Jayadharma das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

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Jayadharma: The devotees arrived in Perth ahead of Srila Prabhupada, and overseeing all the arrangements was challenging. We needed to arrange suitable accommodations for Prabhupada and our options were limited, so we rented a house for six months for Prabhupada to stay in for ten days. [laughs] It was just something we had to do for our beloved guru. Before Prabhupada’s arrival we had to borrow sheets, towels and cooking utensils, and we had to buy food. When Prabhupada arrived, Srutakirti cooked a lovely feast on the first day. We had been on the road for about three or four days organizing Prabhupada’s stay and we hadn’t slept properly, so we all passed out after the feast. I passed out more than anybody else. It was one o’clock in the afternoon and I was totally passed out on the floor. I didn’t know who or where I was. And then there was a bell ringing and it was ringing and ringing. Everyone else woke up and they left me there. When I awoke, I looked to my side and I could see feet and a cane. There was Prabhupada looking down at me. He said, “Simply irresponsible prince. Devotees work hard and you simply eat and sleep. Krishna sends and you exploit. The irresponsible prince enjoys all the facility and sleeps all day. This is just unacceptable.” He said to me, “You can leave this movement. You can go. This movement doesn’t need you. It doesn’t need devotees like you—doesn’t need an irresponsible prince.” Then he left and went to his room. I sat on the floor for a few minutes wondering what to do. Finally, I went into Prabhupada’s room after I had a conversation with Srutakirti, and I just offered my dandavats. Prabhupada said, “So don’t be an irresponsible prince.” Prabhupada could see that I was devastated. I was the temple president of Sydney [laughs] and the manager of Spiritual Sky, so I was totally devastated indeed. He said, “We don’t need an irresponsible prince to enjoy.” The next day after Prabhupada had chastised me for sleeping late and being an “irresponsible prince,” I donned a wig and went to Perth opening up incense accounts. When I got back in the afternoon for lunch, Srutakirti told Prabhupada, “Here’s Jayadharma. He has been out selling incense.” Prabhupada responded by saying, “Jaya! Jaya!” [laughs] So that was good because I was still reeling from the moment Prabhupada said that this movement didn’t need me. Another time we were doing sankirtan in the very early days, in 1971 and 1972, when the local authorities were putting us into jail. Madhudvisa Maharaj had written to Prabhupada, “Prabhupada we need to borrow money. [laughs] And if we could raise some money, we would get legal representation, and we could beat the police and the city council.” Prabhupada wrote back and said, “No need of lawyer and no need of legal counsel. Just chant Hare Krishna and go to jail.” He said, “You can chant in the temple, you can chant in the street, and you can chant in jail. Just chant.” Madhudvisa, who was a very beloved devotee and the GBC of Australia, gave us the message: “Chant in the temple. Chant in the street. Chant in jail.” So everybody went out on sankirtan, even the Spiritual Sky people. We were being served with thousands of summons notifications, which resulted in a legal battle and a big court case. Finally, the court judgment was in our favor, and the front page of the local newspapers stated, “Hare Krishnas sanctioned by court to chant on the street.” The judge in the case said, “You can’t stop them from chanting, but they must keep moving. They can’t congest the streets.” Prabhupada arrived in Glebe where we had acquired a little abode for him next to the temple. At this time Madhudvisa Maharaj introduced me to Prabhupada as the head of Spiritual Sky and the head of the temple business. He explained to Prabhupada, “He is very successful and he’s got thousands of dollars and here’s a check for twenty thousand dollars.” Prabhupada looked at me, looked at the check, and handed it to his secretary. I said to Srila Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, I have a gift for you. Some sandalwood oil.” I pushed it across to him, and as he opened it, he said, “So, you’re the head of our Spiritual Sky and you don’t even know good sandalwood oil?” [laughs] He pushed the oil back to me and said, “You don’t even know a pure oil, and you are head of our business section?” [laughs] It seemed to be my lila. I said, “Yes, Prabhupada. I guess I don’t know a pure oil.” He was flabbergasted that such a person as useless as me was in charge of the fragrance company of