Gopinath Acharya das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 06

Gopinath Acharya: So Srila Prabhupada is sitting there resting a little on a seat, and Deepak prabhu introduced me to Srila Prabhupada and said, “Oh, this is Gopinath Acharya das. He is one of our leading book distributors.” So Srila Prabhupada was actually very interested; and he turned his head very regally, he looked at me and asked me what I said to sell the books. So I mumbled and fumbled something to the effect that, “Oh, Srila Prabhupada, I just tell them it’s about yoga. They think it’s about exercises and like that.” Srila Prabhupada thought very pensively for 30 seconds or so and he said, “You should tell people that these books will solve the problems of life and help reduce the miseries of life.” In retrospect, I believe Srila Prabhupada must have been thinking of the verse from the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam: anarthopasamam saksad, bhakti-yogam adhoksaje, lokasyajanato vidvams, cakre satvata-samhitam. “The material miseries of the living entity, which are superfluous to him, can be directly mitigated by the linking process of devotional service. But the mass of people do not know this, and therefore the learned Vyasadeva compiled the Srimad-Bhagavatam.” So I felt very blessed to be privy to Srila Prabhupada’s personal instruction what to say to distribute his books. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to introduce that kind of presentation on the street when we were selling books for many years. But later on when we were selling Srila Prabhupada’s sets of books, that proved to be very successful. People warm up to that. Actually everyone is suffering, and Srila Prabhupada’s real business was to somehow or another give people some happiness through Krishna consciousness. So then he began to speak about the prediction in the Caitanya Bhagavat: prithivite ache jato nagaradi gram, sarvatra prachara hoibe mora nam, that Lord Caitanya’s name would be heard in every town and village. So Srila Prabhupada went on to say that this means that there will be a Radha-Krishna temple in every town and village with at least six brahmanas to worship the Deity.

Interview DVD 08

Gopinath Acharya: Srila Prabhupada really made a point about the neck beads should always be tight. They were bought off the shelf somewhere in Vrindavan, whatever, so they wouldn’t be tailor-made for the devotees’ necks so they’d usually be loose. But even though they were put on loosely, Srila Prabhupada insisted on a number of occasions that “No, they must be tight.” I think it’s got something to do with remembering, remembering the beads are there and that we’re servants of the spiritual master. There were a number of occasions when I was involved or sat in or was part of initiations, Srila Prabhupada always insisted that the doors and windows remain closed. Devotees would open the windows as if the smoke coming from the fire was a botheration. I don’t know exactly why, but he would insist that we keep the doors and windows closed. It didn’t matter, the smoke was not harmful. Srila Prabhupada would always give wonderful lectures, but sometimes devotees would be falling asleep maybe due to having too much prasadam. And I must admit, in those days I used to fall asleep a lot. But I do remember one incident, it really floored people. We had a program at the Palais Theater in Saint Kilda, which was a pretty hip part of town. It wasn’t a very big theater, and it was cozy and intimate. It was eclectic, put it that way. There were a lot of philosopher hippie types there, and Srila Prabhupada was sitting on his vyasasana. He gave his lecture, and the acoustics unfortunately weren’t that good. It was reverberating around the room and it was hard to catch what Srila Prabhupada was saying, but there were a lot of people there. Anyway, at one particular point somebody asked a question, “There are so many yogis and swamis that have come and this and that. What can you do?” Either “what can you do,” inferring what that others can’t do or what can you do. Srila Prabhupada said, “I can save you from death.” Then there was complete silence, and everyone knew that Srila Prabhupada meant it. It was the most sobering thing I’ve ever heard someone say. So from then on, the rest of the program was sober. People were respectful. One time Srila Prabhupada was sitting on his vyasasana and there was a need for somebody to do the Guru Puja in the morning. So I busied myself going about doing the aratik to Srila Prabhupada. So one thing that really struck me was that Srila Prabhupada was taking a lot of attention about what I was doing and how I was offering and cleansing my hands and doing the whole aratik. He was always looking over. Normally you would think that somebody of Srila Prabhupada’s status who had been offered aratik so many times wouldn’t be taking much notice. But as we know, Srila Prabhupada took notice of everything. One time he said when somebody had said to Srila Prabhupada, “Oh, that’s no big deal” or “It’s nothing big,” Prabhupada said, “Everything is big for a devotee.” Srila Prabhupada gave a darshan to the devotees. Now, Srila Prabhupada, from what I remember, didn’t very often give darshans to the general devotees. So it was a special occasion. We were all called up to his room, and we were all sitting there and Srila Prabhupada is sitting at his desk. It was quite a casual affair…well, a loving affair, put it that way. Srila Prabhupada was basking in the association of his disciples, and his disciples were doing the same. At one particular point, a devotee got up. His name is Gopikanta. He was a brahmacari, and he’d been to Japan to help collect for the Nama Hatta program. So he got up and he stood in a particular way, and everyone else was sitting down so this was very dramatic. He’s a big person and he stood with his hands almost like in a karate style for emphasis, and he said to Srila Prabhupada, “Srila Prabhupada, I know there are so many things that please you. But I want to know what will please you the most, I mean the most. What will please you the most?” So many of us might have been thinking that Srila Prabhupada is going to say “distributing my books,” and that’s what I was thinking. But it really sticks in my mind because Srila Prabhupada didn’t say that. Basically he said…and this is pretty revolutionary for those times because we could not conceive that there was going to be a time, at least I didn’t, when Srila Prabhupada wasn’t going to be with us. But he said, “Understand Srimad-Bhagavatam, learn Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita, and become a guru. Try to deliver everyone in your land or the world. If not the world, in your land.” Srila Prabhupada never actually said such a thing to us. Because in other conversations Srila Prabhupada said, “That doesn’t mean that one advertises oneself as a guru.” Actually it means become qualified as a guru, which means really to become a perfect disciple.