Gargamuni das Remembers Srila Prabhupada
Prabhupada Memories
Interview 01
Gargamuni: In 1975 Prabhupada gave me the money to purchase three Ambassador cars, one for each center in Vrindavan, Bombay and Mayapur. He wanted these cars made because the foreign cars were not able to ride nicely on Indian roads. I went to Mr. Birla’s factory outside of Calcutta and asked him for three cars because at that time there was a waiting list of seven thousand people. In the early days you couldn’t just go and buy a car in India. You had to go on a waiting list because the government told the factories how many cars they could make. I didn’t want to wait for Prabhupada’s cars. He wanted them immediately. So I went to Mr. Birla and asked him if he could give me four cars because I ordered one for the Calcutta temple as well, and he said okay. Immediately that day I was given the cars. Each car at that time cost twenty-eight thousand rupees. However, when you buy these cars in those days there way no quality control. I wanted Prabhupada to feel most comfortable in his cars and, therefore, I took every car entirely apart. We took out all the insides including the engine and we rebuilt the entire car as well as the insulation. Prabhupada didn’t like noises and he didn’t like to bounce. Prabhupada told me that the Ambassadors would last forever if you just keep enough oil in them. Even in the material sense, Prabhupada’s words about the Ambassador car are true because now it is 2003, which is almost forty years later, and still this car is riding very nicely. We should never underestimate the orders of the spiritual master even on what may seem like trivial matters.
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To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 49 - Jayapat S, Sruto, Gargamuni, Gurukrpa, Narayani, RupaV, Hari, Ranjit, Nrsimhanda
The full Prabhupada Memories Series can be viewed here and also at www.prabhupadamemories.com
Following Srila Prabhupada
Interview DVD 01
In the beginning, there was only one or two who were thinking how to give Prabhupada something instead of just taking from him. Because I had asked Prabhupada, I said, “Swamiji, we’re here with you, and what are we supposed to do? We come here, we take Krishna prasadam, and then we all go away. But what are we supposed to do for you? What are we here for?” I wanted something definite. Prabhupada said, “The duty of a disciple is to assist the spiritual master in his work.” That’s all he said. So then I thought, “Work?” Later on I pondered on this subject, work, and I said, “Prabhupada doesn’t work. What does he do? He doesn’t have a job. He’s a religious teacher.” So then it occurred to me there’s one thing he does do every day and that’s translate books, and he’s using this typewriter. Prabhupada wasn’t a typist. He used just his index fingers. That’s how he was typing his books. So I was walking one day, because there were four or five head shops that would carry Back to Godhead and I would always stop in the shops to see if they’re selling. So on my way I passed this Grundig shop, and something in the window caught my eye. It was like a miniature tape recorder, and it said Dictaphone. I said, “What the hell is a Dictaphone?” So I went inside, and I went up to the man and I said, “What’s this Dictaphone?” He says, “Well, it’s used by lawyers and doctors to keep notes.” I go, “Oh, yeah?” I said, “I know somebody who is translating books. It would be good for him?” He said, “Oh, yeah.” So he showed me how to use it, and I said, “I’m going to buy this for Prabhupada. Now I’m helping him because this will go a lot faster than typing.” Practically speaking, the Dictaphone revolutionized Prabhupada’s book. Because he wanted to do the Gita, and so it would take ages for him to finish typing by hand. It was 150 bucks [dollars], I think. So I brought it to Prabhupada. I was all excited and puffed up, and I said, “This is helping Prabhupada.” So I thought, “Boy, how am I going to show Prabhupada how to use this thing? He’s from the village. In Vrindavan, they don’t know what a Dictaphone is.” So I brought it up to Prabhupada’s room, and I showed it to him. I showed him the mike, and he looked at it. I said, “Prabhupada, there’s an instruction book here how to use it. I’ll go through it with you.” He said, “No, that’s OK, I know.” I was shocked. And sure enough, Prabhupada knew. He pressed the right buttons, he was testing it, and I was shocked. He never even looked at the book. It took me an hour with the guy. He had to show me everything, and here I’m showing it to someone from the village and he didn’t have to look at the book. Then I realized that this person, he’s not human. How does he know how to work this thing? He never had one. Prabhupada was very easy with electronics. He wasn’t at all intimidated. And then boom, Prabhupada started doing the tapes. It was great. But then we had the other problem – the tapes were building up, and the tapes were expensive. At the end, we had six or seven tapes and we didn’t have money to keep buying tapes. For some reason, nobody knew how to type properly because you have to have coordination. I think because we were all on LSD, nobody could coordinate their foot with their fingers. Because you had to use a foot pedal, and then you had to hear Prabhupada and coordinate, like driving a car, and nobody could do it. So all of a sudden this Neal shows up, and he’s from Antioch College. He has to do a summer course, three months course, joining a religious organization and writing about his experience. That was his paper. So he thought, “I’ll join you guys.” He said, “I’m going to do it.” I said, “Fine.” So I immediately asked him, “Do you know how to type?” We just thought we’d ask. He goes, “Yeah, I can type.” I said, “Do you know how to use a Dictaphone?” “Oh, yeah, that’s easy,” and right away the guy started typing 60 words a minute. We used to watch his foot – man, the foot was going a mile a minute. He knew how to go back and go forward in a second if he didn’t understand anything. And we go, “Wow!” We looked at each other, “This is mystical,” because this is the person we needed and then all of a sudden he shows up knocking at the door. You don’t know, the devotees then had an inner communication with each other. When things like this happened, we’d look at each other and go, “Wow, this is mystical.” And then we understood that Krishna provides. That was the famous word: “Krishna provides.” That’s why you really felt secure when you were with Prabhupada, because you felt nothing could hurt you or touch you and you felt wonderful. You always wanted to be around him because you felt fully protected – that feeling that everything’s going to work out when you’re with Prabhupada, because everything did work out.
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Interview DVD 03
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Interview DVD 04
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