Sacinandana Swami Remembers Srila Prabhupada
Prabhupada Memories
Interview 01
Sacinandana Swami: Srila Prabhupada received the rose each one of us offered him. He gave another rose back to us, and he lectured. While he lectured, like so many of my God-brothers, I felt that Srila Prabhupada was speaking just for me and was looking at me. I felt personally addressed by Srila Prabhupada. It reminded me of how, when Krishna ate lunch surrounded by His cowherd boyfriends, He communicated to each one of the thousands of them. Prabhupada’s eyes were wandering over his audience, and sometimes he closed his eyes in deep concentration, but somehow he connected to every one of us. Then, because I felt so personally addressed by Srila Prabhupada, I put a challenging question to him. Foolish as I was, I wanted to test Prabhupada to see if he was really the perfect spiritual master I could surrender to for my whole life. Such surrender would have serious consequences as far as money and my position in life were concerned. Since my mind was not spiritually developed, to see how Prabhupada would react I asked a question which I felt he could not answer. I said, “If God is all good, why did He create this maya which inflicts suffering upon the living entities?” Prabhupada looked at me and requested Shyamasundar to repeat the question. Shyamasundar had not heard my question, maybe due to my accent, and I repeated it. Prabhupada again asked for the question to be repeated. I became insecure, but I again asked, “You say God is all good. It can’t be because He has created maya, which is certainly not all good. So either He is not all good or maya is no longer under His control and makes us suffer against the good intentions of God.” Prabhupada looked at me intently and then said, “Krishna has not created maya, you have created maya.” I was startled. Philosophically I couldn’t understand what he was saying—I created the whole material world? I could not even create a house because at that moment I was insolvent. Later I understood his explanation, but at the time all I understood was that Krishna was not at fault for my situation. I was at fault. I thought, “What a brilliant answer. I have understood the point. I better surrender to Krishna and Srila Prabhupada,” who seemed to be very close with the Lord. It was my first memorable encounter with Srila Prabhupada and he had demolished, like a sadhu always does, my concept that I could challenge him. And besides answering my foolish question, he effected a transformation in my heart.
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To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 37 - Umapati S, Sacinandana S., BCS., Narada Muni, Dindayadri, Vaiyasaki
The full Prabhupada Memories Series can be viewed here and also at www.prabhupadamemories.com
Following Srila Prabhupada
Interview DVD 06
Sacinandana Swami: I had put my alarm clock exactly on seven-and-a-half minutes. All of a sudden as I was lying behind my desk, I heard the voice of Srila Prabhupada inquiring about the German translations. First I thought it was a dream, a nightmare. Then as I emerged to the ordinary wakeful consciousness, I actually became aware Prabhupada is standing in our room. A few days before he had said that he was never like the servants in the Dalhousie Park who pretend to be busy but in reality sleep, and now I was sleeping under the table. I was really sleeping only for seven-and-a-half minutes, and it was necessary to concentrate after the heavy breakfast. But my spiritual master, who only comes once in a lifetime in my area of service, now has found out I am sleeping. I felt so bad, but I calculated it will be even more bad when Prabhupada finds me lying under the table. So I better emerge. So I somehow, as gracefully as I possibly could, brought my body in the sitting position. At that moment, Prabhupada looked at me a little surprised because I came out like a soldier comes out under camouflage. Then he laughed into my face with eyes sparkling with energy and joy and he seemed to communicate, “It’s all right, it’s all right, we all need sometimes a rest.” I was very much pleased by that very human feature of Srila Prabhupada’s smile. |