Omkara: The first time I came to the temple was a Sunday feast when I was seventeen years old and Prabhupada was giving a lecture. When I saw Prabhupada, I immediately fell in love. The lecture had convinced me that I was listening to a pure devotee, and I wanted to be a devotee. I told the temple devotees that I wanted to join right then and there. At that time there was no question that you had to be eighteen. They put me in a sari and I joined. I didn’t even tell my parents who were very strict and it took them quite some time to find out where I was. Even though they were religious-minded, it was something new and different, so I had to go back home and finish high school. When I turned eighteen I went back to the temple. But immediately when I saw the devotees I knew that I wanted to be a devotee. It was something I knew that I had experienced in a previous life, as it was something familiar. It was like a reawakening, a similarity that I felt I could easily pick up.
I was doing service in the kitchen, which was to set up the deity offering in the morning before guru puja. Prabhupada would usually hand out cookies at this time but this occasion someone had made sweet balls instead. The temple room was packed. There were devotees from San Francisco, San Diego and Laguna Beach. Prabhupada would give out sweet balls to the children and mothers first and I thought, “How can I get a sweet ball from Prabhupada?” I had to go to the kitchen to do the offering. I thought there was no way I could get a sweet ball. At one point when Prabhupada was done with the children and the mothers, he started throwing the sweet balls in the air and the crowd just got ecstatic and the men got closer and closer to Prabhupada. Everyone was jumping up and down. I had to go into the kitchen so I got on the floor and paid my obeisances. As I was getting on the floor to pay my obeisances, a sweet ball comes rolling straight at my head. I was surprised that these thumping brahmacharis didn’t smash it. I was amazed that Krishna and Prabhupada knew my desire. I was so happy that I could go into the kitchen to do my service on time and still get the sweet ball from Prabhupada.
I was a receptionist at the Brooklyn temple and I would greet guests whenever they would come in. Sometimes there would not be any guests so I would simply sit at my desk and chant Hare Krishna. One time it was very quiet and all of a sudden I heard something. It was Prabhupada singing and playing his harmonium. He was alone. I didn’t hear any devotees. It was just Prabhupada singing and playing the song, “sava avatar sar siromani.” I don’t know if the door was open, but I could hear it well and I was enjoying it very much because no one else was around. As I was listening, all of a sudden Prabhupada started sobbing and he stopped playing for a few moments. After a few more moments he started singing and playing the harmonium again. It was very special. He played and sang for Krishna, and then awhile later he started sobbing again. He started sobbing and stopped playing and it happened a few more times. It was so special that I started crying. It meant a lot to me because I knew no one else was there. I could not believe what I heard –Prabhupada having love for Krishna and sobbing and crying and stopping, over and over again.
