Joshomatinandan das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

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Joshomatinandana: Prabhupada gave a lecture in the New York temple and coincidentally he said, “Bharata-bhumite haila manusya-janma yara, janma sarthaka kari’ kara para-upakara, that those born in India should make their lives successful by becoming Krishna conscious and by delivering others.” I was in the crowd listening and I felt like he was telling me, “You’re wasting your life. Become serious.” The environment in the 439 Henry Street building was nice. There were 400 devotees there, and I was making rapid spiritual progress. Around 11:00 the next morning, Bhagavan Prabhu took me in to Prabhupada’s little room. Prabhupada was sitting alone and Bhagavan said, “Prabhupada, this boy is an engineer in Detroit. He chants Hare Krishna, he’s read your books and he wanted to meet you.” Prabhupada said, “Oh, yes, what is your name?” I said, “My name is Janak Joshi.” “Where are you from?” “I’m from Surat.” “Surat is a very nice place. I received a good reception there. People were very pious and interested in chanting. What do you do?” “I’m an engineer.” “So work as engineer and when you have sufficient money, build a temple there.” This was Prabhupada’s first instruction to me and it was fulfilled. Just last year we opened a beautiful Radha-Damodar temple on the bank of the River Tapi in Surat—and we also have five other temples in Gujarat. Kirtanananda Maharaj told Prabhupada, “Your servant has had an affair with a lady here.” Prabhupada leaned back, put his hands behind his head and said, “In the old days, kshatriyas had more than one wife. Do whatever you want to do.” Someone said, “He should not be your servant, Prabhupada.” Prabhupada said, “That is all right, give me another servant.” I saw Prabhupada’s air of detachment and mood of tolerance. Prabhupada was thinking, “In this Age of Kali, especially in America, whatever little percentage of my teachings people accept, even 5% or 10%, I will accept. As time passes they will gradually advance.” Prabhupada never made a big thing out of a problem. In this meeting, my first with Prabhupada in New Vrindavan, I saw how nonchalant he was. He did not condone the fall-down, but just to temper the devotees who were complaining he said, “In the old days, kshatriyas had more than one wife.” But then he removed that person as his servant. Keshava Prabhu, the president of the San Francisco temple, wanted to show Prabhupada a big bus he had bought. Prabhupada saw the bus and said, “This is very nice.” Then he said, “Keshava Prabhu, are you thinking of getting married?” Keshava said, “No, Prabhupada, I’m happy the way I am.” Prabhupada said, “Yes, that is very nice. Marriage is a big burden. If you are walking nicely, why pick up a big stone and put it on your head? Brahmachari life is very nice, a simple life. Why take on a big burden?” Janmastami morning, when I was to be initiated, Prabhupada’s servant said to me, “Jana Kumar, Prabhupada said that if you want to be initiated you have to shave your head.” I thought, “What should I do?” Prabhupada was already in the temple room for the initiation. The Detroit devotees said, “Your hair will grow back. Shave up. You have a wonderful opportunity to be initiated by a pure devotee.” I said, “Okay,” and at the last minute Narottamananda Prabhu shaved me up. After I took a shower, dressed, and went into the temple room, Prabhupada saw me, nodded his head and said, “Ummmm.” I was initiated, “Joshomatinandana das,” and later I asked Prabhupada if somebody who was working outside could keep his hair. Prabhupada said, “The hair will come back, but for a Vaishnava ceremony you should shave your head.” I think Krishna dictated this to Prabhupada especially for me because I was such a tough, difficult person. Since I was too embarrassed to go back to Detroit cleanshaven, I left that life and became a brahmachari in the Chicago ashram. Without that special dose of mercy and kindness of having to shave my head, I would not be what I am today. Srila Prabhupada was an expert doctor with a different medicine for every person. I can never thank him enough for the way he transformed my life. I said, “Prabhupada, you say Jesus Christ is a pure devotee. But he never mentioned the name of Krishna and he never chanted Hare Krishna, so how can we say he is a pure devotee?” Prabhupada said, “Because he was free from material desires, therefore, he is a pure devotee.” Ever since then I’ve had high regard for Jesus and I look upon him as I look upon any other acharya. In fact, because Jesus was a bold acharya and a great preacher, Prabhupada had a natural appreciation for him. No other Indian swami or yogi or teacher could have that kind of appreciation of Jesus as Prabhupada had because Prabhupada was doing the same thing that Jesus had done. After three or four months in L.A., I wrote to Prabhupada about getting married and Prabhupada said, “I heard that you want to get married. That is very nice. Husband and wife, double strength.” Then when Prabhupada came to L.A. in December, Jayatirtha