Kurma das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

Kurma: As the customs doors opened and closed, all of us were excited and were jumping up to try to catch a glimpse of Srila Prabhupada. With my first glimpse of him, I saw that he had an attaché case in one hand, his cane in the other, and his chader folded over his shoulder. He appeared effulgent. He was standing patiently, peacefully waiting for something. In fact, he was waiting for Vegavan, who had been held up at immigration. The immigration authorities had told Vegavan that he could not enter the country because he did not have a visa. It appeared that Vegavan, who was Prabhupada’s servant for the trip, would not be allowed into the country. But Vegavan explained to the immigration official that he was married to an Australian. A few weeks before, in front of thirty thousand people, Prabhupada had married him to Padmavati at the Cross Maidan pandal program in Bombay. The immigration official asked him for his marriage certificate. Vegavan told him that he didn’t have one, but he showed the man a photograph of his wedding, and in the photograph Prabhupada was performing the wedding ceremony. The immigration official had noticed Prabhupada when he came through, and seeing Prabhupada had moved him. So Vegavan received a stamp in his passport, “Indefinite Stay.” Vegavan could understand that this was Prabhupada’s potency. So we were waiting for some time while all this happened. Finally, Prabhupada entered the airport terminal where there was a huge kirtan, and it appeared that the whole airport stopped. Prabhupada attracted a very large crowd. It was quite amazing how many people were there at that time. Everything appeared to come to a standstill. Caru had told all the ladies, “When Prabhupada comes through, don’t scream.” But when Prabhupada came, all the ladies screamed. Everybody, including the ladies, paid their full dandavats wherever they were, and Prabhupada couldn’t move because we were crisscrossing his path. A lot of devotees stayed down there and didn’t move. They weren’t sure how long they were supposed to stay down, so they just stayed. Some other devotees had to tap them on the shoulders. Then we all stood up and followed Prabhupada through the airport terminal with kirtan. Caru recalls that when he paid his obeisances at Prabhupada’s arrival, he banged his head on the floor so heavily that he had a mild concussion, and everything was very, very hazy. We were all delirious in some way or another, spiritually or materially. I don’t recall the press conference, but there definitely was one, because in the newspaper there was a nice photograph and a description of it. In the article Prabhupada described the four orders of life: brahmachari, grihastha, vanaprastha, and sannyas. He explained that he was in the fourth order of life, which meant that now his business was to travel and preach. Prabhupada’s arrival was noted in the Sydney Morning Herald and a Sydney daily newspaper, although at the time we were not familiar with accessing newspapers.

When Prabhupada arrived and got out of the car, Upananda came running out of the temple and paid his obeisances. Prabhupada affectionately patted Upananda on the head while a group of devotees had kirtan on the sidewalk. At this point, the front door of the temple blew closed and locked from the inside. Prabhupada tried to open it but could not. At that time, my father and mother were visiting me, and since they felt embarrassed to be seen on the street with the Hare Krishnas, they had gone inside the temple under duress. While Prabhupada was trying to get in the door, my father pulled open the little curtain and saw him. So my father opened the door, and as Prabhupada walked in, Prabhupada nodded at my father to say thank you. Then Prabhupada sat down on a small vyasasana, and looked around the room at all of the devotees and guests. One of the guests was Bhakta Arthur. Bhakta Arthur was a boxer for the South Sydney Leagues Club, and he was a tough guy. He had a carpet-laying business. Prabhupada’s eyes stopped at Arthur. Arthur was looking at Prabhupada in the eye, and Prabhupada was looking at Bhakta Arthur. Bhakta Arthur recalls that he was looking and looking and looking, and Prabhupada’s gaze was so intense that eventually he had to look away. Prabhupada’s gaze was affectionate but grave at the same time. Bhakta Arthur, who later became Ajamil, said that this glance brought him closer to Krishna consciousness. Along with that glance came all the blessings of Srila Prabhupada and the disciplic succession. He felt impregnated with something spiritual at that time.

Prabhupada came to Melbourne for the first time on his second visit to Australia. When he arrived, Krishna Premi sang Vandeham sri guroh and played the harmonium. It was intense. She sang with great affection and sincerity and cried the whole time. Prabhupada nodded and smiled at her. Upananda had made a big plate of simply wonderfuls, which was the number one delicacy in those days. They were like the summum bonum of life. We were addicted to simply wonderfuls. When Upananda offered a plate of them to Srila Prabhupada, Prabhupada nodded and made a gesture to distribute the simply wonderfuls to everyone. In those days I was very much into rules and regulations, and all I could think of when the simply wonderfuls were coming around was that it was a great offense for us to eat in front of the Deity. When I saw everyone eating their simply wonderfuls I was very perplexed. But of course, taking prasadam from Srila Prabhupada is beyond any rules and regulations.

