Saudamani devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 07

Saudamani: It was announced what time he was arriving and that we should all go down to the gate to greet him, and I’d never seen the temple so beautiful as they had it ready for Prabhupada’s arrival. Every morning halfway through japa, just before the greeting of the Deities, they would clear everybody out and then they would clean it really nice. But the day that Prabhupada was arriving, I remember that Bhavananda had put whole banana trees on either side of the Deity room with Radha-Madhava and Mahaprabhu. It was incredibly aesthetically beautiful. It was so clean. Then, of course, Prabhupada didn’t arrive on time. There were some communication problems. Finally they heard somewhere where Prabhupada had stopped and a new time he would arrive. When he arrived, you saw all the cars coming up the road. Of course, there was always a problem for the ladies. The men were always really pushy about being up in front, and I remember always wanting to be a little closer without getting in and having a fistfight or something like that. But when Prabhupada arrived and he came in, I remember the car behind, Pisima was in it. So she came in. I never knew her or met her, and I wasn’t even sure who she was. Then someone told me who she was. I noticed how after Prabhupada offered obeisances to the Deities, everyone crowded down around the vyasasana. But Pisima came in and she went up by the Deities and settled herself, and she was opening her bag and getting little things there. So I went over and sat there and thought, “Well, this is very nice. I’m right here, here’s the Deities, I can actually see Prabhupada, and I have no problem because I’m under a speaker so I can hear him.” So it really made the whole rest of the visit in Mayapur peaceful for me because it wasn’t really necessary to physically get in a fight or something to try to squish right up next to him. Actually it was a nice position, and I actually then got an appreciation of seeing Prabhupada surrounded by all the devotees. So I always liked that, just appreciating seeing him happily surrounded by the devotees. Prabhupada’s Gaura Purnima lecture that year went right to my heart. You know how you have that experience that even though there’s a whole crowd, the whole temple room was filled with devotees, that nevertheless he’s speaking directly to you. Because of what I had gone through in the festival and attempts about Deities and things that are my own story, I felt that the questions were answered. Prabhupada said, “People are trying to worship Radha and Krishna.” He said, “I was walking in Calcutta and I saw in a bookstore there was a picture of Radharani on the cover of Bhagavad-gita, on the cover by Herself.” And then he said how actually Radharani is not even mentioned in Bhagavad-gita. Not only was it a picture of Radharani, it had Her in a very unchaste way with Her hair hanging and with no one, no Krishna. That was the cover of Bhagavad-gita. He said, “People want to worship Radha and Krishna, but they don’t even know who Krishna is.” Then he said, “It’s not possible to worship Radha and Krishna until first you know who Krishna is. And if you want to worship Krishna, then first you have to understand Lord Caitanya. And don’t think that you can worship Lord Caitanya without first worshiping Nityananda.” And then he said, “And don’t think that you can worship Nityananda until first you follow in the footsteps of the Six Goswamis.” He would continue on, there were intervals. Then he said, “And don’t think that you can ever follow in the footsteps of the Six Goswamis until first you follow the order of the spiritual master.” Although we had by writing gotten permission to see about purchasing Radha-Krishna Deities…this was the idea, coming to India…and I remember sitting in the audience and feeling like Prabhupada personally in a most direct but nevertheless compassionate way just put me in my place. “First you must follow the order of the spiritual master.” And being put in my place was so ecstatic because it meant that I actually had a place in Prabhupada’s movement. I felt like the tiniest little dot of a space because that’s how squished down I had been put. So after that, I felt I belonged finally. That was the most ecstatic lecture that I had ever heard.

Interview DVD 09

Saudamani: Prabhupada’s Gaura Purnima lecture that year went right to my heart. You know how you have that experience that even though there’s a whole crowd, the whole temple room was filled with devotees, that nevertheless he’s speaking directly to you. Because of what I had gone through in the festival and attempts about Deities and things that are my own story, I felt that the questions were answered. Prabhupada said, “People are trying to worship Radha and Krishna.” He said, “I was walking in Calcutta and I saw in a bookstore there was a picture of Radharani on the cover of Bhagavad-gita, on the cover by Herself.” And then he said how actually Radharani is not even mentioned in Bhagavad-gita. Not only was it a picture of Radharani, it had Her in a very unchaste way with Her hair hanging and with no one, no Krishna. That was the cover of Bhagavad-gita. He said, “People want to worship Radha and Krishna, but they don’t even know who Krishna is.” Then he said, “It’s not possible to worship Radha and Krishna until first you know who Krishna is. And if you want to worship Krishna, then first you have to understand Lord Caitanya. And don’t think that you can worship Lord Caitanya without first worshiping Nityananda.” And then he said, “And don’t think that you can worship Nityananda until first you follow in the footsteps of the Six Goswamis.” He would continue on, there were intervals. Then he said, “And don’t think that you can ever follow in the footsteps of the Six Goswamis until first you follow the order of the spiritual master.” Although we had by writing gotten permission to see about purchasing Radha-Krishna Deities…this was the idea, coming to India…and I remember sitting in the audience and feeling like Prabhupada personally in a most direct but nevertheless compassionate way just put me in my place. “First you must follow the order of the spiritual master.” And being put in my place was so ecstatic because it meant that I actually had a place in Prabhupada’s movement. I felt like the tiniest little dot of a space because that’s how squished down I had been put. So after that, I felt I belonged finally. That was the most ecstatic lecture that I had ever heard. There is this fountain in front of the Art Museum and there were bleachers constructed that were just for the Bicentennial program, and these bleachers were filled with people looking like they were just sitting there waiting for the cart to come. The parade route was for us to go around this fountain and then go to the back of the Art Museum. We went around and all the people in the bleachers were amazed, and they were clapping and some of them were standing up. Prabhupada was so pleased that he instructed the people pulling the cart to take the cart around again. Those people in the bleachers were there for a whole completely other program, but by Krishna’s arrangement they got the most mercy.