Sevananda: Many Prabhupada disciples came down to Bhubaneshwar, but there wasn’t much to see. Prabhupada had laid the corner stone for the future temple, and then he and the devotees went on to Puri. Srila Prabhupada wanted to negotiate with the pandas of the Jagannatha Puri temple for his disciples from all over the world to be able to take darshan of Lord Jagannatha. Prabhupada wanted to tell the pandas, “Lord Janannatha is not just the Lord of Puri, He is the Lord of the universe.” The appointment for the meeting between Srila Prabhupada and the pandas was made and the site was chosen. They were to discuss the issue at hand under a tree right next to the beach near Puri. Prabhupada and about twenty devotees were chanting japa while waiting for the pandas to arrive. After about an hour and a half, it was apparent the pandas from Puri were not coming and that they had stood up Srila Prabhupada. It was noticeable that Prabhupada became angrier and angrier as time went on and finally he became nuclear. That was when he made the famous statement that if the pandas do not change this maya attitude, then Lord Jagannatha Himself will get up and walk to and stay at our ISKCON temple. Some devotees assumed that meant the temple in Bhubaneshwar, but now since there is an ISKCON temple in Puri, we don’t know which temple that Lord Jagannatha will walk to, if and when that happens. I’m told repeatedly, however, that the pandas of Puri to this day are very much afraid of this prediction by the pure devotee of Lord Krishna.
On a morning walk, one of Prabhupada’s sannyasis began to report about someone who wanted to donate a palace or a castle in some mountains. That sannyasi joked that, “Oh, we could put all the women there.” Then Brahmananda, who had just returned from Kenya, told Srila Prabhupada a story: “In Kenya there is one tribe that has a ritual for a boy to become a man. To be initiated into manhood and thus be able to get married, this boy would have to go out into the jungle with only one short spear and kill a lion. In that way he would then be a man and qualified to marry.” There were chuckles about that amongst the others on the walk. Another sannyasi joked, “Oh, we should make a GBC resolution that any brahmacari who wants to get married has to first kill a lion.” Another sannyasi chuckled, “Ha, ha, too bad we don’t have any lions around. No one will get married.” Then immediately Srila Prabhupada dropped a bomb and completely changed the mood. He said that the pure devotee of Krishna is always crying in his heart of hearts for all the poor women and all the poor animals that are being exploited around the world. You could hear the mouths of the sannyasis clamp shut. It was like a bomb. His statement put the sannyasis in their place. I’d never seen anything like it. That experience taught me that Srila Prabhupada cared about everyone equally. And he certainly did not want our women to be mistreated.
In 1975 I was sent to Hong Kong to be the temple president. I began working with a translator, Prabhupada’s first Chinese bodied disciple, Yasomatisuta prabhu. He was working on the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and in 1976 he had finally finished the first six chapters. Somehow or other I arranged to get it printed and sent a copy to Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada was ecstatic! It was only the first six chapters, but it was his Bhagavad-gita As It Is and his purports. He wrote a letter to me and said, “This is a great victory. This printing of Bhagavad-gita As It Is in Chinese will bring about the fall of communism in China.” This was in 1976 and today you can see it has happened. It may still be a dictatorship, but there is no communism left. Prabhupada was so ecstatic and excited about the printing of the Bhagavad-gita that several swamis immediately wanted to come and distribute that book. I had only printed seven hundred copies the first printing because it was very expensive. But then immediately Prabhupada wrote me again and said, “Reprint five thousand copies.” Srila Prabhupada gave me some personal instructions about the China mission. He told me, “Now you see to it that the preaching in China and the printing in Chinese goes on. Also, always set a good example for the younger devotees.” So that locked me into the China mission for thirty-five years. Now we have so many books and many Chinese devotees. In Taiwan, in Mainland China, everywhere there are Chinese devotees. We have multi-volumes of Srimad-Bhagavatam in Chinese. But Yasomatisuta’s service should not be forgotten. He was authorized by Srila Prabhupada to be his translator for Chinese books. Even today I am told by the China BBT that the vocabulary he used and the translation that he did is the finest thing we have.
Srila Prabhupada himself told us that he had the mind of a British officer and the heart of a Bengali mother. That means he was deeply intelligent, analytical, perceptive, and he was also deeply compassionate. There was no limit to Srila Prabhupada’s compassion. If a devotee fell down and left the movement but in time wanted to return, Srila Prabupada would always welcome them back. I think that is a good lesson to be learned. In this day and age, for some reason or other, this idea of banning devotees from the movement didn’t come from Prabhupada. I’ll tell you that right now.
