Jaya Gauranga: I had the opportunity to go on a morning walk with Srila Prabhupada to the beach. There were a lot of devotees and I was just an insignificant little devotee who couldn’t get very close to Srila Prabhupada. As such, I couldn’t hear what he was saying besides being slightly deaf. I kept jumping from one side to the other trying to grasp a word from Srila Prabhupada and Srila Prabhupada noticed my predicament. During the class that same morning, Prabhupada talked about how a dog sees with his nose, people see with their eyes, but a devotee sees with his ears. He said hearing is so important as it is the beginning of devotional life. If we’re asleep our eyes are closed and if someone comes to try to do some harm to us, our eyes will not help us. But our ears are always attentive. He said if someone comes to try to do some harm to us while we are asleep our ears will tell us, “Wake up, wake up”. The entire time Prabhupada was talking about this, he kept looking at me. I felt Prabhupada was talking to me as if to say, “You should do something about your hearing.” After that I tried to figure out how to get a hearing aid.
Another interesting incident happened in Mexico. Hanuman Prabhu had been a sannyasi Prabhupada had sent to Argentina to preach. Unfortunately, in the course of his preaching, he had fallen down from the sannyas order and got married. I think that was probably the first time that a sannyasi had fallen down or one of the first times, so it was a very grave thing. When he came to see Srila Prabhupada he said shyly, “Srila Prabhupada, Lord Chaitanya rejected Chota Hari das because he glanced at a woman in a lustful way. I’m afraid because I also lusted after a woman perhaps you’re going to reject me.” Srila Prabhupada looked at him and said, “Lord Chaitanya is God. He can spread this movement in a moment if He wishes without the help of anybody.” He said, “But I’m just a servant of God and I need all the help that I can get.” He said, “You have rendered so much service to me, how can I reject you?” That was very sweet and touching to see how Prabhupada was so merciful to all of his devotees.
I got to go on morning walks with Srila Prabhupada and I remember one time in Chapultepec Park there were some people practicing martial arts. Prabhupada stopped to look at them and said, “Just see. Whenever we talk about death everyone says that they are not afraid of death.” Then he said, “So, I say to them, if they are not afraid of death then why are they doing this, ‘Whoah, whoah?’” It’s difficult for me to imitate Prabhupada of course, but it was very funny the way he made the martial arts sound and of course all the devotees started laughing at his humor.
One time I made a big mistake. We had a lot of rice and dhal that was left over from the lunch prasadam. I decided to put them together and make it into kitcheri to distribute in the evening. When Prabhupada found out he called me to his room as he was very upset. He said, “Rice should never be reheated. I said, “I’m sorry, Srila Prabhupada.” But just as easily as Srila Prabhupada would get angry, his compassion was also so great that his anger would as quickly subside.
One time I brought my father to see Srila Prabhupada. My father used to live in Beverly Hills when he was conducting an orchestra for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera Company. He was a big shot. He had been a medical doctor so he was a little puffed up, always looking down at people and especially me and the devotees. He was always thinking that we were just hippies. When I invited him to come see Srila Prabhupada, he came reluctantly. He came dressed in a very nice suit but when he had to take his shoes off he said, “What is this?” The devotees were singing and I told my father, “Look, that’s the maha mantra. Sing with us, chant with us.” My father wouldn’t do that. All of a sudden the doors to Prabhupada’s quarters opened up and Prabhupada walked in with his cane very elegantly and at the same time very simply. All the devotees just immediately paid obeisances to Prabhupada. This very arrogant and puffed up man, as soon as he saw Srila Prabhupada, couldn’t help but bow down all the way to the floor and paid his obeisances. Prabhupada passed right next to us, stopped for a second, looked at both of us and he could see the resemblance. He just gave us this beautiful smile, full of compassion, full of love and carried on. Needless to say my father was totally changed after that. All though he didn’t become a devotee he did write something very nice about Srila Prabhupada and I used to ask my father, “What made you pay your obeisances to Prabhupada when you did not believe in any of these things?” My father said to me, “He commanded that respect. He was not an ordinary person. He was someone very special, someone in the mode of goodness.” Those were my father’s words.
I remember one lady raised her hand after Prabhupada had finished a Bhagavad-gita class as she had a question. She asked, “In the Bhagavad-gita it is said if one thinks of Krishna at the time of death, one will go to Krishna. Now my question is, what if I think of you at the time of death? Will it have the same effect?” Prabhupada didn’t answer right away. He closed his eyes for two or three seconds as if he was searching for the answer and then he smiled and said, “That is very nice.” He said, “Yes, it will have the same effect.”
