Titiksa devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 07

Titiksa: When he offered aratik to Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, I was looking from a great distance and all I could see was an ocean of saffron and dandas. Being in a woman’s body, I was so frustrated because I knew I wasn’t going to get to see Prabhupada offer the puja, and I was Gaura-Nitai’s pujari. So there’s a window right beside where Prabhupada was, and I ran around the outside of the building and stood in the window so that I was facing Prabhupada and I could see every expression, everything he did. And there were other women, they joined me. Then after he would offer the aratik paraphernalia to Bhaktisiddhanta, he would turn and he would offer right to us in the window. As he was offering the conch shell with the water in it, Prabhupada was looking for the bowl to pour the water in. He looked over at Balavanta and said, “Bowl, bowl,” and Balavanta put his hands up in the air and said, “Haribol! Haribol!” I thought, “Oh, no! He wants a bowl!” Prabhupada, you could see that he was a little perplexed, “What am I going to do with this water?” So he turned and he poured it all over Tulasi-devi. Balavanta said that Prabhupada asked him, “Who has dressed the Deities?” He said, “Titiksa,” and he said, “Very nice.” So when Balavanta told me, at least I can take that with me, that I pleased him at least once.