Gokularanajana: We grew up in the ’50’s with black and white TV and when color TV came it was exciting, like eye candy. When I first saw Prabhupada, it was like the first time I saw color TV—everything else was black and white or shades of gray. Prabhupada actually knew who he was, he knew who God was, and he knew what his purpose was. He was the only person I knew who was in reality and the first time I saw him was the first time I saw reality. I had taken some theater and drama courses in college and there was always a discussion about your inner monologue that motivates you and makes you efficient with your movements. I could see that Prabhupada’s every movement was saturated with devotion. If he was walking to see the Radha-Govinda Deities in New York, he was walking to see Krishna. He wasn’t just walking in front of people, he was walking to see Krishna, and everything was devotional. His every movement was very efficient. There was nothing frivolous in him.
One morning everybody else was scrambling to get out of the cars and for a few seconds just Tripurari and I were with Prabhupada. Some ducks were quacking and Prabhupada turned to us and said, “We must save these mudhas,” the quacking of the materialists. Tripurari said, “Srila Prabhupada is it true that the spiritual master will come back if the disciple falls down?” Prabhupada said, “Yes, but don’t take advantage.”
With his cane Prabhupada pointed to the skyline and said, “You see this city? This city and all cities will collapse very soon. Do you know why?” Everyone hesitated, wondering, but Tamal Krishna quickly said, “Because the people here don’t know how to grow food.” Everybody else was searching for some esoteric reason but Tamal gave a practical reason. Prabhupada said, “Yes.” Growing food is the whole purpose of our farm communities and we still are trying to grasp their importance.
Tripurari asked Prabhupada if we get karma by shaking the karmis’ hands when we are distributing books. Prabhupada said, “I hope not.”
With Prabhupada’s permission, Jayasacinandana Prabhu sang a bhajan for Prabhupada while Prabhupada waited for his flight. He sang one of the classic ones that Prabhupada also had sung and Jayasacinandana made every intonation, every syllable just the way Prabhupada had done it. Prabhupada closed his eyes and every now and then he’d look over at Jayasacinandana. When the song was finished, Prabhupada leaned over and said, “You listen very well,” which I thought was interesting. He didn’t say, “You chant very well,” he said, “You listen very well.” Prabhupada said that the qualification his spiritual master had noted in him was that, “You actually know how to hear and listen.”
When Balavanta became a GBC in 1976, I became the temple president in Atlanta. I had been used to having the guidance of an older Godbrother and I felt alone. I felt that I had risen to my level of incompetence. I thought, “Why is everybody going to stay because of me?” I was meditating in that way over and over again for a couple of months, and I was getting up the nerve to tell Srila Prabhupada, “Srila Prabhupada, I’m honored by the opportunity to serve as the temple president, but you should think about someone else. I’m not competent or ready.” Before the Ratha-yatra in New York I went into Prabhupada’s room, paid my obeisances, looked up and Srila Prabhupada was engaged in conversation. All I knew was that I wanted to tell Prabhupada how alone I felt. Prabhupada looked right at me and with such compassion said, “One thing is, even though I was in a foreign country and I didn’t know anyone, I never felt alone.” I thought, “How did he know?” He said, “As long as I was following my spiritual master’s instructions, I knew he was in my heart.” I didn’t have anything to say. I was going to be temple president for a while.
Before the fire yajna began at a first initiation, Prabhupada was sitting on the vyasasana while Kirtanananda Maharaj lectured on the ten offenses. At one point Kirtanananda said, “You can chant any name of God,” Prabhupada said, “Any bona fide name of God.” It was a little reminder.
There was a local pop star, a drummer in a band, who had been coming to the Sunday Feast regularly. Then at one Sunday Feast he showed up wearing a turban and he was with the Yogi Bhajan group. He’d always loved the devotees but he was challenging in a playful way. He asked a question and Prabhupada said, “You are very fortunate. You have accepted a bona fide guru, Guru Nanak. Now don’t be a hypocrite. Follow. Study the Grantha, chant Hare Rama and read Bhagavad-gita.” This is the same instruction that Prabhupada gave to Christians. In that Sunday Feast lecture, a devotee’s father and his girlfriend were there, challenging. Prabhupada basically said the same thing, “We accept Lord Jesus Christ as our guru.” Prabhupada also told them, “You should be following the ten commandments,” They said they did. Prabhupada said, “What about thou shalt not kill?” They said, “We don’t kill.” “Do you eat meat?” Prabhupada handled them very well. At that time I kept thinking how Prabhupada had said, “I can speak like this because I’m an old man. But you cannot.”
Srila Prabhupada was definitely pleased during his visit to Atlanta, and he did many things he hadn’t done before, like give a drum class. Everyone could see that he was pleased. Afterwards someone asked him, “What was it about Atlanta that pleased you so much?” Prabhupada said, “I was pleased when I saw how all the devotees were cooperating together to please me.” In his last days Prabhupada gave the famous instruction, “The test of your love for me will be how you cooperate together after I am gone.” During those three days Prabhupada was in Atlanta, Tamal Krishna took the brahmacharis to Srila Prabhupada’s room and introduced each of them to Srila Prabhupada. It was very sweet. And on Sunday, during the question and answer period after the lecture, one of those brahmacharis asked Srila Prabhupada, “What pleases you the most?” There was a hushed pregnant pause. Everyone was in suspense. Prabhupada chuckled and said, “If you love Krishna, if you chant Hare Krishna.” I still get goose bumps thinking about that.
After we performed the plays Srila Prabhupada said, “You should do more plays of the same standard. That will be good for you and good for all who see them.” I took that instruction to mean that we should do plays of pastimes directly from Prabhupada’s books and we should rehearse them well. Prabhupada himself said that he was in a play that was rehearsed for one year. We hadn’t rehearsed for a year, but we rehearsed almost every day for several weeks and we did a dress rehearsal the week before. That’s what I take “of the same standard” to mean.
