Vrindavaneshvari: I was very nervous when I was initiated. When I came up to the vyasasana and Prabhupada asked me the four regulative principles, I could hardly speak, and when he looked at me, my head jerked away as if two magnets were repelling each other. It was strange. I couldn’t look at him. I felt that he could see right through me and he knew exactly who I was, where I was at, and what a rascal I was. It was very cleansing. It was so intense that even when I tried to look at Prabhupada again I had to look away. Then I got my beads, and he said, “Your name is Vrindavaneshvari. This is a name for Radharani.” It was wonderful and very funny, because I had a very short name my parents gave me that I never liked, and I wanted a really long spiritual name. Prabhupada gave me “Vrindavaneshvari,” with sixteen letters. For months nobody could pronounce it. It was very satisfying and nice. Prabhupada mercifully fulfilled my desire.
Prabhupada had said that we should have a big, Krishna conscious festival at least once a year for no reason as it didn’t have to be a holiday. In response to this, Bhakta das organized a festival in San Diego that Prabhupada attended. I was very attached to seeing Prabhupada every day, so I volunteered to help cook for the festival. The festival was ecstatically wonderful. Prabhupada lectured at a school auditorium. We had a big kirtan, and Prabhupada encouraged the devotees to dance. Afterwards a woman asked, “Why do you shave your head?” In a heartbeat Prabhupada said, “Why do you shave your legs?” Everyone was stunned and scared. After a moment of silence Prabhupada said, “Better to have a cool head than cold legs.” Everyone said, “Jaya!” It broke the ice. The guests laughed.
One of the last times I saw Prabhupada was at the airport when he was leaving. He had to sit in a chair for a little while and wait. The devotees were having a big kirtan, and Brahmananda and some other “bodyguards” weren’t letting anybody get too close to Prabhupada. A woman in her late fifties was a short distance away. This woman was a bit of a character. She came to the temple almost every day wearing a white uniform with white shoes. We didn’t know if she was a hairdresser or a nurse or whatever. Once a week she’d give some toilet paper or some little condiments to the temple. At the airport I saw that this woman was very anxious. She wanted to get closer to Prabhupada because she couldn’t see very well. Prabhupada pointed to her and told a disciple to get out of a chair to let her sit down. It was wonderful to see how Prabhupada set the example by giving a seat to this woman.
