Sravanananda: I joined the ISKCON temple in Brooklyn, New York in October 1972 during Govardhan Puja. It wasn’t until probably the spring of 1973, however, that I personally met Srila Prabhupada. Before that I’d been with another yoga organization, the Integral Yoga Institute with Swami Sachinanda. Occasionally we had gone to the temple and scraped up prasadam from the serving table. One time in 1971, we came and the devotees were just mad with ecstasy. Flowers were all over the road so I think I missed Srila Prabhupada by seconds. But you could feel the ecstasy. So after joining in 1972, I was looking forward to meet Srila Prabhupada because I wanted to see what kind of aura he had. When Prabhupada came out of the back room, all of us immediately dove and paid obeisances. I popped up, looked at Prabhupada and Prabhupada looked at me and smiled. The amount of light that I saw was amazing like the sun. I immediately kneeled down again and I said, “He is my guru.” Up until that I was still visualizing a lot through mayavadi eyes. One of the biggest factors convincing me about Krishna consciousness was when I first received Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita when I went to the temple. I had read so many Bhagavad-gitas, but when I read the “Gita As It Is” from four in the evening until four in the morning, I put it down and said, “He knows God.” All the other gitas I had read were allegories and analogies and poetic, but Prabhupada’s Gita really brought it home. Here was someone who finally I could have full faith in who knew God. Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita was the biggest solidifying factor in becoming a devotee.
In Vrindavan in the early 1970s, Prabhupada was very accessible. Brahmananda would be at the front desk writing, and I’d walk in and he’d say, “Okay, Srav, just go in.” I would walk in and Prabhupada was walking around chanting. I had a newspaper where it mentioned that Tirtha Maharaj, Prabhupada’s God-brother, had passed away. In the newspaper article it said that he had entered into Nirvana and it had a picture of an aura around his head. When I began describing the article and picture, I think I was probably fault-finding in some manner and Prabhupada abruptly, in such a powerful way to stop me from going any further said, “There is never any loss or diminution for any devotional service performed.” That notion of trying to avoid too much fault finding always stuck with me. I use the phrase “too much” because it’s such a tendency of the mind to find fault. It was such an instructional moment for me. At first I felt a little hurt that I may have offended Srila Prabhupada. But then I understood that Prabhupada was doing this to instruct me. It went right to my heart. Then I apologized to Srila Prabhupada and he said, “That is alright”. He would always say that. Then you’d get on the ground, feeling like an ant or a microbe, and pay prostrated obeisances. When you looked up Prabhupada would be smiling. That was a very dynamic experience.
We organized a ten day program for Srila Prabhupada in Madras. There were front page articles in the Hindu newspaper and we had tens of thousands of people coming. When Srila Prabhupada arrived, there were many life members and guests who had piles of garlands in their hands and they began putting them over his head. The problem was people were so excited to put garlands on him that his face began to disappear. We had to immediately get someone to remove one as another one was put over his neck to keep the garlands just by his chin. With a kirtan roaring Srila Prabhupada was smiling and a wave of ecstasy flowed through the room. Everyone looked at each other as if to say, “Did you feel that?” While in Madras we had a nice facility for Srila Prabhupada to stay at in a life member’s home at night. But during the day he would come to the temple. One day I was asked if I would cook for him. I said that I had never cooked for Prabhupada before so Harikesh said, “I’ll cook.” We made a little sitting area for Srila Prabhupada and when I brought him his plate, he touched the chapati and said, “Chapati means hot.” I ran back to Harikesh and told him what Prabhupada said. He said, “Okay, I’ll cook the chapati and you run it into his room.” The floors were made of marble so I was literally sliding to give it to Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada again tapped the chapati, and again he said, “Chapati means hot.” Again I ran back to Harikesh and said, “Prabhupada is not eating the chapatis! He said, ‘Chapati means hot!’” So he puffed up a chapati the next time like a puri. I ran and slid to Prabhupada, putting it on his plate. He poked the chapati that was puffed up and this time steam came out. Prabhupada said, “Ahhh, that is chapati.” I’ve always remembered that cooking instruction. One day on our way to an arranged program for Prabhupada, I was driving along with Hari Sauri next to me and Harikesh and Tamal were with Prabhupada in the back. Every now and again I would take a glance back just to look at Srila Prabhupada and I noticed that Tamal was looking sleepy and in time he began to snore with his head resting on Prabhupada’s shoulder. I glanced at Prabhupada to see his reaction and with love and compassion he said, “Don’t wake him. Don’t wake him.” At that moment I saw another aspect of Srila Prabhupada I had never seen before. He’s a shaktavesa avatar but he exhibited such love and kindness to us, his conditioned disciples that was so amazing. Sometimes you don’t see those qualities unless it’s in real life or in videos.
