Mohanasini: Before meeting Srila Prabhupada, I was already married two times, had three little children and divorced. I was a single mom and so frustrated with material life I didn’t know whether to kill myself or commit myself. Then by the intervention of the Lord, I met devotees and moved to a temple in Dallas. Srila Prabhupada saved me. The first time I actually met Prabhupada was in Los Angeles. He was there quite often, so I was very fortunate to get to see him giving classes regularly. In the old temple room in New Dwaraka he would walk past the devotees after greeting the Deities. One time I handed him an apple and my hand brushed his hand. His skin was so soft that I have never felt anything like that before or after in my life. In the new temple room during his classes all the women sat upstairs in the balcony. One morning I thought, “I can hardly see Prabhupada from here, so I’m going to get a good view.” I decided to climb over the rail and out onto the little balcony that was over the ledge. As I was sitting there thinking, “I’ve got a great view now,” Prabhupada looked up at me and said, “Get down!” Everyone was motioning for me to get down as I felt ashamed and upset that Prabhupada had to chastise me like that. I was so upset to have gotten chastised by Srila Prabhupada that I went around all morning feeling so stupid until one prabhu told me that it is all mercy whether we get praised or chastised by the spiritual master. That eased the pain somewhat. [laughs] But I never did that again.
When we were young and getting initiated, the general rule was each devotee would receive a spiritual name that started with the same letter as the first name given by one’s parents. Since my name was Marian, I knew I would get a spiritual name starting with an M, but everyone I knew had a Maha in front of their name and I did not want that in my name. Upon seeing the initiation letter from Srila Prabhupada, I saw my name had been Maharani and had been scratched out and written Mohanasini beside it. I’ve always really loved that name and appreciated that Prabhupada gave me a wonderful name. What I learned from that was that Srila Prabhupada knows us through and through better than we know ourselves. And he knows how to fan that spark, and he fortunately didn’t give up on me because I was a silly foolish girl, and I’m still here after forty-five years and happily distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books in the association of devotees.
In Los Angeles I knew that Srila Prabhupada came down from his quarters every day for his morning walk at a certain time. I thought, “Well, this will be a great time to get a close-up photo of him.” I grabbed my camera and I got in position down at the bottom of the stairs anticipating his arrival. Thinking that he was just going to zoom past me, I knew I had better be ready to click it off right then and there. When he came down, however, he just stood there and posed, so nicely and so beautifully for that picture. I felt that it was so gracious of him. He is the jagat-guru of the universe and he actually took a moment to let me take that picture. Some people may think that it is a trivial thing, but to me, it meant that he really cared about each and every one of us. He was not impersonal. He wasn’t too busy for any of us since he cared and loved all of us and wanted all of us to feel like he was reciprocating with us. Even if it was a small little gesture like posing for a photo, I really appreciated his behavior in that way. Another mother, Syamagha, and I lived together and we took turns taking care of our kids. We were getting second initiation at the same time, so we pooled our money and got a big basket of fruit to offer to Srila Prabhupada. The fruit basket, along with a card with our names on it, was placed in Prabhupada’s room prior to our entering. I was thinking before I went in to see him that I wanted to know what my name meant. I went in, bowed down, and he looked at the fruit basket with the card on it, and he said, “Oh, you are Syamagha?” I said, “No, Srila Prabhupada. I am Mohanasini dasi.” He said, “Oh, that is a very nice name. Moha means illusion and anasini means destroyer of.” I thought, “Wow, I didn’t even have to ask him. This is the only thing I was thinking to ask him, ‘What does my name mean?’ and right away he’s telling me.” Then I sat down next to him to start learning the Gayatri mantra, and he showed me the fingering that I could not figure out. He showed me a couple of times and then he said, “Go talk to my servant. He’ll show you how to do it.” Again, I felt really stupid in front of Srila Prabhupada.
