Pragosh: I was chanting in the temple room, going back and forth, and the temple president walked up to me and said, “So Bhakta Pat, what’s your plan?” I said, “Well Prabhu, I’ve decided I’m going to be traveling to India.” He said, “Really? For what?” I said, “I’ve got to find a guru.” He said, “Why do you think you have to go to India for that?” I said, “Well, I don’t think there are too many gurus running around here in Detroit.” I pulled out the Sri Isopanisad book and showed him exactly where Prabhupada states that one needs to find a bonafide guru. He said, “Oh, come here.” He grabbed me by the hand and walked me over to the vyasasana of Srila Prabhupada, with the picture of Prabhupada. I’d been coming to the temple for a couple of weeks but up until this point in time, and I cannot explain why this is so, I never really took note of the vyasasana or Prabhupada’s picture on the vyasasana. The temple president said, “This is your guru. He is actually everyone’s guru. You don’t have to go to India to find a guru. He is here.” At that moment I looked at Prabhupada’s picture and then it was like, “whoosh”, the curtain was pulled back and now Srila Prabhupada pervaded everything. I couldn’t look at anything in the temple the same way. I couldn’t look at anything about the devotees the same way. Everything was pervaded with this connection with Srila Prabhupada. Then it was just a matter of time before I finally just said, “Okay, that’s it. I want to give this a try.” I moved into the center with the devotees in Detroit, 8311 East Jefferson, and began to mine all of the different devotees that had any experience with Srila Prabhupada.
On a morning walk Srila Prabhupada talked about who actually had started book distribution in a big way in America. People were offering different opinions like Keshava, Buddhimanta and Karandhar. Prabhupada stopped. He said, “No, no. Jayananda. Hmmm? Jayananda. He began.” Jayananda happened to be on that walk and he was in the back and Prabhupada waited for him to come forward. Prabhupada said, “Jayananda.” Jayananda said, “Yes, Prabhupada?” It was classic “Jayananda-Prabhupada rasa”. Jayananda, who was very tall, looked down lovingly into Prabhupada’s eyes. Prabhupada said, “It was you, wasn’t it? You bought the first printing of Teachings of Lord Chaitanya. Five thousand dollars.” Jayananda said, “I don’t know, Srila Prabhupada. I don’t know if that was the first.” Prabhupada said, “Yes, that was the first”, confirming for everyone around. As Prabhupada began to walk again, I began to weave like a race car driver through the devotees to get closer to Srila Prabhupada, since I had started out in the back of the group. Finally I was directly behind Prabhupada but off to the left and a little bit back. I was keeping track of Prabhupada as to how he was walking, his feet and so on. He had a kind of rhythm with his cane. Suddenly Prabhupada stopped. He didn’t even slow down. He just stopped and I accidentally stepped into the heel of his foot. Not hard, but just enough that he noticed I was there. He turned around and put his cane in my stomach. He looked right at me and said, “Don’t come close.” (laughs) I was mortified and shocked. The rest of the walk Hridayananda Maharaj kept looking at me and signaling me to get back. I was real nervous at that point to proceed any further. When I came back from the walk, Ramesvara asked me, “What happened on the walk? What did you hear?” I said, “Prabhupada talked to me.” (laughs) Ramesvara said, “Well, what did he say?” I said, “Don’t come close.” (laughs) Yet, over the years, something as simple as, “Don’t come close”, has replayed itself in my head a zillion times and each time it means something a little bit different; Don’t take the spiritual master for granted, never minimize the spiritual master, don’t think that coming close physically is coming close, etc. That particular experience set the tone for the rest of my experience with Srila Prabhupada. When I would ask him a question, he would generally turn to Tamal or someone else and say, “What is that? What is he asking?” It was as if I couldn’t even come close enough that I could ask Prabhupada a question and he would really get it. Then they would explain the question and Prabhupada would turn back to me and answer the question. So my relationship with Srila Prabhupada was always, for the most part, through intermediaries.
