Ganesh: On the morning walks, generally Paramahamsa Swami, Srutakirti, or Amogha prabhu would play the devil’s advocate and pose materialistic questions to the philosophy that Srila Prabhupada presented. Once I felt comfortable enough to ask a question. Trying to imitate a materialist I said, “You say that the Bhagavad-gita is 5,000 years old. Then what does it mean—” Prabhupada immediately stopped me in mid-sentence, turned to the other devotees, and said, “He’s my disciple, and he does not know Bhagavad-gita?” I didn’t know what to say. One of the devotees said, “Prabhupada, I think he was pretending to be a materialist.” Prabhupada stopped him in mid-sentence too and said, “That is all right. He’s my disciple. He does not know Bhagavad-gita. What is the meaning of this?” Prabhupada looked at all of them and kept going. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to melt. I couldn’t understand why Prabhupada was chastising me, why he was so heavy. He kept on saying, “He’s my disciple, yet he does not know Bhagavad-gita.” I don’t know what else happened on that walk. I was blown away. This was the first time I had experienced Prabhupada’s anger. It was vehement. Later on, I realized that Prabhupada had been explaining that if a materialist read Bhagavad-gita, he would know that Krishna spoke Bhagavad-gita to the sungod many millions of years ago. So if a materialist had read that Bhagavad-gita was 5000 years old, then he also would have read that it was millions of years old. From a materialist’s point of view, my question was stupid. And from a devotional point of view the knowledge is eternal. Since my question was silly there was no escape for me. Prabhupada’s analysis was correct, “He’s my disciple and he does not know the Bhagavad-gita.” I took that to heart and tried to learn Bhagavad-gita and understand Krishna consciousness. Some months later Prabhupada wrote me a nice letter saying that I had understood the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. I felt somewhat relieved. But it was incredible to feel Prabhupada’s anger right there and then. It blew me away.
Prabhupada decided that he liked the beach better than the parks, so every day we took him to a beach, where we walked up and down the road next to the sand. Prabhupada talked about how man had not gone to the moon. He pointed to some big sand dunes where there were small flowers growing and an occasional lizard scurrying underneath those flowers. Prabhupada said that life could exist even in sand. He said, “They say they’ve been to the moon and it’s full of dust and sand, but here we have experience that life can exist in sand. Therefore we must say that they’ve not been to the moon, because there must be some life form there. Even if one lives in the desert, he can survive by growing watermelons and potatoes in sand. There’s life throughout the universe, and in every condition there are living entities.”
On another morning walk we were discussing devotees falling down from Krishna consciousness, because one of our God-brothers had left the movement. I asked, “Prabhupada, if devotees are transcendental then—” Again Prabhupada cut me off in midsentence. He said, “Not transcendental; trying to be transcendental.” That was another eye-opener. We’re not immediately on the transcendental platform. We still have to struggle and prove ourselves in Krishna’s eyes.
On one morning walk Prabhupada described how thousands of years ago temples were built without huge cranes and other machines. He said, “They would build one floor and then push sand up around that entire floor. The whole building would be covered by sand, and they would roll the pillars and stones up to make the second floor. Then they would cover that floor in sand, and in this way they built the different levels until the whole temple was complete.
A psychology student came to see Srila Prabhupada. He sat down opposite Srila Prabhupada and was introduced. Prabhupada, with his bead bag on his hand, sat and looked at this man. The man had glasses on, and his head was down. It was strange. Prabhupada looked at Amogha, who was sitting on the right side of Srila Prabhupada, and motioned with his head. Amogha said, “Srila Prabhupada would like to know if you have any questions.” The man didn’t respond but kept looking down with a deadpan face. This was my first intimate association with Srila Prabhupada. I was afraid of doing the wrong thing, and I was uneasy in silence, and there was a lot of silence in the room at this time. Then Prabhupada began to move his hand in his bead bag and mouth the maha-mantra although he was practically inaudible. All I could hear was “rama rama hare hare.” I couldn’t hear the Krishnas, but I managed to hear the Ramas. Prabhupada looked at this man and quoted from the seventh chapter of the Bhagavad-gita, “bhumir apo ‘nalo vayuh kham mano buddhir eva ca.” Prabhupada described the different elements and explained how the mind, intelligence, and ego are subtle energy. Prabhupada was speaking to all of us, but he was looking at the man. Then Prabhupada began to speak about ghosts. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but Srutakirti, who was sitting on the floor on Prabhupada’s left, chuckled and said, “Prabhupada, why are you talking about ghosts?” I was taken aback when he asked that question. I thought he was being too familiar, but he had a familiar relationship with Prabhupada. Prabhupada ignored the question and continued looking at the man. Prabhupada described how ghosts are subtle, how they don’t have gross bodies and how it’s a very sinful birth. A ghost has material desires but cannot fulfill them through a gross body. At one point Prabhupada said, “Because ghosts are powerful, sometimes they move things,” and Prabhupada moved his hand through the air as though he were moving a glass. We began to realize that this man was ghostly haunted. He was studying the science of the mind, but somehow or other his mind was overtaken. I got enough courage to ask, “Prabhupada, if a ghost overtakes someone, does that mean there are two souls in the body? Does the ghost’s soul enter the body?” Prabhupada said, “No he doesn’t go in the body, but he exerts his influence over the body. The ghost doesn’t actually enter, so there are not two souls managing the body.” That was an unusual experience.
