Daivishakti devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

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Daivishakti: I would always make sure, because Pishima trained me like this, to stay very quiet and distant from Srila Prabhupada so I wouldn’t disturb him. Because so much of the time we would be in direct contact with Srila Prabhupada in his house, doing the cleaning, doing the cooking, bringing him so many things, making his medicines, so I learned to never disturb Prabhupada in any way. But I saw that a lot of the other devotees were able to act in a very open manner with Prabhupada and were always asking him questions. It looked like they were joking with him. So I started to think, “Well, these devotees, they’re so much more advanced than me because they get to have a closer relationship with Prabhupada. And I’m such a fool never asking Prabhupada any questions, just doing my service and being very careful not to talk to Prabhupada. So maybe I should start being more friendly with Srila Prabhupada.” So one evening I decided to try it out, and I brought Prabhupada in some sweets, and he immediately saw my change of personality and stopped me right then and there. I knew that I had done the wrong thing, and Prabhupada also let me know immediately that I shouldn’t change my mode of service. So the next evening, Prabhupada was sitting in his room with Bhagaji and another God-sister and Prabhupada started telling them that he liked my service, because I was always silent and hardworking. So Bhagaji immediately came out after talking to Prabhupada, and he repeated to me what Prabhupada had said, not knowing the plan of action I had tried the night before. So Prabhupada was letting me know through Bhagaji that he appreciated more the fact that I was silent and hardworking in my service instead of trying to become too artificially affectionate with him. Again, in 1974, maybe in August, after Janmastami, Prabhupada was again recovering from his sickness. And we used to cook for Prabhupada, and then after cooking for Prabhupada we would make something for his servants and secretaries to eat. There were three of them that we were cooking for at that time. I think it was Brahmananda Swami, Bhagavan, Srutakirti and maybe a few others. So we would bring that prasadam for them around to the front, and then a servant would come and drop off their plates and we’d have to wash them all out here in the garden because there was no water in the house then. We’d have to draw all the water from the front well. So I was still cleaning the kitchen up and the plates of the servants had been left outside of the kitchen. The devotees hadn’t finished their prasadam that day, so there were some remnants on their plates. Prabhupada came into the kitchen to go to his bathroom and he saw these plates, and he called me and he said, “What is this?” And I saw the plates. Normally I would have taken them and washed them right away. I said, “Oh, that’s a mistake, Prabhupada, I was supposed to clean them.” And he looked quite displeased. So immediately Prabhupada walked through his house to the front room where his secretaries lived, and seeing that Prabhupada was displeased I picked up the plates and came the back way to show Brahmananda what Prabhupada had seen and how he wasn’t happy about it. So simultaneously Prabhupada came from one door and I came from another door with the plates in my hands, and Prabhupada called me in and had me show them the plates with the prasadam on it. And he explained to them that no matter who you are, no matter whether you’re GBC or anyone, once you touch the plate, whatever is on that plate you have to finish it because it’s prasadam. You shouldn’t leave any prasadam on the plate. So Brahmananda jokingly said, “But Prabhupada, I had burped. I thought that after you burped you couldn’t finish it.” Prabhupada then said, “You can take off first. If they’ve given you too much, before you start, you take off and that doesn’t have to be completed. But whatever you have on your plate when you start, you have to finish that prasadam.” So he was telling the topmost members of our society, the GBCs and personal secretaries, they had to finish their prasadam. Just like a father he was instructing them. When Prabhupada’s house was first built and we first started using his kitchen, there were no windows or doors, it was just some pieces of wood covering up the holes. At night the animals used to come in, so we’d have to have everything very carefully covered. Even then they would get to the things. But one night Prabhupada had sent down some kachoris that he wanted saved. He wanted them kept for 24 hours because he wanted to try them the next night to see if they were still good. They were training up how the restaurant cooks should prepare the things. He wanted to see if these kachoris would last for selling purposes. So Navayogendra brought down the kachoris and I was busy making Prabhupada’s night meal and he said, “Prabhupada wants you to save these and feed them to him tomorrow night.” I said, “Just put them there on the shelf,” and I immediately forgot about them. So the next night it was 8:30 and just at 8:30 I remembered, “Oh, the kachoris, they were on the shelf.” So I went to get the kachoris and, sure enough, the only thing that was there were a few crumbs. Right then Navayogendra comes down and said, “Prabhupada wants to try the kachoris.” I said, “Prabhu, the cat must have eaten them, they’re not here.” So he got scared, and he ran up and he told Prabhupada. He came running back down with his face all red. He said, “Prabhupada says that whoever says the cat has eaten them, they have eaten them.” So I knew I hadn’t eaten the kachoris, but Prabhupada was saying that I had eaten the kachoris. So I was in a real fix because my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada was accusing me of something that I knew I hadn’t done. So it was a big test in my spiritual life. I knew I hadn’t done it and Prabhupada said I was doing it, so I realized with all the years of sankirtan, you had to just continue and not give up in your service even if there’s some setback. Prabhupada said I took those kachoris. Well, I just as well might have eaten them because he wants to eat them and they’re not here and it’s my fault. So I realized, “Now, what is the real issue here? That Prabhupada wants some kachoris.” So I had twenty minutes, it was twenty minutes until 9:00, and I remembered that in the restaurant as I was running by, they were grinding up some urad dahl. So I quickly ran over to the restaurant and I got their urad dahl and I whipped up some kachoris. And, at exactly 9:00, I brought up those kachoris to Prabhupada with his milk. And he ate those kachoris. He ate five in a row and he said, “These kachoris are better than the other ones, and I want you to cook them for me every night.” So that was a big test of my Krishna consciousness, that even when there are setbacks, especially in the personal service of Prabhupada when you’re so closely connected with him, you have to just continue in that service and there’s always some way that Prabhupada gives you to rectify even if there’s a mistake that you’ve committed.

The full Prabhupada Memories Series can be viewed here and also at www.prabhupadamemories.com

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 07

Daivishakti: We were invited to go on a morning walk with Prabhupada, Mahara and myself, because we were the top book distributors amongst the ladies. So we got to go to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, and it was Brahmananda, Hridayananda Swami, Bali Mardan. So Prabhupada was saying to them, “I had a dream, and I dreamt that we had a boat and I traveled with 25 sannyasis and 25 brahmacaris all over the world in this boat.” Then Bali Mardan said, “I have some boating experience,” and Brahmananda said, “Yeah, I also have some boating experience. Maybe we can go with you, Prabhupada.” So they were laughing that they would like to go with Prabhupada on that boat to travel all over the world and in each port have sankirtan.