Rasanandini devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 08

Rasanandini: Darshans were pretty amazing. When Prabhupada would greet the Deities, he’d be, of course, the center of attention. But it all just went past him, he was totally unaffected, and he went in front of the Deities as Their most humble servant. And that for me reinforced his personal qualities. He’d be in ecstasy and his eyes would be on Radha-Vallabha, and you could see the tinge of the ointment of love. He’d be totally in love with the Deities. The whole temple was packed out, and I peeked in through the door at the yajna. I wanted to ask Prabhupada a question. I’d only come up for the day from the country. And I wanted to know if he was like Jesus, if he could save me from birth and death, that kind of thing. So I propped myself in the passageway, and then an opportune moment as he came past I stood up and blocked his way a little bit. I didn’t realize…as soon as I stood up, Prabhupada was shorter than me. But then all material conceptions were inappropriate because he was so effulgent and his skin was just like velvet and his eyes were like deep black pools. But Prabhupada stopped, and he wanted to give me his attention and he wanted to hear the question. He said, “Hm?” and it was really deep but very soft. The question was irrelevant because of his presence. He was the most transcendental personality I’d ever met. So I just paid my pranams and got out of his way basically.