Rajendranandana das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

Rajendranandana: The pure devotee is not under the influence of the modes of material nature. When he sleeps, the pure devotee is not in ignorance but is engaged in Krishna’s service. One morning when Srila Prabhupada woke up, Tamal Krishna Maharaj helped him rise and Prabhupada immediately began preaching enthusiastically. With a loud voice he said, “I want you to go to the West and preach. Ask people, ‘Do you want to grow old?’ No. You are forced to grow old. Do you think I want to get old? Nobody wants to grow old, but this is the law of nature. You are forced. You must surrender to Krishna if you want to become free of birth, death, disease and old age.” For Srila Prabhupada to wake up and in one moment preach on the transcendental platform, it would seem that during his sleep he was meditating on how he wanted his disciples to carry on.

In his final days, when Srila Prabhupada was lying on his bed and had not eaten for a long time, he said, “Now I am finished with eating. I have conquered sleeping. There is no question of sex life, and now all material activities are finished.” And he asked the devotees, “Why do you pray for me to stay? This bag of bones is useless.” Devotees don’t like to see the film of his last days. They don’t like to see pictures of Srila Prabhupada in the antya-lila. But, the goswami that our spiritual master was, he stayed with us so we would develop more and more attachment to him. At the time, he said as much to Bhavananda Maharaj that, “It is my duty to draw from you this attachment to me.” At this time, some of Srila Prabhupada’s God-brothers and Gaudiya Math sannyasis came to visit him in his room. Srila Prabhupada asked to be propped up on some pillows and he said to them, “Please excuse me for not being able to receive you properly.” And he said, “Please forgive me for all my offenses. Sometimes strong words are spoken in preaching, and I would like to ask your forgiveness for those words.” Prabhupada was so humble. And his God-brothers and the Gaudiya Math sannyasis appropriately responded, “No, no, there has been no offense. The offense is ours. Please forgive us.” And then they began talking in Bengali. Later I asked a Bengali-speaking devotee what they had said. This devotee told me that Prabhupada said, “Also please forgive my disciples. Sometime they think that only they are devotees. I’ve had time to teach them prachar but not achar,” meaning he taught us preaching, the essence, but not proper behavior. What else could he do in the short time that he had with us? He had to send us out—an army of monkeys—to spread the glories of Lord Chaitanya via book distribution, harinam and all the other wonderful activities of ISKCON. Prabhupada said, “I didn’t have time to teach them etiquette, so sometimes they fall short in that regard.” Prabhupada’s every move, every thought and every word was dictated by the Supreme Lord, and only out of compassion for us did he remain with us in those last months. The Christians glorify Jesus Christ by saying, “He died for our sins,” and for myself, my love for Srila Prabhupada was secured during his last months. It is his glory that he chose to stay with us longer than it was convenient for him. Prabhupada’s doctor said that when Srila Prabhupada was lying on the bed with no body fat left due to fasting, it was like he was on fire—his skin and nerves rubbed against his bones. But did Srila Prabhupada complain even once? No. Did he ask for morphine for the pain? No. He simply wanted to be with his disciples and for his disciples to chant Hare Krishna. Out of love, he instructed all of his disciples to come and be with him for his passing. He loved us so much. He didn’t forget any single service. We’ve heard devotees share insignificant things that they’ve done for Prabhupada and how he responded with, “Jaya!” That is Srila Prabhupada. How can we give up his service? How can we turn away from him or forget him? We owe him everything.

In the garden we were reading the Sanskrit, the word-forword translations, the verse and the purport from the First Canto of Srimad- Bhagavatam. When we read the word-for-word translation of the word muni, it wasn’t a noun—muni means a thoughtful person—but it was a verb. Srila Prabhupada said, “Read that again?” The devotee read it again and Srila Prabhupada said, “Who has done this? Who has changed this? Who is that rascal?” Some prabhu’s name was mentioned and Prabhupada said, “If you change one word of my books it can ruin our movement.” He was emphatic and heavy about this point. Not to be misunderstood, let me explain that I offer all respects to the devotees who Srila Prabhupada assigned as editors, like Dravida Prabhu, but my understanding is that we can’t change the message of the spiritual master. There’s a great danger in that, and I personally saw how Srila Prabhupada was fiery in making that point.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 34 - 25th Anniversary of SP Disappearance

