Sivaradhya: When I read Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and Teachings of Lord Caitanya, I decided he was my guru. That was the decision—no matter what—this life or next life. I have never seen anybody else like him because he had no motive other than to help people.
In 1976 I was in New York always looking for Srila Prabhupada and thinking, “When am I going to see Srila Prabhupada?” The devotees were always saying, “He’s not here. He’s in India.” Every time I went to the temple I would hear Prabhupada’s voice. I immediately would think, “Oh, Prabhupada is here?” But then I would get discouraged again because I realized it was his voice on a tape. But finally, later on in 1976 I had been told that Prabhupada had arrived in New York. I went to the temple on Fifty-Fifth Street and the devotees were lining up in the front lobby. I asked one of them, “What’s going on? Why are you standing in line?” He said, “Prabhupada’s coming back from his morning walk.” I said, “Okay, so I will also stand in line.” They gave me some flower petals, and as soon as Prabhupada walked in, we threw the flower petals on him. All the devotees were trying to pay their obeisances, and as I went to pay my obeisances, I tried to touch Prabhupada’s feet. One sannyasi said, “Hey! Get out, now!” [laughs] Prabhupada looked at me and said, “Don’t worry.”
During the class Prabhupada mentioned the Vaikuntha planets. He said, “There is nothing like Vaikuntha that you can even imagine.” He said, “This is Vaikuntha,” referring to the temple. As he said that, the whole atmosphere was changed in the temple room and everybody was spellbound. I realized, “Oh, this really is Vaikuntha.”
