Sukhada: In one lecture Prabhupada talked about prasadam, and afterwards one of the devotees asked, “Prabhupada, is it true that if you take prasadam even once you’re guaranteed a human birth?” Prabhupada said, “Yes,” and all the devotees said, “Hooray!” We were thinking, “Wow, we’ve got it made. We’ve got a human birth coming, and that’s all we have to think about.” But Prabhupada became grave and didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then he said, “But there are some species of monkeys that are considered human.” We all had to think about that for a while and get serious.
An Indian life member who was a nurse was explaining to Srila Prabhupada how she had a nice life, a life in the mode of goodness. Prabhupada told her that the material world was like a boil and that blowing on a boil won’t get rid of it. It needs to be lanced. Similarly, we need to get out of this material world by lancing our material desires and by chanting Hare Krishna. Prabhupada was very heavy but very expert at preaching.
As Prabhupada was leaving he stopped in front of Malati and asked her, “How is Shyamasundar?” Malati said, “Oh, Prabhupada, he is having difficulty. He’s gone off and is doing different things.” She was in anxiety, and Prabhupada was surprised and very concerned, almost hurt. Prabhupada said, “He is engaged in so much monkey business. What’s done is done. Tell him he should come back.” Three times Prabhupada said to her, “What’s done is done. You tell him that he should come back.” I felt Prabhupada’s overwhelming sense of compassion in how he was really concerned about his devotees and how he wanted them to be happy and comfortable in spiritual life.
On the way back from visiting the holy places in Vrindavan, the women’s bus broke down. We weren’t concerned. We were feeling very protected. But later we heard that Srila Prabhupada was worried about us. He kept asking, “Where are the women? Where are the women?” He didn’t go to sleep until we returned. He also said that he was worried that the women would not be protected after he left the planet. I thought it was significant how Prabhupada was so concerned and worried about the fate of the women when he was gone. It touched my heart.
Once an Indian gentleman waited for the right time and then gave Prabhupada a large donation. Prabhupada thanked him, then got out his keys, opened his drawer, put the donation inside the drawer, locked the drawer, and went on with what he had been doing. It impressed me that part of spirituality is taking care of everything in a practical way. Prabhupada was careful with money.
