Mahakratu: I cooked every day, but early one morning Shakti Mati, a fierce Punjabi lady and a renowned cook, invaded the kitchen and decided that she was cooking Prabhupada’s breakfast. I said, “Okay, you can do it,” and I went to the morning program and class. Shakti Mati had a group of brahmacharinis with her, and together they cooked a huge feast. Later, Niragadeva and I came to the kitchen with two big silver platters and loaded them with the different preparations. We went into Srila Prabhupada’s room, and Prabhupada’s eyes got really big. I put one plate down in front of him, and he said, “You have cooked all this?” I said, “Oh, no, Srila Prabhupada, not me.” He looked at Brahmananda and said, “Who has cooked this? Shakti Mati?” and they both started laughing. Then Prabhupada gave everyone—Chayavana, Brahmananda, Niragadeva, and me—a handful of prasadam. He said, “You take this, distribute the rest, and then come back, and I’ll tell you what I want for breakfast.” He actually wanted local fruits. He said, “The fruits in Kenya are excellent,” and that’s what he wanted everyday. He also specifically said that he wanted me to make his breakfast. He said, “I want you to do it.”
Prabhupada got angry when he found out that I was doing all the cooking without any help. Everybody else wanted to be in his classes and go on his morning walks, so I was alone in the kitchen cooking for the Deities, the devotees, and Srila Prabhupada as well. It was quite a strain. One day we ran out of gas, and Prabhupada’s offering wasn’t getting cooked. Nothing was getting cooked. By that time I was completely stressed. It was too much for me. Prabhupada told Harikesh to find out what I was doing. Harikesh told Prabhupada, “The kitchen has run out of gas,” and this and that. Prabhupada said, “Why? Who is helping Mahakratu?” Harikesh explained that I was doing it all by myself. I had to arrange everything and cook as well. Srila Prabhupada said to Harikesh, “You help cook. I didn’t realize that Mahakratu was under so much burden.” Harikesh helped for a while but walked out when some matajis came into the kitchen. When he went back to Prabhupada’s room, Prabhupada asked him, “Why aren’t you helping in the kitchen?” Harikesh said, “There’s matajis in there. Mahakratu can manage.” Srila Prabhupada got up and said, “I’ll go and help him then. If you don’t want to help, I will help.” In this way Prabhupada was very merciful.
Some Gaudiya Math brahmacharis were cooking a big feast outside, and I was watching them. Then, all of a sudden, Prabhupada walked up holding his cane, stood a little behind me, and looked also. I didn’t realize he was there. I turned around, and there was Prabhupada. I offered my obeisances, and Prabhupada said, “If you can learn to cook like this, you can win the whole world. These Gaudiya Math cooks are very expert.” Then he walked off. He was strolling around by himself looking at the different preparations.
In 1977 I was traveling with Dhirakrishna, Riksaraj, and a couple of other brahmacharis in Yasodanandan Swami’s group. When Prabhupada went for darshan in the Delhi temple, four or five of us were in the room with him. Prabhupada said, “Have you got any questions you would like to ask?” Immediately Dhirakrishna asked Prabhupada, “How does one become a spiritual master?” Prabhupada called for the First Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam and had the story of Narada Muni read out loud. Every so often Prabhupada would say, “Do you understand this?” After we heard the story, Dhirakrishna asked Prabhupada, “Could you elaborate on that so we can understand for ourselves?” Prabhupada said, “Associate with devotees and take the remnants of prasadam just like Narada Muni did. Continue the process of Krishna consciousness, chanting all your rounds very clearly every day. Follow all the regulative principles, act in an exemplary way, and carry on this preaching.” That was his main point. “Carry on this preaching. Don’t stop preaching.” In that way, there can be many spiritual masters.
Prabhupada was on the vyasasana about to lecture, and there was a group of ten or twelve devotees sitting near him. I was sitting under a corner of the vyasasana. Hansadutta and Yasodanandana were also there. When Prabhupada started to speak in Hindi, a whole bunch of devotees got up to leave. Prabhupada stopped speaking. He looked at us and said in English, “This is for you as well. Where are you going? Stop. You should all stay here and listen.” The devotees thought that they could walk away from Prabhupada’s lecture since they didn’t understand the language. But Prabhupada didn’t like that at all. He wanted everybody to sit and listen because whether we understood it or not, it was purifying for us. Afterwards he said, “You devotees don’t understand the potency of this preaching. It is what is going to purify your hearts. You’ll become Krishna conscious by hearing, even if you don’t understand, not by wandering around.”
