Saradiya: When Prabhupada came in December he married Jivananda and Harsharani and initiated my brother. Some devotee said to me, “Why don’t you get initiated?” I thought, “I’m not qualified. A person has to be very elevated to get initiated. It’s a very special thing.” The devotee said, “Just ask Swamiji.” At that time we called him “Swamiji.” So after Prabhupada’s lecture one day, I raised my hand and said, “Can I get initiated?” Prabhupada looked at me and said, “Will you follow the four principles?” I said, “Yes.” Then he nodded his head, “Okay.” Immediately four other people shot up their hands and said, “Can I get initiated?” “Can I get initiated?” Prabhupada said “Yes” to all of them. Shortly after that, my brother Krishna das told me I should go to Prabhupada’s room, which was down the street on Willard. I went there one evening and said, “Swamiji, my brother Krishna das told me that you came back in this life because in your past life you killed a snake.” Prabhupada said, “Oh, your brother has told you that?” I said, “Yes.” I didn’t think of anything else to say to him.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we would have kirtan in the temple room, and on alternate days we would go to Prabhupada’s room for darshan. Once we were sitting in Prabhupada’s room, and Prabhupada said, “Oh, Saradiya has very nice tilak. Krishna das has no tilak.” He went around to each and every devotee, pointing out whether they had tilak or not. It was very important to Prabhupada that we wear tilak.
Once Gurudas was making a videotape of the Deities, the kirtan, and Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada indicated to Gurudas that he should take a videotape of my friend and me. She and I were wearing matching nylon saris, hers’ pink and mine green, and we were dancing in step together. It was very kind of Prabhupada to notice us.
Srila Prabhupada treated me like a daughter. I joined the temple with my brother, Krishna das, and we were the youngest devotees. Sometimes Prabhupada would ask me or tell me certain things that showed his concern for me. For instance, he told the brahmacharis to tell me that I should finish high school and I should not have any boyfriends. Prabhupada said that when I finished high school he would find a suitable husband for me. Once on a walk he asked me, “Are you sufficiently covered?” He was very concerned about how I felt. It was these little things that Prabhupada said to me that strengthened my connection with him. I wasn’t too interested in philosophy. I liked to chant, but it was Prabhupada’s personal interest in me that encouraged me and kept me enlivened to continue devotional service for many years.
Once I asked Prabhupada, “Are there senses in the spiritual world?” Prabhupada looked at the audience and said, “Look at this little girl. She wants to go back to Godhead.” And in the course of the answer, Prabhupada said, “One day, Krishna may kiss you.” At that, everyone in the audience laughed.
Vaikunthanath and I were the first devotees to go to Trinidad, and when we were there, practically the only association we had was Srila Prabhupada. We kept very close contact with Prabhupada by writing letters, telling him of our progress, and by sending him newspaper clippings that showed what we were doing. In fact, the very first day we arrived, we were mentioned in the newspaper. Prabhupada was extremely pleased at our preaching endeavors. Prabhupada indicated that by using our married life to preach Krishna consciousness, we would go back to Godhead in this very lifetime.
Once, just after Giriraj had become a devotee, he was driving Srila Prabhupada and some devotees to a college engagement. No one knew where to go, but since I had lived in the area for some time, I knew how to get there. I said, “Just go down this street and turn the corner.” Prabhupada, said, “Oh, Saradiya, she knows everything.” Prabhupada was always very encouraging to the women. He treated us equally.
On Radharani’s Appearance Day in 1968, Srila Prabhupada came to New York from Montreal. He went into the temple, sat on the vyasasana, and the first thing he said was, “I want to thank Srimati Jadurani for the beautiful painting she did of Radha and Krishna.” In the Montreal temple there was a big painting of Radha and Krishna and the eight gopis that Jadurani had done. Prabhupada said to Jadurani, “I want you to train all the brahmacharinis to paint.” Then he said to the men, “You should look at these women as goddesses of fortune and not as your objects of enjoyment.” I thought that was very nice.
