Mangalananda das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

Mangalananda: The first time that I saw Prabhupada was a picture of him on the back of the Chintamani record album. Two people had just moved into a little cottage near a farm where I was living, in upstate New York. I went over to be neighborly and say “Hi” to them, and they invited me in and gave me some tea. Some music was playing, and I said, “Oh, that’s nice.” They said, “Oh, yes; it’s this guru, Prabhupada,” and they showed me his picture on the Chintamani album. He was smiling. They said, “He’s really high.” I said, “Yeah, he sounds like he’s really spiritual.” Then they turned the album over and said, “And this is God. He’s got his own planet.” I thought, “Oh, yeah!” I liked that idea, and I was interested enough to buy a Bhagavad-gita.

When Prabhupada first came to New York he was living in the Bowery. Once Prabhupada said, “Even if a drunk man in the Bowery sips wine with the attitude, ‘Oh, Krishna makes the nice taste in this wine,’ he will eventually achieve perfection.”

One time in New York, I had to make samosas for the feast, but we ran out of white flour. The cauliflower-and-pea filling was cooked, so I made the samosas with whole-wheat flour, which doesn’t quite work—it isn’t flaky. When the maha prasad went to Prabhupada, I was waiting anxiously in the kitchen. Finally Srutakirti, Prabhupada’s servant, came back with the tray, and I said, “What did he say about the samosas?” Srutakirti said, “He took one bite and said, ‘Sudama Swami makes nice samosas.’” I said, “Okay, I’m supposed to talk to Sudama Swami if I want to make nice samosas.” So Prabhupada gave me an instruction without criticizing what I had done.

I found a guitar in the basement of the temple in Columbus, and I asked a devotee if it would be okay if I used it during kirtan. He said, “Sure.” So I did that. Then when I was in Detroit I found a guitar in the boiler room where the brahmacharis slept. I picked it up and composed, “Krishna Is the Supreme Personality of Godhead,” which was quotes from the Bhagavad-gita put to song. Kirtanananda really liked that song, and he had me travel with him and sing it after he had lectured. That was the birth of the Road Show, which was a group of devotees traveling together playing songs and music for Krishna. It began as a little project. Later on, in Los Angeles, after the Road Show was dissolved, I had the idea of making a record of devotional tunes so that people could hear about Krishna. Krishnakanti and I made a little demo of several songs. One day Prabhupada came to do some recording, and afterwards, as he was getting up to leave, I went up to him with the song lyrics in my hand. I was really nervous. I said, “Prabhupada, I have these songs I would like you to hear.” He looked at me, took the lyrics from me, and sat back down. It moved me deeply when he sat back down to listen to what I had to say. I have a photograph of myself shaved up sitting with Prabhupada while he looks at the lyrics. We played a version of, “You Are Not That Body” from the Change of Heart album and then the song, “Bhagavad-gita.” Prabhupada seemed to like what he heard. Then he said, “So?” I said, “Some of the big men don’t think this is such a good idea.” Prabhupada said, “Sometimes you have to let cows moo.” Then he said, “Do it. It will be successful.” He gave our project his blessings.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 28 - Abhirama, Satyanarayana, Mangalananda, Vaiyasaki, Moksa Laksmi dd

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

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 10

Mangalananda: Krishna Kanti was the main recorder, and I was his helper. We were back in the room listening to the recording as we were starting to get it set up, and the kartal players were…there were maybe four of them, and they were very enthusiastic. But unfortunately, the kartals were so loud that they were just overwhelming Prabhupada’s voice. We can always hear kartals, it’s Prabhupada that we wanted to hear. So I came out to tell Prabhupada that we can’t have these kartals because we won’t be able to hear him. I was so intimidated. I said some things to him and I can’t remember what I said, but I was trying to be as delicate as I could. And finally he said, “You are the experts. Do whatever.”

Prabhupada had finished playing and he stood up, and I went out and spoke to him and said, “Prabhupada, I wanted to play something for you.” He sat back down and he said, “Go ahead.” When I put the lyrics down in front of him, “Bhagavad-gita,” “You’re Not That Body” and I think “Time for Going Home” from the Change of Heart that we were going to record…this is before we had funding for it, we were just putting it together. So he looked at them, and then we played portions of the songs. Then he just looked at me and he said, “So what is this for?” I said, “Well, we want to make an album to distribute to glorify Krishna and teach the philosophy.” I said, “Some of the big men say that it’s maya.” That’s when he said, “Just let the cows moo.” That’s what he told me. He said, “Just do this, it will be successful.” Then shortly after, we spoke to this gentleman and got a loan for $5,000 to do the album. Then we lined up different people and did that. I felt that it was blessed, everything was happening so easily. Then the gentleman heard the album and he said, “Don’t even worry about paying me back.” He said, “This is beautiful.” So that was nice. Prabhupada heard it later and he really liked it, and he said, “This could be played before the Deities.” So that made me feel good.

I believe that microphone was the microphone that George Harrison sang “My Sweet Lord” on. It was donated to Krishna Kanti, which is impressive to the material world. What’s more impressive is that Prabhupada sang Hare Krishna into the microphone. And I don’t even know who has that microphone now. That should be in some kind of museum somewhere. There was a plate of sweetballs and fruit that was brought in for Prabhupada. At one point, he picked up an orange and ate it. And then when Prabhupada finally left, everybody bombarded the plate. So by the time I got there, everything was gone but the orange. So I took that, and I still have it. I never thought I’d see it again. Wow. And it still tastes nice. It’s very orangey. I have it wrapped up, it’s on the altar.