Tamal Krishna Goswami Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

Tamal Krishna Goswami: Prabhupada was in New Delhi when he heard from Tusta Krishna about what was to become Hare Krishna Land in Juhu. Tusta Krishna had made friends with one Mr. Nair, the owner of this land and the owner of Free Press Journal. Prabhupada negotiated with Mr. Nair, and after a long time we signed a sales agreement. However, Mr. Nair had no plan to fulfill the agreement. We could not sign the conveyance, the final document to change the title of the property. A long, long period ensued during which Mr. Nair tried to remove the devotees from the land, and the devotees fought many heroic battles. Prabhupada had installed Radha-Rasa-Bihari at the Bombay pandal program, and those Deities were presiding at Hare Krishna Land. Prabhupada prayed to Them, “My dear Lord, I request You to sit down here.” He promised Them, “I will arrange everything for You, but don’t leave.” Wherever Prabhupada was in the world, this battle with Mr. Nair was constantly on his mind. At one point, our temporary temple on the property was demolished. Prabhupada commented that our struggle was like the Kurukshetra battle. Once we were staying at the house of the wealthiest man in Hyderabad, Mr. Panilal Piti, when Prabhupada arranged for Mr. Nair to meet him there. Mr. Nair felt that Prabhupada had some mystic power and would put some spell on him and take the land from him, so he brought his pseudo guru with him for protection. After a big dinner, Prabhupada was yawning. Mr. Nair and his guru immediately said, “Swamiji, I think that you must be getting tired. We should let you rest.” Prabhupada said, “I am very tired,” and he retired. Immediately Mr. Nair and his guru went to sleep in the next room. After about five minutes Prabhupada called me into his room. Although Prabhupada always slept after eating, Prabhupada wasn’t sleeping at all. He said, “What are they doing?” I said, “They’re sleeping.” He said, “Go in there and wake up Mr. Nair, but don’t wake up his guru.” I went in, shook Mr. Nair’s arm and told him, “Prabhupada wants to see you, shhhhhhh,” indicating that he shouldn’t wake up his guru. Prabhupada preached to Mr. Nair, who sat listening and listening. Gradually Prabhupada got him to agree to sign the agreement all over again. He told Shyamasundar and me to immediately type the whole agreement. We typed it out on the old typewriter Prabhupada had, and Prabhupada got it signed. By that time, his guru got up and came in. Mr. Nair had signed away the land again. Mr. Nair kept hitting his head, asking, “What have I done? What have I done?” Prabhupada said, “It’s okay.” It was done. Prabhupada had Shyamasundar and me accompany Mr. Nair back to Bombay. As it turned out, our lawyers were working in cahoots with Mr. Nair and Mr. Nair’s lawyers. Within a period of ten days, they convinced Shyamasundar and me that it was the greatest blunder to go ahead with this contract. We canceled the contract. We let it run out without fulfilling it. This was our fatal blunder. Prabhupada was in Pune, and I called him up to tell him the good news, “Srila Prabhupada, I wanted to tell you.” He said, “What has happened? Did everything go through?” I said, “No, Srila Prabhupada. We cancelled the contract.” All I heard was “click.” Prabhupada hung up the phone. Prabhupada came to Bombay, and for about the next two months, he would have one or another of us parade into his room, and he would say, “This foolish boy,” showing his guest the contract, “he cancelled the contract.” It was a huge blunder on our part. There were many more such blunders, but Prabhupada’s wonderful quality through them all was that he never gave up on his disciples. No matter how many mistakes a devotee might make, Prabhupada would see if that person wanted to continue to serve Krishna and to serve him; he would stand by that devotee. In the instance of the contract cancellation, Prabhupada did not reject me. He gave Giriraj Maharaj and me the opportunity to go through a hellish year and a half regularly going to Bombay, sitting in lawyers’ chambers, trying to rectify the situation. One of Srila Prabhupada’s symptoms was that he never gave up on a devotee. He said about Krishna, “When you sincerely chant Hare Krishna, even one time, He will never leave you alone.” I feel the same way about Prabhupada. He also never left you alone even if you made many mistakes in his service. He did not reject you, he accepted you just as the parent accepts the child. Prabhupada knew that there would be mistakes, and he would chastise you like anything, but he never gave you the sense that he didn’t love you. Despite all of the grand mistakes that were made, I never got the sense that Prabhupada loved me less because of them. I always felt encouraged, not discouraged, despite our many mistakes.

Prabhupada had a disciple named Chaita Guru, who was a Sikh by birth. Chaita Guru used to drive Giriraj Swami and me around Bombay to make Life Members and collect money to build the Vrindavan temple. After a while, this devotee thought that he should make his own way in spiritual life. He started canvassing Life Members and collecting donations on his own. I approached Prabhupada saying, “We have to write something to our Members to warn them about this person.” Prabhupada hesitated. He was not ready to give up on this devotee. But when Chaita Guru started living with a bhogi yogi on Juhu beach to learn the art of passing a coin into one ear and out the other ear, I said, “Prabhupada, now it’s reached the limit. It’s the end. It’s finished.” Prabhupada looked at me and said, “You do not know about Lord Nityananda’s mercy.” I said, “Why Srila Prabhupada?” He said, “Because there is no limit to Lord Nityananda’s mercy and compassion, no end to His forgiveness.” Later on, sure enough, that devotee came back, and Prabhupada tried to help him. He gave this person sannyas. Chaita Guru eventually left, but I met him a year ago and he is still on some type of spiritual path. Srila Prabhupada is the manifest representative of Lord Nityananda Prabhu. His forgiveness is like Lord Nityananda’s. In terms of dealing with our own shortcomings and in terms of dealing with each other, we have to always remember that there are very few instances in the history of ISKCON when Prabhupada rejected a devotee. It was very, very, very, very rare.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 10 - 1995 Prabhupada Festival

Interview 02

Tamal Krishna Goswami: The devotees invited me to a darshan where I heard Prabhupada beautifully sing the Chintamani prayers. Afterwards he asked if anyone had any questions, and I raised my hand. At that time America was at war with Vietnam, and at our age the draft board was a problem. I was very concerned about whether or not I would be drafted, and so I asked Prabhupada to describe what the spiritual world was like. He looked at me and said, “In the spiritual world, there are no draft boards.” Then he told a story. He said, “There was once a Christian minister who was preaching in England to coal miners. He said that the hell that awaited someone if they didn’t accept the shelter of Jesus was a terrible place, dark, dank, cold, and wet. He said, “No one would want to go there,” but all of the coal miners were thinking, “Well, if that’s hell, where are we? We’re already in hell. It doesn’t sound very fearful to us. That’s where we live now, we’re coal miners.” The minister was trying to think of a way to convince them to worship Jesus, and finally he said, “In hell, there are no newspapers and there is no tea.” Then they all said, “Oh, then we must worship Jesus.” Prabhupada said, “So in the spiritual world, there are no draft boards. Is that all right?” I said, “Yes,” and everybody said, “Jaya!”

