Narada Muni das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

Narada Muni: Another beautiful lesson and pastime with Srila Prabhupada that I was fortunate enough to witness was at the La Cienega temple in Los Angeles. I remember once we put a play on for Srila Prabhupada. It was the drama from Caitanya-caritamrta where Lord Chaitanya is floating in the ocean in ecstasy remembering the pastimes of Radha and Krishna. The devotees didn’t know where Lord Chaitanya was but when they saw a fisherman, played by Visnujana, running around chanting like a madman, they knew that he must have come in contact with Lord Chaitanya. Prabhupada was laughing and laughing and totally enjoyed the play. It was enlivening just to watch him. Prabhupada was not dry. Prabhupada always enjoyed the ecstasy of Krishna consciousness. In one lecture Prabhupada said, “You cannot advance in Krishna consciousness unless you’re joyful.” That’s why Prabhupada told us to chant Hare Krishna and be happy. Krishna consciousness is a joyful process and Prabhupada always exemplified that. This was an example of Prabhupada encouraging the devotees. It wasn’t a professional play. It was the early days. There wasn’t a lot of paraphernalia that was professionally made but Prabhupada enjoyed it so much. After the play we had a darshan with Prabhupada and he was saying how nice the play was and how we should do plays like this all the time. Nowadays you don’t see so many dramas at the temples. But Prabhupada greatly enjoyed the plays and seeing his devotees where he could engage in reciprocation with them. Prabhupada relished that personal relationship that we all had with Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada had that aspect as Jagat Guru, greater than the greatest yet he would relate to us on an individual level and reciprocate with us in love. That personal quality of Srila Prabhupada is a very beautiful characteristic.

I remember Srila Prabhupada once was asked what is the process for the disciple going back to Godhead. Srila Prabhupada said that the spiritual master had purchased your ticket. It’s like if you want to get on a train you have to show your ticket. Srila Prabhupada said, “I have purchased your ticket. You simply have to get on board and you have to stay on the train till we get to the destination.” So this is the meaning of Jagat Guru. Srila Prabhupada actually has the ability to purchase the ticket for everyone because he’s the full manifestation of Krishna in the form of the spiritual master, speaking only what Krishna says.

Srila Prabhupada is always with us reciprocating. I remember in Los Angeles when Prabhupada was not well and he was going back to India. He was thinking that he may never come back to America and that’s when Srila Prabhupada first told us about vani and vapu. Srila Prabhupada explained about vani and the presence of the spiritual master through the transcendental media of sound vibration. Prabhupada explained how vani is much more intimate than vapu or the physical form. Prabhupada was giving us this realization because we were all on the bodily concept, but the relationship with the spiritual master and with Krishna has nothing to do with the bodily concept. So for all of us and all of the generations who come after who didn’t have Srila Prabhupada’s physical association, it’s not as important as having Prabhupada’s association through his vibrations in his books, in his lectures, in his remembrances. Everyone for the next ten thousand years can have the exact same sense of intimacy of Srila Prabhupada as his closest disciples that were near him physically. Prabhupada explained that even when Lord Krishna was here on this planet, the vast majority of 17 people didn’t understand who Krishna was. It’s on a transcendental platform. In the same way, how many understood who Srila Prabhupada was and is? If we understand who Srila Prabhupada is, Srila Prabhupada will be there for us in a very intimate, loving, transcendental reciprocating way.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 53 - The Alachua Clan 2

Interview 02

Narada Muni: The first time I saw Srila Prabhupada was in Los Angeles in 1969. I was picking lemons to get money to go to a Zen Buddhist monastery when I saw a poster from the Santa Barbara ISKCON temple about meeting a real spiritual master. It was a small temple by the ocean and even though there was no one in the temple when I entered, by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy I immediately knew that I had found what I had long been searching and praying for. On Sunday I got a ride to the Los Angeles temple where Srila Prabhupada was performing an initiation ceremony. Prabhupada was somber and grave, yet I could also see love and compassion emanating from him when he initiated the devotees, and I saw a spiritual bond forming between him and them. I immediately thought, “I want this.” Before one particular devotee received his beads, Srila Prabhupada, as always, asked him to recite the four regulative principles. When he said, “No intoxication,” Srila Prabhupada laughed and said, “And this means no more LSD?” Though I’d given up drugs by then, I could relate to that. Sitting on the vyasasana, Srila Prabhupada was like a universal father reciprocating an intimate mood of spiritual love with his disciples.