I was recommended for second initiation, and we were asked to go out and collect dakshin. In those days, generally speaking, we didn’t come up with very much money. I went knocking on the doors of houses and apartments in our neighborhood telling people that, “Tomorrow I’m going to be initiated by a bona fide spiritual master. Could you please give me some donation as an offering?” I came back with about fifty-five cents. I put it on a saucer, and I brought it into Prabhupada’s room with me. Somehow or other I thought that it wasn’t a bad collection because I had tried pretty hard. When I came in the room, Prabhupada was reclining on a long seat. He had just his dhoti on, no shirt, and he had very soft golden skin that appeared to be glowing and effulgent. He was leaning on his left arm and had his back toward the windows leading onto the little veranda that overlooked the street. Prabhupada asked me to sit down in front of him, and he showed me how I should count on my fingers for chanting the gayatri mantra. At that point I was very sure of myself because I had been watching Upananda saying his gayatri mantra in the mornings. I thought I had figured out how to count. So, when Prabhupada was showing me how to count, I wasn’t watching very carefully. After Prabhupada showed me, I attempted. Prabhupada shook his head and said, “No, no,” and showed me again. I started to panic at this point, a common experience with many devotees when they’re in the room alone with Prabhupada. I was perspiring and shaking. My eyes didn’t seem to be working anymore. I couldn’t focus. All of a sudden, it felt like all of my limbs had locked up, and everything went blank. Prabhupada showed me again, but everything was hazy. I tried again, got it wrong, and then tried again. Prabhupada was getting disgusted when I got it wrong again. Then Prabhupada held my thumb down on my finger and said, “You have to start from here.” I felt microscopic. He placed the sacred thread over my shoulder and I left the room.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 17 - The Australian Yatra

The full Prabhupada Memories Series can be viewed here and also at www.prabhupadamemories.com

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 06

Kurma: The lecture in the Melbourne Town Hall, right opposite where our current Gopal’s Restaurant is today…there’s a Lower Melbourne Town Hall and there’s an Upper Melbourne Town Hall. The upper one is a gigantic cavernous concert hall with the organ. So we chose the Lower Town Hall so it wouldn’t look out of place if we only got a few hundred people because the large one holds thousands of people. We got quite a few hundred people along to attend Prabhupada’s 1974 Town Hall lecture, and it was quite a wonderful event. We see Srila Prabhupada wearing that gorgeous saffron silk outfit that he’s wearing there on that incredible saffron vyasasan that was built by Shyamananda das. It was made of saffron silk, and it was quite astonishing. It all came to pieces, and we were able to carry it to various venues. Some places we even had extra pieces attached that were on a motor and would spin around with little lights on them that would attract the spotlights, but that turned out to be rather of an over-endeavor.

After the Rathayatra parade, which was extremely successful, we wheeled all three carts into the Royal Exhibition Buildings, which were the final resting place of the Rathayatra Festival; and Prabhupada gave a nice lecture from the cart. After his lecture, he came down the stairs and he rested on a chair in a small room as we were preparing to distribute the feast. And one of Prabhupada’s disciples, Gopinath Acharya, entered the room with some incense.

The large murti of Lord Caitanya that we see in the Ormond Hall lecture here, that was created by Dhoumya das; and Dhoumya had perfected the art of cold electroplating. He was able to build this murti in pieces and then create a wonderful shiny gold coating and then with pegs assemble the murti and bring it to various events. It was there at the Rathayatra Festival and, as we can see, Prabhupada encouraged us with a wave of his hand that we all circumambulate the Deity. He was like the general ordering the troops and just with that little movement of his head and the little movement of his hands, we took his lead and we danced ecstatically around the murti with those very big bass drums that we had used the day before at Rathayatra.

We were very fortunate that William Kerr, who was a freelance cinematographer and filmmaker, gave his services to film a lot of the footage that we see of Prabhupada in Australia. He had a whole team that would come and film as many of the events that they could including the installation of the Deities, the opening of the temple, morning walks, the classes, the Town Hall programs, and he was filming over a number of years from 1973 all the way through to Prabhupada’s 1975 visit. So he would have a big camera actually on a dolly and wheel it through the Botanic Gardens and take a lot of that classic footage. So we are very indebted to him for doing that.

