Mishra Bhagavan: In Atlanta in 1975 Srila Prabhupada gave the Sunday feast lecture. At the end of his talk, he opened up the floor for questions and answers. There were some Christians in the audience who raised their hands, and Prabhupada had to banter back and forth with them. The Christians were trying to say that Jesus was the only way and Prabhupada was saying, "Then be a good Christian and be vegetarian because you shouldn’t kill animals in the name of Christ." Then I had a question, so I just threw my hand up and said, "Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada!" He looked at me and then I thought, "Oh, my God. I have to have a question." I just blurted out the first thing that came to the top of my head. "Srila Prabhupada, how can I perfect my devotional service?" He thought for a moment and said, "Just chant Hare Krishna and everything else will come. It is very simple." At the time I thought that was kind of a stupid question because I didn’t really think it out, and the answer he gave me was just what he tells everybody: "Just chant Hare Krishna." He said that all the time, but as the years have gone by, I realized that it was a good question. It was a perfect answer, and it was very important in my life to understand that it’s essential to always keep on chanting Hare Krishna no matter what ups and downs we have. It was actually a very deep philosophical point that he made very simple.
I remember during one morning class, Srila Prabhupada explained how the living entity suffers in the womb and prays to Krishna that if he is relieved from his horrible condition, he promises to surrender his life to Him. But Prabhupada continued to explain that when we are born, there is forgetfulness because we are given nice facility to enjoy the material world, thus forgetting the misery within the womb and our promise to Krishna. Prabhupada was pointing out that when we are in a miserable condition in the material world, it can be good for our spiritual life. Then he talked about parenthood. He said if the father is not responsible, then he should be kicked. I thought that was a pretty heavy thing to say. Prabhupada always preached that it would be best if one could stay brahmacari, but then he said that if you do get married, then you couldn’t be halfway about it. You have to be a very responsible father and be ready to not only take your kids back to Godhead through spiritual life, but also take care of all their physical needs in life as well.
After one class in Chicago, Prabhupada went to the front of the temple to be driven back to his residence. However, the car was not there. Whoever was supposed to pick Prabhupada up, got caught in traffic. You can imagine Chicago traffic. We didn’t have cell phones back then, so nobody knew where he was. Tamal Krishna Goswami was standing there because he had nothing to do with any of these arrangements. First of all, it was not his job to arrange for the car since he wasn’t the temple president, nor was he the GBC for that temple. But guess who Srila Prabhupada went to. It was Tamal Krishna Goswami. Then I could see that Prabhupada seemed to hold him responsible for everything. [laughs] Prabhupada looked at Goswami and with a little frustration said, "So, where is the car?" Tamal Krishna Maharaj immediately went into action. He sent somebody to get a van from the back, and they came running back to say, "Oh, the bus has got the van blocked in." Then they sent Dravinaksa to move the bus so that Janardana could bring the van around. This comedy of errors seemed to take about twenty-five minutes. It was getting hot, but Prabhupada looked transcendental and undisturbed as he began chanting. Finally, the driver of the car pulled up, and you could tell on his face that he knew he was really late. But Prabhupada wasn’t too disturbed, and he just got in and went away. I learned a couple of things from that incident with Srila Prabhupada. One was that he might get frustrated about something, but he never held onto that emotion. He was always transcendental and absorbed in Krishna’s Holy Names. The other thing was how he put all the responsibility on Tamal Krishna Goswami and how Prabhupada expected Tamal Krishna Maharaj to carry the ball, all the time.
In Mayapur 1976 I went on a morning walk along the front wall of the temple where there is still an exhibit of ISKCON projects from all over the world. I wasn’t supposed to go on the morning walk, of course, because everybody had to be a GBC or a sannyasi, but I pulled a chaddar over my head and slid into the entourage. The very first thing I noticed about the morning walk was how polite everybody was. Srila Prabhupada created an aura, an atmosphere on the morning walk where everybody grew up and was totally in the mode of goodness. We were all young devotees and quite often rather pushy. But in Srila Prabhupada’s presence there was complete calm, which was quite palpable. It was like, as they say, "thick as soup." It was like a magic shield of sattvic energy that emanated from Srila Prabhupada and enveloped everyone else on the walk. I could tell that when Prabhupada was there, everyone’s consciousness came up. When he would stop walking, even though there were twenty to twenty-five of us all trying to listen, everybody would stop without falling over each other like the Keystone Cops. And when Prabhupada would start walking again, everybody would walk on with no pushing or shoving. It was really quite noticeable.
The international exhibits had pictures of temples from all over the world: Deities, farm projects, devotee activities, cows, Gita Nagari, New Vrindavan, and the BBT offices and warehouse in Los Angeles. But what Srila Prabhupada really liked more than anything, by the way he reacted to it, were the quotes about his books from scholars. Prabhupada stopped the whole show when he got to the quotes and had the devotees read them right there on the spot. Then he said that these quotes should be sent to Indira Gandhi. That is what really stuck out for me on that morning walk.