When Srila Prabhupada was going to Naylor from Madras, the devotees guided him to the train with a shenai group featuring a trumpet, saxophone, flutes, clarinets and drums. Prabhupada liked the shenai. Prabhupada was going to Naylor to install Ananta Sesa on the land that had been donated so we could build a temple there. A short time after he arrived, we found out that they were putting a clause into the contract that if the temple was not built within a certain period of time, they were going to take the land back. Prabhupada said, “That’s ridiculous. Take the Ananta Sesa back. We’re going.” Up until that point, the people from Ananta Pradesh were cooking vegetarian for us, but we started noticing onions in the yogurt preparations. Devotees mentioned it to Prabhupada and he said, “We’re their guests, ignore for now.” So this was another example of Prabhupada’s tolerance, always looking at the big picture. Before we left Naylor we went on a morning walk along with the lawyer, Mr Trivedi. He was a friend of ours and he mentioned that the Gaudiya Math in Madras liked to talk badly about our organization. He told me that they said that if Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to spread the Holy Name to every town and village, He would have done it Himself. On the morning walk I was standing next to Mr. Trivedi as he was conversing with Prabhupada. While they were talking to one another, I was whispering to Mr. Trivedi, “Bring up what they’re saying at the Gaudiya Math.” Prabhupada turned to me and said, “Why are you talking when I’m talking?” When Mr. Trivedi told Prabhupada what had been said, Prabhupada raised his cane and said, “He has left the credit for me!” All the devotees shouted, “Jai, Haribol, Srila Prabhpada!” He had a big smile on his face. I’ve always thought about that for years. Generally if anybody were to ever say that in the material world, you’d think they have an ego. But you could see that Prabhupada was egoless. He said it in an ecstatic way as a servant of Lord Chaitanya. That’s a very powerful thing. I’m very proud that Prabhupada had chastised me for talking while he was talking, but I was happy I brought that up because it was just an amazing experience to hear that very powerful statement.
When Prabhupada was staying at the life members’ home in Madras, he was having a nice conversation with all of us including the life members. A devotee brought up the fact that the Krishna deity at the Parthasarathy temple in downtown Madras had a mustache. Prabhupada said, “Krishna does not have mustache.” He said, “Krishna has like peach fuzz, little light hairs like a young man going through adolescence.” And he said, “Navayovanam”, eternally youthful. Prabhupada took his finger to his upper lip motioning the area of the peach fuzz. In Vrindavan we would go every morning in the early days when it was just huts and a little bit of cement and steel going up. We would take a mat and Prabhupada would sit on the side of the road, call over mayavadis and then get into a heated debate with them. They were always respectful, however, but Prabhupada was showing us the fierceness of challenging mayavadi philosophy. I once asked, “Srila Prabhupada, people are so stuck in darkness. How do you tell a person who’s blind, that there’s vision, that there’s light even though they’ve never experienced it.” Prabhupada said, “Prasadam.” He said, “Prasadam is the most important thing to bring people out of darkness.” That hit home for me because that pretty much was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me joining the temple because the prasadam broke my attachment to anything. It was Govardhan Puja. Prabhupada’s program of prasadam cannot be found in any other yoga group. In those early days in the temples, the prasadam was just amazing. The devotees had so much love and devotion, and it was opulent.
We were violently sick at the Mayapur festival in either 1974 or 1975. In those days, they were using very bad oils to cook with. Literally everyone was so ill that we could barely pay obeisances to Prabhupada. Prabhupada walked around where we were sprawled out and he was very disturbed that everyone was so sick. He immediately ordered that the homeopathic doctor be called. When the doctor arrived, he put a pill in everyone’s mouth as Prabhupada walked with him and watched over the process. Literally within minutes after the pill went in our mouth, we woke up out of a slumber of unconsciousness and a horrific disease to being almost fully conscious. We were bewildered and thought to ourselves, “What just happened?” I never thought about it too much until decades later when I really felt that Prabhupada was performing a miracle. To this day I don’t believe that one little white pill could have made us go from such a state of diseased consciousness and dysentery to be standing up and ready to do service again. It was such a short time frame from being so bad to so good that it had to have been a miracle by Prabhupada’s grace.
There was a time in Mayapur that I remember with Srila Prabhupada that I can only describe as transcendental. Prabhupada sat on the vyasasana and became very grave. It was very bright outside but in a short period of time, the light in the temple seemed to be disappearing and dissipating, almost like a cloud covering the sun. Everybody became very sober. Instead of singing “Jaya Radha Madhava”, Prabhupada started talking and as the light changed within the temple, Prabhupada’s color also seemed to change. Prabhupada said, “In your previous life, you were all associates of Lord Chaitanya. He said, “Somehow or other, I have been designated or assigned as the captain of this ship. But you have actually done everything to spread this Krishna consciousness.” Then Prabhupada went into ecstasy. He just sat there, went into ecstasy, and the whole room was frozen in time. Everybody was feeling it because everyone was looking at one another and whispering, “Are you feeling this?” Prabhupada didn’t speak for a long time. I don’t think anybody wanted this experience to stop. All of a sudden off to the right side of the temple, I remember Hamsadutta picked up a mridanga and he started to chant Hare Krishna. His chanting seemed to break the almost samadhi like ecstatic mood. I felt some anger towards Hamsadutta for breaking the ecstatic wave that we were all feeling together in this boat with our captain. Later the devotees went to Prabhupada and asked, “Prabhupada, when this happens to you, is this what we should do?” Prabhupada said, “Yes, that’s okay, but it doesn’t happen so often, does it?” I can’t grade every experience but I would say this was one of the most directly ecstatic, powerful experiences that I have ever felt.