the movement. When we were flying back from Perth, we had the opportunity to be on the same airplane as Prabhupada, which was really blissful. Because Prabhupada always liked to get to the airport early, I was able to sit next to him in the waiting lounge. Even though I had a terrible stutter as a youngster, I got up the nerve to ask Prabhupada a question. I said, “Prabhupada, the devotees in the temple say you should chant with the forefinger and thumb, others say you should chant with the middle finger and thumb, and then there are still others who say that it should be the ring finger and thumb. Which fingers should you chant with?” Prabhupada looked at me and said, “Just chant. Just chant.” [laughs] At that time I felt very foolish, but it showed Prabhupada’s merciful glance. He said, “Just chant.” I realized if you had no hands you might have to chant with your feet, but somehow or another “just chant, just chant.” Just don’t get too much into the technicalities of it all. The most spectacular feeling was when we reached Melbourne, and the door of the airplane opened and you could hear the chanting waft into the airplane. There was between one and two hundred devotees waiting there in the lounge to receive Prabhupada and there was tumultuous, joyous chanting. It was an absolutely spontaneous and beautiful occasion to walk through that crowd of devotees to the press area where Prabhupada would be welcomed to Australia. We rented a Rolls-Royce for Srila Prabhupada, which was a big thing in Australia. The press caught on to that fact and one reporter said, “Swami, you are a spiritual man.” Prabhupada looked over to the reporter who asked the question. The reporter then asked, “You’re not a materialist, but your followers have provided you with a Rolls-Royce.” Prabhupada said, “I am a man of God. Bring me a car of diamonds. What is this tinny Rolls-Royce?” Immediately there was a tremendous uproar from all the devotees. The newspapers the next day in Australia printed, “Swami says bring me a car made of diamonds!” No one could fathom Prabhupada’s wonderful answers. There was a huge crowd around Srila Prabhupada during the Ratha-yatra in Melbourne. Madhudvisa never did anything in a small way for Prabhupada as we had three huge carts for this Ratha-yatra. As Prabhupada was walking in the parade, three or four suspicious looking ruffians were closing in around Prabhupada. I was playing mridanga and Madhudvisa was playing kartals. As Madhudvisa was dancing in a circle around Prabhupada, he was kicking these ruffians quite firmly as if to say, “Get back!” Srila Prabhupada just kept on walking as if floating with complete faith in Krishna and Madhudvisa and oblivious to the potential danger surrounding him. With Madhudvisa clearing the path, no further incident occurred. After the parade there was a lecture at the Melbourne Town Hall. A good crowd had assembled there including my mother. The devotees had made a fan, and in their artistic fever got a heavy piece of chipboard to attach to the peacock fan. I picked up that heavy fan and I started to fan Prabhupada, which was necessary as it was a hot summer and the air-conditioning in the place didn’t work. It was really hot. As I was fanning Prabhupada, I started to ache. Prabhupada spoke for about an hour and every bone in my body was aching. My head was aching, my wrists were aching, and my legs were aching. I was about ready to collapse, so I tried gesturing to all the devotees for someone to come relieve me of this service. I couldn’t get anyone’s attention, so I quit fanning. Prabhupada stopped the lecture and looked at me. [laughs] He said, “Fan! Fan!” [laughs] Upon retrospect, it was probably the greatest moment of my life because I just picked up the fan, and I fanned for the rest of the lecture forgetting all my pain. It was a transcendental moment. During the question period of Prabhupada’s lecture, there was a guy in Melbourne called the wizard, and he grabbed the microphone. He started yelling at Prabhupada. He screamed, “Show me God.” Prabhupada replied, “Have you got the eyes to see God?” The guy yelled back, “I am God.” Prabhupada said, “Oh, God is all beautiful. Are you all beautiful?” The man said, “Yes.” The entire audience burst into laughter. Prabhupada said, “God is all rich. Are you all rich?” The man said, “Yes.” He was a vagabond who lived on the street, so everybody laughed. Prabhupada said, “God is all strong. If I kick you in the face, will you defend?” At that point two devotees picked up the wizard and gently took him from the theater. After the lecture a number of people came to me and they showed their anger. They said, “Who is he to