The first time Prabhupada saw me with a shaved head he said, “Ah, now you are an ideal brahmachari.” He was pleased that I had shaved my head, because although I had been keeping my hair short, I wouldn’t “shave up.” I had joined with Vishnujana, and he had “shaved up”, but I hadn’t. When I finally did, Prabhupada appreciated it. On the first walk I went on, I asked Prabhupada, “How many pure devotees are there on the planet?” Srila Prabhupada asked, “How many devotees are there in ISKCON now? That is how many pure devotees there are.”

Jayananda was supporting the temple singlehandedly, and Prabhupada said that that wasn’t fair. He said all of the brahmacharis should go out and get jobs. So we did, and everyone did what they knew best. I remember Vishnujana made bamboo flutes and stood on Haight Street playing Hare Krishna on a flute all day. Gurudas and I worked for Kodak, but I felt it was yoga because I gave my whole paycheck to the temple. Every day at lunch break I’d go out with Gurudas and take lunch, and we’d have kirtan. That lunch break was the only thing that saved me, but after a month or two the job was unbearable. Gargamuni went to Montreal and talked to Prabhupada, and Prabhupada said that if we didn’t want to work like this then we should chant on the streets. So we had an istagosti and discussed the idea. I volunteered to organize the sankirtan because I wanted to get out of that Kodak job. I was ready to do anything to get out of that job. In the first letter that I wrote to Prabhupada, I told him the results of our street sankirtan.

We made about twelve dollars the first day. I went back to the temple and said, “Gargamuni, we did twelve dollars.” He said, “Wow. I’m going to give up my shop. This is big. This has huge potential.” The next day I decided to take Back to Godhead magazines with us, and when people gave a donation I gave them a Back to Godhead. By the end of five days the collections had gone up to forty dollars. I wrote Prabhupada day by day how it was increasing. Prabhupada wrote me, “Don’t worry so much about money. If Krishna wants to, He can give you the whole U.S.A. The question is what will you do with it? Do you know what to do with it?” It was a sobering letter.

Prabhupada was very pleased with this harinam party. When he left San Francisco to open the temple in Seattle, Prabhupada decided that the sankirtan party should go with him. At that point Jayananda went to Prabhupada and asked, “Swamiji, I’d like to travel with the sankirtan party.” Prabhupada said, “But you are the Temple President.” Jayananda said, “I think the harinam party is more important.” Prabhupada said, “What will you do?” He said, “I’ll be the driver.” Prabhupada thought for a second and said, “Very good, you can go.” Sankirtan was so important to Prabhupada that he was willing to let the person who was maintaining the whole temple, who was the temple president, become the driver of the sankirtan party. Jayananda joined our party in that way.

Before the operation began, they gave me an anesthetic and said, “Count from ten, down.” I got to about seven and that was it. I was meditating on Radha-Rasabihari in the arati, and then I had a very good dream. In my dream Srila Prabhupada had been called by the previous acharyas to make a report on his preaching mission on this planet. The previous acharyas asked Prabhupada, “What is your report?” Prabhupada said that he had studied the people of this planet and he had found that they had no capacity for any type of austerity. Nor were they very capable of studying, nor were they very pious. He said the only thing that they were able to do was “somehow take shelter at my feet.” After the operation they wheeled me to my assigned room. Prabhupada was sitting there. He said, “I came here as fast as I could. I wanted to stop the operation because I think you should have had this operation in America, but anyway it is done now.” He had come all the way from Juhu in a Jeep in the middle of the rush hour to try to stop the operation. I told Prabhupada about the dream. Prabhupada listened very intently and said, “Actually, this is so.”

When Prabhupada came to San Francisco, he wanted me to come back to India to take up my GBC service again because he couldn’t find anyone to replace me. As soon as we picked him up, Prabhupada started talking about Hare Krishna Land and India. I could feel the pressure coming. Prabhupada and I went into his room, and he said, “What are you going to do? Are you prepared to come back to India?” I said, “Well, Prabhupada, I’m preaching now.” Prabhupada was a little upset and said, “What is that preaching? Preaching means there must be results.” I said, “There are results.” He said, “What are those results? Let me see the results.” So I had my ten new bhaktas come one by one, put a rose on Prabhupada’s desk, offer their dandavats, and sit down. Prabhupada started to beam and said, “This is preaching.” He was so happy to see this. He said, “So you stay here.”

On the way to Madras, our train stopped in Bombay, but because I was a sannyasi and my wife was at the Bombay temple, I wouldn’t go. I sent my party to give Prabhupada the report of my first preaching assignment as a sannyasi, while I sat in the train station waiting for them. Suddenly Yadubara came and said, “Prabhupada sent me here to bring you back. He said you can come to the temple.” I said, “But I can’t go. I’m a sannyasi, and my former wife is there.” Yadubara told me, “No, Prabhupada said, ‘It’s okay.’” So I went with him to the temple. As soon as I came into Prabhupada’s room I offered my obeisances, and Prabhupada said, “The temple is a neutral ground. You and your former wife can be here at the same time. There is no harm,” and then he asked everyone to leave the room, which was quite unusual. Prabhupada generally didn’t do that. He beckoned me over to the table, and he said, “Now give me your report.” I gave him the report, and he was happy. He stood up, walked around the table, took me in his arms, and held me very tightly, embracing me on one side and then the other side. He said, “Take the sannyas mantra in your heart, go everywhere, and preach. Kirtanananda’s a sannyasi, Brahmananda’s a sannyasi, and you’re a sannyasi. Now I can retire peacefully and translate. Go and preach.” My whole body was transformed. It was very rare that Prabhupada would use his body in that way, and I felt that his touch surcharged and empowered me. I went back to the train, and we went on to Madras.

It was July of 1970. Prabhupada had sent me to Europe to organize our temples in London, Paris, and Hamburg. At that time there was no GBC, but he put me in charge of coordinating those temples. I was in Paris when I got a telegram, “Come to Los Angeles immediately.” I detached myself and got a plane to Los Angeles the same day. Prabhupada was very disturbed because he had detected that some poison had come from some of his God-brothers in India. Four sannyasis in our society had misunderstood how the movement was to be run and were confused about Prabhupada’s position. I arrived in Los Angeles in the evening, and the next morning Prabhupada called for me. He was very grave and looked almost shriveled. He said, “Have they told you?” I said, “Yes, Prabhupada.” He said, “Can you take me out of here?” I said, “Yes, Prabhupada.” He said, “Where will you take me?” I thought and said, “I could take you to Florida.” He said, “It’s not far enough.” I said, “I could take you to Europe.” He said, “The poison has spread there as well.” I said, “Then, where do you want to go?” He said, “I want to go to India.” Prabhupada had the ability to accomplish many, many purposes by each one of his actions. In 1977 Prabhupada was lying in his bed in the Krishna-Balaram Temple, and we were reminiscing. He said, “Remember when you took me from Los Angeles?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “At that time I went before Sri Sri Rukmini Dwarkadish, and I said, ‘My dear Lord, You have called me all the way here, and You have given me this wonderful temple. Now why are You sending me away?’” Prabhupada said, “I couldn’t understand why the Lord was sending me out. Now, I understand it was because He wanted to give me this Krishna-Balaram Temple. This is one hundred times every other temple in the world. But I didn’t understand at that time.”