I was working with Tejiyas das in Delhi in 1974 to help collect for the temple in Vrndavan. Later in the year I was asked to be the president in Madras, so I spoke to Tejiyas of this plan and Srila Prabhupada as well since he was there at the same time. When I saw Prabhupada, he was circumambulating Tulasi and chanting japa. I got down and paid obeisances to Prabhupada. He said, “Where are you going?” I said, “Srila Prabhupada, I’m going to Vrindavan before I go down to Hyderabad.” Prabhupada said, “Oh, then you can come with us. We’re going also.” I thought, “I’m going to squeeze into the car, and Tejiyas is going to give me a little chastisement, ‘Why are you coming Srav? There isn’t any room!’” I said, “Srila Prabhupada that’s okay. I’ll take the train.” He said, “No, no. We’ll make room.” I said, “No, it’ll be too tight Srila Prabhupada.” He said, “So we’ll squeeze you in.” I was debating with Srila Prabhupada that I couldn’t go in the same car with him because I knew possible repercussions as a new brahmacari. I said, “No, no. That’s okay.” Prabhupada at one point said, “Alright then.” He said, “Please when you arrive, you’ll probably arrive before us, tell Gurudas to arrange my bed on the roof.” In those days we had very little electricity, no fans, no air conditioning, so we slept on the roof to try to get some breeze. I arrived in Vrindavan and I immediately told Gurudas about Prabhupada’s request for his bed to be placed on the roof. Soon thereafter, Prabhupada arrived and I was there to greet him at the car. Prabhupada got out of the car and the first thing he said was, “You made arrangements?” I said, “Yes, Srila Prabhupada.” As he walked to the temple, I noticed that Prabhupada carried a little suitcase with a rope tied around it worth maybe five or ten dollars that you could find at a Woolworth’s Department store. I thought to myself, “Oh, my God. This is a symptom of a pure devotee showing us simplicity and true minimalism and humility.”
During one Ratha-yatra in New York where both Prabhupada and Jayananda attended, I hired a professional film crew to document the entire event. It was a random thing I did just so I could take it back with me to India and show everyone there. In India we had a portable briefcase projector called a Fairchild that was ideal for viewing. It would pop open and people could watch movies right on their desk or we could flip the lens and reflect it on a large sheet for the villagers. When I did return to Madras with the film I was able to show it to Srila Prabhupada and he really liked it. I was very happy I could please him. The first thing he said was, “You know, they think we’re CIA in Bengal.” He said, “How would people think we’re CIA and put on a Ratha-yatra in Manhattan? What CIA would put on a Rathayatra in Manhattan?” Prabhupada said to me, “Would you mind going to Bengal and show this in every town and village?” I never thought of that since I was totally entrenched in Madras. When Prabhupada asked me to go Bengal I said, “Srila Prabhupada, whatever you want.” The way Prabhupada asked me was just the epitome of humility. It wasn’t a directive, “Go to Bengal.” I went to Bengal and went village to village from the Bay of Bengal, to Darjeeling to Assam. We showed the movie on screens and had reporters attend as well. We were traveling on the boat program and we were also distributing Gitar Gans. I wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada that said we had just distributed sixteen thousand Gitar Gans in one month. Prabhupada wrote a letter back stating, “That is very results.” I will always remember that, “That is very results.” We were ecstatic that we could please him and serve him in separation.
Prabhupada’s instructions in his books were extremely powerful and his desire to save every living entity within the universe by the distribution of not only his books, but prasadam and all the paraphernalia that he introduced was all inspiring. Prabhupada was also always gracious. When he was a guest at someone’s house, he wasn’t a king. He was always a servant. He was always there to serve even his own disciples. I felt his greatest kindness when I listened to the audio of Prabhupada on morning walks in Bombay with Dr. Patel. Dr. Patel would always ask aggressive, somewhat condescending, irritable questions to Srila Prabhupada. I never saw Prabhupada upset with him once. I sometimes have to turn off my audio when that man is talking. It just seems so offensive to me. But Prabhupada liked that combative mood because he knew the whole world was challenging this philosophy and he was letting us see how to deal with this type of person. It was almost like Prabhupada was doing the Chinese water torture on him because I met that man after Prabhupada left, and he was crying like a child when the talked about Prabhupada. Prabhupada wore him down because he never got angry with him. He just kept answering his questions beautifully. I never once had a doubt to this day about Srila Prabhupada and I’m just so happy I found Prabhupada or he found us. That is the mercy of Srila Prabhupada.
