Pundarika: When I first met Srila Prabhupada, I was a member of the Namahatta party in Japan. It was in 1975, I believe, and the Vrindavan temple was under construction. We were collecting and supplying Prabhupada with the funds for the construction of Vrindavan, Mayapur and Bombay. One time I had the opportunity to go with Guru Kripa Maharaj to India to bring some laksmi in the form of cash to Srila Prabhupada. When we arrived in the afternoon we went to Srila Prabhupada’s office where he was sitting behind his curved desk. We offered our obeisances to Srila Prabhupada, and then Guru Kripa put the briefcase with the money onto Srila Prabhupada’s desk. At some point the amount had to be revealed so Guru Kripa said, “There’s $108,000 in there, Srila Prabhupada.” Srila Prabhupada said, “Thank you very much. 109 would be better.” (laughs) So when it came to matters of laksmi to be engaged in Krishna’s service, I think Srila Prabhupada was showing us that auspicious numbers are very auspicious, but more is even more auspicious.
I think some of the most important instructions I ever heard from Srila Prabhupada were regarding the chanting of Krishna’s holy names. One time I remember in particular was 1977 at the Kumbhamela. That was not just an ordinary mela, but also the Kumbhamela. Every yogi in India was there. Srila Prabhupada had been there for some days and then it came time for him to leave. Before he left, however, he wanted to see us in his tent. We sat down and Srila Prabhupada said that it had come to his attention that some devotees were beginning to add the word “bhaja” to the Hare Krishna mantra, chanting “Bhaja Hare Krishna.” Prabhupada told us the Hare Krishna mantra is perfect, and nothing should be added to it, and that he did not want us to add “Bhaja”, but just keep it Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, the sixteen words of the Hare Krishna mantra that he had taught us. That was very instructive.
I’ve heard some devotees say that wild ecstatic dancing is not the right way to perform kirtan but that the “Prabhupada step” is the ideal way. But once when our Nama-hatta sankirtan party was in Hawaii with Srila Prabhupada, there was a big kirtan one evening. I remember Yasodanandan Swami jumped like a mile high as he pounded his mridanga almost into dust. He was leaping so high and the Nama-hatta devotees and all the Hawaii devotees were dancing like mad men in that kirtan. Srila Prabhupada was on his vyasasana and at the end of the kirtan Srila Prabhupada began to say the “Jaya Om” prayers. When he got to “All glories to the assembled devotees,” he changed it to “All glories to the assembled dancers, all glories to the assembled dancers.”
Another very important instruction that I heard personally from Srila Prabhupada was on a morning walk in Vrindavan. We walked out away from the town of Vrindavan and after a while Prabhupada sat down on the side of the road with cushions. Prabhupada sat there and he talked about many things that morning and one of the things he said that has always stuck in my mind is that “Disciple means instrument in the hands of the spiritual master.” I can’t say I’ve always fulfilled it, far from it, but I still cherish the thought and hope to. I imagine a hammer in Srila Prabhupada’s hands and he just uses it for whatever he wants, however he wants. That’s the position of a disciple of a bona fide spiritual master like Srila Prabhupada.
I remember one time I was in Mayapur in 1976 and was serving as a pujari. One day I was collecting tulasi manjaris from the tulasi plants that grew around the temple. All of a sudden Prabhupada’s servant yelled down, “Pundarika, come upstairs. Srila Prabhupada wants to talk to you. Come right now.” When I got there Prabhupada told me, “Never touch tulasi with a knife.” I had been cutting the tulasi manjaris with scissors and Prabhupada said, “Never touch tulasi with a knife.” So I learned to pick by hand the tulasi manjaris and not a knife.
One time I got in big trouble. In Mayapur it was sugar cane season. All the devotees were getting pieces of sugar cane and chewing on them and enjoying the sweetness of the sugar cane. I had stashed some chewed remnants of sugar cane somewhere over the railing on the top floor of the temple where our rooms were. But Srila Prabhupada never missed anything. When he came to a temple and anything was out of order, he would see it. Krishna gave him the eyes. So he found my chewed sugar cane and he became very angry that devotees were being given the privilege to stay in those nice quarters and they were abusing that privilege by making a mess. I don’t remember exactly what words he spoke, but he sent out all the devotees who were living in that building to go live in little rooms out by the wall. He said we were not qualified to stay in the nice rooms and he sent us out to the mosquito-infested wall to stay. He also told us not to eat sugar cane any more. I didn’t know exactly what he meant by “any more” but to this day I’ve never, ever had any more sugar cane.
One time Guru Kripa Maharaj wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada and in this letter he expressed that the devotees were having a hard time in Japan. There was a lot of opportunity for sense gratification and sometimes devotees were taking advantage of it in various ways. I believe what he was trying to put across to Srila Prabhupada was, “Can we get out of here?” But this was the service that was important because that’s where the money was being collected for Vrindavan, Mayapur and Bombay. Prabhupada wrote back in his letter, “You should know that I am actually pleased when my devotees are struggling.” So Krishna consciousness is not easy, not easy to follow the principles, not easy to follow the instructions, chanting sixteen rounds, or going to mangal arati and so many other instructions. Also service in Krishna consciousness may not be easy either. But Prabhupada said, “You should know I am pleased when my devotees are struggling (for Krishna’s service). He knew we had to be determined to advance.