I asked, “Srila Prabhupada, can we celebrate Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur’s Appearance Day in the evening? Then we will have a lot of guests.” Prabhupada said, “No. It must be celebrated at noon.” This was a Friday. I said, “Friday evening we can fill up the temple.” He said, “No, it must be at noon.” So we celebrated in Prabhupada’s little room at the La Cienega Boulevard temple in Los Angeles. Prabhupada did all of the prayers and spoke about his Guru Maharaj. He asked, “How is the feast going?” I said, “I’ll take a look.” It was about 10:30 a.m., and nothing had been done. I said, “What is going on here?” and started screaming. They said, “You told us it was going to be Friday night.” I said, “Prabhupada wanted it at noon.” Maybe it was my mistake for not conveying the message. I went back to Prabhupada, and he said, “How is it going?” I said, “Nothing is done.” Prabhupada didn’t say a word. He looked at me, got up, walked out of his room, through the temple, through the prasadam hall, and into the kitchen. He immediately told the devotees, “Get this done, get that done, cut this vegetable.” He was determined that the feast be offered by twelve. In one hour he personally cooked a twelve-course feast for at least seventy devotees. Prabhupada always said, “Deity worship is one hour’s business. Cooking is one hour’s business.” One of the best things I remember about that feast was the way Prabhupada made the puris. He put each puri in the hot ghee and touched it. Every puri puffed up; perfect puris. The feast was offered, and then the whole maha plate was given to Prabhupada. Within three minutes it came out practically untouched. We were all eating this big feast, and we saw that Prabhupada didn’t eat it. He was very upset.

Our first meeting with all the members of Dai Nippon Printing Company, from the top chairman down, was like a tea ceremony, although we drank water while they drank tea. They were on one side of a big oak desk, and we were on the other. At the end of the meeting, each person formally presented his business card to Prabhupada and then left. Only the number seven man remained to show us out. Before we went to the limousine Prabhupada asked this man, “What is your goal?” The man took the business cards that had been stacked in front of Prabhupada, found his own, and placed it on top of the stack, indicating that he wanted to be the number one man. Prabhupada shook his head and laughed. Then he started to preach to this man about the nature of life, how temporary it was, and that to become “number one” was not the purpose of life. Prabhupada was a transcendental negotiator. He had me be the heavy man. Dai Nippon would give a price, and I would say it’s impossible. I would give a ridiculously low price and they would practically start crying. We would get into a big argument. Prabhupada would sit there in a neutral position, and finally he would act as if he was the arbitrator. He would say, “This is not good. There should not be quarreling like this. I will settle it. Neither side should argue like this. We must consider the needs of each side.” He would pick the price that he wanted, which was still extremely low, but by that time they would think that Prabhupada was their savior. In this way we negotiated for each book, and Prabhupada got very low printing prices. He was proud that he had been able to get sixty thousand dollars worth of business with a down payment of five thousand dollars. He said, “They have so much trust and faith in my writing.”

In London we had another interesting negotiation. By the time I got to London, in September of 1969, Prabhupada was about to get 7 Bury Place. But what is a temple without Deities? Prabhupada instructed us to install Radha Krishna Deities when the temple opened in December, but we didn’t have any Deities, and he didn’t ask for any Deities to be made in India. How are you supposed to find Radha and Krishna in London? We started to ask anyone and everyone. It was like a national alarm, “Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Radha and Krishna please phone such and such number,” and that was the number of Mukunda’s wife, Janaki. Week after week went by. Prabhupada would call us and say, “Where are the Deities?” We said, “We don’t know where Radha and Krishna are.” Prabhupada said, “You have to have Deities.” Finally, miraculously, when we were practically giving up, Janaki got a phone call. Someone said, “We have Radha-Krishna Deities.” Immediately she informed Mukunda, and Mukunda and I went to this man’s house. The man took us into his study and said, “I have marble Radha- Krishna Deities. Would you like to look at Them?” Would we like to look at Them? Sure we wanted to look at Them. He took off the cloth, and we offered our obeisances. That was Radha-London Isvara. We said, “They’re beautiful, They’re so beautiful.” And They were beautiful. He said, “I’m considering giving Them to your temple.” We said, “Can we bring our spiritual master to see Them?” He said, “Yes, you can do so.” We raced out and immediately called Prabhupada’s apartment near Regents Park. He was resting, so we decided to go there. We went in and told him, “Prabhupada, we found Radha and Krishna.” Prabhupada immediately said, “Take me, I want to see Them.” So, Prabhupada, Mukunda, Shyamasundar, myself and maybe Gurudas went in the temple van. By that time it was the early evening. Prabhupada started to talk with this Indian gentleman in a very friendly way. The man said that these Deities were for some other society, but there was some difficulty, and they could not use the Deities. Prabhupada ignored that point and kept on asking the man, “Where are you from? How are you? How is your wife?” He had the man bring in his wife and children, and Prabhupada blessed everyone. He was talking and talking. Finally, the man said, “Swamiji, don’t you want to see the Deities?” Prabhupada said, “Yes, we can see the Deities.” It was nonchalant, as if he was not even interested. The man said, “Please, I want to show Them to you.” Prabhupada walked over to Them and said, “Hmm,” turned around, walked back to the sofa and sat down again. The man said, “Swamiji, what do you think? Can you use the Deities?” Prabhupada said, “They look like They may be used.” The man said, “Well, I’m thinking I can give Them to you.” Prabhupada said, “Yes, we could accept Them.” He told us, “Go and see how heavy the Deities are.” Shyamasundar and I went over and I tilted Radharani and said, “Not very heavy,” although She was heavy. Shyamasundar had Krishna. Prabhupada said, “All right, we’ll take Them now.” He said, “Pick Them up.” The man said, “Wait, wait, Swamiji, wait a moment.” Maybe he had an idea of recovering some of the cost. Prabhupada said, “No, no, it’s no problem. These are American boys, they’re very strong.” We carried the Deities out, and the man was protesting, “Swamiji, Swamiji, one minute.” We walked to the van and put Them in. Prabhupada sat in the seat next to the driver’s seat. He said to the man, “I’ll take care of the Deities. We’ll be in touch with you,” and then he said, “OK, let’s drive.” We drove off and when we got around the corner, Prabhupada said, “Stop the car.” We stopped, and Prabhupada said, “Take the cloth off the Deities.” We took the cloth off and, with tears in his eyes, Prabhupada started to sing the prayers from Brahma- Samhita. He said, “Krishna has now appeared in London.”

