Gaura: The first time I met Srila Prabhupada was actually when I saw him in a photo in my friend’s apartment. My friend’s name was Gary Preston, and he had a degree in theology from the University of Toronto. I was searching for a guru and I asked him, “Of all the gurus on the scene these days, who do you think is the most authentic, the most no-frills, least commercialized guru?” He pointed to a black and white photo of a grave looking image of Prabhupada and said, “Of all the gurus on the scene these days, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is the real deal. He’s authentic, representing the tradition of the Vedic culture.”
I received a Gita one evening from Nandikesvara prabhu. He said, “Listen, we are going to be meeting Srila Prabhupada, our guru, in Chicago. Would you like to come and meet him?” I was in a band at the time but decided to take a break, so I jumped in the Volkswagen van with the devotees, and headed to Chicago five hundred miles south of Winnipeg. When I arrived, I was allured by the new spiritual environment, and I ended up living in the temple in Evanston, which was formerly a YMCA. It was a very intense mood with what seemed like hundreds of Radha-Damodar brahmacaris compared to the dozen devotees back in Winnipeg. In preparation for Prabhupada’s arrival, everyone painted the entire temple white, and as explained in other memories from this series, Prabhupada would always say upon his arrival at a temple, “Wherever I go, I always smell fresh paint.” Finally, the day of Prabhupada’s arrival came. We all jumped in the vans and headed out to O'Hare (Krishna) airport in Chicago to greet Prabhupada. Inside the terminal we were having a huge kirtan with great anticipation. Finally, the doors opened and Prabhupada came out. There was an immediate tsunami of transcendental emotion that washed over me. I saw devotees cry, “Prabhupada!” Tears were shooting out of their eyes while others were joyously smiling at the same time. I had never seen such a type of contradiction of emotions. The sannyasis were making way for Prabhupada, blocking everyone from touching him because they were diving for his feet. This entire scene had a tremendous samskara (mental impression) impact upon me. I was really impressed that Prabhupada carried himself with an aristocratic dignity, but at the same time, I could sense he didn’t have any false ego. In other words, I could see that he was not thinking, “Oh, I’m glad you realize I am Srila Prabhupada.” It was more like, “All my sons and daughters are here to greet me.” It was all about love.
The next time I saw Srila Prabhupada was after I had served in the temple for some months. My temple president, Uttamasloka prabhu, said, “How would you like to get initiated by Srila Prabhupada?” I said, “I am not qualified to be initiated by Srila Prabhupada.” Then he said, “That is the qualification. If you would have thought that you were qualified, I wouldn’t have recommended you.” So, I thought, “Okay, here goes.” Prabhupada came to Detroit for the unofficial grand opening of Devasadan Mandir that Ambarisa das and Lekhasravanti dasi had acquired from their parents’ inheritance. I was nervous standing in the line to get my beads going over the regulations, hoping I wouldn’t freeze up in front of Srila Prabhupada. Finally, my turn came. They called out, “Bhakta Glenn.” I came forward and Srila Prabhupada asked, “What are the four principles? And are you chanting sixteen rounds?” I answered in the affirmative, and while I was standing there, Prabhupada was looking at me. I felt like he had x-ray vision, and that he was looking at many lifetimes of me with all my sinful activities. [laughs] I felt totally embarrassed standing in front of him thinking, “Who am I? I am not qualified to be accepted by Prabhupada.” I was overwhelmed with emotion that he was accepting me at that moment. I got some realization that he was tri-kala-jna, meaning he could see past, present, and future. I had never experienced that with anybody in my life.
In 1977 I went to Sridham Mayapur to receive my Gayatri initiation from Srila Prabhupada. While I was there, Bhavananda prabhu asked me if I would like to do some service. I was going around signing up sannyasis to give Bhagavatam or Gita classes, and in the course of this service, I somehow or another contracted amoebic dysentery. I became extremely ill. Word got back to Bhavananda, and he told Srila Prabhupada, “One of your disciples is extremely ill.” Srila Prabhupada said, “Give him green bananas because they are astringent—blocking, and flat rice—poha, and yoghurt—dahi.” But that really didn’t do much. Then one night I was under my mosquito net thinking it wouldn’t be very long before I’d be leaving my body as I weighed under one hundred pounds, and Bhakti Raghava Swami showed up with two big leaf plates. He said, “Bhavananda told Srila Prabhupada how you are not really getting better, and Prabhupada said, ‘Make him hot salty puris.’” He lifted up the leaf plates and out came a puff of steam. I remember immediately feeling “Wow! In spite of a thousand devotees being here in Mayapur, Srila Prabhupada is thinking of me, little insignificant me. How amazing that is.” The quality that really stood out for me about Srila Prabhupada was his compassion, his personalism, and his personal care. Even though there were so many devotees and so many meetings and things going on, he was thinking about me. That really impressed me and reminds me to this day that every disciple of Srila Prabhupada is precious and every grand disciple is also precious. Prabhupada himself said, “Hundreds of gallons of blood are spent to make even one devotee.” Since devotees are precious, I should be conscious to do my best to care for them and to think of them in the spirit of service to Srila Prabhupada.
Among the twenty-six qualities of a pure devotee, I appreciated how Prabhupada was mitra, a friend to all. I really felt like,“Whocan have a better friendthan Srila Prabhupada personally looking out for me?”Areal friend is there with you through thick and thin. Heisloyalevenwhen you’re down and out and you are in your worst condition. Hedoesn’tkick you to keep you down further. He triesto see what hecan do to lift you up. A devotee is merciful, magnanimous,andthoughtful about others, not self-absorbed in thinking of himself. I believe thatif I can get into themindset of always being concerned forothers, as Srila Prabhupada was with me,then my own little challenges in life will be reduced to nil. There arepeople out there whoare struggling a lot more than I am. And that is the key. Theantidote for my own self-absorption is in trying to think of others as Prabhupada always did.
