | |||
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'''The full Prabhupada Memories Series can be viewed [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ajeil3NjKKgeN9-fxeWwQ here] and also at [https://www.prabhupadamemories.com www.prabhupadamemories.com]''' | '''The full Prabhupada Memories Series can be viewed [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ajeil3NjKKgeN9-fxeWwQ here] and also at [https://www.prabhupadamemories.com www.prabhupadamemories.com]''' | ||
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==Following Srila Prabhupada== | |||
===Interview DVD 07=== | |||
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'''Urmila:''' The first time that I ever saw Prabhupada was in the morning. He was sitting on the vyasasana at the Chicago temple. He was giving a lecture about how we all want to see God but we can’t even see a little piece of God, the soul. Otherwise, why would we be crying when some relative has died? And if we haven’t seen a piece of God, how can we think that we can see God? I was standing right near the vyasasana, maybe two feet away, and fanning Prabhupada with a peacock feather fan all during the lecture, and I was simultaneously very happy and very disappointed. I was very happy because I realized that hearing Prabhupada there on the vyasasana was no different than hearing a tape recording of him. All that time I’d been listening to Prabhupada lectures on tapes, I’d been with him hearing him, and I felt so happy and so satisfied. But I had wanted something different. I hadn’t wanted it to be just the same as a tape recording. I had wanted to get to know Prabhupada the person. A few hours later, my father, my husband and I went into Prabhupada’s room; and right before, Prabhupada was speaking to a reporter, which is what you’re seeing here. He was very much joking, very congenial, very relaxed. Right after the reporters left, then my father and my husband and I were introduced. At that point, Prabhupada leaned back on the cushion and he had one of his legs up, and his dhoti was such that you could see his calves and his lotus feet. I remember thinking how soft his skin was, it looked like the skin of a baby. As the conversation began to unfold, I realized that here Krishna was fulfilling my desire to get to see Prabhupada as an individual person. When I was listening to him on the vyasasana, I was seeing him as the guru, as the acharya, and here I was seeing him as Prabhupada the individual person. It was very, very sweet. This was the first time also that my father had met Srila Prabhupada. My father had been coming to the temple periodically since I joined. First he introduced himself but Prabhupada thought that my husband was my father’s son, and then he understood that it was the daughter. He said, “Do you have any sons?” My father said, “No, only daughters.” Prabhupada said, “Oh, only daughters.” Then my father said, “I’m coming to this temple not because I want to see Krishna but because I want to see my daughter and my son-in-law. Is that all right?” Prabhupada said, “Yes. They are loving Krishna.” And I was thinking, “I don’t love Krishna.” He said, “Chanting and dancing are symptoms of loving Krishna, and they are loving Krishna and you are loving them. So two things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.” Then my father said, “But I’m a Jew, and is it really all right that I come to the temple even though I’m Jewish?” Prabhupada said, “Yes. There can be many planes going through Chicago, but they have to know they are going through Chicago. Otherwise, what is the meaning of many planes? So there can be many religions, but they have to know what is the goal. The goal is to know God and to love Him. If you know that the goal is to know God and to love Him, then there can be many religions.” After we walked out, my father turned to me and said, “Now I know why you’ve come to this Hare Krishna movement. That is a genuine holy man.” | |||
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===Interview DVD 09=== | |||
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'''Urmila:''' For Srimad-Bhagavatam class, Prabhupada was reading from the story of Ajamila. He had somebody else recite the verse and purport, and that devotee said, “Then Ajamila cried out three times very loudly, ‘Narayana! Narayana! Narayana!’” Prabhupada said, “Have I said three times? It is not three times. Once is sufficient.” Then at the initiation, someone else had chosen the names for the initiates. So they’d call the person up by their regular name, and then Prabhupada would ask what was their new devotee name. And the devotee would read from the list, I think it was Brahmananda, and several times Prabhupada would change the name. They had mentioned some name and Prabhupada said, “What is this?” He said, “It’s supposed to be Bhubrt, meaning ‘one who carries the planets.’ This name you have chosen means ‘one who carries a heavy load.’” He said, “Where did you get these names?” | |||
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Latest revision as of 14:09, 25 January 2022
Prabhupada Memories
Interview 01
Urmila: I got first initiation through the mail and for second initiation I received gayatri mantra directly from Prabhupada in Philadelphia. There was a huge initiation that morning where seventy-five devotees got initiated. At that initiation Prabhupada didn’t like a lot of the names that the sannyasis had picked out. At least three times he changed the names and the third time he looked at Brahmananda and said, “Where did you get these names?” One of the names I remember was Buhbrit and I forget the original name but when Prabhupada changed it to Buhbrit he said, “Buhbrit means one who carries all the planets on their head”. The other name the sannyasis had given he said, “That means one who carries a heavy load.” He also gave an interesting lecture about Ajamila. One of the devotees was reading the translation as the book hadn’t been published yet, and it read, “Ajamila called out three times, Narayana, Narayana, Narayana” and Prabhupada said, “Three times? I did not say three times. One time. Once is sufficient, Narayana.” Another time we were staying at the home of one Indian family where the woman had been chanting sixteen rounds, getting up early, offering her food for three years but her husband wasn’t favorable. The temple authorities wouldn’t recommend her for initiation. So she had gone to Prabhupada personally and Prabhupada accepted her. The devotees had the attitude especially with women, “If the husband is not strict, how is the woman going to follow?” But Prabhupada didn’t consider that. “If she wants to follow, she can follow.” He accepted her. I saw them twenty years later in Vrindavan and the husband had become a devotee.
