Manjuali: At the end of 1971, I was in Santa Barbara when I was told that Prabhupada was going to come to Los Angeles. My friends, Dina Bandhu and Akuti, said to me, “We are going to take you to the big temple.” [laughs] I didn’t want to go to Los Angeles because I just liked the countryside. They said, “Oh no, we are going to meet Prabhupada. He is going to come.” As it turned out, Prabhupada wasn’t going to come for a couple of months, but they deposited me in Los Angeles. When Srila Prabhupada finally came to Los Angeles, the first time I saw him I actually saw his feet first. I was helping in the temple room and then there was shouting, “He’s coming!” I hit the floor and then I saw these golden feet walking by me as I got up from paying my obeisances. It was like the feet of a master and they were actually luminous. I looked up and there was Srila Prabhupada walking like a nobleman who walked with purpose and with grace.
I was able to have Prabhupada’s association a few times. The first time obviously was when I got initiated. I was initiated in 1972 on Nrsimhadeva’s Appearance Day. He gave me the name Manjuali devi dasi and then he looked at me and said, “Gopi name.” Three months later on Balaram’s Appearance Day, they needed help in the kitchen, so I got brahmana initiation, which was my first opportunity to be able to speak with Srila Prabhupada. The quality that Srila Prabhupada exhibited at that moment was patience because I was so nervous. I was trying to do the Gayatri and he looked at me and said, “Not on the cracks!” [laughs] I was shaking as he went through with me a few times the Gayatri mantra and how you touch the different digits of the fingers with the thumb. I finally got it after a few tries, but Prabhupada’s quality of patience definitely manifested that day. The next time I had association with Srila Prabhupada was when I got married. In 1972 I was a brahmacarini and had been in the ashram for ten months. I was asked to get married and I had twenty-four hours to make up my mind. [laughs] Seven days later I was married to Jayatirtha who was the temple president at that time. Srila Prabhupada invited us to come to his rooms after the wedding ceremony that was held in the garden of Dayananda and Nandarani. It was held in their garden instead of the temple because Srila Prabhupada was upset that many of his married disciples who made their vows in front of the Deities were breaking their commitment. A few weeks after the wedding, Prabhupada gave a lecture and he talked about his own marriage. He had some attraction to one particular woman, but his father chose the one that was a little less attractive. The idea was that a beautiful wife was the enemy to the husband because she might distract him from his spiritual endeavors. And then a few days later we came to meet Srila Prabhupada in his garden in Los Angeles. Prabhupada was sitting on his asana in the early afternoon when we entered with a plate of prasad. Srila Prabhupada looked up at me, looked at Jayatirtha, and then again looked at me. He said, “Oh, she is beautiful.” I went, “Oh, my God. I’m an enemy already.” [laughs] And then he smiled this oceanic smile like he was just being a loving father. I gave him the plate of prasad, and then we sat down in the back of the garden, and he said, “No, no, come closer, come closer.” We moved in closer right next to Srila Prabhupada and he was so full of affection. Prabhupada had already had his lunch prasadam before we arrived, so he just took the drink I had made. He savored it and then looked over at Jayatirtha and said, “And she can cook!” [laughs] I went, “Shwwoo,” and thought to myself, “At least I can do something. [laughs] By your grace, Srila Prabhupada.” Then he asked so lovingly, “So what do your parents think of this Krishna consciousness?” I rang my mother a couple of days before the wedding and said, “Oh, by the way, mum, I’m getting married on Saturday.” She asked, “Can I come?” I said, “Of course,” and we bought her a ticket from Chicago to Los Angeles. She didn’t come into the garden with us nor did Jayatirtha’s parents who also attended the ceremony. I told Srila Prabhupada that my mother was very favorable and respectful and that when she washed her dishes she would chant Hare Krishna. She was a Catholic, but she liked to chant. My mother had given me a check for the wedding of fifty dollars, and so I presented Prabhupada with my dowry. [laughs] That very check eventually came back to me because my mother saved it with his signature on the back of it from October 1, 1972, paid to the account of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. The quality Srila Prabhupada exhibited in that moment was of a loving father with a sense of humor. I think Prabhupada spoke to me in such a caring mood because he knew Jayatirtha and I rarely spoke with each other except when I would ask him a question like “What color are the Deities wearing tomorrow?” Our marriage was like a marriage in India when the couple gets married without ever even seeing the other person. That is the reason Prabhupada looked at me and said, “Affection comes through service. If Krishna is in the center, your marriage will be successful.” He could tell that this was a big surrender on my part, but he was so loving, and I can still see his smile and still feel his affection and his blessing. He could see what the journey ahead would be. I had no clue, but I knew that it was Srila Prabhupada’s gift and it would be good for my spiritual life.