At my initiation Srila Prabhupada explained the ten offenses. Regarding the offense of thinking that chanting Hare Krishna is like mundane religion, he said that you may get material benefit by mundane religion but Krishna consciousness is beyond all religion. Prabhupada said, “Just from this ceremony you can go back to Godhead.” That’s the importance of getting connected with Srila Prabhupada. Then Srila Prabhupada began to give the initiates their names and he explained their names. I was last. When it was my turn Prabhupada laughed and said, “You have such a nice spiritual name. Your name is Narada Muni.” In the early days, Narada Muni was more popular than he is now because he was the transcendental spaceman and we were so spaced out that we related with Narada Muni. Everyone wondered who would get the name Narada Muni. When Srila Prabhupada said “Narada Muni,” everybody oohed and aahed and laughed. And Srila Prabhupada also laughed. Then he said, “Narada Muni travels throughout space. So you should do this. And by chanting Hare Krishna and playing a vina, you can do it.” I don’t know what Srila Prabhupada meant, but he always had a transcendental vision of us and he saw something in us that we couldn’t see in ourselves. Srila Prabhupada beautifully brought out the spiritual essence in all of us.

One evening I read the pastime of Pralambasura to Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada enjoyed hearing it and when we got to the part when Lord Balaram pummels Pralambasura, Srila Prabhupada laughed and boldly exclaimed, “This is God!” Then he explained how he used to enact this pastime with his sister when he was a child. He said, “I would play Balaram,” and he laughed and laughed. That was very sweet.

Gaura Hari and I cooked for the San Francisco Rathayatra, and after the parade we went to the Big Family Dog Auditorium where thousands of hippies were intensely chanting while Vishnujana Maharaj led kirtan, “Chant! Chant! And when you’re tired, take prasadam! And chant more and more and more!” All the hippies were dressed in their full regalia, which made an incredible scene. Then in the middle of it all, Srila Prabhupada came walking through the crowd like a swan, untouched by the material energy. Prabhupada went up to the stage and declared, “I have come to make the hippies happies!” It was the perfect thing to say. Only Srila Prabhupada could say something so profound. That was wonderful.

I was selling books from a book cart at the 1971 Rathayatra when I asked someone to take my place for a minute so I could run to see Srila Prabhupada on the Ratha-yatra cart before it left. When I saw him, I felt that Srila Prabhupada looked at me, and everybody probably felt the same thing. But I know Srila Prabhupada looked at me, acknowledged me and smiled at me, and I felt wonderful. Afterwards, I went with some others to Srila Prabhupada’s apartment when he was getting a massage and we reported to Srila Prabhupada how many books we’d sold and we brought him the big bags of laxmi we’d collected. Srila Prabhupada said, “Very, very nice. Thank you so much.” Srila Prabhupada had nothing to thank us for, we had everything to thank him for, but he thanked us. Another time he told us, “Thank you very much for your kind feelings of appreciation for my humble service unto you. You are all helping me in pushing forward this mission of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, coming down by disciplic succession to my guru maharaj.”

Once in New Vrindavan some reviews arrived from educators and scholars in different parts of the world glorifying Srila Prabhupada’s books. When we were having darshan, Srila Prabhupada had somebody read one particular review. In it, a well-known person wrote that Srila Prabhupada was so prolific and the books he wrote were so profound that they could not be written by an ordinary soul. “It is my belief,” he wrote, “that Srila Prabhupada is Vyasadeva himself.” Srila Prabhupada lit up with a big smile and everyone said, “Jaya, Prabhupada! Jaya, Srila Prabhupada!” We really don’t know who Srila Prabhupada is. No one else accomplished what he accomplished, and it’s unlikely that anyone will for a long time. Srila Prabhupada was directly empowered and sent by Krishna, and he came to the most fallen place. Prabhupada once said that Krishna asked him to come to the material world, “Will you please go and deliver them?” Srila Prabhupada didn’t want to leave Vrindavan, but he came out of his great compassion.

