Haravapuh: I had been in Hawaii for about three weeks or so and unable to find out if there was a Hare Krishna temple on the island. I had never been to a Hare Krishna temple, but I always wanted to go to one. I was getting a little frustrated because I went to Manoa Valley and Kalihi Valley upon someone’s suggestion but to no avail. Then one day I saw a devotee in a dhoti walking and I asked him if he was a Hare Krishna. He said, “Yes.” I said, “Well, I have been looking all over for you guys.” He replied, “Well, our spiritual master is here. Why don’t you come with me and you can see him?” I didn’t know what a spiritual master was, but I followed him to the temple. When we arrived, Prabhupada had just entered the temple and everybody fell to the floor. I was the only one standing because I didn’t know why they were falling on the floor. [laughs] It was just Prabhupada and I who were the only ones upright and he looked me dead in the eye. All I could think of was, “He is so familiar. Where have I seen him before?” As he sat on the vyasasan, he began to speak with a deep, beautiful, thunderous voice. I couldn’t make out much of what he was saying. But I did hear “sex” and “dog,” and so I was thinking maybe this is what I needed to hear. [laughs] I was impressed by Prabhupada and the energy in the temple that was packed with devotees. I had to go to work that evening, so on my way to work and at work, I couldn’t get the mantra out of my head. The next day I came back to the temple because I wanted to join. I grew up in the Christian faith as my entire family were very close to the church. We went to Sunday school and we were always reading about angels appearing here and Jesus performing his miracles. I often had wondered why these things weren’t going on any more, but when I saw Prabhupada, it was like the magic of a real mystic had returned to the planet. I finally learned that it was called prema-bhakti, which I could feel emanating from him and it went right through me. I felt complete relief, complete security and complete contentment. I didn’t have to ask questions because I knew this was the man. That was the happiest time of my life.
I was a kitchen devotee in Hawaii. I hadn’t been initiated yet, so I would cut up potatoes and vegetables and was always in bliss in the kitchen. Srutakirti, who was Prabhupada’s servant, took a liking to me and he asked me, “Hey, do you want to help me serve Prabhupada?” I said, “Sure!” He told me, “I want you to prepare his fruit plate. Prabhupada is generally just eating fruits and some dob water in the morning.” So, I would get all of the mangoes and papayas, cut them up nicely, and place them on the dish. I would also arrange oleander flowers on the outside of the plate surrounding the fruit. When I put his plate on his table in front of him, he would raise both arms and say, “Jaya!” This is what I had been waiting for. I thought he was speaking to me, but it was the fruit he was happy to see. [laughs] He would begin to eat, so I would leave the room. The next day Srutakirti came to me and said, “Prabhupada wants you to pay your obeisances when you leave.” So that morning when I brought Prabhupada his plate, I remembered to offer my obeisances. But being overwhelmed by Prabhupada’s presence, I just drew a blank. I couldn’t remember the prayer. So I just stayed on the floor until I thought the prayer was over. I felt so embarrassed, but he didn’t say anything. I felt like this was a very kind-hearted man. Being in a black body, I could easily pick up when people judged me by my physical presence. I never got that from Prabhupada. I felt very safe in his presence. The next day Srutakirti came to me and said, “There are some instructions I have for you. Prabhupada said that the pineapples that you cut were over ripe. They were tart. Too sour.” In connection with the pineapples, Srutakirti taught me that, unlike cooking for Krishna where the cook would never taste the offering before putting it on His plate, I should always taste everything that went on Prabhupada’s plate to make sure everything was proper. And then he said, “The dob water was good but cloudy.” He said, “The dob water should be clear like water.” And then the third instruction was, “The flowers are poisonous.” None of us knew that oleanders were poisonous, but Prabhupada did.
Another thing that I enjoyed about being in Hawaii was the small size of the temple and thus our ability to go on morning walks with Srila Prabhupada during his long stays, which were often. The weather during one particular visit was the most beautiful I had witnessed in Hawaii. It was almost as if the demigods were trying to please Prabhupada by making the Hawaii weather even better. On this occasion he was translating the Fifth Canto, which was basically the structure of the universe, the cosmology of Krishna. I would hear him speak about things that were so incredible and mystical. He talked about a fish called the timingila. He said, “It is so huge it can swallow a whale whole.” At one point on the walk along the beach he pointed to a huge rock island, Rabbit Island, that he said resembled the timingila in size and shape. The island has a large bulbous head and a small section that looks like a tail. We were just dumbfounded. We were thinking, “This is incredible.” I wanted to hear more of these mystical things. He also spoke about the golden mountain and the ocean of milk and the ocean of sugar water. I immediately decided I had to get this Fifth Canto and peruse through it and find all this information.
After about a year living here in Hawaii, I became interested in art. I had been communicating with Jadurani and I sent her some sketches. She said that she would welcome me if I came to Los Angeles to work with the other artists. I got permission from the temple here in Hawaii, went to Los Angeles, and established myself as one of the artists working on Srila Prabhupada’s books. One day Prabhupada wanted to see just the artists because he wanted to see the progress of our work. At the time I was working on a beautiful painting of Krishna under a tree with his flute and a cow. I worked very hard on it and all the devotees thought it was beautiful. I thought, “Now I get to show this to Prabhupada, how fortunate.” We all entered Prabhupada’s room anticipating Prabhupada’s comments about our paintings. Prabhupada spoke a little bit about Krishna and then we all took turns coming up to him with our paintings. When I got up to show my work, he didn’t even look at my painting. He just looked right at me. I felt this powerful purging and I just bowed my head down. Then he looked at everyone and said, “You are all doing paintings of Krishna standing by the Yamuna.” He said, “Are you reading my books?” He said, “If you read my books, you will find that Krishna is not just standing by the Yamuna. He is doing all kinds of fantastic things.” He said, “I want to see a book with paintings of Krishna doing his pastimes. You flip the page and He is doing this, and you flip another page and He’s doing that.” He said, “That is what I would like to see. Right now, you all have come to me with these paintings and they are all similar.” He finished with, “So read my books.” That was my instruction from Srila Prabhupada.
Before I even came to the Honolulu temple, I found a neat little sandwich shop that had pita bread with avocados, and cheese sandwiches, along with smoothies. I found out that that was the Hare Krishna restaurant that Prabhupada desired to be named Govinda’s. When Prabhupada visited Hawaii, he wanted to know how the restaurant was doing? The devotees said, “Oh, it is doing fine Prabhupada.” He said, “So are they helping the temple?” The devotees said, “You can speak with Taruna Kanti and Revati-ramana. They are running the restaurant.” Prabhupada had a meeting with them, and they explained that the restaurant was doing really nicely, but there were a lot of expenses and there was not really a lot left to give to the temple. Prabhupada made a solution. He said, “Okay, I understand that you, Taruna Kanti, are living in a condominium with your family, and Revati-ramana, you and your family are living in another condominium.” He said, “These condominiums are large enough that the two of you could live in one condominium. Then the money you’re spending on the other condominium you can give to the temple.” They did not like that idea, and I think one of them said to Prabhupada, “We can’t do that.” Prabhupada very sternly looked at them and said, “Then you have stolen my restaurant. And I want it back.” I learned from that point on that Prabhupada does chastise his disciples, but when he chastises them it is not out of any type of dislike or hatred. He loved everyone and he wanted us to do everything properly for Krishna. It was very important for him.
