Narayani devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

Narayani: My initiation was not personally with Srila Prabhupada. It was a very significant point in my life because I had been a devotee for six months and that was usually the time you could get initiated. I went to my authority and requested to get initiated. My authority said, “No. You have to wait for your husband. He joined two months after you. You have to wait another two months.” I said, “Okay, I’ll wait another two months.” So I waited another two months and I asked my husband, “Okay, let’s get initiated now.” My husband said, “I’m not ready.” I said, “Well, I’m not waiting any longer.” I asked my authorities again and this time they said “Okay.” I wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada and I quoted a verse from the Second Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. It was the third chapter and the verse was about how if you don’t get the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee then you’re like a dead body. I quoted this verse and I said, “If I don’t get initiation from you Srila Prabhupada, then what is the use of my life?” So he initiated me and he wrote back and said, “Yes, first birth is from your father and mother but second birth is from your spiritual master. So now I am your father and now your path is open to go back to home back to Godhead.” Then he told me how to go quickly on this path back to home back to Godhead. He gave me six instructions in my initiation letter and those six instructions were always chant at least sixteen rounds, study all of our books, go on sankirtan, always do deity worship, follow strictly the regulative principles and then the last one which is very hard and which I am having difficulty doing, he said twenty-four hours be engaged in Krishna’s service and your rapid advancement will be certain. Then he wrote me a second letter very shortly thereafter telling me how to do all of these things and with what quality. He said you should always be enthusiastic, work sincerely and cooperate with the other devotees. So this was Srila Prabhupada. He always took care of us personally in our spiritual life.

I was doing mangal arati one morning and Srila Prabhupada came unbeknownst to me. He was standing right behind me and the deity room was on the same level with the rest of the temple. The only thing separating the deity room was a chain covered with velvet. I was performing the arati to the deities and then I turned around with the ghee lamp and there was Prabhupada standing just a few inches behind me. I didn’t know what to do. Should I do arati or should I give him the ghee lamp or what should I do? I was just completely flustered. I think I did a combination of both and someone took the ghee lamp. The whole arati Srila Prabhupada was standing right behind me. At that moment I realized that I was doing my arati so nicely because Srila Prabhupada was standing behind me. I thought I should do all my service as if Srila Prabhupada was standing behind me watching whatever I do. Actually it’s a fact that Srila Prabhupada is with us and he’s watching and guiding us even though he’s left this planet. He is still with us today.

I was dressed in rags and Prabhupada noticed when I was offering obeisances that I was trying to cover up the holes in my sari. Srila Prabhupada must have noticed because about four days later one of our richest life members came up to me and said, “I’m going to take you shopping for saris.” He took me to four or five sari shops and I could take whatever I wanted. Ever since that day I have no problem for saris. Srila Prabhupada knows everything.

Prabhupada told us about the babajis in Vrindavan and to be careful about their association. He gave the example that in Vrindavan there are many monkeys and they may appear very renounced. They are vegetarian. They don’t wear any clothes. But they have many wives. So in the same way he said these babajis appear very renounced but actually they have many wives. Prabhupada said, “So be careful and don’t associate with them.”

In Vrindavan in 1972 we were sitting in Srila Prabhupada’s room and he was having darshan. He had some bananas at his feet and all of a sudden one monkey came in, grabbed the bananas and ran out. Srila Prabhupada commented that, “Just see how intelligent this monkey is. None of you would ever dare to do that.” That was Srila Prabhupada. He could see a lesson to be learned in every circumstance. That’s why it was so nice to be with Srila Prabhupada because he was an eternal teacher. He was always teaching us about this world and about our relationship with Krishna.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 49 - Jayapat S, Sruto, Gargamuni, Gurukrpa, Narayani, RupaV, Hari, Ranjit, Nrsimhanda

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

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 04

Narayani: We were all sick with fever and dysentery because the conditions were very austere. I remember Visakha and I, we used to prefer to just jump in the Jamuna River even though it was completely pitch dark and we couldn’t see anything, we couldn’t touch the bottom, rather than go in the bathroom, which was slimy and indescribable. So then Prabhupada would give lectures in the morning on Bhagavatam and in the evening on Nectar of Devotion. At that time, the courtyard was just dust and there was a lot of, I remember, rubble around. To me the temple looked like it was bombed out. We couldn’t even tell it was a temple, the front of it, it was all crumbling, and the inside there was rubble everywhere in the courtyard and it was dust. But actually I prefer the dust because it was the original dust where the Six Goswamis sat. And Prabhupada did mention in his lecture how the Six Goswamis used to sit in that very courtyard discussing Bhagavatam, and Jiva Goswami would be sitting and writing his commentaries and another one would be singing the verses. So we were sitting in that same place hearing Prabhupada discuss Bhagavatam. And then after the evening Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupada would have darshan in his room. At that time, he would just talk very informally. I remember him warning us not to associate with the babajis. And he talked about markat vairagya, that the monkey has many wives. He’s vegetarian and he’s renounced, but he has many wives. So the babajis are like that, he told us. He said we shouldn’t associate with them.

Prabhupada came to Calcutta with Pradyumna in 1973 April, and Pradyumna came up to me and said, “How would you like to come with Prabhupada and type Chaitanya-caritamrta?” He says, “OK, tomorrow we’re going to Mayapur. So you have to learn how to read Bengali, and then you can come with Prabhupada.” I said, “OK, no problem.” So he gave me a Bengali book, I learned how to read Bengali, and I was off with Prabhupada the next day. We never thought anything was impossible, that if Prabhupada wanted us to do something, then impossible is a word in a fool’s dictionary. So yeah, no problem, I learned to read Bengali and I got to go with Prabhupada.

Srila Prabhupada, one time he singled me out in one of the darshans. He said to me, “Oh, my sister tells me you speak Bhagavatam very nicely.” So when he said that, I didn’t know what to say because I never spoke Bhagavatam, what to speak of nicely. So I was just completely bewildered and puzzled why he said that. But then it was in Calcutta that I had been reading Krsna Bookin front of Pisima because it was Janmastami in 1972 and what we had to do, all the devotees were reading Krsna Bookfrom morning till night. So when it was my turn to read, I was reading Rasa-lila and she was my only audience. There were hardly any people then. There was nobody in the temple in Calcutta in those days. So she was about the only one sitting in front of me, and I was reading in English and she didn’t know a word of English. But I was being real dramatic, “Krishna left the gopis and they were crying,” and then she was crying and crying and crying although she didn’t know any English. So she understood the mood of it, and then she must have told Prabhupada that I speak Bhagavatam. But now 30 years later I thought about what Prabhupada said, and in Prabhupada’s lifetime I never spoke Bhagavatam. And even for 27 years since when I was a devotee, I never spoke Bhagavatam. But now I’m speaking Bhagavatam. Just this year when I was speaking Bhagavatamat VIHE [Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education], it struck me that Prabhupada’s words came true even though I didn’t understand, “What is he talking about?” But then I thought, “Wow, a pure devotee’s words must be true,” that it has to happen. And even though I had no plan of ever speaking Bhagavatam, but it happened anyway by Krishna’s arrangement.