Bhakti Vikasa Swami Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

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Bhakti Vikas Swami: When I received my brahminical initiation from Prabhupada in Vrindavan in 1976, I had my only one-on-one exchange with him. I’d been waiting all morning for a few mornings, and just before it was my turn to go into Prabhupada’s room, Pusta Krishna, Prabhupada’s secretary, wanted to stop the initiations until the next day since there were so many initiates at that time. Then he saw that I looked disappointed so he said, “Okay, go in.” Now, my God-brother and close friend, Satyavak prabhu, a devotee from Britain who left his body about two years ago, had heard from the Hari-bhakti-vilasa that when you say gayatri you should face in a certain direction in the morning, another direction in the evening, and another direction at night. And he heard that you should say gayatri so many minutes before sunrise and so many minutes after sunset. There were many detailed rules about gayatri. I thought that if I got a chance, I’d like to ask Prabhupada about those rules. I went in and Prabhupada had me pronounce the words. I thought I knew how to pronounce Sanskrit quite nicely. I read the first mantra, said every word wrong and Prabhupada corrected me. Then Prabhupada gave up trying to correct me. After I had said all the mantras, he said, “Chant this morning, noon and evening. Do you have any questions?” I wanted to confirm the things I’d heard, so I said, “Prabhupada, is there any particular time for chanting gayatri?” Prabhupada had just told me “Chant morning, noon and evening,” and again he said, “Yes, chant morning, noon and evening.” Again I asked, “But Prabhupada is there an exact time?” Prabhupada looked at me and said, “Morning, noon and evening.” After that, I didn’t think of asking the other questions. I said, “Yes, Prabhupada,” offered my obeisances and left.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 34 - 25th Anniversary of SP Disappearance