Pishima was adored and even worshiped, especially by the lady devotees. One time we were going in procession from Calcutta to Mayapur, and Pishima was in one of the rear cars. When she got out, all of the women rushed over to her. Prabhupada said, “What are they doing?” I said, “Well, Srila Prabhupada, in a way they respect Pishima as they respect you.” He said, “Why? What has she ever done? She’s just an old lady.”

Whenever Prabhupada told me something, I would habitually, unconsciously, say “I know, I know, I know.” One day Prabhupada said, “You know, you know. You think you know everything.” When Prabhupada did his construction projects in India he had a system of two signers on every check. Prabhupada was one signer, and I was the other, but there was a problem when Prabhupada traveled out of country. So one day I suggested to Prabhupada, “Why don’t you sign some blank checks?” Prabhupada did not like that idea at all. He said, “This is my account. Is it all right with you if I decide how the money will be used?”

Prabhupada would keep a key for his valuables under his wristwatch. He’d never part with that key. But as Prabhupada became very ill, he gradually took me into his confidence and one day gave me the ultimate vote of confidence by letting me hold that key, the key to his desk drawer. So I had the key, and naturally what would I do but lose it. Prabhupada asked for something that was locked up and I didn’t tell him right away that I’d lost the key. I scoured Hare Krishna Land. I went everywhere looking for that key and I had people looking everywhere. We could not find it. Finally I went to Prabhupada and said, “Srila Prabhupada, I have to tell you something.” Prabhupada was lying down because he was ill. He said, “Yes?” I said, “Prabhupada, I lost the key.” Prabhupada said, “Call the GBC.” I said, “Which one, Prabhupada?” He said, “Call the whole GBC here to decide what should be done.” Oh, God. I thought, “Call the whole GBC?” There was nothing I could do. I thought, “Okay, I’m just going to call the whole GBC body to Bombay, and when they come they could decide what to do with me.” Suddenly I thought, “Let me try another key.” Sure enough, it was an Indian lock, and somehow or other I opened it. I ran to Prabhupada and said, “Prabhupada, I opened it, I opened it.” He said, “How did you open it?” I said, “I found another key.” He thought and said, “That means the lock was not very good. It doesn’t matter if you lost that key, because it’s not a good lock. Now put the key on your brahman thread.” Then he put the key on my thread. He said, “Don’t ever lose this.” Prabhupada had a whole key system. One key led to another key that led to another key. He had a key to the safe, and the safe had a key that opened up his elmira, and in a special place in the elmira was the key that opened up the safe in the elmira. Prabhupada had a lot of systems. Every key had to be labeled, and there had to be an index of all the keys and an index of every item in every elmira. He wanted everything systematized. Prabhupada also told me, “You have to keep all documents for seven years.” Sometimes he would quote the motto of Indian railways, “Keep the wheels moving.” He said that was also a good motto for ISKCON.

In the early days I was the temple commander in the La Cienega temple in Los Angeles. Prabhupada called me one day and asked me to get the Bhagavatam. He had his original Bhagavatam with the spiritual sky on the cover. He said, “Do you see this spiritual sky? It’s very big. You cannot fathom how big this is. Three-quarters of Krishna’s creation is the spiritual sky, and one-quarter is the material creation. That material creation has innumerable universes. One universe is so big the scientists can’t measure it. We’re on one planet in one of those universes out of innumerable universes, which constitute one-quarter of the creation. This one planet, Earth, is one of the smaller planets in this universe. On this planet there are seven continents, and on one of the continents, North America, there is a great city called Los Angeles. In that Los Angeles city, there’s a long boulevard called La Cienega. On that La Cienega Boulevard, there is one church building that is now a Hare Krishna temple. In that one Hare Krishna temple, there is one Tamal Krishna, and he thinks that he is very important.” (Laughs) I felt so small.

I don’t remember what, but I had foolishly forgotten something. Prabhupada looked at me. I said, “Prabhupada, I just can’t remember.” He said, “Yes, you cannot remember because there is nothing inside there to be able to remember with; simply zero, just zero.” I thought, “After all these years, there’s nothing in there.” Oh boy, heavy chastisement.

When we got to Rishikesh, Prabhupada was ill. We were staying in a very nice house, Gange darshan, overlooking the Ganga. Prabhupada had been lured there by Navayogendra Swami who told him, “If you drink water there you’ll get your health back.” As soon as we got there, Prabhupada started having his massage and told me, “Bring Ganga jal.” I immediately put on my gumsha, got a lota and dove into the Ganga from the second floor. I swam back with the lota, and brought it to Prabhupada, who immediately took a full glass of Ganga water and then belched. Prabhupada said, “Ah, accepted,” smiled, and was very pleased. Then he immediately ordered, “Go out and get kachoris and jalebis.” One shop in Rishikesh was famous for its jalebis and kachoris. Prabhupada said, “Hot jalebis are a cure for sore throat. Now it is a little cold, so we must get hot jalebis.” We ate hot jalebis, and he said, “Whenever you have a sore throat, eat fresh, hot jalebis.” Another time Prabhupada gave me the cure for dysentery, namely eating hot puris cooked in ghee right off the fire with salt. Sure enough, when I had dysentery, I took hot puris and salt, and I was immediately cured; like a cork.

Prabhupada’s son, Vrindavan Chandra, and I were with Prabhupada. Prabhupada started to remember his grihastha life. He told his son, “Actually, your mother was a very good wife, chaste and devoted. One could not ask for a better wife. It was me. I was not very easy.” He started to cry and said, “She was so good.” He said, “I should not say this, I should not say it.” I could see it was a way of healing any possible ill feeling that his son might have had towards him for leaving the family and taking sannyas. Prabhupada wasn’t acting, but his heart was soft. This was one of those extraordinary moments when Prabhupada showed a mood very different from his official position. Such moments were special and charming.

Prabhupada said about book distribution, “Hardback books are more important than soft back.” He was very firm on this point. “Give out big books.” He wanted more big books distributed. He liked the Radha-Damodar Party. He said, “You have understood a very important point, that in the Kali Yuga people don’t come to the temple. You have to bring the temple to the people.” That is also the whole idea behind book distribution, to go out to the people.

Prabhupada also didn’t like it when I fell asleep in the car. Once I was sitting next to Prabhupada in the back seat, and I appeared to be dozing. Prabhupada said, “You are sleeping.” I said, “No, Srila Prabhupada, I am not sleeping.” He said, “You are sleeping.” I said, “I don’t think I was sleeping.” He said, “I said you are sleeping. Chant Hare Krishna.” Prabhupada was chanting japa very quietly, and I started to chant, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare . . .” and dozed off again. Another time Upendra was in the front seat, and his head was bobbing as he slept. Prabhupada leaned over and gently caught Upendra’s sikha from behind. When Upendra bobbed forward, the sikha yanked. Upendra turned around angrily. He thought I had done it, but it was Prabhupada. Prabhupada had caught his sikha.

