Madhavananda das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

Madhavananda: One time there was a phone call for Srila Prabhupada. Shyamasundar came out the door and said, “Who is it?” “Oh, it’s B.V. Puri Maharaj from Visakhapatnam.” All of a sudden Srila Prabhupada ran down the stairs, got on the phone and started speaking very loudly and joyfully in Bengali. Within six hours we were all on the train to Visakhapatnam on the coast of South India. When we arrived we were served very nice prasadam, stuffed ourselves and slept through mangal arati the next morning. We were staying in little bhajan kutirs outside of the math and Prabhupada came out with his cane. He was opening the doors and yelling at the brahmacharis, “Get to mangal arati. Why aren’t you at mangal arati?” I thought I could make it just in time before Prabhupada got to my door but I didn’t. He opened the door with his cane and I paid my obeisances. He didn’t care for my prayer. He said, “If you cannot get up in the morning, then do not eat at night.” It was the first time I’d ever experienced his chastisement and I thought my spiritual life was finished. I said, “Yes, Srila Prabhupada. I’m sorry Srila Prabhupada.” I ran to mangal aratik. Srila Prabhupada used all of his emotions perfectly in the service of Krishna.

Once Visnujana asked Srila Prabhupada about spiritual strength. He said, “Srila Prabhupada, how do you measure spiritual strength?” Prabhupada said, “With kartals.”

One day I was in Prabhupada’s room in Calcutta and his secretary brought in the mail. Disciples would write to him and Prabhupada would respond. The secretary would type it up and bring it back for Prabhupada to sign. One day there was a life member in Prabhupada’s room at the time for the correspondence to be signed. As Srila Prabhupada penned his signature in his regal manner, the life member was obviously impressed. Prabhupada noticed the man’s response and said, “Yes, my college professors once told me, ‘Ah, royal signature.’” Everything that Srila Prabhupada did was of a royal nature.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 49 - Jayapat S, Sruto, Gargamuni, Gurukrpa, Narayani, RupaV, Hari, Ranjit, Nrsimhanda

Interview 02

Madhavananda: In Calcutta in 1972, Srila Prabhupada was on a morning walk with a lot of brahmacharis. Some of the brahmacharis were complaining because women also lived at the Calcutta temple, at 3 Albert Road. The brahmacharis said, “Srila Prabhupada, sometimes the women don’t put their saris over their heads,” and “Why can’t the women get a place outside, separate from the brahmacharis? Their presence is not conducive to our brahmachari life.” Prabhupada was silent for the entire walk. Sometimes he stopped walking and then started again, but he didn’t respond to the brahmacharis. We came up the stairs of 3 Albert Road, someone opened the door, and there was Yamuna and Palika and Shyamasundar’s wife, Malati, and Kaushalya and Madri and other women who had stayed behind to wash the floor, cook for the Deities, bathe the Deities, dress the Deities, prepare Srila Prabhupada’s vyasasana and the cushions for the guests. The women immediately offered their obeisances and said, “Jaya, Srila Prabhupada!” Prabhupada turned to all of us and said, “But, if you associate with these women, you will go back to Godhead.” Last night I told Srutakirti that story, and he brought my attention to page 250 in My Glorious Master by Bhurijan prabhu called, “Women, Widows and Success.” It reads: “Srutakirti then rubbed mustard oil onto Prabhupada’s back. I moved to face Prabhupada’s front and was enjoying the sweet atmosphere that surrounded him. With his eyes closed, Prabhupada spoke. ‘My God-brothers criticize me that I have allowed women to live in our temples. This is not done in India. Only brahmacharis can live. But I have become successful because I have made this adjustment.’ Prabhupada opened his eyes and continued, ‘Although they criticize me, their Gaudiya Maths are empty. The only time they have people coming is during parikram in Mayapur for Gaur-purnima. And who is coming to parikram? Widows—women in white. But because I have made this adjustment, I was successful.’ Srutakirti then moved to massage Srila Prabhupada’s side and asked, ‘Prabhupada, how can we tell the difference between making an adjustment and changing a principle?’ Prabhupada’s eyes closed and Srutakirti continued to massage. After a few moments, Srila Prabhupada opened his eyes and said, ‘That takes a little intelligence.’”