Another very significant day was when Tamal Krishna Goswami was being sent to China. We considered it significant because there are now a thousand devotees in China. But at the time it seemed as though he was being banished. The Radha-Damodar party had been built up successfully by Tamal with devotees who wanted to leave their temples run by grihasthas to travel with sannyasis. The temple presidents banded together and complained to Srila Prabhupada that they had lost all their men to the Radha-Damodar party. Prabhupada, who really loved the Radha-Damodar party, could have said, "Well, I am happy that they are there." In other words, he could have stuck up for Tamal Krishna Goswami. But Prabhupada was very intuitive, and he understood that these devotees who were complaining had to be pacified. Prabhupada had to take their side because they would not have been able to handle it if he hadn’t. And Tamal Krishna Maharaj was ready to do anything Prabhupada would tell him to do. He was fully surrendered. So Srila Prabhupada called Goswami into the room. Prabhupada said, "So what are we going to do with you?" Tamal Krishna Maharaj said, "Well, Prabhupada maybe I should just go to China." Prabhupada said, "Yes! [laughs] Krishna is speaking through you." Then there was the whole exchange where Goswami had tried to get out of it. "Well, Prabhupada I was just joking." Prabhupada said, "This is no joke. You’re going to China." Guru Kripa, who was in the room, said, "Prabhupada I’ll go." Prabhupada said, "No, he must go." Prabhupada just wouldn’t take no for an answer. Tamal Krishna Maharaj had to surrender. Then Prabhupada went out on the morning walk. Pancharatna was there trying to stop people like me from going, but I huddled in between Madhudvisa and Keshava to go on this walk, which took place on the roof of the lotus building. Prabhupada was walking and at one point he stopped, turned around facing the sannyasis and GBC men, and with outstretched arms he exclaimed, "You’ll all be happy to know Tamal is going to China!" There was a kind of muffled "Jaya" because we didn’t know how to respond. It was like the polite clapping at a golf course tournament because his words sounded like an exile. We had no idea that Tamal was going to be successful. But it showed us that Prabhupada really cared about that part of the world. Prabhupada knew that China had to be included in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and it was going to take Tamal Krishna Goswami to make that happen. And he finally did. At that point in time Prabhupada himself had gone to Russia, Africa, Australia and America, North and South. But China was still untapped, so that was Prabhupada sending Goswami to China.
On a morning walk in Mayapur in 1976, Prabhupada said, "We should close down everything we are doing all over the world and bring all the devotees here to Mayapur and develop this place." He had already been talking about the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium and now he made this extraordinary statement. Ramesvara said, "But Prabhupada, we have so many preaching programs going on all over the world." Prabhupada said, "We’ll preach to people here. People from all over will come to Mayapur, and when they get here, then we will preach to them." Then he pointed to a field by the Jalangi behind the goshala area and said, "We will build an airport and people will come from all over the world." I wanted to have that confirmed, so I confronted Ramesvara about a month ago when he was here in Mayapur. I asked him, "Do you remember when Prabhupada said that everything should be brought here to Mayapur? And you mentioned about all the other preaching programs that were going on." He said, "Yes, Prabhupada did say that, but he didn’t really mean to close down everything." So, we agreed that Prabhupada was just trying to show the importance of Mayapur and that it meant so much to him. One time he told Giriraj Swami, "Book distribution and Mayapur are my most important projects."
In New York I cooked pera, which is a burfi that you cook down until it becomes like a cookie. I was making all the milk sweets for Radha-Govinda having been trained by Bhaktivinode das prabhu. The servant came down and said, "Prabhupada said to tell the cook that the pera was very good." That really touched my heart that Prabhupada was so personal. He was thinking that somebody is cooking these milk sweets and they should know they did something right. So much was going on in his world, but he was able to appreciate a little milk sweet sitting on his breakfast plate. He really paid attention to detail. Then we sat in on a darshan with Prabhupada, Urmila, her husband, their baby and her father. Urmila wasn’t happy that a bunch of devotees were allowed in the room, but I was really happy. Srila Prabhupada was talking about how people are afraid of death. He said, "Why if we are not afraid to die, do we run away when there is danger? If the building is on fire, why do they run out of the building and then call the fire department?" Then Prabhupada made the noise of wa wa wa, imitating the sound of a fire engine going by. I learned that Prabhupada was trying to show that we are definitely afraid of death. Why do we try to avoid it all the time? Anybody who says they are not afraid of death is not really being honest. Prabhupada knew that. Everybody is afraid of death. Nobody wants to die unless they’re suicidal, which really means they’re afraid of living. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not afraid. Everyone is afraid. Then her father said to Srila Prabhupada, "I can’t relate to serving God. I can only relate to serving humanity." Srila Prabhupada replied, "When you serve God, then you can serve humanity." He said, "If you love God, you can love everyone else." He used the example of a pond. He said, "If you throw rocks in the middle of the pond, then the little ripplets expand outwards more and more, but there is no conflict as long as the rocks are in the center of the pond." He said, "If there are different interests, then there is always conflict if you have stones dropping in different places." He used the word stone. He said, "But as long as they are in the center, then as long as you put your love to Krishna, love to God in the center, then it expands evenly until again it reaches the lotus feet of God."