Prabhupada had a big appetite and would take at least forty-five minutes to relish prasadam. He often ate alone, chewing with his eyes closed. When we went to India we got to eat with Prabhupada regularly because we would be invited to the homes of interested Indians. Then all the devotees would sit together, with Prabhupada at the head, and take prasadam. Prabhupada said, “This is preaching. We make members by eating.” When we went to Surat in Gujarat he made a condition that he would only take prasadam at someone’s home if that person became a Life Member. In thirty days we made thirty members. It was very nice. Prabhupada trained us how to take prasadam.

During Prabhupada’s final days in Vrindavan, someone brought him ice cream from New Vrindavan. (They had packed it in dry ice to keep it cold.) Prabhupada ate a teaspoon of the New Vrindavan ice cream. Then they gave him a ring they had made, and as soon as Prabhupada saw it he said, “So, where is the bride?”

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 11 - Tamal Krsna Goswami, Kaushalya dd, Revatinandana

Interview 03

Tamal Krishna: I came to England in September of 1969, and Srila Prabhupada said that we would open the London temple in December, but at the time there were no deities. We asked Srila Prabhupada, “Where are the deities?” and he said, “You have to arrange for deities.” How could we arrange for deities? He wanted Radha-Krishna Deities but we hardly knew what deities were. We were in tremendous anxiety and were constantly searching for deities. We set up Janaki’s phone number as a hotline so that anybody who had any information about deities could call. The date was getting closer, there were no deities, and Prabhupada was determined to open the temple. Prabhupada even made the entire menu for the celebration feast and he had me make an invitation card. On the card I wrote that everybody was invited to come and eat prasadam. Prabhupada corrected me. He said, “You don’t eat prasadam, you respect prasadam.” We printed the menu and invitation card, but still there were no deities. At that time sankirtan was very difficult. The police had stopped us on the streets so we were having programs in many different homes of Hindu families. Every night we would go for three or four hours and get one pound from each of them. It was excruciating to sit for hours in people’s homes and at the end of the night come back with only three or four pounds. Finally, in October or November, someone called our deity hotline and said, “You can find deities in a certain Hindu center.” So Mukunda and I went to that place. The man we met there said, “I do have some deities.” We said, “We’d like to see Them.” He said, “They’re over there.” We didn’t see anything. He said, “Under that cloth.” The man went over to the cloth, pulled it up, and there was Radha-Londonisvara. We were amazed to see these deities and we immediately bowed down. The man said, “For various reasons we have no use for these deities.” We said, “We have to ask our spiritual master.” We went outside and from a phone booth we immediately phoned Prabhupada at his furnished apartment on Baker Street next to Regent’s Park. Prabhupada was resting at the time, but when he woke up and heard the news he said, “Take me there at once.” Prabhupada took Shyamasundar, Mukunda and me with him. By that time it was evening. Prabhupada sat down in the man’s sitting room. The man said, “So, Swamiji, you are interested in our deities?” Prabhupada said, “Where are you from? Where is your family from? Let me meet your wife. Let me meet your children.” The man paraded his family before Prabhupada. I couldn’t understand what Prabhupada was doing. As far as I could see Prabhupada spent 30 to 45 minutes wasting time talking to the man. The TAPE 47 2 man was eager to pull the cloth off again to show Prabhupada the deities but Prabhupada had no interest in seeing the deities. Finally the man said, “Look, are you interested or not?” Prabhupada said, “What is that?” The man said, “In the deities.” Prabhupada said, “Let us see the deities.” Then the man lifted the cloth up. Prabhupada’s face was placid – he didn’t react or respond. The man became anxious, “Don’t you want these deities? Your disciples said you were looking for deities. Don’t you want these deities?” Prabhupada was just looking at Them. The man started to encourage Prabhupada, “You should take these deities. You must take these deities.” Prabhupada asked me, “See if you can pick up this deity.” I went over to Srimati Radharani, tilted Her back and picked Her up. I said, “She’s not that heavy.” Then Prabhupada asked Shyamasundar, “See if you can pick up the other deity.” Shyamasundar picked Him up and said, “He’s not that heavy.” Prabhupada said, “Okay, let’s go.” We picked up the deities and walked out of the house and the man said, “Wait, Swamiji, wait, wait.” He wanted to discuss the price of the deities but Prabhupada said, “It’s okay, They’re not that heavy, we’ll be all right.” Prabhupada had us put the deities in our van. The man was there with his wife and children and he was trying to beg Prabhupada to wait and discuss and negotiate some money for the deities. But we were all in the van and Prabhupada said, “Drive.” We drove one or two blocks and then Prabhupada said, “Stop the car.” We stopped and Prabhupada said, “Now let me see the deities.” Then he started to chant the Brahmasamhita to Sri Sri Radha-Londonisvara and he said, “Krishna has appeared.” He was so happy. He was so, so pleased.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 47 - Twenty Disciples Remembering SP

Interview 04

Tamal Krishna Goswami: Once I was sitting next to Gargamuni, talking with him when he was driving us from Calcutta to Mayapur. Prabhupada had told us, “Stop talking,” but inadvertently we started talking, and sure enough, Gargamuni hit a farmer riding a bicycle. Gargamuni immediately stopped and backed up. All the other farmers ran over, stuck their picks against the tires, and started screaming. Prabhupada was at the door, leaning out the window talking to one of the farmers. After about ten minutes Prabhupada said, “Give him five rupees.” I gave him five rupees, and Prabhupada said, “Drive.” The farmers took their picks away, and we drove off. Prabhupada was expert. Of course, I didn’t say a word to Gargamuni after that.

Prabhupada especially wanted us to distribute the First and Second cantos of the Srimad Bhagavatam, as well as the Bhagavad-gita. At one point the Radha Damodar Party was distributing so many books that I complained to Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, the printers can’t keep up with our distribution.” He said, “All right, don’t worry.” They were printing twenty-thousand at a time. He said, “I will instruct them to print fifty-thousand. But one thing is that although they can’t keep up with you, you can’t keep up with me. I am three cantos ahead of you.” He got into the competitive mood.

Tamal Krishna Goswami: A famous Mayavadi yogi, who used to teach people how to meditate, had a big ashram in Hrisikesh. When Prabhupada went to Hrisikesh, many of the students of this famous yogi went to Prabhupada’s darshans. I don’t know how he did it, because he was really ill, but Prabhupada’s darshans were brilliant. Gradually this yogi became concerned that his students were coming to Prabhupada, so one of them finally came with a message, “Swamiji, you are ill so you should take rest and not exert yourself in this way or you will not be able to easily recover.” Prabhupada was pleased with that. He said, “He has indirectly admitted his defeat.”