In Chicago Prabhupada told the story of Visvamitra Muni and how he had performed penances and austerities for sixty thousands of years. “Then, unfortunately,” Prabhupada said, “He fell down in the association of Menaka.” Prabhupada continued to say that he gave birth to an apsara and then he again went back and he performed another sixty thousands (he always put an “s” on the end) of years of penances, austerities, and then again his penance was given up. Prabhupada said, “This is a very difficult process.” He said, “But for us, the results obtained by Visvamitra Muni, by sixty thousands of years, the devotee achieves by the performance of sankirtan. He paused for a moment, looked out at the devotees and continued his thought, “The devotee achieves by the performance of sankirtan in a few days only.” The temple room literally felt like the roof was going to be blown off. The reaction to that statement was so instantaneous and so joyous, it was almost like someone saying, “Normally it would take a million dollars to get into this building or to get this car, but for the next twenty seconds, anyone in this room can have it for one dollar only.” (laughs) Everyone would go crazy, right? Prabhupada realized how much he had satisfied everyone, and he had this smile on his face that was just amazing. He was so happy to have made the devotees so happy. When Prabhupada arrived in Hawaii, all the devotees were chanting and performing kirtan. Prabhupada had eight or nine Hawaiian leis around his neck as he was coming down the escalator. When he stepped off, a lady, who none of us recognized, walked up out of nowhere, stepped forward and said, “Swamiji, may I offer you a garland?” Srila Prabhupada looked at her with a child like smile. He said, “Why, yes.” She started to reach out and Prabhupada said, “Wait.” He took off one garland, put it on a devotee, took off another garland, put it on another devotee, took off another garland, put it on a devotee, and then Prabhupada said, “All right.” He leaned forward and as the woman put the flower garland on Prabhupada, she bowed her head and Prabhupada touched her. He just touched her head and immediately her eyes burst into tears. Prabhupada looked at her and with a smile on his face he said, “That’s all right.” The devotees were just beside themselves chanting in ecstasy.
I met a policeman in the Port Authority in 1977 just a little bit after the Ratha-yatra. The policeman said that he had worked on the detail for the ‘76 Rathayatra and he said, “I knew that your guru was special.” We said, “Why do you say that?” He said, “Because normally, in New York, when there’s a celebrity of some kind or politician, or whatever, it’s really difficult to hold the crowds back. Everybody’s getting up there and we have to have a lot of cops to push everybody back. He said, “There had to be a thousand of you kids running around there, and when your guru got out of the car and just stood up, he didn’t even seem to notice. He just started walking towards the carts, and everybody just parted to let him through. It was like Moses parting the Red Sea. And he never even appeared to notice that this could have been problematic.” I sold Bhagavad-gitas to two soldiers, separate events, in the airport, as we were waiting for Srila Prabhupada to arrive for the Ratha-yatra in San Francisco. After the first guy gave me twenty dollars for the Gita, I said, “You know the author of this book is arriving right now. If you like, I can take you to greet him. We’re all greeting him. Would you like to do that?” The guy said, “Of course, let’s go!” So we ran over, which was quite a distance to get to the gate, and as we’re running, he was getting more and more excited. He saw all the devotees running with the devotee women in their saris and the men carrying mridangas. As he was running along, he pulled out his wallet and said, “Here,” and he handed me another fifty dollars. “I didn’t give you enough.” I said, “Okay,” and accepted it. When we got to the gate, it was almost time for Srila Prabhupada to come through. This soldier was trying to look over everybody to get a glimpse of Srila Prabhupada, and then he jumped up on one of the chairs so he could look right where Prabhupada would come through the gate. When he saw the top of Prabhupada’s head, he went crazy. He started yelling, “There he is! I see him! I see his head! I see his head!” You wouldn’t think this would be a normal reaction for anyone other than a devotee. The soldier continued to exclaim, “I see him! I see him! I see him! I see his head!” Prabhupada came out to greet the devotees and the guy looked at me and he said, “What should I do?” I said, “Just do what everybody’s doing, offer obeisances.” So he jumped down on the floor and his hat fell off and somebody kicked it. He paid no attention. He bowed down his head and then I rushed over and I grabbed his hat because I didn’t want it to get stepped on. I brought it back to him and he was like a child. He