Vakresvara Pandit das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 11

Vakresvara Pandit: I was told that the ride on the Radha Damodar bus was Prabhupada’s long-cherished dream. And because the vehicle that we had just repaired was in such first-class shape, we were informed that our bus would be used to take Srila Prabhupada and that I would be the driver and Mahamuni would be the servant and Sunanda would be the cook. Now, prabhu, I was an expert bus driver, expert. I could pull that bus into any spot, eyes closed. Somehow or other when Prabhupada and all these sannyasis and senior devotees got on the bus, I was terrified. I was really hyperly nervous. So we go out of the Lincoln Tunnel. Now, that’s a huge curve and the curb itself, it has a really high cement curb. And somehow or other, the wheel itself, it gets stuck on the curb. I can’t turn it to get it off. So the curb is guiding the whole bus, and sparks are flying out and no one knows but me. And I’m just praying, I said, “Krishna, why are You doing this to me now? I’m going to kill my guru, sannyasis, the Deities, we’re all going to go tumbling…” I said, “Kill me anytime, anyway You want, please don’t…” Prabhu, I have never ever, ever experienced fear, anxiety, suffering like that. So I was just praying, trying to hold the bus so that the wheel would veer off to the left. And finally, after about two minutes of that intense, intense…two minutes was like an eternity, a few eternities. So finally the bus pulls away. Definitely some of my life force was dropped on that curve coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel.