Bada Haridas Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 10

Bada Haridas: I joined the Los Angeles temple in 1975, and the day that I joined I put what seemed like about a hundred devotees on the back of a flatbed truck covered with a tarp and we all drove to San Francisco for Rathayatra. I was a new bhakta. I wasn’t shaved up yet, I had long hair and a beard. I didn’t really know much at all. So we were engaged helping to set up the festival, and we slept under the main stage. The next day in the morning we drove over to the Berkeley temple for greeting of the Deities. Prabhupada came out around that same time, and all the devotees paid their obeisances. I remember the first time I saw Srila Prabhupada. When he came out…I guess a lot of devotees have said this, but it was really like the room just lit up from his presence, although he was pretty slight in stature. But this amazing effulgence came from him, and I remember thinking, “Boy, this person is really powerful.” Then I thought, “I hope he’s good because anyone with that kind of potency, it would be pretty scary if he wasn’t.” Of course, I found out he was more than good later on.