Prabhu performed a fire sacrifice and Prabhupada gave my wife, who was also his disciple, a ring from his finger. And because we were going to India, he gave us a lot of blessings and encouragement. We have been married 30 years now. Once, when he was in his garden, Prabhupada spoke intimately about how, after Sumati Morarji had given him a berth on her steamer, the Indian government wouldn’t sanction the P-forms that would allow him to come to America. He had gone from one department to another department to another department to get the P-forms, but to no avail. Prabhupada said, “I was leaving the office frustrated when a Bengali gentleman saw me and said in Bengali, “How are you? What do you want? Is there anything you have come here for, Swamiji?” Prabhupada asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is Bannerjee”, and they had a conversation in Bengali. After that, that man went from one table to another and got Prabhupada’s P-forms sanctioned. Prabhupada said, “That was Krishna’s mercy. I tried so much and it didn’t happen, but at the last minute this man helped me.” Prabhupada also said, “After I arrived in America I was struggling very hard and sometimes I would go back to the pier where I had landed and ask, ‘When is the next steamer going back to India?’ One Indian man at the pier said, ‘Swamiji, you ask many times but you are not returning to India because you have come with a mission.’” Prabhupada said, “Actually I did not want to return without some success. But I would go and ask, ‘When is the After being in India for three or four years, Giriraj was a little sick so he went to Chicago and then to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles Giriraj’s parents came to meet Prabhupada. His father was a very respectable man and he said to Prabhupada, “If there is anything I can do for you I’ll be happy to do it. I’ll give you a huge donation or whatever, but please let my son come back to his family,” because Giriraj was their only son. Prabhupada said, “Giriraj, what do you think?” Giriraj said, “No, no, Srila Prabhupada. There is no power in this world that can separate me from your lotus feet.” Prabhupada smiled and told his father, “I am not keeping your son, but he stays because he likes Krishna consciousness. I do not object if he goes to you and continues this activity at home, but I cannot force him to do that. But I can assure you that he will be happy and peaceful here and he will make you a proud father.” Giriraj’s father was a jolly man. There were many exchanges and both his mother and his father had a positive impression of Srila Prabhupada, and were happy when they left. Prabhupada knew how to conduct himself, especially with his disciples’ parents. He sympathized with them. When I returned to India in 1974, my parents went with me to see Prabhupada. My mother said, “He is our only son, we spent everything to send him to America, and he has now left it all and joined you.” Prabhupada said, “There are so many people who go to America to make money, but your son is a very rare person. You should be proud that your son has become a devotee of the Lord and, as he has become a devotee, so can you. You can join us and I will give you a nice place to stay.” Prabhupada talked with them so caringly that afterwards my mother said, “Your guru maharaj is a very kind-hearted person.” If anybody had bitterness or resentment, it melted away when they sat in front of Prabhupada. I asked Prabhupada, “How did Lord Ramachandra disappear?” Prabhupada said, “The Vaishnavas do not discuss the disappearance pastimes of the Lord, but Lord Ramachandra entered in the Saryu River along with the whole population of Ayodhya and together they all went to Vaikuntha.” Later I read that same description in the Valmiki Ramayana, but Prabhupada gave me another important principle—that the disappearance pastimes of the Lord are not discussed much by devotees. Another time I said that Rupa and Sanatana Goswamis were born in a sarasvata-brahmana family, an exalted gaura sarasvata family. They were great Sanskrit scholars and they had a powerful Vedic background. Why did they feel so low that they did not enter the temple of Jagannatha? Was it just because they associated with Muslims? Prabhupada said, “Associating with Muslim means adopting their habits, like meat-eating and so on. Maybe Rupa and Sanatana Goswamis also associated with the Muslims in that way and, due to that, they felt unqualified.” Prabhupada’s answer was pragmatic—he said “maybe.” Then he said, “But everything they did was under the dictation of Krishna. They are eternally liberated souls, nitya-siddha. So it doesn’t matter what they did.” I asked Prabhupada about a revered and famous sadhu, Dangari Maharaj, who was then the biggest Bhagavat reciter in India. He would shed tears when he recited the Bhagavat, and the people in the audience would cry too. Prabhupada said, “I don’t know about him. What does he say?” I said, “He speaks about Krishna’s pastimes, but he also says that you can worship whomever you believe in. You can chant om nama shivaya or klim durgaya namah. There