When Srila Prabhupada was in Perth, his habit was to briefly nap after lunch, and during that time the devotees took prasadam. The devotees were eating a lot, and Australia had such good quality milk products that the devotees were also eating lots of yogurt and other milk products along with everything else. After they’d finished they would also rest. One day Prabhupada got up from his nap, began to read and translate, and at about four or five o’clock in the afternoon, he realized he hadn’t heard anything in the house. He walked around and found the devotees sleeping. This was about two hours after they had taken lunch. Prabhupada woke them up and chastised them for simply eating and sleeping. Prabhupada told them “You are worse than karmis. Even the karmis are out working hard for their maintenance and food, but you’re just eating and sleeping.” I was on sankirtan that day, and I felt thankful that I’d missed that. I would have been sleeping with the others for sure, but fortunately I was collecting money for Prabhupada at the time.
Prabhupada was performing initiations in the temple room in Melbourne, when a girl came up and Prabhupada asked Paramahamsa Swami for her name. Paramahamsa Swami had a paper with the names of all the initiates. Paramahamsa Swami said, “Her name is Bhadrakali, Srila Prabhupada.” Prabhupada’s eyes opened: “Bhadrakali? This will not do.” Prabhupada looked at the girl and said, “Your name is Bhadra.” He didn’t want the name Bhadrakali for one of his disciples. Then Prabhupada asked another initiate, “What are the four regulative principles?” She answered, and Prabhupada asked Paramahamsa, “What is her name?” To find her Sanskrit name on the list, Paramahamsa asked Madhudvisa, “What is her legal name?” But her name wasn’t on the list. Paramahamsa turned to Srutakirti, Srutakirti turned to Madhudvisa, and Madhudvisa turned to me. I was fanning Srila Prabhupada. Madhudvisa said, “Quick, think of names for three girls.” Three girls hadn’t been given names beforehand. I recalled a story from the Bhagavatam about Prasuti, Akuti, and Devahuti, and I told Madhudvisa those three names, and he gave them to Prabhupada. Prabhupada said, “Your name is Prasuti; your name is Devahuti; your name is Akuti.” Prabhupada empowered me to pick the names at that time. That was another funny little thing.
In Bombay in 1974, the devotees worshiped in a temple that was stilts with a tin roof. The Deities just had a curtain in front of them. Every night after sandhya-arati Prabhupada lectured from the Bhagavad-gita, and after the lecture Prabhupada gave prasadam to everybody. The pujari brought the maha plate, and Prabhupada dipped his hand in the prasadam and pushed it into the hands of the guests and devotees. It wasn’t a matter of dropping the prasadam into peoples’ hands but Prabhupada pushed the prasadam into their hands. Everybody got a little prasadam. It was maha-mahaprasadam from being touched by Srila Prabhupada. I was watching this each night, and I wanted to somehow or other get to Prabhupada’s feet. I noticed that each night when Prabhupada came to the temple somebody got to take his shoes off. I wanted to touch Prabhupada’s shoes and feet. So one night I sat guarding Prabhupada’s shoes for an hour to make sure nobody else came close to them. Prabhupada gave the lecture and gave prasadam to everybody, and then it was time for him to leave. My hand was hovering above the shoes to make sure everybody knew I was going to put them on Srila Prabhupada. When Prabhupada came, I held a shoe and Prabhupada slipped his foot in it. I touched Prabhupada’s foot. It was incredible. Prabhupada slipped his other foot into the shoe and then walked to a jeep. In the evenings, Sridhar, who was a brahmachari at that time, drove Prabhupada from the temple, which was in the front of the property, back to his room. I followed Prabhupada to the jeep. The devotees were behind us having kirtan as Prabhupada went to the jeep. I noticed the jeep step was quiet high. I thought, “That’s too high for Prabhupada. Prabhupada’s going to have trouble getting in there.” So as Prabhupada approached the jeep, I put my hand underneath his elbow to help him into it. Prabhupada pushed my hand away. I was taken aback. I had become too familiar. Since I’d put Prabhupada’s shoes on and touched his feet, I felt I was a big-time guy, that “I can help Prabhupada into the car.” I realized “Here I’m thinking that my spiritual master needs my help, but actually he doesn’t need our help in any way. He’s giving us the opportunity to serve him and in that way offer our service to Krishna. But actually Prabhupada doesn’t need any help. Prabhupada is a yogi. He can travel through the universe anytime he likes. He doesn’t manifest those things, because he wants us to develop love of Krishna instead of becoming intoxicated with mystic siddhis.” There were definitely some mystical times with Srila Prabhupada, but generally that was not his mood. Generally he was very simple.