In 1976 George Harrison was visiting the Bhaktivedanta Manor and he was able to have a darshan with Srila Prabhupada upstairs in Prabhupada’s bedroom. We were called up because Prabhupada wanted prasadam for George and he asked me to make samosas for him. I used to do that when George previously came to the Manor. At this time Prabhupada wanted us to serve George lunch in his bedroom because Prabhupada wasn’t very well that day, and so he met with George and some senior disciples from his bed. The bed with all of its pillows and white sheets made it appear that Prabhupada was riding a swan or as if his bed was a palanquin. George came in and sat on the floor, but Prabhupada said, “No, sit on the chair.” George said, “No, no, no,” and Prabhupada said, “Sit on the chair,” with a firmer voice. [laughs] George obeyed and sat on that little white chair that was in the corner in Srila Prabhupada’s bedroom. Prabhupada then instructed us to lay out sheets on the floor along with the plates and to serve out the lunch, which consisted of samosas, tomato chutney and strawberry nectar. Prabhupada wasn’t eating, but he did have a drink and held his little finger up in the air as he drank. [laughs] Prabhupada was having a lively conversation with George and all the devotees, and I was impressed with Srila Prabhupada’s magnanimity. He wasn’t feeling well, but he was still preaching from his bed. Just like at the end of his time with us, with his last breath he was preaching. The lesson I learned is that even if I don’t feel well, I’m not going to have the day off. No days off. [laughs] I witnessed Srila Prabhupada’s affection for George, which was really tangible and present in the way he ordered him to sit in his chair. Generally, you don’t sit in the guru’s chair, [laughs] but George surrendered because Prabhupada was so loving and forceful.
One day in 1976 I was going to clean Prabhupada’s quarters at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, and unbeknownst to me, he had already returned from his morning walk. I was racing in the door with two vases in my hand to get them on his desk, and as I looked up, Prabhupada was chanting his Gayatri mantra. I was startled and said, “Oh, my gosh.” [laughs] He looked at me, and with his head he nodded at me, giving me permission to enter and put the vases down. Srila Prabhupada taught me at that moment to just calm down—do your service—permission granted. I realized that it is important in our spiritual life to have moments when we hit the pause button, reflect, calm down, and be present in the moment, and to not act in fear like a rabbit in front of the car lights.
Krishna Kanti prabhu was the engineer for a recording of Srila Prabhupada at Golden Avatar Studios in Los Angeles, and everybody wanted to be part of it. [laughs] Jayatirtha loved to sing, but he wasn’t much of a mridanga or kartal player, and I remember he came home that day quite mortified because, while he was playing the kartals during the recording, Prabhupada told him to stop because he was playing off beat. Prabhupada was so musically in tune that everything had to fit together, and if there was anything not to perfection, then Prabhupada would actually chastise that devotee. But Prabhupada did it as a teaching lesson.
By the grace of Srila Prabhupada in 1975, he instructed my husband to bring me to India for the opening of the Krishna-Balaram temple for Janmastami. It didn’t open at that time, but Prabhupada told Jayatirtha, “Bring your wife.” [laughs] Shock. When we got to Delhi, we met up with Tejiyas and his wife, Madhira, who had opened the temple there. It was a tiny temple with no other women there and Tejiyas’ office became Prabhupada’s quarters. Madhira invited me to help her cook, and as we were making Srila Prabhupada’s lunch, he was playing the harmonium and singing the entire time songs of Narottama das Thakura, Bhaktivinode Thakura and Krsnadas Kaviraja. Prabhupada was doing his bhajan, his spiritual practice, as he was home in mother India and he was just glorifying the masters. I’ll never forget that time of cooking and not having a tape on, or a cassette, or a record player in the background, but actually our spiritual master was singing to Krishna and to Mahaprabhu the glories of the Goswamis, the glories of Krishna consciousness. That was a huge gift that I’ll never forget.
When Prabhupada came in 1977 to Bhaktivedanta Manor, it was such a challenging time because Prabhupada was so unwell and he was so weak. When he came, Jayatirtha and everyone took him upstairs on the palanquin, and when he got off of the palanquin, he stood up and he hugged Jayatirtha. Tears were running down Prabhupada’s eyes, and he said, “I have come for your tirtha.” They were both sobbing. Prabhupada could see the future. Prabhupada could see that there were challenges ahead for Jayatirtha. But Prabhupada had so much love and kindness and mercy and affection that he came and hugged Jayatirtha, and Prabhupada cried in his arms. Most devotees know that Jayatirtha had a breakdown or whatever happened to him. It was a huge part of the drama like Mahabharata where nothing went smoothly. He did love Srila Prabhupada even though at the end he was a broken man who had mental and physical challenges. He was twenty-nine years old, the day after Prabhupada left, when he became a guru. He and the others were just young children trying to be honorable and follow a giant, a saktyavesa-avatar of Nityananda Prabhu, Srila Prabhupada.
I was consciously looking for a guru before I met Srila Prabhupada, and I had studied many traditions. I knew that there was a reason for this human incarnation, so I was on the road looking. What attracted me to Srila Prabhupada at first was the fact that he set clear boundaries for devotees to live in the community. I thought that was noble. Prabhupada invited us to love God. He invited us to do this process and follow his example and he lived it. I felt he had my best interest at heart. He was noble and he was a warrior because he had a very short window to do an amazing piece of work. Srila Prabhupada met his spiritual master in 1923 at the age of twenty-seven, and when he was seventy years old, he actually started doing the work. I think, “Oh, gosh, I’m seventy, and how can I have the energy to do what Prabhupada did?” And that’s because Srila Prabhupada, I firmly believe, was empowered by Lord Krishna and by the lineage of Mahaprabhu, by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, to be the one to bring this grace to the western countries and to touch us in a way that is miraculous. And he still encourages us every day and that’s the message of Srila Prabhupada as well. His presence isn’t just his physical presence because every day that we sit down and chant our japa, Prabhupada’s presence is there. Every day we open a book and read a sloka, our heads bowing in gratitude. He always signed his letters, “Your ever well-wisher,” and he is our true ever well-wisher.
