Sridhar Swami: After Ratha-yatra I went to Los Angeles for my initiation ceremony. I was always very nervous in Prabhupada’s association because I felt he could understand my thoughts and see my heart. When it was time for me to get my beads, I walked to the vyasasana and began to offer my obeisances. Prabhupada said, “So? You are brahmachari?” I was so nervous that I didn’t know what to do, so I continued to offer my obeisances. Someone was telling me, “Prabhupada’s talking to you,” but I just kept offering obeisances. I wanted to avoid him. To me Prabhupada was like God. He had come to save me. It relieved me of a huge burden. In the material world I was in such anxiety, and Prabhupada had relieved my burden. He was so beautiful, and I was very shy. But afterwards it struck me, “Maybe he is blessing me as a brahmachari.” By Krishna’s grace I never got married. Here I am struggling.
Prabhupada was in Los Angeles, and we were doing well distributing books. We thought we would go and tell Prabhupada about it. I had the idea that we should memorize a verse in Sanskrit. Not many people were into Sanskrit at that time. I thought we should offer a prayer to Srila Prabhupada. We came in to see him about lunchtime and we offered him this prayer: :tvam nah sandarsito dhatra :dustaram nistitirsatam :kalim sattva-haram pumsam :karna-dhara ivarnavam “We think that we have met Your Goodness by the will of providence, just so that we may accept you as captain of the ship for those who desire to cross the difficult ocean of Kali, which deteriorates all the good qualities of a human being.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.22) Prabhupada asked us to take lunch with him. I said, “No. We want to get back out and distribute more books, Prabhupada.” It was funny, but I curse myself now. We missed another opportunity.
Somehow I never got sick in India. Everybody else would go fat and come back skinny, but I went skinny and came back fat. At one stage at Hare Krishna Land in Bombay, there was a lot of work to do, but we literally had no manpower. There were very few devotees. Tamal Krishna was the GBC, and he was discussing the problem with Prabhupada. I was a brahmachari, an insignificant brahmachari. I was doing a little preaching, making Life Members. For some reason or other, Prabhupada called me into his room when Tamal was there and asked me, “Sridhar, what should we do? What can we do? There is a problem.” I was flabbergasted. I thought, “Well, I’ll try to work harder.” I didn’t know what to say. It was bewildering.
In India I had an opportunity to see how Prabhupada encouraged Indians and expected a lot from them. The type of Indians he attracted were very high class, big industrialists with money, as well as people who had principles. Dr. Patel, for example, had amazing association with Srila Prabhupada. On many occasions Prabhupada was very intimate with Dr. Patel, almost like a friend. Prabhupada let him get away with virtual murder in terms of Dr. Patel’s challenging attitude and joking. I saw that if Indians would take up Krishna consciousness and pursue it the way Prabhupada was, it would be a great addition to Lord Chaitanya’s sankirtan movement. Prabhupada really wanted Indians to get involved. He was very charming, very respectful towards them, and at the same time he wouldn’t let them speak nonsense. So much respect and love was involved that they appreciated being chastised by Prabhupada. And he often said to us, his disciples, “I can do. You cannot.”
Prabhupada wanted Indians to get involved in every way. He didn’t see them only as people who could give money, although a lot of the gentlemen he was dealing with were businessmen; but many sadhus, very religious people, principled people, came to him also. Before he took up the life of a sadhu, Prabhupada himself was an aristocratic gentleman and moved in that circle. One Mr. Brijratan Motek was a very big industrialist and the husband of Birla’s daughter, which was the biggest family in India at that time. This man would regularly sit and listen to Prabhupada. He would chant japa, and he would give Prabhupada advice. Prabhupada listened very carefully to his advice, because he was a good businessman. Throughout the construction of the Bombay temple we spent a lot of money, and we made a few mistakes here and there and got cheated. At the end, when it was time to pay all the final bills and deal with all the contractors, we had to go over the contract to see if there was any cheating involved. To our amazement, Prabhupada turned everything over to Mr. Motek. He gave him the final authority on who to pay, how much to pay, and how much to cut. And he saved us a lot of money. There were many examples like that. In his writings, Prabhupada talked about the construction of the Bombay temple. He wrote a letter to Giriraj about Sumati Morarji and told him to form a committee and put the Life Members in charge of building the temple. He said, “Our business is preaching. We should not be entangled in these mundane business affairs. Members have invested in us, and we are investing our preaching in them, so give them responsibility.”
I saw how he freely gave his time to the Indian people and listened to their problems. He would talk about petty things and then encourage them to come to the temple more often. For example, one time when Dr. Patel was sick for a few days and missed the morning walks, Prabhupada got very concerned, “Where is Dr. Patel? Somebody please call him and find out what’s happening.” I was in Bombay for many years, and then I became the president of the Calcutta temple. There I also had many opportunities to be trained by Prabhupada. When I saw him working with the Indian people it gave a whole new perspective to my understanding of how big Prabhupada’s plan was for Krishna consciousness. It was not some kind of cult. He had an idea of a nation—an international society—of Krishna conscious people.
In Calcutta, Prabhupada would meet his disciples in his office. Since I was the president, theoretically I should have been sitting at his feet in the center of everything, hearing all the nectar. But I was shy, and I thought, “Let me go out and make more Life Members. Prabhupada is here. I should make an extra effort.” From my position in the background, I could see how Prabhupada was giving out Mayapur-Vrindavan fund money to leaders such as Jayapataka Maharaj, Bhavananda, Tamal Krishna Goswami, Giriraj, and Gurudas, who were all coming to Calcutta. Prabhupada didn’t favor a project. He wanted to see how enthusiastic the devotee was about his project and if he was prepared to organize and manage it well. On that basis he would allot funds. It really depended upon the individual’s enthusiasm for a particular project. In the “World of Hare Krishna” video, Tom Hopkins noted how Prabhupada once told a devotee, “Go out and start a magazine.” The devotee didn’t know anything about starting a magazine, but Prabhupada said, “Krishna will help you.” I saw that also. He would look for enthusiasm, for a spirit of depending on Krishna, and he would respond to that.
