Umapati das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 01

Umapati: One night I was walking down 2nd Avenue and I heard the “ching-ching-ching, ching-ching-ching.” So I walked over and I followed the sound, and it was the Krishna place and there was Prabhupada and they were chanting a mantra. I had read that chanting mantras was the best kind of meditation. So I thought, “Well, maybe this is what I’m looking for.” So I started to go in, but as I went in I saw Prabhupada was shaking his head from side to side like not to come in so I stopped. But then I saw that he was just moving his head in time with the music, so I went in and sat down and started chanting. Then when Prabhupada spoke, he said, “The Supreme Absolute Truth is a person.” And when he said that, I knew that I had found my spiritual master. Because I had been reading all these Buddhist books that say you cannot describe the truth, you cannot say it is, you cannot say it is not, you cannot say it both is and is not, you cannot say it neither is nor is not, and they never tell you what the truth is. So here was somebody telling me what the truth was, and it really made sense. So then I started coming regularly. At that time, there was lecture-kirtan every Monday, Wednesday and Friday night. So anyway, after a while I began to have a little doubt. I thought, “I can see that the Swami is very honest, he’s not cheating, but how do I know he really has knowledge? He could be a very honest man but also be misled.” While I was thinking this, I didn’t say anything to him but I went to hear him lecture and he said, “I teach only what is in scripture.” So when he said that, then I thought, “Well, then there’s no danger if he only teaches what’s in scripture.” So that’s how I started coming all of the time. Then after a while some of the guys started to do some kind of a service, and somebody said, “I’m doing this for the Swami,” or someone else would say, “I’m doing that for the Swami.” So I thought, “Well, I’d better get in on this,” because I thought he would maybe gather a few disciples and go off to a mountain cave somewhere and give them the secret teachings. So I didn’t want to miss out. So I went up to see Prabhupada and I said, “Is there something I can do for you?” He said, “Yes, you can take notes in class and type them up.” So the next day I took notes, but I really didn’t know what kind of format to write them up with. So I tried something and I showed it to Prabhupada, and then Prabhupada showed me what he was working on and it was the essay “Who is crazy?” So then I knew that he wanted me to type the notes up in essay form, and Prabhupada said, “And we will one day put all these essays together in a book and call it Practical Theology.” Umapati: On the first day that we went to Tompkins Square Park with Srila Prabhupada, he had me dance holding up the picture of Lord Vishnu’s sankirtan. But after a while I put it down. Prabhupada said, “Why did you put it down?” I said, “I got tired.” I had no idea what an honor it was to be holding that picture on the first kirtan with Prabhupada in the Western world and what a momentous occasion it was. Of course, we didn’t see this as a momentous occasion. Prabhupada did, but we didn’t. Umapati: And, of course, everybody was a brand new devotee and nobody really knew much of anything. So there was a lot of nonsense going on and fighting and things like that. So I became disturbed, and I went to see Prabhupada to complain about some of the things that devotees were doing. Prabhupada said to me, “If you don’t like what they are doing, then you set the example.” A little later I again went to see him to complain about devotees and Srila Prabhupada said, “What do you want from them? They are trying to serve Krishna.” And the third time was in 1972, I think. I was living in San Francisco and I wrote Prabhupada a letter just complaining about so many things, and Prabhupada wrote me back. I complained people do bad things and they’re the example and this and that. Prabhupada said, “Who said that they’re an example?” He said, “Anyway, what are you doing? All you’re doing is making money and spending it on your own householder life.” And he ended the letter and said, “The whole movement is meant for…” Because I had said, “I don’t understand this movement.” Prabhupada said, “You have been with me for so many years and you still don’t understand. When will you understand?” He said, “The whole movement is meant for service.”

The transcription of all Interviews from DVD 01 can be viewed here