A Western woman had been following in the distance, and Prabhupada noticed her. I don’t think anybody else noticed her, and I don’t think she was initiated. When we stopped in a little cove of trees, this woman picked some flowers from a tree. Prabhupada indicated that she should come. She came through all of the sannyasis and offered the flowers to Prabhupada. Prabhupada took the flowers, thanked her, had one of the brahmacharis put a chadar on the ground for her to sit on, and then Prabhupada asked her to sit down with us. That was very touching. It was very nice. Prabhupada had noticed her standing shyly in the background not knowing what to do. He didn’t make her feel uncomfortable but called her over and accepted her offering. And the whole time he sat, he played with those flowers. Prabhupada didn’t discriminate because she was a woman.
A Western woman had been following in the distance, and Prabhupada noticed her. I don’t think anybody else noticed her, and I don’t think she was initiated. When we stopped in a little cove of trees, this woman picked some flowers from a tree. Prabhupada indicated that she should come. She came through all of the sannyasis and offered the flowers to Prabhupada. Prabhupada took the flowers, thanked her, had one of the brahmacharis put a chadar on the ground for her to sit on, and then Prabhupada asked her to sit down with us. That was very touching. It was very nice. Prabhupada had noticed her standing shyly in the background not knowing what to do. He didn’t make her feel uncomfortable but called her over and accepted her offering. And the whole time he sat, he played with those flowers. Prabhupada didn’t discriminate because she was a woman.
A Western woman had been following in the distance, and Prabhupada noticed her. I don’t think anybody else noticed her, and I don’t think she was initiated. When we stopped in a little cove of trees, this woman picked some flowers from a tree. Prabhupada indicated that she should come. She came through all of the sannyasis and offered the flowers to Prabhupada. Prabhupada took the flowers, thanked her, had one of the brahmacharis put a chadar on the ground for her to sit on, and then Prabhupada asked her to sit down with us. That was very touching. It was very nice. Prabhupada had noticed her standing shyly in the background not knowing what to do. He didn’t make her feel uncomfortable but called her over and accepted her offering. And the whole time he sat, he played with those flowers. Prabhupada didn’t discriminate because she was a woman.
Prabhupada was about to climb onto the concrete platform when he noticed that some dahl prasadam had spilled and been left there. Prabhupada looked at it and then sat on his vyasasana. He said, “Who is responsible for not cleaning this?” Everybody looked at each other. Nobody took responsibility. Then Patita pulled out a little penknife, opened the blade, and was on his hands and knees about to start scraping up the dahl. Prabhupada bent over the vyasasana and looked down at Patita with the knife in his hand. Patita looked up at Prabhupada, and Prabhupada said, “What is this for?” Patita said, “Cleaning.” Prabhupada shook his head and said, “Use it for cutting. This is mleccha attitude. Brahmans use water to clean. Is there no brahman here?” Someone got a bucket of water and mopped up the dahl. Then Prabhupada gave a heavy lecture about cleanliness, uncleanliness, and brahminical standards.
In the Hyderabad temple, Srila Prabhupada asked for a plate of the feast prasadam that was being served to the devotees. A hired cook had made it. I was in the room when Prabhupada got his plate. Prabhupada took one look at it, shook his head, and said, “This is not good.” He didn’t even taste it. He said, “The devotees should have nice prasadam.” He sent the plate away, then sent for Mahamsa and said, “You should fire that man. Get rid of him. He’s told you he’s a brahman, and he’s not. He’s a fake. He doesn’t know anything. I want my devotees to cook.” So Prabhupada had me and two or three others cook a feast. On a number of occasions, in Bombay and different places, Prabhupada would take the prasadam that everybody else was taking instead of having the prasadam that was specially prepared for him. He was concerned that the devotees were happy and satisfied. I could see that over and over again in the many ways Prabhupada dealt with his disciples. He wanted them to be happy and satisfied in Krishna consciousness. It would disturb Prabhupada to hear that there were complaints or arguments.
Once a number of sannyasis were in Vrindavan observing chaturmasya. Most of them were fairly new sannyasis, and they were growing beards, chanting extra rounds, and performing other austerities. It was the rainy season, and a group of devotees and I had been out preaching. When we came back we spoke to Srila Prabhupada about our preaching programs. Prabhupada came into the temple room and told these sannyasis, “What are you sannyasis doing here? Why are you in the temple growing beards and eating in the name of Krishna consciousness? The business of sannyasis is to go out and preach.” Prabhupada sent all the sannyasis out to preach.