Another time we went to Bhaktivinode Thakura’s birthplace, because Prabhupada was trying to negotiate to purchase land there, when the car horn stopped working. Prabhupada had us take a dish, a metal plate, and leaning out the window, bang the plate with a metal spoon as a replacement for the horn, because in India you drive with a horn. So we were leaning out of the car the whole time banging on the metal plate. In so many ways Prabhupada was an expert judge of time, place, and circumstance. He always knew what to do.

In India, one of Prabhupada’s main concerns was that the books be displayed at every program. As part of each program he wanted someone to stand up and describe each book and what it was about. Then the person would say, “You can go in the back and take a look at these books.” And in the back was a book table. No program was complete if it didn’t have a book table and someone introducing the books. The programs were meant for selling his books. Books were the basis, the main thing. People may forget a lecture, but the book will remind them. So, at every program Prabhupada insisted that we introduce the books.

In a lecture Prabhupada said, “I have written these books especially for my devotees. It is not a question of just selling the books; you must read the books.” Another time we were on Marine Drive in Bombay when the issue of devotees wearing karmi clothes came up. Prabhupada’s view was that it didn’t matter what they wore. They should wear whatever was best for book distribution. Another time, on our Radha Damodar Party, we decided to use incense packs to get the person warmed up. A person would buy a pack of incense, and then we would give them a book and ask for something further. I told Prabhupada that generally we gave about four packs of incense for a dollar, and on the fifth pack of incense, we gave a big book, plus got a little extra money. Each time we gave a pack, we gave a Back to Godhead. Prabhupada said, “Oh this is not good.” He wrote a letter to Rameshvara saying this should be stopped. I happened to show up that day in Bombay to take my turn as a GBC secretary. The previous secretary, Hansadutta, told me that this letter was going out. I rushed to Prabhupada and said, “Srila Prabhupada, I don’t mind, but I have to say that our book orders are going to be going down about fifty percent.” Prabhupada stopped. He said, “Are you paying the book fund?” I said, “Not only are we paying, we always have a credit.” Then he called his secretary back and said, “Destroy that letter.” He said, “Never mind. If you’re paying for the books, it’s okay.”

Our Radha Damodar party was quite energetic. By the time a year was over, forty percent of the total BBT proceeds came from our party. But we were creating quite a bit of disturbance because some brahmacharis were leaving their temples, wanting to be with the sannyasis, and the sannyasis were saying, “It’s better for the brahmacharis to be with us than to be under these grihastha temple presidents.” So, by the time we went to India, we brought with us ninety brahmacharis. The Radha Damodar party had the whole third floor of the Lotus Building. We were riding the crest waves of success. The Christmas marathon had been a heavy competition between Jayatirtha in California and the Radha Damodar party. Ramesvara kept on asking me, “How much are you going to give to the book fund?” I said, “I’m going to send you a blank check. Put it in your safe and whatever the amount Jayatirtha gives, add ten thousand and deposit it and it will clear at the end of the month.” I was very determined to defeat them. By the end of the 1975 Christmas marathon, the Radha Damodar Party gave one hundred ninety-five thousand dollars to the book fund. We did a quarter of a million Back to Godhead’s and sixty thousand big books. It was a massive thing. But people were getting agitated. In Mayapur, all the temple presidents complained to Prabhupada. I was sitting in the room and Prabhupada was looking at me. When everybody left I kept sitting there because I thought, “I’d better talk to Prabhupada alone.” Prabhupada looked at me and I said, “I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should go to China or something.” To go to China was like going to the moon. It was said like that. Anyway, I walked out. The next morning, right in the middle of arati, Prabhupada’s servant tapped me and said, “Prabhupada wants to see you.” I said, “I’m not going.” I meant, “I’m not going up to see him, and I’m not going to China.” Finally I had to go to Prabhupada. Prabhupada said, “I want you to go to China.” I said, “China? The Radha Damodar Party—I have to be there.” He said, “No, I want you to go to China,” and he walked out to go to the bathroom, brush his teeth, and freshen up for his walk. He came back and put on tilak. He said, “I want you to go to China.” I started to give excuses, that “If I go to China, what’s going to happen to the Party?” Prabhupada said, “Don’t worry about the Party.” His bottom lip started to quiver. His hand was shaking. He said, “Don’t worry about the Party.” I said, “But this is an important service.” He said, “Then I take that service away from you. You have no other service to do now. Either you go to China, or you sit in Mayapur and chant Hare Krishna. There’s nothing else for you to do.” Gurukripa was sitting behind me, and he said, “I’ll go to China.” Prabhupada said, “No, he must go to China.” I was sitting there going, “Oh.” Then I suddenly realized, “Wait a moment, the Radha Damodar Party is meant for Prabhupada’s pleasure, and if by going to China Prabhupada will be pleased, my life is made.” So I immediately looked at Prabhupada and said, “Okay, I’m ready to go.” Prabhupada beamed. We went upstairs, because Prabhupada would walk around and around on the roof. He announced, “Tamal Krishna Maharaj is going to China.” Everybody went, “Jai, hari bol!” Prabhupada turned this heavy situation into a glorious act. He was so expert. He never said too much about the whole thing. He never said to me, “People are complaining about you,” or this or that. He found a way to correct the entire situation and open up something wonderful for Krishna. He found a way to turn what appeared to be a negative situation into a positive event.

In 1971, Prabhupada paid eight thousand rupees through Sagar Maharaj, a Gaudiya Math sannyasi, to rent a tent camp for us at the Kumbha Mela. We had a fantastic Kumbha Mela. Afterwards, all the devotees left for the train station, and the only persons left at the campsite were Prabhupada and me. We were going by riksha to meet the others at the station. But it seems that Sagar Maharaj hadn’t paid the full price for the tents, and huge Sikhs, six foot something and two hundred plus pounds came and demanded the balance from Prabhupada. I was scared stiff. And Prabhupada was a physically frail person. Prabhupada couldn’t have been more than five-feet-six-inches, and I wasn’t much more than that. These guys were bearing down on Prabhupada, but Prabhupada said, “No, we have given you the money, and we will not give any more money.” He went on talking with them saying, “No, no,” and they went on yelling. I didn’t know what was going to happen. Finally, Prabhupada got up, threw his chader on, and said, “Let us go immediately,” and walked out. They started following him, screaming. Prabhupada called a riksha, got in the riksha, and said, “Go to the train station,” and we drove off. Prabhupada could be very strong like that.

When they served us prasadam, I asked Prabhupada, “Can you give any special instruction on how to take prasadam?” Prabhupada said, “When taking prasadam, there are no rules. It is a matter of personal taste.” I always remember this, because for a while my God-brother, Hridayananda Maharaj, was an addict of certain types of prasadam. Now we have the same prasadam taste, but I always remember Prabhupada saying, “It is a matter of personal taste.”

