Arundhati devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

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Arundhati: Srila Prabhupada had some little Radha-Krishna Deities that traveled with him. We were in his apartment one day when he said, “I would like somebody to bathe my Deities. Is there anyone that would like to do that?” I said, “I will, Srila Prabhupada.” I wasn’t brahman initiated, but that didn’t matter at the time. The next morning Srila Prabhupada and I sat down in front of his Deities. He took his little brass Radharani and showed me how to polish Her by doing it himself, using tamarind and fuller’s earth. Then he handed Krishna to me, saying, “Now you do Krishna.” So I polished Krishna. Then he showed me how to bathe the Deities, and he asked me to come every morning to do that. So while he was in New York I did that. Sometimes he was in the room with me, and other times he would go on his morning walk. Then I returned to Boston with the other devotees and when Prabhupada came there I took care of his Deities again. During that time, Satsvarupa said to Prabhupada that he was concerned about the women in the temple because they were fighting with each other. Prabhupada said, “Well, they should be married. Immediately arrange for them to get married.” There were four of us, Saradiya, Rukmini, Jahnava, and me. So, Saradiya and Vaikunthanath were arranged to be married, Jahnava and Nanda Kishor, Rukmini and Baradraj, and Prabhupada said that I should marry a young man named Dayal Nitai. But I didn’t want to marry Dayal Nitai. He didn’t seem right, and I was very upset, going up on a hill, praying to Krishna and crying. Satsvarupa told Prabhupada, and Prabhupada said, “Nothing is by force in Krishna consciousness. She can get married at a later date.” So everybody got married except me. When everybody was married, the whole Boston temple suddenly changed, and I started feeling out of place. I prayed to Krishna to send me a husband. Prabhupada continued his travels, and one day about two months later, Purushottam, Prabhupada’s servant, called the Boston temple from Columbus, Ohio and said, “Srila Prabhupada wants to know if you want to come here and marry Pradyumna.” I said, “Okay,” and I went to Columbus. I had met Pradyumna once. When I got there, it turned out that Prabhupada’s Deities had been lost while he was traveling. They had been missing for some weeks, but on the day that I arrived in Columbus, the Deities came back too. Prabhupada said to me, “The Deities like the way you serve Them, so now that you are here, They have come back also.” So I got to bathe his Deities again.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 15 - The 1996 NYC and LA Reunions

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

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 01

Arundati: There was a whole bunch of us waiting at this one gate, and all of a sudden somebody saw Prabhupada coming from this other gate and he said, “Oh, Srila Prabhupada’s coming from over there,” and we all ran to greet Srila Prabhupada and we fell down at his lotus feet. I was a new devotee so I didn’t know how long you’re supposed to stay down. So I stayed down for quite a while, and then I kind of peeked my head up to see if everybody had gotten up yet. Everyone was up, and Prabhupada was standing right over above me. I looked up into his lotus eyes and he went and patted my head, so I got up. So that was my first memory of Prabhupada. I was initiated by mail probably a few months before he had come to New York. At Boston it was just Jadurani and Satsvarupa. Devananda was the one brahmachari that was there. And then there was four brahmacharinis: me, Jahnava, Rukmini and Saradia. Satsvarupa said to Prabhupada, “All these brahmacharinis, they are always fighting with each other. And Prabhupada said, “That is because they need to be married, they are fighting. They must get married. Immediately arrange. I will perform wedding before I leave,” and he was leaving two days later. So instantly we were supposed to be getting married and it was pretty shocking. And then this other brahmachari came named Dayal Nitai and Prabhupada said I should marry Dayal Nitai. And I got really upset. Somehow I did not want to marry Dayal Nitai. I went up to this hill somewhere and was crying and praying to Krishna and not knowing what to do thinking that Prabhupada said I should do this and I just had very strong resistance to it. So as I came back down Satsvarupa said what’s wrong and I told him. So Satsvarupa went in to Prabhupada and said to him, “Arundhati’s upset. She doesn’t really want to marry Dayal Nitai.” And Prabhupada said, “That is ok. Nothing is by force in Krishna consciousness. And if she doesn’t want to marry now, then she can get married at some later date.” So I was very relieved. So the next day Prabhupada performed that wedding ceremony with the three couples. So I was praying to Krishna, “Please send me a husband. I don’t wanna…I just felt so uncomfortable. So then…I don’t know time exactly, whether it was a month or little bit longer but Purushottama called up and he said, “Prabhupada would like to know if you would like to come here and marry Pradyumna.” And I had met Pradyumna once before. We were both working on Prabhupada’s books. So I thought about it and I said, “Ok, I will come.” So then I went to Columbus and Prabhupada married us. And then Prabhupada asked me and Shyama dasi if we could do composing of his books. He bought the first composer machine. He was very involved with that and was writing to us quite regularly. He said we should learn. We went and learned how to use it and he gave us specific hours. He said, “Arundhati, you can work from seven to ten, and Shyma dasi, ten to one. And Arundhati you work again from one to four and Shyama dasi from four to seven so that we are really using the time and getting the books done.” And I think the first book we did on that machine was the Nectar of Devotion. Prabhupada was constantly writing letters and wanting to know how it was going and very involved with that.