was a soldier in uniform, carrying a big green rug sack, but when he saw Srila Prabhupada, he got swept up in this intoxication of momentary association with Krishna’s pure devotee. After Prabhupada walked by us and went out, my new soldier friend was beside himself. He turned to me and asked, “Did you see that? Did you see what happened? Did you see?” Totally excited he stated, “That was incredible! That was amazing!” Two years later in Washington, D.C., I did the same thing. I met another soldier a half hour before Prabhupada was to arrive. I gave him a Bhagavad-gita and I told him, “Hey, you know, the author of this book is arriving. How would you like to greet him?” He said, “Are you serious?” I said, “Yeah. Come on, let’s go!” We rushed over to the TWA wing in the airport. By this time all the devotees had set up two lines for Prabhupada to come through, and they had thrown flowers. The airport was a little upset because they had made a little bit of a mess with the flowers. Finally Prabhupada came through the finger of this big cavernous TWA building in the D.C. airport with a really loud and resonant kirtan roaring behind him. There was a bright light behind Prabhupada that almost made Prabhupada like a shadow. I pointed him out, “There he is. There he is. He’s right there. Do you see him?” I turned the book over and I said, “See? See his picture? There he is. He’s right there.” The guy said, “Oh my God!” He was holding onto my arm. He said, “My God, you’re right! That’s him! That’s him! He’s there! Oh my God!” When Prabhupada passed by, the soldier took the Bhagavad-gita and he held it up and said, “Sir!” He was trying to get Prabhupada’s attention. “Sir! Sir! Sir!” Prabhupada stopped right in front of him. The guy said, “I got your book!” Prabhupada looked at him and said, “Thank you very much” and then he turned and walked on. The guy looked at me, again and said, “Can you believe that? He talked to me! Did you see that? He talked to me!” I said, “Yeah, you can’t believe what just happened to you. You have no idea what just happened to you.”
I was on a walk with Srila Prabhupada when one Indian gentleman was talking about Gandhi and glorifying Gandhi’s peace movement. Prabhupada said, “Gandhi’s peace movement was nonsense.” The man was shocked. Prabhupada said, “You cannot put an end to war in this material world. War is a feature of this material world. Everyone is here competing to be Krishna, so where is the question of peace? No. You cannot have peace here.” He said it with such conviction and force that it was like the thud of an anvil dropping without even bouncing. Boom!
Another time I was on a walk with Srila Prabhupada when he stopped and looked up with his hands on his cane. The moon was in the sky, the sun was in the sky, and Prabhupada stopped and said, “So, it is my conclusion that the moon is cool flame.” He looked around at everybody and said, “Yes, it must be flame, otherwise where from comes the illumination?” Then he said, “But it must be cool flame.” And this was the most amazing part. He said, “It must be cool flame, otherwise why would Narottama Ananda have sung, ‘Koti chandra susitala’, that Lord Nityananda’s lotus feet are ‘more soothing and cooling than a thousand moons’?” Prabhupada was operating from the position that he is using his reasoning, his logic, in that the syllogism starts with Narottama Ananda. Narottam das Ananda has sung and affirmed that Lord Nityananda’s lotus feet are more soothing than thousands of moons. That’s the first term in his logical establishment. That’s pretty amazing. And he said it as if it was just simply (snaps finger) an axiomatic fact. That kicked off a whole discussion about the moon and things that he had said about the moon and written about the moon and so on. He became very playful with the devotees. He said, “So you have been to the moon? You have been lately? How about you, Jayadvaita Maharaj, you have been?” “No, Srila Prabhupada.” “Ah. You? You have been? No? So how do you know? What do you know of the moon? You only know what they tell you. So this is our point. We accept Krishna’s verdict on everything. They can accept whatever. We accept Krishna’s verdict.” Prabhupada was just using the subject matter to poke holes in our faith in the material scientists and show us that really they don’t know. They say they know this or that, but if they’ve not gone, they don’t know. They are just accepting what somebody else has said. So this was a very important point and at our tender age at that time, we didn’t really understand it. If you think back, we didn’t discuss things like the ontology of Krishna consciousness. It was explained to us in a very direct and straightforward manner by Srila Prabhupada, that the only way you can know the absolute truth is if you accept the Vedic version. Otherwise you can’t know anything, one way or the other. So the only way you can know is have faith in the Vedas and then apply that and have that revealed.