In his lecture Srila Prabhupada explained how nothing could shake Dhruva Maharaj’s determined vow to realize God and therefore he was successful—he saw God. Prabhupada said, “Similarly, you can also see God in six months if you simply become this sincere and determined.” Sincerity, Srila Prabhupada explained, is the qualification for realizing Krishna.

In New York a reporter asked Prabhupada, “How old were you when you realized God?” Srila Prabhupada didn’t want to glorify himself but to glorify his spiritual master and Krishna. He said, “God is a person like you and me. The difference is that we are many and God is one, our leader. Now, what is the difference between the one and the many? He maintains all these many, he maintains us. But He is also a person like you and me. Do you follow?” This reporter persisted, “Yes, I appreciate your answer, but at what age did you realize the highest truth? At what physical age . . . ?” Prabhupada explained, “There is no question of age. Realization of God should be from the very beginning of life.” The reporter said, “I understand that, Swamiji. My question to you was at what age did you yourself realize the highest truth?” Srila Prabhupada said, “Of course, we were born in a very nice family. Practically from the very beginning of our lives my father educated us in this way.” The reporter wouldn’t give up, “I understand that. I mean at what time did you have your own personal realization, Swamiji? At what age?” Prabhupada said, “From the age of four or five years.” In the Bhagavatam Srila Prabhupada wrote about some of his childhood pastimes and he wrote about Maharaj Pariksit and others who also had symptoms of being God conscious children. Srila Prabhupada has always been God conscious. He came into this world God conscious, he left this world God conscious, and now he’s undoubtedly giving God consciousness to others on another planet. My hope is that all of us can eternally be with him and somehow serve him in his mission.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 37 - Umapati S, Sacinandana S., BCS., Narada Muni, Dindayadri, Vaiyasaki

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

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 02

Narada Muni: I was helping to cook, and then I went down to the Family Dog Auditorium, where Srila Prabhupada was going to come after. There were so many people that would participate actually that we filled the Family Dog Auditorium and simultaneously the beach was also filled with people, and we were distributing prasadam in both places, big kirtans were going on in both places. I was in the Family Dog when Srila Prabhupada arrived, and it was just so wonderful. Srila Prabhupada was such a swan amongst men, and he floated into the Family Dog Auditorium. There were literally thousands and thousands of hippies present, and they were all in their full regalia because this was a big event for them. So just ordinarily, in that day, people’s dress was interesting enough. But for this Rathayatra Festival, they really decked themselves out. Many dressed as Radha and Krishna and similar costumes like that. So Srila Prabhupada came amongst this. He walked onto the stage, and he looked out amongst the throngs of hippies and he smiled. Then he said, “I have come to make all the hippies into happies.” That evoked a tremendous tumult of transcendental roaring from all the devotees that were present and everyone got swept away in this wave, this tidal wave of ecstasy that was coming from Srila Prabhupada’s heart, and danced for hours and hours and hours. Vishnujan would be chanting and swooning, and then he would cry out, “Chant and dance, and when you’re tired take prasadam! And then come and chant and dance some more!” And that’s literally what went on for hours and hours and hours.

I remember in the airport after the ecstatic greeting and kirtan there were some reporters there, and this reporter kept asking Srila Prabhupada when it was that he realized God. Srila Prabhupada, as we know, would never ever put himself forward or take credit. He was always a humble servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the most intimate devotees of Krishna. So Srila Prabhupada would just explain to the person that anyone can realize God and how God is there in the transcendental sound of His Holy Name. So Srila Prabhupada was trying to give him some philosophical understanding. But the man was very persistent and he kept inquiring, “But you, Swamiji, when did you first realize God?” So Srila Prabhupada smiled and he said, “I first realized God when I was 5 years old.” Of course, Srila Prabhupada then said, “Actually there was never time when I did not remember God.” So we know that, that Srila Prabhupada displayed the symptoms of a pure devotee from birth. He talks about that in the Bhagavatam and how his symptoms also of holding Rathayatra and worshipping Radha-Krishna, these are symptoms of a liberated soul coming into this material world just for the purpose of delivering the conditioned souls. So here Srila Prabhupada confirmed his full God realization from inception in this material world.