After we offered gurupuja, Prabhupada was about to start singing, when there was a clattering. Someone was banging on the door of the bhoga room. Prabhupada put his kartals down and looked over at the devotee making the noise. He asked, “Why is he disturbing the class? Bring him over here.” The devotee ran over and said, “There’s a devotee sleeping in the bhoga room.” Prabhupada looked very surprised and said, “Is it a devotee or a demon? Devotees want to come to Bhagavatam class and hear from their spiritual master. Bring him here.” Now with Prabhupada’s authority, somebody banged on the door, shouting, “Whoever is in there, Srila Prabhupada wants you to come out immediately.” The door flew open, and a devotee practically fell out with his sikha all over the place and sleep in his eyes. He staggered out, still half asleep, until he realized that Prabhupada was sitting in front of him. He stopped and fell on the floor to offer his dandavats. Up until that point, Prabhupada looked stern, but when the boy got up, Prabhupada said, “Come here.” The boy came a little closer and stopped. Prabhupada said, “No, come here.” The boy came a bit closer, and Prabhupada realized that he was a new devotee. Prabhupada said, “So, you are a devotee or a demon?” The boy said, “Prabhupada, I think I’m a devotee.” Prabhupada said, “Devotees come to their guru’s puja, and they come to the Srimad-Bhagavatam class. They don’t miss these things. You should sit down and attend the class.” Prabhupada wasn’t very strong on that devotee, but when he turned to Mahamsa Swami he said, “Because the leadership is so dirty, untidy, everything is a mess. Prasadam is wasted. Everything is a mess here.”
Prabhupada gave lots of instructions about Deity worship. Once, when I was there, Prabhupada came into the pujari room and looked at the flower garlands. At that time, the Deities’ flower garlands were being made the day before and kept for the next morning. Prabhupada turned his nose up. He said to Akshayananda, “Why are you offering rotten flowers to the Deities? Why aren’t they fresh?” Akshayananda said, “These were made only yesterday, Prabhupada.” Srila Prabhupada said, “Yesterday isn’t good enough. They must be made now, fresh. You can’t offer old flowers.”
Prabhupada circumambulated the Krishna-Balaram Temple three times, and as he walked around he would point out different things. We walked past an area where the Gurukula building was under construction, and an old lady was there hunched down scrubbing pots with grass and ashes. Prabhupada stood next to her and watched her for a moment. Then he turned to all of the devotees and said, “This is how we clean our pots. You Western people think that clean means inside, but we clean the outside as well. Learn from this lady. She comes every day to do this service for Krishna, and she can do it perfectly.” In this way, Prabhupada taught us that everything had to be done in a certain way. As Prabhupada walked around, if there was anything wrong, you could be sure he would find it. If a gutter was broken, or a pipe or window was loose, Prabhupada would say something about it. It’s amazing how he noticed every single thing. Once he saw the drainpipe from the Deity kitchen was broken and had water and rice coming out of it. Prabhupada stopped walking, and everyone gathered around the pipe. Prabhupada said, “This is your Western mentality. Everything is always dirty. You don’t know how to clean. You don’t know what it means to be clean.” In this way, again and again and again, he would stress this point: Brahman means clean. Personally a brahman is clean. Clean brain, clean mind. He would always want devotees to bring up their standards.
One morning, while everybody was in the temple room waiting for Prabhupada, I waited outside. I realized that I was the only one outside, and I grabbed a flower garland and some sandalwood pulp and ran over to Prabhupada’s room. Hari Sauri was bending down putting Prabhupada’s slippers on for him, and Prabhupada walked into his slippers and then continued walking. I was fortunate enough to be standing in front of Prabhupada with this garland. Prabhupada stopped and looked at me. We were very close to each other, looking into each other’s eyes for what seemed like ages. I stood there frozen. At that time, the first time that I had seen Prabhupada came back to me. His eyes were moist, and there was such warmth in them. And their depth was so great that I felt I was looking into another world. It was amazing. I placed the garland on Prabhupada’s shoulders, put the sandalwood pulp on his forehead and then fell down on the floor to pay my obeisances. To this day I remember the powerful feeling of love that emanated from Prabhupada.