say to you, “Fan me—fan me—fan me”? I had about a dozen people around me. Then my mother butted in and said, “It is good for him, and he needs it,” referring to my ego. [laughs] I told them, “If you take a spiritual teacher, you are accepting an authority. You have analyzed the person and concluded he has knowledge. You have analyzed the person and concluded he is detached from the world. You have analyzed the person and concluded he has all good qualities and you are learning from that person. So, if after all this analysis, you accept that person as your teacher, you have to be ready to take instructions.” Anyway, it was wonderful to see my mother defend Srila Prabhupada and me at the same time. She still to this day adores Srila Prabhupada. I was on a morning walk in Perth, which has been recorded on audio, when Ganesha said to Prabhupada that maybe we could force people to become Krishna conscious. Prabhupada said that was not possible because you can’t force love. Love must be spontaneous. Another interesting thing on that walk was when Prabhupada all of a sudden mentioned a funny thing. He told us that he had a ninety-two-year-old god-brother who had married a young girl under twenty-one years of age. As Prabhupada was telling us this story, he was laughing in a childish way. It’s hard to describe the laugh, but it was interesting for me to see another side to Prabhupada and how he found humor in how his god-brother that old could still be attracted to such a young lady. I did ask Srila Prabhupada a question that I don’t think was recorded. I said to Prabhupada, [chuckles] “I joined this Krishna consciousness movement, Srila Prabhupada, because you said, ‘Chant and be happy.’ But I can’t say that I’m really happy.” I was inquisitive to see what Prabhupada would say because Prabhupada was like a thunderbolt with me in the past, and I was hoping to see what he might be like as a rose. Srila Prabhupada said, “Well, if you didn’t chant you would be unhappier.” That response actually satisfied me. Now in my life some fifty years later, I realize that is true. I am now meeting many people as an Ayurvedic practitioner, and I can confidently say that no one finds true happiness in this material world through the elements: Bhumi apana—through earth, water, fire, air and space, mind, intelligence and false ego. People are not finding happiness in these places unless they chant Hare Krishna and come to the spiritual plane. I did receive a letter from Srila Prabhupada when I recommended a few devotees for initiation. Incidentally, they are still wonderful devotees. Anyway, the letter said, “You give them initiation and perform a fire sacrifice. Chant Hare Krishna and you become a guru.” What I understood from that directive was that if I could follow the path of the mahajanas on a sincere level, I could be a guru myself although not necessarily as an uttama-adhikari. Over the years I have learned many lessons from my experiences with Prabhupada. As an Ayurvedic practitioner I give medicine to my clients. Sometimes, actually quite often, the medicine tastes extremely bad. But if a person knows the qualities of that medicine, then the mind may even perceive it in a different way and understand the good effects of the karma of that medicine. Similarly, devotional service is a wonderful medicine, and if you take it without becoming a victim to the tricks of the mind, then you’ll make advancement despite all the troubles. Prabhupada’s overall qualities were a blend of an inconceivable mixture. Being an Ayurvedic doctor, I would compare Srila Prabhupada to the perfect yogas, or 600 BC formulas made by the greats of Ayurveda—Susruta, Charaka and Invagbha. In those formulas you can’t really pick one quality that uniquely makes the formula effective because all the qualities are so masterfully balanced. Some formulas are cooling followed by a warming effect; some have an initially bitter taste with a sweet after-taste. So, I would compare Srila Prabhupada to an inconceivable mixture of transcendental qualities. He was just always transcendental, above the mundane. You could trust that Srila Prabhupada would always be fixed in the absolute truth, nitya. He would always give you relief: samsara-davanala-lidha-loka. The spiritual master extinguishes the blazing fire of material existence with the rain of Krishna’s mercy or the torchlight of knowledge—omajnana-timirandhasya.Thequalitiesof Srila Prabhupada and these material words of duality are just not enough to describe histranscendental personality.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 71 - Australia Yatra 2

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