are several mantras that he prescribes, even though in his own katha he generally chants Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare.” Prabhupada said, “If he thinks that the name of Krishna and the name of the demigods are the same, then he is not Dangari, he is dhangari.” Dhanga means pretension. He said, “The Vaishnava will not say that the holy name of Krishna is equivalent to anything else.” Prabhupada never judged a person by his looks, his name, his title, or by the tears he shed, but he judged a person by what he said, by his philosophy and siddhanta. Prabhupada’s life was to give philosophical instructions about Krishna to whoever came. He used to show intelligent, prominent people Dr. Radha-Krishnan’s book and say, “See what Dr. Radha-Krishnan is saying? That Kurukshetra is not a historical place, that Kurukshetra allegorically means your body, the five Pandavas means your five senses, and Kauravas means the evil desires in your mind. And Radha-Krishnan says that originally the Mahabharata was written by a poet who assumed the fictitious name Vyasa and then other people added to the Mahabharata until it became a big epic.” Prabhupada blasted the Indological ideas that Radha-Krishnan had learned from Westerners and which he propounded. Prabhupada said, “Today thousands of people visit the historical place, Kurukshetra, yet Radha-Krishnan says Kurukshetra is not there. So how can anyone learn Bhagavad-gita or hear anything from such a person?” One of Mahatma Gandhi’s statements was, “If all the activities attributed to Krishna in Srimad-Bhagavatam are true, if Krishna performed these pastimes, then I refuse to accept Him as God incarnate even at the cost of being banished from Hinduism.” Prabhupada was furious at this. He said that Gandhi had no understanding of Krishna, he had no understanding that Krishna’s pastimes are transcendental, not material. God is the supreme and original enjoyer. We have the tendency to enjoy, and that tendency comes from Him. Our enjoying tendency is a perverted reflection of His enjoying tendency. He is the purusha, and every jiva is prakriti. We are all God’s wives, God’s prakriti. Therefore, your wife is His wife. God has all the rights. In his autobiography, Experiments with Truth, Gandhiji said, “Since I never had a spiritual master, I never understood spiritual life and I always suffered because of a lack of spiritual instructions.” He admitted it, but he still made wildly inaccurate comments and Prabhupada would explain that to visitors. Sometimes Prabhupada was very tolerant of his devotees. After he read some letters from New York about Bali Mardan and his wife, Prabhupada said, “The whole problem is sex life. Yan maithunadi-grhamedhisukham hi tuccham. Tuccham means insignificant. One may think that sex is the greatest platform of happiness, but actually that happiness is insignificant. In fact, sex life is a source of distress. We have so many problems because of sex life.” Although the situation in the New York temple was a big problem, Prabhupada spoke in this way for five minutes and then dropped it. He reduced every problem to a philosophical understanding because he saw everything from a philosophical viewpoint. I saw that in his every action Prabhupada never thought of himself as the doer but fully dependent on Krishna. He would pursue a certain line and leave success or failure up to Krishna. Some devotees wanted to go from Juhu to Bombay by taxi, and being a miserly man, I agitated them by saying, “Why should you go by taxi?” I told Prabhupada, “When I tell the devotees that it’s too expensive to go to Bombay by taxi, they get agitated.” Prabhupada said, “Just consider that before becoming devotees they were eating flesh and blood like tigers. Now they are chanting Hare Krishna, they are dancing and they are enjoying spiritually. Haven’t they accomplished something great? So if they want some extra money, give it to them. Don’t worry about their faults.” Then in a lecture the next day he said, “Money is very hard to earn. Money is like Krishna’s blood and we should not waste it. Every rupee should be considered as a brick in the temple.” So to me he said, “You tolerate,” while to them he said “Don’t waste money.” In other words, he helped me increase my tolerance in the service of Krishna, and he helped them increase their frugality in the service of the Lord. He approached the difficulty from different angles and instead of feeling discouraged, everyone saw a way to increase the quality of their service. This was a key principle in Prabhupada’s dealings with every devotee, and that’s why he was able to produce so many managers. In spite of our many mistakes, the movement grew because of Prabhupada’s kind and affectionate dealings. The last verses of the Nectar of Instruction say, vaikunthaj janito vara madhu-puri tatrapi rasotsavad, “Greater than Vaikuntha is Mathura mandala, and greater than that is Vrindavan where the rasa dance takes place. And greater than Vrindavan is Govardhan. And in Govardhan, Radha-kunda is the best place. Where is a knowledgeable person who will not serve the holy place