Vasusrestha das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

Vasusrestha: I was born in Australia, but strangely enough, I didn’t learn how to speak English until I was seven years old. My parents and the whole community of people around me were Lithuanians who had come after the war to help bolster the workforce in Australia, which was rather depleted after two world wars. I spoke Lithuanian rather fluently, and then when I came into contact with some of the books that were written by Srila Prabhupada, I noticed that there was a lot of Sanskrit. When I was in Melbourne, Prabhupada had a darshan, and I took that opportunity to go. I put my hand up and asked Srila Prabhupada, “I’ve heard that the Lithuanians are a part of the Aryan race. Could you tell me something about this?” Madhudvisa Swami had to explain that question to Prabhupada because I’m sure he didn’t understand my accent. After it was explained to him, he said very forcefully that the devotees are the Aryan race because they serve Krishna. He also said Arjuna was the best of the Aryans, and therefore he is the best of all devotees. The next morning when Srila Prabhupada delivered the Bhagavatam class, he said, “Sukadeva Goswami gave this Bhagavatam to Pariksit Maharaj. At that time Pariksit Maharaj was in charge of the whole world, and he was the king of the Aryan race. You devotees are also Aryans because you are Indo-European stock, and Maharaj Pariksit’s grandson, Maharaj Tejasi, had two sons, and he awarded Eastern Europe to those sons.” And that is stated in the Mahabharata. That was the answer that I was looking for, and that is very significant not only for Lithuanians, but for the Ukrainians, the Latvians, the Belorussians and the Russians, and because there is so much Sanskrit scattered throughout all of those languages, we can understand our roots and where we came from.

In Melbourne I got the opportunity to be physically close to Srila Prabhupada during the greeting of the Deities. Prabhupada was paying his obeisances to Lord Jagannatha and I was about one meter away from him. It was an electrifying experience as I actually felt my hair stand on end. When he stood up, I noticed how short he was in height, but his demeanor was so stately, serene and dignified that I realized here was an extraordinary person. Until that time I doubted that Prabhupada could have so many spiritual disciples and look after them all. At that moment, however, I realized that was a misunderstanding of the philosophy because Srila Prabhupada is also present in his books since the sadhu and shastra are non-different. Just being in the presence of the pure devotee cleared all my obstacles. I don’t know if I would have ever taken up this spiritual path if I had not personally met him.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 71 - Australia Yatra 2

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