Prasanti devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada
Prabhupada Memories
Interview 01
Prasanta: My favorite day of the year is Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance Day because on that day Prabhupada is fully present through remembrances of him and through the presence of his disciples. Every year I’m thankful for the opportunity to hear Srila Prabhupada’s disciples speak wonderful stories about him. When I saw the banner here, 25 YEARS OF SERVICE IN SEPARATION, it occurred to me that mine is a lifetime of service in separation because I am Srila Prabhupada’s grand disciple. When I joined in ’84, Prabhupada had already left. I never saw Srila Prabhupada. In honor of Srila Prabhupada’s Centennial in 1996, devotees in England produced two CDs called A Garland of Songs. On one CD, Jayadeva das sings a heartrending song, “I Never Knew You.” I cried. I was part of the team that helped celebrate Srila Prabhupada’s Centennial and for me this recording of glorifications of Srila Prabhupada was our reward. In this song, “I Never Knew You,” one line is, “Where was I when you were on the planet?” I meditated a lot on that. Sometimes I think that one day during mangal arati there will be a horrible announcement that the last Prabhupada disciple has left the planet. I already apprehend the day when there will be no more Prabhupada disciples. When Prabhupada was on the planet, devotees would tell stories about him—what he was doing and saying—and the news would travel. For us grand disciples it’s like that. When there is a Prabhupada disciple, we get the stories. We get to hear about the flower boy or the bathroom scrubbing, and all these little things that we don’t find in Srila Prabhupada’s books or on his tape recordings. And we get to love Srila Prabhupada. As Krishna gave us Srimad-Bhagavatam, which has all kinds of stories about Him so that we can develop not just knowledge of Him and His teachings, but also an attraction for His personality, similarly, by hearing these beautiful stories about Srila Prabhupada, we can love Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada explains that unless there is love, we cannot fix the mind. We cannot fix the mind on something we don’t love. So we must love Srila Prabhupada. And one of the ways to love him is to hear about him. The stories we hear are significant because they teach us the heart of the pure devotee and the concerns of the pure devotee. And they can melt our reluctance to surrender. |
To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 34 - 25th Anniversary of SP Disappearance
The full Prabhupada Memories Series can be viewed here and also at www.prabhupadamemories.com