Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 07

Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami: When Prabhupada arrived in San Francisco for the Rathayatra Festival, I remember that all the devotees were extremely excited. So they were running and dashing down the concourses, and there was a huge crowd of devotees. I remember Tulasi das turned around and yelled at us all that “Why don’t you act dignified? We’re in an airport, behave yourselves!” Then when Prabhupada came, I remember there was a big array of sannyasis that were surrounding Srila Prabhupada and all the devotees were chanting in kirtan. Me and a godbrother named Sridhar Prabhu…he was one of the original VJ raiders on Radha-Damodar Party, very brahminically minded…and so he was standing with me and he was thinking, “Is there any hope that we’ll be able to get close to Srila Prabhupada at all? Look at the hundreds of devotees. What is our chance?” All of a sudden we got out of the terminal building, and Srila Prabhupada was standing on the sidewalk waiting for the car to come by to pick him up. And somehow or another we were jostled and shoved by the crowd and all of a sudden we were right there, me and Sridhar, practically behind Srila Prabhupada’s shoes. So I was gasping for breath, and we offered obeisances at his feet and I asked Sridhar, “Should I touch them? What would happen if I touched Srila Prabhupada’s foot?” I thought. I reached my index finger forward very gingerly and I touched the back of his shoe, and then I pulled it away like it was going to be an electric shock or something like that. Such a shy boy, I wasn’t even 18 at the time. I didn’t even disturb him, he didn’t even look at me or didn’t even notice it. We were so scared. It was the first time I saw Srila Prabhupada. On Monday morning, Tamal Krishna Maharaj took all of us, about 80 devotees…there were three bus parties who had converged on Atlanta…to see Srila Prabhupada. We all went into Prabhupada’s room. Prabhupada started to lean against his bolster and he spoke about brahmacari life and he said, “My Guru Maharaj, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, loved this brahmacari life.” He said, “You can sleep anywhere. But if you get married, then you have to get apartment and so much trouble.” So when those three words came out of his mouth, my jaw dropped. I was shocked. I thought, “He’s trying to save us. He’s trying to save us.” Then his smile went off his lips, he became grave, and his eyes became deep and he said, “So the senses will bite. They will demand satisfaction,” he said. Then he pointed his finger at us, “But you preach,” and he put his hand up, “and you pray to Krishna, and Krishna can make this itching sensation go away,” and he flipped his hand. But then his hand went like this, “Ah, but if it does not go away,” and he pointed in the back of the room were standing Gadi das and Aja das, “then like them, you can take.” He did not insist that we remain brahmacari. “But my Guru Maharaj very much liked this brahmacari life,” and that’s how he ended his talk. As soon as he ended it that way, I thought, “That’s it, no more questions. That’s what I’m going to do.” I was completely convinced. And the crux of his conversation was “Preach!” That was the most impressionable thing of my entire devotional life.