In Hrishikesh, 1977, Prabhupada decided that he would teach us how to cook. At that time he again taught me how to roll chapatis. He also taught us how to cook badi charchari, which is a Bengali prep. Prabhupada said, “To make this, you use mustard oil. You cut up the portals and potatoes and chillies, drown them in the mustard oil, then put on a strong flame and cook them until they burn.” He said, “When you see it smoking and sound comes out—fut, fut, fut, fut, fut, fut—that bubbling sound, then you know it is done.” So Bhakti Caru Maharaj cooked this badi charchari in Hrishikesh, and Prabhupada immediately corrected him. He complained, “It is no good.” Bhakti -Caru Maharaj was very downcast. He apologized, “Did I use too much oil?” Prabhupada said, “No, you have not used too much oil. You did not use enough chilies. The problem is never too much oil. The problem is not enough chilies.”

In November 1970, we were driving to a program at Scindia House in Bombay when we got into a traffic jam. The fumes were horrendous. In those days, there were no air-conditioned cars, and Prabhupada got sick to his stomach. When we came back, Prabhupada laid down. He was almost unconscious. We thought he was going to leave his body, and we were so fearful. Finally, Prabhupada said, “Bring me some rose water.” We brought it, Prabhupada drank it, and within one or two minutes he sat up and was normal. He recovered completely.

I was amazed at what Pishima, Prabhupada’s sister, did when Prabhupada was in his final days. She was crying, and she put her hand on Prabhupada’s heart, just like a loving sister would, and started to chant the Nrisimha mantras for Prabhupada’s protection. It was touching. Just before this Prabhupada said, “You know that she wants to cook for me?” I said, “What will she cook?” He said, “Whatever she cooks, let her cook and serve it to me.” Kirtanananda Maharaj, the senior person there, said, “Prabhupada, you cannot eat. She’s going to cook everything in mustard oil.” Prabhupada said, “Whatever she cooks, it’s all right, it doesn’t matter.” Pishima cooked kachoris. As a child, Prabhupada was called Kachorimukha, one whose mouth and face is always full of kachoris, and when we brought Pishima’s kachoris, Prabhupada started eating them. He ate everything she cooked. At this point Prabhupada had only been drinking liquids, and after he ate her kachoris, everybody thought, “That’s it, Prabhupada may leave his body.” Kirtanananda Maharaj gave up and left because he had been playing the role of the stern doctor, the stern parent. But Prabhupada didn’t want to be controlled. He said, “No, I will eat what I want to eat. Don’t try to stop me.”

When we were going to India, Prabhupada said, “If anyone challenges you ‘Why has your guru used the name Prabhupada?’ you should ask them, ‘How many books have you printed? How many miles have you traveled? How many temples and devotees have you made?’ Ask them that. I should not say this, but I can honestly say that I have inherited the property of my Guru Maharaj.”

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 16 - Bhakti Thirtha Swami, Pradyumna, Ambarish, Tamal Krishna Goswami

Interview 05

Tamal Krishna Goswami: Srila Prabhupada and I were walking in Regents Park in London in October or November. It was quite cold and the walkway was icy. Prabhupada had a wool striped airline blanket wrapped around his waist on top of his dhoti. I’m sure Prabhupada didn’t steal the blanket from the airline, but somebody had. As we were walking, Prabhupada would stop and with his stick he’d smack a puddle that had frozen. Then he’d walk on. When he came to the next one he’d smack it and it would shatter. I guess he was waiting for me to ask him why he was doing that, so I asked him and Prabhupada said, “Because this is not the natural condition of the water.” He said, “Similarly, it is not our nature to be in illusion. We must break the back of the material energy.” And he said, “To be in maya is not our natural condition.” We kept walking and at one point he noticed a lake that was frozen except for the portion around the trees. He said, “The Goswamis knew this secret. That’s why they lived under trees, because underneath a tree it is warm in the winter and cool in the summer.” He said, “You can see that because around the tree the water is not frozen.”

By 1970, active street sankirtan—chanting Hare Krishna on the streets and distributing Back to Godhead magazines—had been going on for a year or a year-and-a-half, and when we arrived in India in 1970, we applied the same formula. We chanted Hare Krishna on the streets. But some people ridiculed us and there were newspaper articles in the same mood. When Prabhupada heard this, and he heard that people were throwing coins at us, he told us to immediately stop doing daily street kirtan because people were taking it cheaply. Later things changed a little, but it was significant that Prabhupada was willing to completely adjust the fundamental strategy of street chanting if it didn’t have the desired effect. A preacher has to be an expert judge of time, place and circumstance and know how to present Krishna consciousness in an effective way to the local population. One formula may be totally unsuitable in another place. One of Prabhupada’s most outstanding qualities was how he knew which formula was suitable for which place. He wasn’t a stereotyped thinker. He used to say, “Spiritual life is not static, it’s ecstatic.” It was a pun on the words, “It’s ecstatic.” Prabhupada was always thinking of brilliant, unique ways to spread Krishna consciousness.

Prabhupada was speaking to some Indian people in his room in Vrindavan. He was upset because some of his God-brothers criticized his sannyasi disciples because they couldn’t read Sanskrit. Prabhupada said, “Where does it say that one must be able to read Sanskrit to go back to Godhead? Where does it say that?” He was adamant. He said, “My disciples may be disqualified in so many ways, but they have one qualification; whatever I tell them to do, they do. They have full faith in what I say.” I appreciated that point because in terms of etiquette, we certainly were not qualified. In fact, Prabhupada said, “I know they often make mistakes in terms of etiquette. But whatever I tell them to do, they do.” Our good fortune was that we were following the Lord’s pure devotee and despite all disqualifications, that one qualification surpassed every good qualification anyone else might have.

By letter, I described a pandal, a large outdoor public program that we were arranging for ten days, and I asked Prabhupada, “Are you willing to come? If you are, we will advertise.” Prabhupada was in Australia on his way back to India, and he sent me a telegram, “You preach if mass, I preach if class.” That’s all it said.

Prabhupada first gave Gayatri mantra in Boston, and then in September of 1968 he came to San Francisco and gave some of us Gayatri mantra. He taught us how to chant and gave out a sheet with the Gayatri mantras. Jayananda found it difficult to pronounce the mantras, so he decided to ask Srila Prabhupada about the pronunciation and he took me along with him. We sat in front of Srila Prabhupada and Prabhupada asked him to pronounce the mantras. As Jayananda tried, Prabhupada leaned back and roared with laughter. Prabhupada shook his head and said, “It’s hopeless. But it doesn’t matter. Because you are so sincere, Krishna will accept your chanting.”

Krishna gives intelligence to His surrendered devotee, so by the grace of Krishna, Prabhupada knew everything because he knew Krishna. He knew, for example, when it was appropriate to quote a particular verse. Prabhupada’s son, Vrindavan-candra, told me that during his grihastha ashram, Prabhupada studied the Bhagavatam for four hours every day and worshiped Radha-Krishna Deities. In the morning he would awaken the Deity, then offer arati, bathe the Deity, personally cook for the Deity and sew the Deity’s clothing. He really took care of those Deities. What we know of Srila Prabhupada, we know from after he came to America; we don’t know everything that happened before that, and we certainly don’t know how Krishna and he are related. Prabhupada was able to hear from Krishna everything he needed to know. Prabhupada’s learning is a combination of both his studying and also Krishna’s revelation to him.

