Dina Bandhu das Remembers Srila Prabhupada
Dina Bandhu: Prabhupada would take charanamrita, pay his obeisances to Radha and Krishna, and then go to Lord Jagannath. Somehow I always managed to be at the charanamrita bowl. One day I was standing behind Prabhupada when he took the charanamrita, and he looked at me with a heavy, horrible look. My heart stopped. He said, “It is salt.” He looked around at all the devotees and said, “It is salt.” He was upset. He paid his obeisances, sat down, and immediately said, “Who has done this?” Some poor brahmacharini in the kitchen came in shaking, and Prabhupada said, “Why have you done this?” She giggled and said, “It’s Krishna’s mercy.” Prabhupada said, “It’s not Krishna’s mercy; it’s your stupidity.” When Prabhupada was personally doing the installation for the large Gaura-Nitai Deities that Govinda dasi had made for our temple, everybody was in the temple room. I thought, “If we are installing Deities there should be a feast,” so I went into the kitchen and cooked everything I could think of, like rasagullas, sandesh, halava, and puris while I listened to the ceremony over the speakers. Finally there was a fire sacrifice and then an offering. After that, Nanda Kumar, Prabhupada’s servant, came in, loaded up Prabhupada’s plate with mahaprasad and went upstairs. When he came back he said, “Prabhupada usually eats a little sweet, but today he ate every single sweet.” He said that Prabhupada smiled at him and said, “Sweets means rasagulla and sandesh.” At that point I knew that my whole life was perfect. That was the only time I ever got to cook for Prabhupada.
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To view the entire unedited video go to Prabhupada Memories DVD 15 The 1996 NYC and LA Reunions
The full Prabhupada Memories Series can be viewed here and also at www.prabhupadamemories.com