Interview 02

Rajendranandana: When the deities were installed in the Hyderabad temple, some South Indian brahmins came. Srila Prabhupada had told Yasodanandan and Achyutananda Swamis that these were real brahmins and must be treated nicely and given anything they wanted. Generally, when the spiritual master is on the planet, his murti is not installed in the temple, and when the South Indian brahmin, Sampat Kumar Bhattacharya, heard that Srila Prabhupada’s murtis were going to be installed in Bombay, in Vrindavan, and in different temples around the world, he traveled from Hyderabad to Bombay at his personal expense to give Srila Prabhupada shastric evidence that this practice was not encouraged. Why? Because when they see his murti, people will feel that they’re meeting Srila Prabhupada. They will think that he’s sitting on the vyasasana, as he truly is, they will talk to his murti, say prayers, bow down to him, worship his murti, and touch the murti’s lotus feet. And as a result, Srila Prabhupada will suffer from taking on their karma. Out of affection for Srila Prabhupada, the learned Bhattacharya gave many shastric references. He wanted to serve in this way so he gave his best presentation. Prabhupada listened to him patiently, and finally said, “Don’t you understand that’s why I’ve come?” When Bhattacharya heard that, he immediately stopped speaking, folded his hands, circumambulated Srila Prabhupada three times, and then left. He finally understood who Srila Prabhupada was.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 47 - Twenty Disciples Remembering SP

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

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 07

Rajendranandana: I drove a bus to the Dallas Airport with all the children. It seemed like I was the only one that had the experience of driving that big a vehicle. We got there, and we were all waiting expectantly. I had never met my spiritual master before. The excitement was so high. Finally someone said, “Ah, he’s coming!” The kirtan is going uproariously, I remember that, and then we all hit the deck. Then when I got up, it was like Srila Prabhupada was parting the Red Sea, that was the feeling that I had. I was crying in ecstasy, finally getting to see my spiritual master. Even before seeing him, you could feel the wave of his presence coming down this long corridor. It was overwhelming.

Bali Mardan came with his wife; and Prabhupada in private made some comments, why he had given up sannyasa for this particular lady because she wasn’t who she had been said to be and she wasn’t all that attractive. But Prabhupada received them very nicely, and he was so encouraging. I thought that was very, very instructive how somebody had some difficulty but Srila Prabhupada never forgot the service that they had rendered. And his love for those who surrendered their lives to him and helped him, certainly these special souls that helped him extensively in the early days, his gratitude was boundless. As we heard later on in the 8th Canto, that one may have difficulty in one ashram, the ashram wasn’t the main thing. Wherever one would find strength, one should situate oneself in those circumstances so that one could continue in one’s Krishna consciousness.

So we greeted his car there. It was a very short distance from the curb of the street to the temple, but we greeted him throwing flowers. Then he went into the temple and offered his respects to Radha-Kalachandji. If he spent any time in the temple at all, he hardly said anything, very short. “Glad to be here, glad to see the children again.” And he went up into his room, where he was passing out rasgullas.

Interview DVD 11

Rajendranandana: Our gurukula wasn’t finished at that time, and we had rooms in the guesthouse on the third floor, top floor. I would go onto the roof of the guesthouse, and you could overlook onto the roof of Srila Prabhupada’s house. And in the evening they would set up a mosquito net for him and a lamp on his desk, and you could hear Prabhupada push the button, “click,” of his Dictaphone and then translate. And he would do that night after night. Who knows how late Srila Prabhupada would stay up translating even in his poor health. So it was very assuring to hear Srila Prabhupada in the still of Vrindavan in the night where you would hear a bell from some ashram ringing the time out or you would hear a peacock call. But in the stillness of the night, you would hear Srila Prabhupada translating his Bhagavatam for us and for the world.

Srila Prabhupada would have darshan of the Deities, and it was not uncommon that he had these sunglasses as you can see in the video. Tears would stream down his eyes, roll down his cheek, just with his hands folded, slight nod to each Deity and give him some caranamrita, and then taken into the courtyard under the shade of the tamal tree. Sachidananda brahmacari sang many, many of the nice bhajans in that courtyard. Srila Prabhupada would sometimes ask for him by name. He had such a sweet, melodious voice. And the boys would get up two or three, four of them at a time and they would dance in front of Srila Prabhupada, and Prabhupada would nod his head. It was so nice.