Bimala devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 07

Bimala: Everyone started dispersing and going back to their respective places, the classroom or the…I was taking my son home. All of a sudden, one of Prabhupada’s servants came running through the building saying, “Prabhupada wants to see all the children.” It was such a terrific surprise, and the mothers got their babies. He said, “Everybody, all the children,” because at first we were thinking it was just the schoolchildren. We all came up and he said, “Prabhupada has rasgullas for all the children.” So everyone started lining up, and Prabhupada gave a rasgulla to each child. The kids, all they’ve seen is pictures of Prabhupada, they’ve heard stories of Prabhupada, they learned the obeisances to Prabhupada; but here he was, and they were just awestruck. My heart was so filled because having a child I knew how he’s reaching them on such a personal level, and he even asked for the babies. Jagadisa, he would say something about each child to Prabhupada, “This is so-and-so,” and he would say a thing about him. When I brought Iswara Puri up he said, “And this is Iswara Puri, he is Mandaleswara’s son. He’s a rascal.” Prabhupada just laughed, and then he gave him the rasgulla. Then he drops it. I picked it up and gave it back to him. Years later we saw this footage and Ish told me, “When I dropped that rasgulla, you picked it up for me. That’s been the story of my life. I’m dropping Krishna consciousness, and you’re always picking it up and giving it back to me.”