Around August of 1968, I went with Malati, Shyamasundar, Mukunda, Janaki, Gurudas, and Yamuna to Montreal to see Srila Prabhupada. Those devotees were going to start a temple in London, and I was going to Boston to paint with Jadurani. In Montreal, Srila Prabhupada gave us instructions how to do sankirtan. At that time I met my future husband, Vaikunthanath. I was only seventeen years old and very confused. I went into Srila Prabhupada’s room, and I told Prabhupada that I was attracted to Vaikunthanath. I assumed that Srila Prabhupada would preach to me to get me out of maya. Instead, Prabhupada said, “You want to get married?” That thought hadn’t occurred to me, but when Prabhupada suggested it I said, “Okay.” Prabhupada said, “I will speak to him.” Vaikunthanath was in New York for a brief time, and when he came back to Montreal, Prabhupada called him into his room and asked him if he would like to marry me. Vaikunthanath agreed. Basically, Srila Prabhupada arranged our marriage. Prabhupada told me that when I was eighteen and had finished high school he would perform the wedding. “In India,” he said, “girls get married at the age of twelve, but in this country wait until later. The wedding will be very nice.” In May the next year, 1969, Srila Prabhupada came to Boston. I had almost finished high school, and I thought, “Okay, this is it.” Prabhupada performed a wedding ceremony for Jahnava and Nanda Kishor, Rukmini and Baradraj, and Vaikunthanath and me. This was the first time a Vedic wedding had been performed in Boston, and two newspaper reporters reported the occasion. During the lecture, Prabhupada talked about how a woman should be covered from head to toe, so that even the sun could not see her. He said, “And they should not wear miniskirts.” Everyone laughed. I knew that was for me, because when I first became a devotee I used to come to the temple in a miniskirt. After the wedding, Prabhupada said to me, “So, Saradiya, now you are happy?” Prabhupada was sitting on the vyasasana, and we offered him a lot of prasadam. He looked down at it and said, “Since I am not God, I cannot eat so much.” Also, the next morning Vaikunthanath and I and one other devotee went on a walk with Prabhupada. Prabhupada said to me, “So you are no longer Miss Saradiya, now you are Mrs. Saradiya.” That was very sweet of him.
In Boston in 1969, when Prabhupada had just come from London, the temple was jam-packed with over a hundred devotees. Prabhupada was talking about the beautiful Deity worship in London. He turned and looked at the big Jagannath Deities and said, “Who has made these nice Deity clothes?” Someone said, “Saradiya,” and Prabhupada said, “Thank you very much.” Then he turned back to us and started laughing. “Is Saradiya still fighting with her husband?” Everyone laughed, and Prabhupada said, “Don’t fight with your husband. He’s a good boy. Anyone who comes to Krishna consciousness is good.” I was embarrassed but also pleased to be noticed by Srila Prabhupada.
Once Rukmini and I were in Prabhupada’s room for a darshan. Prabhupada said to us, “The cloth may be cheap but it should be clean.” He was talking about our saris. Prabhupada noticed everything.
Once, Prabhupada was talking to various devotees at the airport. He said, “Brahmananda, you are in Brahman?” He said to Arundati, and this was before Arundati married the pandit Pradyumna, “Arundati, the wife of a great sage.” He asked Balai about her small daughter Nandini, “She is chanting Hare Krishna?” Balai said, “No.” Prabhupada said, “Oh, she is sucking Hare Krishna.”
For three years I didn’t see Prabhupada. When I was in Trinidad he was in India, and when I went to India he had just left. When I went to New York he had just left New York. Finally in Vrindavan in October 1972, I got a chance to see Srila Prabhupada again. Of course I knew that Srila Prabhupada was nondifferent than his picture and his personal form, but when I saw him I thought, “It’s so nice to see him.” We had a big reception for Prabhupada at the Radha-Damodar temple, and Prabhupada said, “This reception is not for me. It is for my foreign boys and girls.” He encouraged us this way. He said, “These boys and girls are helping me.” Then he said, “Saradiya, she is helping me. Where is your husband?” I said, “He’s right here, Srila Prabhupada.” Prabhupada said to me, “Why are you so skinny?” I said, “I just got over jaundice.” Then Srila Prabhupada told me what to do for jaundice. He said, “Take some raw candy, put it in a glass of water, and drink it first thing in the morning. Also, boil green papaya.” When he singled me out in this way after not seeing me for a few years, I knew that he was very pleased with our preaching work. In San Francisco I had tried to please him by buying him some cloth for a dhoti and by knitting him a pair of slippers and offering him a mango. In each case, he was not pleased with the gifts I offered, so I knew that my offering was preaching.
