Babhru das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Babhru: In 1972, Srila Prabhupada came to Honolulu to install our Deities, Sri Sri Pancha-tattva and to give sannyas initiation to one of his disciples, Siddha- svarupa, who became Siddhasvarupananda Goswami. Prabhupada was in Hawaii for ten days, and every day he commented on the beautiful tulasi plants. At the time, taking care of Tulasi devi was my life’s work. I started taking care of her at the beginning of 1970 when Hawaii had the first tulasi plants in ISKCON. Prabhupada told Govinda dasi how pleased he was with our big tulasis. We had a bunch of them in front of the temple and lining the sidewalk up to the temple. Prabhupada also said that Tulasi was crowding the sidewalk a little, and he said, “It’s an offense to brush against Tulasi.” Another time he teased us by saying that it was an offense to step on her shadow. The next night the brahmacharis were trying to leap over her shadows, which was hard to do because a street lamp cast her shadow across the whole sidewalk. Govinda dasi asked Prabhupada, “What should we do?” Prabhupada laughed and said, “Don’t live. Don’t die.”Every day Govinda dasi gave me reports about how pleased Srila Prabhupada was with Tulasi devi’s care, and I got a little impatient since I had been doing this work for two and a half years. One night I said, “Govinda dasi, I would like to hear these things firsthand.” Gaurasundar, Govinda dasi’s husband, was protective of Srila Prabhupada when he was in Hawaii, and we weren’t allowed to get very close to Prabhupada. But Govinda dasi grabbed me by the arm, dragged me out to the car, and shoved me in the back. Gaurasundar had an old Buick just for this visit. Gaurasundar was in the driver’s seat, and Prabhupada was in the passenger seat. Govinda dasi said, “This is Babhru, he does all the work for Tulasi devi.” Prabhupada gave me a great big smile and said, “That is very nice. We should always engage our body and our mind in Krishna’s service.” And I knew at that minute that to him I was transparent.

At the airport, most of the devotees kept a kirtan going on the sidewalk while a few of us sat inside with Srila Prabhupada. He was in a seat, and we were on the floor. Satsvarupa Maharaj was reading newspaper clippings from around the world about the Movement and about Srila Prabhupada. All of a sudden Srila Prabhupada stopped him and said, “I hear that Aniruddha is here in Hawaii, but he has not come to see me.” Aniruddha had been staying aloof from the temple, perhaps not doing so well, but had come to the airport to see Srila Prabhupada off. He was in the back of the crowd. At Srila Prabhupada’s insistence, the devotees convinced Aniruddha to come inside. Apparently Aniruddha was feeling a little shy. He came in with cut-offs, a T-shirt, and a little stud in his ear and offered his pranams to Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada said, “So, Aniruddha, how are you?” Aniruddha smiled sheepishly and said, “Actually, Prabhupada, not so good.” Then Prabhupada signaled to Aniruddha to sit next to him on a seat. Aniruddha said, “No, no, I can’t do that.” Prabhupada said, “No, no, there is no problem. There is no difficulty. You can sit down.” So they sat to-gether and exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes, and then Srila Prabhupada looked at us and said, “In the Los Angeles temple, he was the beginning.”It was clear that what was important to Srila Prabhupada was not a devotee’s temporary situation but that the devotee had rendered some important service and that Srila Prabhupada had really appreciated it. That understanding created a revolution in my mind.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 15 - The 1996 NYC and LA Reunions

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