Srila Prabhupada was so personal in his dealings with the devotees, and that was one aspect that was so attractive to people in the early days of the Krishna consciousness movement. You see how Srila Prabhupada, he always relished reciprocating love with his devotees. It simply wasn’t Srila Prabhupada asking for service or demanding things from his followers, but Srila Prabhupada always wanted to give back. And when Prabhupada would come to the temple in L.A., I always think that such a nice example of that was how Srila Prabhupada would reciprocate with us in this bhakti, this exchange of love, by giving flowers to the devotees as we would line up along the pavement. It was very sublime because Srila Prabhupada, he was never rushed. We would give him a flower, and then Srila Prabhupada would give us a flower. I always think how Srila Prabhupada said that love is an exchange of feeling, you need two for love. I remember sometimes when we would give a flower and then he would give one back, Prabhupada would just stand there so when we bowed down we could put our head right on Srila Prabhupada’s feet. He always had this very ecstatic, blissful smile, and you could see that Srila Prabhupada loved us in such a way that was practically incomprehensible because he saw us as these lost particles of spirit soul from Lord Krishna and he was so happy to play a part in bringing us back to Krishna’s lotus feet. That’s me, whoa. So this was a real highlight in my life of being able to get a flower from Srila Prabhupada and give a flower back to Srila Prabhupada. So simple yet so sublime. There was always one devotee who would block Srila Prabhupada’s walkway, his pathway into the temple just so he could get to ask Srila Prabhupada for his mercy or to say something to Srila Prabhupada, and Prabhupada never ever got disturbed or agitated that this person was being so bold in his approach. He would always just shake his head wonderfully or touch the devotee on his head with a blessing. So we all felt that this was a very special time where Srila Prabhupada was really giving us a blessing; and when he was handing us this flower, it was like Prabhupada was touching our heart with that flower, that soft lotus petal of his flower-like glance.

We were celebrating I believe it was the Appearance Day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaja, and Srila Prabhupada gave a lecture and he was saying how he had not done any service for his spiritual master. And he was thanking all of us, implying that without us his service couldn’t have been rendered when in actuality it was only by Prabhupada’s mercy that we were able to render any service. So he said, “Because I have nothing to offer to my Guru Maharaja, I am going to offer all of you.” And then Srila Prabhupada went and he performed arati to the deities, and he offered us to his spiritual master. I don’t know exactly the spiritual process, but I definitely felt the result of Srila Prabhupada’s kindly connecting us with his Guru Maharaja. Then after arati Srila Prabhupada turned and started dancing, and the word can’t really be understood in terms of what Srila Prabhupada was manifesting. It was more like when Lord Chaitanya is described when He was dancing in a circle like a firebrand, it was one continuous movement. Srila Prabhupada was hopping up and down across the temple room back and forth; and the entire place where we were, the whole space, was immediately transported to another dimension. We were really out of the material world. I was a very young devotee, and I remember to this day my crying, tears running down my face, and realizing how Srila Prabhupada was actually entering into our hearts and he was cleaning them, he was purifying us so that someday in the future we would actually be able to render devotional service.

I remember when Srila Prabhupada was getting ready to leave Los Angeles to go back to India and he wasn’t feeling well; and that’s when Srila Prabhupada spoke to us for the first time about vani and vapu, how vani is a much more intimate association with the spiritual master than just associating with his physical form. But being absorbed in both hearing and executing his instructions and his teachings links the disciple in a much more intimate way with the spiritual master, in an eternal way rather than a temporary way. So Srila Prabhupada spoke on that and, of course, it was very encouraging to hear it, but at the same time it was very sad as we felt great separation.

Interview DVD 07

Narada Muni: I remember at one darshan Srila Prabhupada pulled out a letter that had recently been received from a very, very important personality in India, and Srila Prabhupada gave the letter to his secretary to read. He read the letter, and in this letter the person was glorifying Srila Prabhupada for his translations of all the Vedic literatures and appreciating how profound they were and how they were obviously dictated by the Supreme Lord Himself because this could not have been done by any ordinary jiva, any ordinary living being, but someone who is really empowered. I remember Srila Prabhupada’s beaming smile. It was very innocent. Srila Prabhupada was always so…in many ways he was so childlike and innocent. He just smiled and, of course, we all said, “Jaya Srila Prabhupada! Jaya Srila Prabhupada!”