I remember in Chicago one couple was introduced to Prabhupada and he asked the husband, “So you are reading our books?” The man said, “Yes, Srila Prabhupada. I have completed the Bhagavad-gita, I read the Teachings of Lord Chaitanya, and I’m now reading the Bhagavatam.” Prabhupada said, “Oh, that is very good.” The wife was sitting on the side, a little behind him, and Prabhupada looked at her for a second and asked, “So you are also reading?” She said, “Oh, Srila Prabhupada, actually, I love the chanting, but I don’t really like the philosophy so much.” Prabhupada said, “That’s all right.” Then she added, “Oh, but I do read the Krsna Book.” Prabhupada said, “Ah, that is perfect. Everything is there.” And then he waited a second and he said, “I also read Krsna Book.” At that moment the whole room got ecstatic and the devotees looked at the woman with glances of appreciation for her reading the Krsna Book. But it was Prabhupada who was so kind with his loving and encouraging words.
Once in Vrindavan in 1975 or ‘76, we were walking down the road when Prabhupada saw a pig get out of the water and run off. Prabhupada started laughing and he said, “In New York, you have seen that library on, I think, 42nd Street? New York Public Library? Very big.” Prabhupada said, “So many books, thousands and thousands of books.” Prabhupada said, “All about sex.” It’s kind of funny how Prabhupada would sometimes exaggerate things for effect, and it was brilliant comedy in a sense. “Thousands and thousands of books, all about sex. How to make sex, how to study sex, the psychology of sex, how to have better sex.” Prabhupada said, “Dr. Freud philosophy.” Prabhupada said, “But this hog, he has not read any books, but he can have sex with his mother, with his daughter, with his sister, oh yes. He can do.” Prabhupada said, “They can make sex better than you and he has not read any book. So if you want good sex, you come back as a hog.” Another time he was walking down the road in Vrindavan and he saw a camel off in the distance chewing on thorny trees, just like we read about in the Bhagavatam. Immediately he started chuckling. He said, “Just see, just like our grihasthas.” Sri Govinda Prabhu was walking next to Prabhupada and he said, “Don’t you mean the grihamedhis, Srila Prabhupada?” Prabhupada looked at him as he was walking with his cane and he said, “You are talking grihamedhis. I am talking grihasthas.” (laughs) So then he stopped and said, “Isn’t it? So much difficulty, so much labor like the camel. He chews the thorns, he’s eating his own blood.” Prabhupada said, “So much labor, so much effort, so much work, to have a child, and the wife has to suffer so much. Then labor, then the child comes, so much pain. Then Prabhupada said, “And then the man, he has to work so hard, twenty year sentence. And one year later, the wife says ‘I want another.’” Prabhupada said, “This is maya.” And then from that a whole conversation ensued about how some men have to get married. Someone said, “You say that all the women should be married, Prabhupada.” Prabhupada said, “Yes, that is best.” “But then some men are going to have to marry.” Prabhupada said, “Yes.” And then he turned and he stopped and he looked right at Sri Govinda. He put his finger up and he said, “But when you marry, you must understand you are doing so under the influence of the modes of material nature.” With the idea being that it’s passion, not compassion, that brings us to this point. Then he said, “You understand?” Sri Govinda stared right at Prabhupada and said, “Yes, Srila Prabhupada.” Prabhupada turned and as he walked by the camel, Prabhupada just chuckled. It was a moment in time with the Bhagavatam coming to life.