called Radha-kunda?” When that book came out, Prabhupada’s secretaries complained that devotees wanted to give up distributing books to stay in Radha-kunda. Prabhupada said, “Just see the rascals. They have not followed the first verse of Upadesamrta and they are jumping to the eleventh verse.” The first verse is vaco vegam manasah krodhavegam jihva-vegam udaropastha-vegam, “One who controls the pushes of the senses is fit to be guru and make disciples everywhere.” Sarvam apimam prthivim sa sisyat. Prabhupada said, “Let them control their senses first, then they can think of Radha-kunda. Their mentality is called markata-vairagya, the renunciation of the monkeys. Monkeys also live in the forests, eating only fruits and leaves, but they are thinking, ‘Where is the she-monkey?’ The desire to give up one’s service and go to Radha-kunda is simply monkey business.” Dr. Patel arrogantly criticized the devotees, but during morning walks on Juhu Beach he would respectfully argue with Prabhupada and Prabhupada would also respect and encourage him, although he smashed Dr. Patel’s philosophy. Prabhupada was like a snake charmer. Dr. Patel proudly thought, “In a previous life I must have been Prabhupada’s younger brother.” Then one day Prabhupada said that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s philosophy—yatha mat tatha path (anything you do is all right) was bogus. It was atheism. And Prabhupada criticized Vivekananda’s daridra-narayana philosophy that Narayana is not in the temple but is in daridra—the poor men— so serving poor men is better than going to the temple. Prabhupada said, “If Narayana is in the poor men, then why isn’t He in the rich men also? And if Narayana is in a man, then He is also in a chicken. You are trying to serve the poor men and you are killing murgi—the chickens—to eat them. You are eating murgi-narayana and you are serving daridra-narayana, so your philosophy is contradictory.” Prabhupada said, “You can be compassionate to poor men, but your service should be rendered to Narayana, to God. Narayana is never daridra, never poor. This kind of confusion has turned Bengalis into ruffians.” So one Gujarati, Mr. Shah became bewildered and started shouting, “You criticize everybody! You don’t respect other saintly persons! You only think that you are right, that they are not good! Vivekananda was a great man!” The devotees were upset and were going to physically remove Mr. Shah, but Prabhupada said, “No, no, let him speak.” Prabhupada walked on calmly saying, “I am simply saying what Krishna has said. Na mam duskrtino mudhah prapadyante naradhamah. ‘Those who are miscreants, foolish, whose knowledge is stolen away by Maya, they do not surrender to Krishna.’ Krishna says they are miscreants and on behalf of Krishna, I have to say this. I have nothing against those persons, but I am trying to teach my disciples how to judge their philosophy.” After that we walked back to the temple silently and attended guru-puja. Like the devotees, every day Mr. Shah offered flowers to Prabhupada and on that day he also put his head on Prabhupada’s feet and started crying like a baby. He felt repentant. Prabhupada put his hand on Mr. Shah’s head and said, “It is okay.” Then Prabhupada said, “From tomorrow, we are not going to discuss. We are just going to read Krishna book.” So starting the next morning, one of us read Krishna book while we walked along the beach. One morning as we were walking from the temple to Juhu Beach, a man offered his obeisances to Prabhupada. Prabhupada said, “What do you do?” “I am a music teacher.” “Oh, in that building you teach music.” The music teacher was surprised, “You know this, Swamiji?” Prabhupada said, “Yes, one should be observant.” When the Vrindavan temple was going to be inaugurated, I helped with the printing of invitations and then Srila Prabhupada put me in charge of the prasadam kitchen, which took a lot of time—I missed most of the festivities. Prabhupada also had me invite various Vrindavan saints to the festival. I invited Karpatri Maharaj, a strict sannyasi who at that time was the biggest and most respected impersonalist of India and who spoke about Krishna at Bhagavat-saptaha. When I invited him for our weeklong festival, he said, “I cannot come to your function.” “Why?” “Because your guru gives brahman threads to Westerners. This should not be done.” I said, “Why not? If the Westerners behave like brahmans, if they rise early in the morning and chant sixteen rounds of Hare Krishna every day, if they study Bhagavatam, Gita, and all the scriptures, and if they spread the message of sanatana-dharma, then why not give them brahman initiation? Nowadays in India, brahmans are bus conductors and factory workers and postmen. How can you think that those people are brahmans and these people are not brahmans? The four divisions are devised not by birth but according to guna and karma. Catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah.” Previously, in Prabhupada’s presence, Vallabhacarya had had the same objection and, at that time, Prabhupada said, “Open Srimad-Bhagavatam, Seventh Canto, chapter number eleven, last verse. In this chapter, Narada Muni instructs about the duties and roles of varnashram and, at the end, he says that, ‘If one shows the symptoms of being a brahman, ksatriya, vaisya or sudra, as described before, even if he has appeared in a different class, he should be accepted according to those symptoms of classification.’ If the brahman has symptom of sudra, he should be accepted as sudra. If sudra has symptom of brahman, he should be accepted as brahman. Yasya yal laksanam proktam tasya varnabhivyanjakam, yad anyatrapi drsyeta tat tenaiva vinirdiset.” Prabhupada made me memorize this sloka in 1974 and when I quoted it to Karpatri Maharaj, he opened his eyes wide in surprise and appreciation. He said, “Your guru has trained you very well. But there is the actual tiger and a tiger-like man. A man may be considered like a tiger, but he is not a tiger. Similarly, a person may be like a brahman but he is not a brahman.” That is Mayavadi word jugglery. When I narrated this conversation to Prabhupada, Prabhupada said, “Did you tell him this verse, yasya yal laksanam proktam?” I said, “Yes, I said yasya yal laksanam and he said, ‘Your guru maharaj has trained you very well.’” Prabhupada laughed. He said, “Yes, you are well trained, your sloka is accepted, but still Karpatri is so envious, so unfortunate, that he will not come to this wonderful temple opening.” The Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Dr. Channa Reddy, was a chief guest in the inauguration of the Krishna Balaram Temple in Vrindavan. We wanted Prabhupada to sit on the nice vyasasana on the inauguration day, but Prabhupada said, “No, I will not sit on the vyasasana. I will sit in a chair like the governor.” Prabhupada knew the protocol—that no one should sit on a higher seat than a governor. Even though he is the acharya of the whole world, and even though it was his temple opening, he arranged to sit on a chair near the governor. In 1977 another devotee and I went to Madhava Maharaj’s—one of Prabhupada’s God-brothers’—place. I told Madhava Maharaj, “I am a disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.” Madhava Maharaj said, “That is very nice. But I am senior to Swami Maharaj. Swami Maharaj was a businessman, so he is an expert organizer. Therefore, his movement has spread everywhere very well. But that is all external. Bhakti is something else. Bhakti is the spontaneous emotion in the heart.” He criticized. Then he gave me some fruit but I left it there. I said, “Preaching is the mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and you consider that external? Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says whomever you meet, you talk about Krishna. And He sent Haridas Thakur and Nityananda Prabhu to preach door to door. And you say it is external?” and I walked out. I told Prabhupada about this conversation and Prabhupada was furious! For three days he blasted these misconceptions on his morning walks. He said, “Just see the envious person. He thinks that spreading the mission of Lord Chaitanya all over the world and inducing thousands of people to chant Hare Krishna is due to former business success? He thinks it is an external thing? What has he understood? He is a sannyasi for so many years, but what has he understood?” Once we were sitting with B.V. Puri Maharaj, who, unlike many of Prabhupada’s God-brothers, was present when Prabhupada laid the Mayapur cornerstone. In fact, Puri Maharaj invited others to come and even though many did not come, he came. Also, unlike many of Prabhupada’s Godbrothers, he accepted the title “Prabhupada” for Prabhupada. Another time some big government officer from Calcutta said to Prabhupada, “Swamiji, I am following dharma properly. I always go to the Ramakrishna Mission.” Prabhupada blasted this man. He said, “These Western disciples of mine will not go to the Ramakrishna Mission even to pass urine. You are going to the Ramakrishna Mission but what does Ramakrishna teach? Do you know what he teaches? He teaches, yatha mat tatha path—that whatever you do is all right, that you don’t have to go to the temple and you don’t have to chant. You can build your body and serve the poor. But do any of Bhagavad-gita’s 700 verses say that? If someone does not repeat the words of Krishna, what is the use of his mission?” Sometimes Prabhupada would be bold and forceful and sometimes he would be cool. In Mayapur, 1977, Prabhupada had a fever so somebody was with him constantly. I was gently massaging him about two o’clock in the morning when he woke up and said, “These rascal scientists do not accept this. Go and preach to them, tell them that you are not the body that you are a spirit soul, and the proof is that in this life the soul is transmigrating from childhood to youth to old age.” Prabhupada spoke philosophy at 2:30 in the morning in the middle of a heavy fever, and after ten or fifteen minutes went back to sleep. He was dreaming about preaching and living for preaching.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 38 - Rukmini dd, Joshomatinandan, Tranakarta

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