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To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 51 - Bhakti Vikasa Swami , Chaturatma, Laksmi Nrsimhadev, Laxmimoni dd, Urmila dd
The full Prabhupada Memories Series can be viewed here and also at www.prabhupadamemories.com
Following Srila Prabhupada
Interview DVD 07
Urmila: The first time that I ever saw Prabhupada was in the morning. He was sitting on the vyasasana at the Chicago temple. He was giving a lecture about how we all want to see God but we can’t even see a little piece of God, the soul. Otherwise, why would we be crying when some relative has died? And if we haven’t seen a piece of God, how can we think that we can see God? I was standing right near the vyasasana, maybe two feet away, and fanning Prabhupada with a peacock feather fan all during the lecture, and I was simultaneously very happy and very disappointed. I was very happy because I realized that hearing Prabhupada there on the vyasasana was no different than hearing a tape recording of him. All that time I’d been listening to Prabhupada lectures on tapes, I’d been with him hearing him, and I felt so happy and so satisfied. But I had wanted something different. I hadn’t wanted it to be just the same as a tape recording. I had wanted to get to know Prabhupada the person. A few hours later, my father, my husband and I went into Prabhupada’s room; and right before, Prabhupada was speaking to a reporter, which is what you’re seeing here. He was very much joking, very congenial, very relaxed. Right after the reporters left, then my father and my husband and I were introduced. At that point, Prabhupada leaned back on the cushion and he had one of his legs up, and his dhoti was such that you could see his calves and his lotus feet. I remember thinking how soft his skin was, it looked like the skin of a baby. As the conversation began to unfold, I realized that here Krishna was fulfilling my desire to get to see Prabhupada as an individual person. When I was listening to him on the vyasasana, I was seeing him as the guru, as the acharya, and here I was seeing him as Prabhupada the individual person. It was very, very sweet. This was the first time also that my father had met Srila Prabhupada. My father had been coming to the temple periodically since I joined. First he introduced himself but Prabhupada thought that my husband was my father’s son, and then he understood that it was the daughter. He said, “Do you have any sons?” My father said, “No, only daughters.” Prabhupada said, “Oh, only daughters.” Then my father said, “I’m coming to this temple not because I want to see Krishna but because I want to see my daughter and my son-in-law. Is that all right?” Prabhupada said, “Yes. They are loving Krishna.” And I was thinking, “I don’t love Krishna.” He said, “Chanting and dancing are symptoms of loving Krishna, and they are loving Krishna and you are loving them. So two things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.” Then my father said, “But I’m a Jew, and is it really all right that I come to the temple even though I’m Jewish?” Prabhupada said, “Yes. There can be many planes going through Chicago, but they have to know they are going through Chicago. Otherwise, what is the meaning of many planes? So there can be many religions, but they have to know what is the goal. The goal is to know God and to love Him. If you know that the goal is to know God and to love Him, then there can be many religions.” After we walked out, my father turned to me and said, “Now I know why you’ve come to this Hare Krishna movement. That is a genuine holy man.” |
Interview DVD 09
Urmila: For Srimad-Bhagavatam class, Prabhupada was reading from the story of Ajamila. He had somebody else recite the verse and purport, and that devotee said, “Then Ajamila cried out three times very loudly, ‘Narayana! Narayana! Narayana!’” Prabhupada said, “Have I said three times? It is not three times. Once is sufficient.” Then at the initiation, someone else had chosen the names for the initiates. So they’d call the person up by their regular name, and then Prabhupada would ask what was their new devotee name. And the devotee would read from the list, I think it was Brahmananda, and several times Prabhupada would change the name. They had mentioned some name and Prabhupada said, “What is this?” He said, “It’s supposed to be Bhubrt, meaning ‘one who carries the planets.’ This name you have chosen means ‘one who carries a heavy load.’” He said, “Where did you get these names?” |