One time Prabhupada gave me a lugdoo, a lugloo as Prabhupada called them. He asked me what my impression of it was, and when I tasted it I couldn’t believe the taste. I said, “It’s not of this world.” Prabhupada said, “You’re right. This is the same recipe that Mother Yasoda cooks for Krishna when He goes out to tend the cows, and Krishna likes them so much that He keeps extra in his pockets so that He can eat them throughout the day.” When Prabhupada was speaking, it was clear to me that it was Mother Yasoda’s recipe and Prabhupada knew it very well.

It was wonderful to watch Prabhupada record bhajans. He would play the harmonium, and I’d gently play the kartals and try to keep the rhythm because there was no mridanga. Then Prabhupada would put on headphones and, while listening to the recording with the harmonium and kartals, he’d play the mridanga. On a lot of the taped bhajans, Prabhupada is playing both the harmonium and the mridanga. Prabhupada was an expert musician. When the recording engineer heard the chanting that Prabhupada did on the “Happening” album, the first Hare Krishna album, he said that Prabhupada had perfect pitch. He was very impressed with Prabhupada’s voice.

Once, just after we’d arrived in Calcutta, Prabhupada laughed at me. At the time I was a grihastha, and Srila Prabhupada’s entourage were all sannyasis–Kirtanananda Swami, Madhudvisa Swami, Devananda Swami, Kartikeya Swami and Tamal Krishna das Adhikari. Prabhupada had just formed the GBC and I grabbed India—the zone where Prabhupada would be spending most of his time. I didn’t know what the GBC was all about, but it was the right move because for eight months a year for the next four years, Prabhupada was in India. But I had to pay for it and I started paying as soon as we arrived in Calcutta. Now, in America in those days, ISKCON was so small that it didn’t matter how we kept our financial accounts. And anyway we were tax exempt. But when you keep accounts in India, you literally have to keep track of every paisa. So, Prabhupada had instituted the Life Membership Program and money started coming in. Someone had to keep the accounts, keep tabs on who the members were, issue receipts and print up membership books. Every time I tried to get someone to help, they said, “I’m a sannyasi. I play the harmonium.” Nobody was supposed to do anything because they were sannyasis. I practically went mad. After about two weeks I went to Prabhupada and broke down. I said, “I can’t take it anymore.” He said, “What’s wrong?” I said, “Nobody’s helping me do anything. I have to do everything.” To my surprise, Prabhupada started laughing at me. I was crying and he was laughing. He said, “Arjuna found himself in the same position. This is very good.” I was hoping for sympathy and assistance but instead Prabhupada started laughing at me and telling me it was very good. So I stopped crying, and tried to figure out why it was very good. Prabhupada said, “We should pray for this situation. We should pray to be so constantly engaged in Krishna’s service that maya cannot find any means to enter. This is very fortunate.” Once, Prabhupada told a story about an Indian train. Local trains in India are packed. In any third world country, you learn what the word “packed” means. So, you have a nice seat on a train and a skinny guy comes to sit next to you. You try to ignore him but you know he wants to sit down. There is no room, but he smiles at you, then plops down and wiggles around between you and the next person. You make some room. Suddenly he calls his little kid and gets his kid in, and you’re moving towards the edge of the seat. Then he brings another kid and he gets three kids next to you. Next his fat wife comes and then you give up your seat. It all started because you had a little sympathy and let this guy sit down. In this way, Prabhupada said, if you allow maya even an inch to enter, she knows how to take over everything.

At his Vyasa-puja in London in 1977, I was enumerating a few of Prabhupada’s outstanding accomplishments and at one point he said, “Yes, whatever I am doing now, I learned from my father when I was a child. Everything except one thing—book publishing—that I learned from my Guru Maharaj.” It was an interesting Vyasa-puja because Prabhupada was ill, so the Vyasapuja glorification was my talk. Prabhupada had me speak. Somehow, on that day Krishna empowered me to speak for forty-five minutes about Prabhupada. Three times Prabhupada interrupted my lecture to insert that, “My Guru Maharaj ordered me to publish and distribute books.” Three times. Everything else about the lecture was fine, but somehow he wanted three times more emphasis on book distribution. Very interesting.

Prabhupada wrote me in a letter, “Throughout my life I had so many opportunities for sense gratification, but Krishna always saved me. I never knew what is meat-eating, gambling, intoxication or illicit sex.” He wrote, “There was never a moment when I was ever forgetful of Krishna.” He actually wrote that in a letter to me. He said, “There was never a moment when I was ever forgetful of Krishna.”

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 29 - Hrdayananda Goswami, Tamal Krsna Goswami, Nischintya, Jahnava dasi

The full Prabhupada Memories Series can be viewed here and also at www.prabhupadamemories.com

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 07

Tamal Krishna Goswami: In Chicago, the airport there is called O’Hare International Airport, and it’s spelled O-H-A-R-E. So Prabhupada told his leading book distributor, Tripurari Maharaj, “Go to the airport manager and tell them that they should rename the airport O Hare Krishna International Airport.” And this was an airport in which our book distributors were so aggressively distributing books that every day there was confrontation between the guards at the airport and the book distributors. So the management of that airport hated us, and still Prabhupada made his best book distributor go to the manager. And Tripurari Maharaj went there and said to him very seriously, “You should rename your airport O Hare Krishna International Airport.” Why did Prabhupada do this? Was he trying to have fun with his disciple? Prabhupada, he took every possible opportunity to somehow push forward the idea of Krishna consciousness. His idea was that everything belonged to Krishna, everything. He saw everything as really meant to be glorifying Krishna.

Interview DVD 11

Tamal Krishna Goswami: In Rishikesh, Prabhupada was lecturing there, every evening giving a class. The famous Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was also in Rishikesh at the time, and many of his teachers were coming to attend Prabhupada’s lectures. So at that point, Maharishi sent a note to Prabhupada saying that “Swamiji, I have heard that you are quite ill. Perhaps you should not exert yourself so much. Better not to lecture in the evenings.” Because he felt worried that so many of his teachers were listening to Prabhupada. One European lady was there, a very sweet lady, and she asked Prabhupada, “It’s very nice what you are preaching, but what are you doing for the suffering of the people of the world?” And you would think that Prabhupada would be very sensitive to her being an elderly European lady. Well, Prabhupada, he just exploded. He said, “What do you know about mercy? What do you understand about compassion? It is simply sentiment.” He said that “Your idea of giving some sort of relief to people’s suffering is like blowing air on a boil. It’s full of pus. The kind act you can do for such a person is to cut it.” So mercy means to cut through the ignorance that persons are under, and our preaching is based on this understanding that ignorance causes suffering and that to enlighten people is the way to free them from ignorance.