Interview 02

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Bhakti Vikasa Swami: Srila Prabhupada was sitting on his vyasasana that was not exactly a vyasasana but it was a special raised seat. To Srila Prabhupada’s right and a little in front of him was a senior devotee who had his japa beads around his neck and he was chanting on them. When Srila Prabhupada noticed that he asked him, “Where is your bead bag?” This devotee said, “It’s being washed, Srila Prabhupada”, and then Prabhupada turned to Harikesh Maharaj and asked, “Some bead bags have been given?” Harikesh said, “Yes, Prabhupada.” Prabhupada said, “Bring one and give it to him.” Harikesh brought the bead bag and then Prabhupada told the devotee who had been chanting, “Always keep your beads in a bead bag.” He said, “You should have two bead bags. When one is being washed use the other one.” So that’s the small instruction. But it’s important. In the early days of the movement we hear that devotees would keep the beads around their neck but later Prabhupada introduced more rules. During the class Srila Prabhupada thanked all the European and American boys and girls for taking so much trouble to come to Mayapur. Prabhupada didn’t have to say that. He was thanking us for coming, whereas we should be thanking him for bringing us there, making facility and for everything. Then Srila Prabhupada said in the lecture, “But you will be actually benefited if you take lessons from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sanatana Goswami.” Now I understood from that that Prabhupada wanted us to not waste our time in Mayapur by being frivolous and to really be serious about hearing and chanting. But at the same time I wondered, “How are we going to take lessons from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sanatana Goswami?” Quite some time later, I realized that hearing from Srila Prabhupada speak on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his instructions to Sanatana Goswami, is the way that we learn from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. I happened upon a darshan in Prabhupada’s room. I looked in and there weren’t any big shots in there so I thought, “Well, I can go in too.” There was no space left but I went inside. It was almost the end of the darshan but the atmosphere was quite different to the classes where the class was very grave and very formal. Prabhupada now was just happy to be with his disciples and they were happy to be with him. I can’t remember what was being said, perhaps some transcendental small talk. And then Anakadundubhi Prabhu, who was the very tall British pujari living in Mayapur, came with a plate of the afternoon fruits offering. It was a huge plate. He was just standing outside the door and Prabhupada looked over and asked him to come in. I could see that Anakadundubhi was thinking, “How can I get in with my big body and big plate of fruit and so many people?” Then Anakadundubhi said, “I will just give some prasadam to the devotees as they leave.” Prabhupada immediately with a big smile said, “They will never leave!” All the devotees said, “Jai, Prabhupada!” Then everyone knew it was time to leave and they got up. Later I thought about that statement, “They will never leave.” With Prabhupada’s blessings, no one can leave. Even if superficially some devotees appear to leave, actually Prabhupada caught us. He caught us with a bondage of love. So that was Prabhupada’s blessing. We can never leave. He won’t allow us to leave. Even if we try our very best, Prabhupada has caught us. In one of the Prahlad Maharaj classes, Srila Prabhupada said, “A mother feels the pain of her child more than the child personally does.” It seems impossible because the mother doesn’t directly feel the physical pain that is felt by the child. But because the child is so dear to her, the mental pain that the mother feels is actually greater in suffering than the child experiences. Srila Prabhupada in the same way was so concerned with the conditioned soul. Sometimes he would tell someone, “You can become a dog in your next life” and they would say, “Oh, great”. Prabhupada would reply, “I give you my blessing.” In reality Prabhupada was not blessing them to become a dog. He was just trying to do whatever he could as he actually feels the pain of the conditioned soul. We’re so dull that we don’t feel it ourselves. Prabhupada feels that we’re separated from Krishna. “How can you be like that?” He is just trying to wake us up any way possible. In one lecture Srila Prabhupada spoke about cruelty or how heartless people can be. He recounted an incident he had remembered from his youth in Calcutta. There he saw one man who cut the throat of a chicken and his son was crying. The father said to the son, “Why you are crying? It’s fun.” In this way the father was training his child. Prabhupada gave this as an example how cruel people can be and when he said the word “cruel”, he said it maybe six or seven times; “Cruel, cruel, cruel” and each time with more intensity as Prabhupada was feeling, “How can they be so heartless?” Prabhupada saw it as such a nasty attitude and people just take it as normal. During the festival in Vrindavan in 1976 there was a big sacrifice. Big means many devotees received initiation. I was sitting there for brahminical initiation or what we call second initiation. Akshayananda Swami was doing the sacrifice sitting in the hot sun pouring ghee and sitting close to the blazing fire. As the ceremony and chanting of “svaha, svaha, svaha”, was going on, Prabhupada leaned into the microphone and said, “Stop.” Usually you don’t stop in the middle of a sacrifice. Traditional brahmins wouldn’t even dream of doing such a thing. Prabhupada indicated to the back of the courtyard of the Krishna-Balaram temple where there was one young woman with a child on her lap. The child was not more than one and a half or two years old. Prabhupada said, “This child has his hand in his mouth. He is contaminating the whole sacrifice. Take him out and wash his hand. Teach him not to put his hand in his mouth. Continue.” Some may think that these are just some rituals you do, but Prabhupada was concerned about ritual contamination where the offering to Vishnu might be impeded. What I got from that instruction was that Krishna is not pleased if we don’t follow the rules and regulations properly. Sacrifice means certain rules and regulations should be followed. We may think he is just a young innocent child, but young child or whoever is contaminating should not be permitted to do so. Prabhupada said, “Train the child. Don’t put your hand in your mouth.” During the Vrindavan section of the festival after the morning program and breakfast prasadam, devotees would go out in buses to the various holy places in the Vrindavan area. Senior devotees would narrate the pastimes that Krishna had performed there and read from Prabhupada’s books. On the morning that we were scheduled to go to Radha-kunda, Srila Prabhupada in the morning class said, “Don’t think you can imitate Haridas Thakur and just sit and chant. You have to be active in spiritual life.” I was somewhat shocked by that because I was naïve, but Prabhupada knew that devotees would try and do that. Srila Prabhupada said, “Don’t think that you can just go and sit at Radha-kunda and be a babaji and just chant because what will you do? You will just eat and sleep and think of women and money and fall down. Kanaka kamini.” “Kanaka kamini” means women and money. It’s a traditional saying that money and women are the two causes of falldown for sadhus. Then Prabhupada said, “There are already enough hogs, dogs and monkeys in Vrindavan. Don’t become another one.”

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