Primarily, whenever we got a chance to be with Srila Prabhupada, we were introduced to him, not just myself as an individual, but groups of men, as his “sankirtan devotees”. Generally he would say something like, “Thank you very much and my Guru Maharaj thanks you very much.” He said in Hawaii, “If you dedicate your whole life to distributing these books, I promise you, you will go back to home, back to Godhead.” He would say this in a way like a loving father telling his son a secret. I saw Srila Prabhupada in many cities and I would often hear him say at each temple, “I’ve been to many temples but this temple, I think this is the best.” He really knew how to reach into the devotees’ hearts and sort of take possession of their heart. When he went to the Baltimore temple, for example, from D.C., he did it in such a dramatic fashion. He was in his room in Washington, and someone brought in a picture of the deities from Baltimore. Prabhupada looked at the deities and said, “Where are these deities?” They said, “They’re in Baltimore, Srila Prabhupada.” “Balitmore? Baltimore is not far from here.” The devotees said, “No, Prabhupada, it’s about an hour away at the most.” Prabhupada said, “Prepare the car. We’ll go immediately.” (snaps his fingers) He pushed the table in front of him, stood up, and said, “Let’s go.” Every devotee in Washington got in their own cars and vans and streamlined up to Baltimore. They drove Prabhupada’s car a little slower so that when he got there, the hundred fifty devotees that were in D.C. were now in Baltimore to greet him. Prabhupada came in and offered his obeisances to the Gaur-Nitai Deities. Kirtan was going and Prabhupada was dancing in front of the deities with his arms raised. After some time Prabhupada went and sat down on the vyasasana and began his talk by saying, “So you are all very, very fortunate here in Baltimore. This is a very beautiful temple. You are very fortunate here that you simply come every day before Their Lordships, and you chant Jaya Nitai Gaura, Jaya Sacinandana, and you will all go back to home, back to Godhead.” When Prabhupada said that, everyone’s hearts burst open and they all cried out, “Jai, Prabhupada!” The other element that was always there was that the devotees were always saturated with a sense of gratitude to Prabhupada and to Krishna for letting them be in that moment. That feeling reminded me of the time when Prabhupada went into ecstasy in 1975 in Mayapur. I can’t remember the whole class, but at one point he said, “You should pray to Krishna for long life. You are all young men.” He had his eyes closed. He said, “Not like me, I am old.” And when he said that, (claps) he was stunned. What happened, no one can know, but he said that and Krishna said, “No, you’re not” (laughs). I’m sure something like that happened. But Prabhupada was totally internal. In the temple room no one could breathe. After two or three minutes, Trivikrama Swami softly uttered, “Jai, Srila Prabhupada.” Another minute or two passed when Prabhupada moved a little bit and Hansadutta started singing “Jaya Sri Krishna Chaitanya”. Prabhupada eventually moved his head and then he reached down without opening his eyes and grabbed his kartals. He then slowly opened his eyes and started singing. Everybody that was in that moment realized that they had actually experienced something extraordinary. For the rest of the day, you could go anywhere in Mayapur and everybody was thinking and talking about what they witnessed. “Did you see that happen? That was amazing.” Prabhupada was making everyone feel very fortunate to have those opportunities in those moments.
In Chicago on a morning walk Prabhupada gave an example how the materialistic society is determined to essentially take everything that Krishna has given them in this material world, the material energy, and instead of using it for service to Krishna, and therefore, for the good of themselves and everyone else, they are using it ultimately to steal it and keep it for themselves. Therefore, they are misusing it. He said, “Like a knife, it can be used to cut vegetables or it can be used to cut your throat.” I said, “Srila Prabhupada, if we were more pure, could we convince them to stop cutting? Would we be better at convincing them to stop cutting their throat?” Srila Prabhupada said, “No, what you are preaching is perfect and pure.” He said, “They are all envious. They are like snakes, very envious like serpents.” He continued, “But you know what is a snake charmer? Have you seen a snake charmer?” He said, “So you have to become like that. You have to learn how to charm them to bring them back to Krishna.” So I always took that as a kind of general instruction, but also a direct instruction to me. In Washington I did tell Prabhupada a lot about the events of sankirtan that day. I told Srila Prabhupada that I met a solider that day who gave me eighty dollars after I had given him four books. Prabhupada looked at me and his eyes got big and he said, “Four books, eighty dollars? That is a handsome profit!” I also told Srila Prabhupada about another soldier who had told me that he and a group of his men in Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, used to meet regularly and read his Bhagavad-gita. Prabhupada went, “Accha. Our Bhagavad-gita?” I said, “Your Bhagavad-gita, Srila Prabhupada.” Then Prabhupada looked over to another devotee in the room and said, “Just see.” He said it in a way to show us that by the book distribution the encroachment of Krishna was progressing.