From the very beginning, I always loved kirtan and once in Calcutta after I had lead a kirtan in front of the Deities, Prabhupada’s servant came and said, “Prabhupada wants to see you.” I went and Srila Prabhupada said, “That was a very nice kirtan.” I said, “Oh, thank you.” And he said, “But it is not GA-dad-hara, it is Ga-DAD-hara.” So sometimes even today I cringe when I hear devotees saying GA-dad-hara, sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu nityananda, sriadvaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda, and I remember Prabhupada saying that to me. But I was moved by Srila Prabhupada’s generous compliment.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 44 - Arjuna, Bahushira, Gokularanjana, Jnanagamya, Jayapataka S Udayanand

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

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 03

Madhavananda: When we arrived in Vrindavan, I remember walking into Srila Prabhupada’s room and paying my obeisances and saying, “Srila Prabhupada, what should we do now?” And he looked down at me and he said, “Just wander.” So that’s exactly what I did. I just went out into the Vrindavan village and everything I’d read about in Nectar of Devotion and Krsna Book, I was thinking of those things. I wanted to take rest under a kalpa-vrksa tree, it’s something I’d wanted to do for a long time. So I actually found one tree in the forest, and I actually fell asleep and slept very soundly and very deeply for a couple of hours. When I woke up it was evening time, and I didn’t really know where everybody was but I heard in the background the kirtan going on…Hare Krishna. So I followed the sound and I arrived at this big program where Srila Prabhupada and all the devotees were, and the lecture had just stopped and they were serving out prasadam. That was a great day in my life, just the way it worked out.

Interview DVD 04

Madhavananda: Palika and Yamuna and Malati, in the kitchen they were preparing prasadam for Srila Prabhupada and I was in the front room, and then Srila Prabhupada was in another interior room on the ground floor behind his desk. His servant brought in a sadhu from South India, and he sat down in Srila Prabhupada’s room but I didn’t hear any conversation going on between them. Why aren’t they speaking to each other? Then all of a sudden I heard a huge verbal argument, and they were screaming at each other at the top of their lungs in Hindi. All of a sudden I was really concerned, what’s going on? Then all of a sudden this guy storms out of the house. And for the next two weeks, Srila Prabhupada was so grave and if you listen to those lectures, he’s talking about catur-varnyam maya srstam, guna-karma-vibhagasah, Krishna has established a natural system of varna and ashram – brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra. It is something that happens within society naturally, and people are judged to be in one of these categories – brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra – by their qualities and by the work that they do. Never in this verse does Krishna mention anything about birth. So we found out later on that what this argument was about was this guy was coming in and saying, “You can’t do this. You can’t take mlecchas and yavanas from the West, meat-eaters, and convert them into brahmanas, give them the sacred thread, give them the sannyasa tridandi.” Of course, this argument had been presented in different ways to his acharya, his Guru Maharaj, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta. So this was a fight that was going on for a long time, and Srila Prabhupada in the next two weeks quoted all the different verses from all the different shastras explaining that Krishna consciousness is a universal movement, it is not just for India, it includes the entire world.

I was in Srila Prabhupada’s room with him in Calcutta. I was the temple president there, so I got access to Srila Prabhupada. So I went in and one day I was just there with him alone, and for some reason I asked this question. I don’t know why, but I did. I said, “Srila Prabhupada, when you leave us, who will succeed you?” And he said, “That will be revealed to you.” Then he looked at me and he said, “You will become guru.” Then he said, “I want all of my disciples to become guru.” And then he said, “Yare dekha, tare kaha ‘krsna’-upadesa, amara ajnaya guru hana tara ei desa,” which is the verse that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spoke to the South Indian brahmana. I think it was Venkata Bhatta. When he left South India and he was lamenting, “What am I to do?” And Lord Chaitanya said, “Whoever you see, tell them about Krishna. Whoever you speak to, tell them about the instructions of Krishna given in the Srimad-Bhagavatamand the Bhagavad-gita. And on My order, you deliver this land.” So Prabhupada quoted that verse and he said, “This is how this Krishna consciousness movement will be spread.”

We were in Prabhupada’s room in Calcutta, and Nanda Kumar brought in a letter for him to sign. Prabhupada looked at the letter, two-page letter, looked it over and then grabbed the pen and goes “A” and then “C” and then this big “Bhaktivedanta” and then big capital “Swami.” There was a Life Member there and I was there looking at this, and we looked at each other when we saw the signature. And Prabhupada noticed it and he looked at the Life Member and he said, “Yes. When I was at Scottish Church’s College in Calcutta, my professor witnessed my signature also and he said, ‘Ah, that is a royal signature.’”