Interview DVD 08

Kurma: Srila Prabhupada’s lectures at the Melbourne temple were actually held in the evening. Normally Prabhupada’s Bhagavatam classes were held in the mornings. But on the advice of Madhudvisa Swami, with whom he always took counsel…he had a lot of respect for Madhudvisa Swami, and Madhudvisa had suggested that we’d get more guests along to the temple in the evening time. So Prabhupada, with a slight movement of his head and a smile, he agreed to Madhudvisa that “Yes, definitely we’ll do that.” So Prabhupada would take his morning walks at the Botanic Gardens, as he always loved to do. It was one of his favorite places to walk, he said. Then he’d come back to the temple, there would be greeting of the Deities and then Guru Puja, and then he’d return to his room and we’d have the Bhagavatam class in the evening.

Every night after the Bhagavatam class there was a big feast that was served out in what was known as Parampara Hall, which was a large room on the ground floor of Prabhupada House. That was the prasadam room at the time. So Dvaipayana and other cooks prepared very, very nice prasadam. This was the highlight of the evening for many, especially those who had come to the temple for the first time. On the second night, I remember Dvaipayana had prepared apple crumble. Apple crumble in those days was apples with cinnamon with a mixture of oats, flour and butter and baked in the oven till the topping was crispy. Now, it was a bit controversial because we thought that oats were not fit to be eaten by devotees. Someone said that somebody said that Prabhupada said that oats are meant for horses. So some devotees thought that apple crumble was not bona fide. Anyway, Dvaipayana made apple crumble, many, many, many trays of it, some of the best apple crumble that he had ever made. After the lecture, Prabhupada went up to his room and he felt a little hungry, and he asked Srutakirti to go down and see what prasadam there was available, what was being served for the devotees. So Srutakirti went down to the kitchen and brought back some apple crumble. Prabhupada ate a whole bowl of it, and then he sent Srutakirti downstairs for more. He said, “Please bring me more of those crispy apples.” After we heard the story, we realized that apple crumble was now bona fide and fit to be eaten by devotees. So then apple crumble became a dessert that was served at practically every feast.

At this time in Melbourne, there were two groups of devotees. There were those who were living in the temple, and there were those that were known as the outside devotees. I’m not even sure that we were that respectful as calling them devotees; but we felt that if they weren’t living in the temple, they were not qualified to be devotees. We had a rather limited perspective of things. But amongst these devotees that were living outside, there were those who had broken away from ISKCON and they had concocted their own philosophy. And at the end of this evening class, some of their doubts were brought up at question time. Prabhupada very kindly allowed us to have some very lengthy question and answer periods at the end of these classes. One boy who was in this circle asked Prabhupada, “Can you take initiation by accepting the spiritual master in your heart without actually taking?” Prabhupada cut him off and said that these were all bogus propositions. He said, “It has no meaning. If you think in yourself that ‘I am eating,’ will you be satisfied?” He said, “You actually have to eat to be satisfied. If you just simply imagine that you have eaten, you will not satisfy your appetite,” indicating that you have to physically take initiation from the spiritual master, not just take initiation in the heart. This he said was bogus.

Prabhupada sat down, he took off his chadar, he folded it into a neat little square, and he sat down with his back to the wall next to Lord Nityananda. Myself and Dvaipayana were then allotted to dress the Deities. We were dressing the Deities in full view of Prabhupada, who was just a meter away. So we were quite nervous. Dvaipayana reached for some Tulasi leaves and also the manjaris because we were growing our own Tulasi plants at this stage, and we placed them on the feet of the Deities. Prabhupada at this stage leaned over and suggested that we don’t place the Tulasi leaves on the feet of the Deities but rather we place them in between the feet of the Deities. So we made this adjustment. We were all heavily sleep-deprived. We had been up for days and nights without sleep, so a lot of us can’t remember much about it. But there’s a bit of my bald head popping up there and, in fact, I am leading kirtan. Until I saw the footage, I wasn’t able to remember what I was doing, but there I am. There’s a lean, mean-looking Kurma das playing the mridanga. There’s a little bit of a few devotees’ heads that I recognize. We were all packed in very close together. Here comes the camphor lamp for us to take the prasadam, and we were dancing and chanting like anything. I remember Sabhapati was playing whompers like a devil and practically busting my eardrums. But we were on a spiritual high at that point. We were having Prabhupada in our presence, this was the darshan of the first aratik ceremony, Prabhupada was doing the aratik, we hadn’t seen Gaura-Nitai before. We were in a daze, we couldn’t believe it was going on. But we did what we had to do, and at the same time we were watching Prabhupada do the aratik. It was all wonderfully ecstatic.

Every devotee in Australia had come to the opening of the temple. Prabhupada was not scheduled to visit any other place, rather he suggested to Madhudvisa that all the devotees come to this one celebration. So not only that, there were parents of devotees, friends of devotees. We’d invited all the neighbors and the local dignitaries in the South Melbourne Council. So the property was overflowing with people. We had even invited the workmen who had helped with the construction, and so it became quite a joyous event.