When I was introduced to Prabhupada in Washington, Hari Sauri said, “Prabhupada, Pragosh was trying to learn how to sell your books like full sets like an encyclopedia.” Prabhupada asked, “So how did that go?” I said, “Well, Srila Prabhupada, Tamal Krishna Maharaj and I had attempted this but it was pretty clear that the BBT didn’t have all the full sets in stock. Also, generally speaking, the common man is not going to be able to buy this many books at one time.” Then he said, “So what are you doing now?” I said, “Well, I went right back to the airport, Srila Prabhupada, like I was for the last few years.” Prabhupada looked at me for a second and he kind of smiled and said, “Yes, whatever increases book distribution, we accept. Whatever decreases it, we reject.” It was a simple statement and I took it as a sort of a very specific instruction, which I look back on my life and I realize that I made many decisions that really didn’t increase my book distribution. Another thing that Prabhupada said in that particular time was when he asked about prasadam distribution in New York. He asked, “So they are selling prasadam in New York City on the street?” I said, “Yes, Srila Prabhupada.” He said, “What are they selling?” I said, “I don’t know Srila Prabhupada. I’m not sure.” Then he looked at me and asked, “Kachoris? They are selling kachoris?” His eyes got big. I said, “I don’t know Srila Prabhupada if they are selling kachoris.” Prabhupada said, “Oh, they must, they must. First class kachoris cooked in ghee. Then the meat eaters will lose their taste for meat naturally.” We had all heard about Srila Prabhupada as “kachori mukha” as a child liking kachoris. Then he asked me, “Do you stay here in Washington?” I said, “No, Srila Prabhupada, I am living in New York.” He said, “Oh, I began in New York”, again very childlike. Then he asked, “Are you coming to Ratha-yatra?” I said, “I wouldn’t miss it for anything, Srila Prabhupada.” He said, “Yes, Ratha-yatra in New York City has always been my dream. America is the most important country in the world, and New York the most important city in America. And 5th Avenue is the most important street in New York.” It was just a very warm and friendly kind of revelation. It was a very personal interaction.
Previously when I told Srila Prabhupada about the soldier who had given me eighty dollars and took four books, the soldier asked me, “Could I be Krishna conscious and still be a solider?” Srila Prabhupada looked at me and asked, “So how did you answer?” I said, “I told him that the Bhagavad-gita was spoken to the greatest warrior in human history.” Prabhupada was charmed because he looked over at Hari Sauri as if to say, “This guy really knows how to lay it on.” (laughs) Then he looked back at me, waited for a second and then said, “You have answered rightly. Arjuna was a military man.” Just like that. He was enlivened by the simple frankness of it. And he confirmed it. We were in Chicago and a devotee said to Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, they are taking the books, but sometimes they are tearing them up. They are throwing them in the trash.” Prabhupada’s immediate retort was, “They are throwing their babies in the trash. What can be done? We cannot prevent that.” Prabhupada said, “But even they touch the book before they throw it in the trash, they make some benefit.” Immediately we’re thinking, “Well, there’s no problem there.” We literally thought that we owned the airport. Now of course anyone in material consciousness would think that’s outrageous or a very cultish statement. But quite literally, that was our inner sense of what was happening. The first airport I worked was in Hawaii, and it was illegal. For four months I worked that airport every day and I used to run from the security cops. One day a cop arrested me and took me in the office and threw me up against the wall. He was very thuggish. Not too professional. Big guy. He pushed me up against the wall, grabbed my shirt and said, “Now listen, I’m not going to tell you again. Don’t come back here. I’ll have you arrested.” I looked at him and said, “I’m not going to tell you again, I’m coming back every day.” The guy was completely flummoxed. He said, “Do you want me to arrest you?” I said, “You can arrest me. I’m single.” He said, “You’re single?” I said, “I’m single, I don’t have a wife. I don’t have any kids. You can arrest me. I can sit in jail for a few days, no big deal.” He started laughing. He said, “You don’t care?” I said, “No, I don’t care at all.” I said, “But as soon as I get out, I’m going to come back here.” I said, “I give out forty to fifty of these books every day, mostly to service guys. They need these books. These books are very important.” So then the guy let go of me. He backed up and I started preaching to him. In my mind I prayed to Prabhupada: “Prabhupada, give me the right thing to say.” I said, “You know, you follow me around so much, you’re trying to catch me all the time,” I said. “You’re thinking about me all the time.” The guy got an embarrassed look on his face. I said, “I think you should read one of these books. I think that’s why you’re following me. Krishna wants you to follow me.” I said, “Take this book home, read it. If you really feel that there is nothing of value in this book, then okay. But I think you’ll find something of value.” So the next day I had one of the devotee women make me a cheesecake at the temple. I took it to the airport and I hunted for the cop. I didn’t wait for him to catch me. I hunted for him. I gave him the cheesecake and he looked at me and he said, “All right, okay, all right. I read your book, a little bit of your book. I read enough. You’re okay.” He said, “But I got a boss, and he’s going to get on my case if I don’t get on your case.” Then he said, “So you do me a favor. When you see me walking, you sit down. Don’t talk to people. Let me walk through, walk away, go in the other airport wing, and then you go back to what you were doing. Is that okay?” I said, “We got a deal.” We shook hands. We had a level of conviction in what we were distributing and we had this authority because Prabhupada was absolutely cracking the whip. He was cracking the whip in the most loving, wonderful way. It was impossible to say “No” to Prabhupada because he was literally like the king and the general. The book distributors especially saw him in that generalship, kingly way, probably more so than maybe others, because that was the relationship that we had. In New York at the La Guardia airport I used to bring the cop every Friday a cheesecake. And when I failed to bring him a cheesecake, he would come out and look for me, and he would get upset. He would say, “Hey, where is my cheesecake?” When Srila Prabhupada came to Chicago a reporter asked, “Swamiji, why did you come to Chicago?” Without skipping a beat, Prabhupada picked up the Time Magazine with the cover headline, “Crime - Why and What to Do?” Holding up the magazine he said, “Why, because you have very big problem here in Chicago; too much crime. Here it says, ‘Crime - Why and What to Do?’ I have come to show you why and what to do.” (laughs) Prabhupada was not like any other guru or sadhu. Prabhupada was showing up with guns blazing. He put everybody on the hot seat and we loved it. He was like Mohammed Ali. “For the next twenty years, I’ll whip any man from any country, any time, any place.” That’s what Prabhupada was like. He was like, “I’m from Goloka. I’m not from here. I’ll take you all on, one at a time or all together at the same time. Let’s go.” And all the devotees had that same spirit. We got that from Prabhupada. As a matter of fact, the largest number of devotees to join the movement joined from the time the BBT was started in 1972 until the time Prabhupada left the planet. I had no earthly idea how I went from where I was to how I became a devotee in the space of three months. I have no earthly idea how that happened. I was a passionate athlete, smart enough, and articulate enough that I could be a book distributor. I think Krishna looked over and He said, “This guy, he’s got all this energy. It will be completely squandered in the material world. Totally wasted. My pure devotee is over here and he’s got a serious task to do. So here is one of a thousand I’m going to grab by the hair, pull them right out of their material world, whatever it is. So many book distributors were musicians, athletes, or losers from the material perspective. Then suddenly they were all just dragged in by Krishna with the idea, “Here, my pure devotee wants so desperately to accomplish all of this. Now you get the mercy. You get the credit, you get the fun, you get the joy, you get the excitement.” It was exciting going on sankirtan during that period. You never knew what was going to happen. Someone would respond in an amazing way to the book itself, someone would respond in a negative way, and then eventually later they would get turned and become your friend. It was amazing. Miraculous things would happen. Miraculous. And we got to witness it. So how it happened, we have no idea. Prabhupada injected something very special. He had said in Washington when Mother Mina said, “Prabhupada, it seems so strange that you tell us women to be chaste, shy, quiet and submissive.” Prabhupada said, “Yes, what is the difficulty?” She said, “Well, that’s not my question. My question is you also send us out every day on sankirtan and we have to stop men in the street, and we have to smile at them and we have to speak nicely to them and we have to talk to them and then we convince them to give us money. Prabhupada said, “Yes, what is the difficulty?” She said, “Well it seems one is at odds with the other. It seems that you are asking us in some situations to be aggressive but as women we’re not really supposed to be aggressive.” Prabhupada looked at her and said, “I am also an aggressor. When I came to this country, I was aggressive. I was very aggressive. You also can be aggressive.” But then Prabhupada said, “You must learn how to be a lion on the chase and a lamb at home. When you get home, then you can be a mataji.” He said, “Is that all right?” She was smiling from ear to ear. She knew then that she could go out every day and be an aggressor and stop people, “Hey, you’re not your body. Guess where you come from? Guess what? You’re actually a rich man. You’re a wealthy man. You just don’t know it. You come from a very wealthy family. Take a look.” And then come back to the temple and be this simple devotee. So Prabhupada was the powerhouse behind all of that. He was the powerhouse and sometimes it was quietly injected and sometimes it was powerfully injected. And everyone felt it.
