Yamuna devi dasi Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

Yamuna: The first time I met Srila Prabhupada was in his room at a lunch that he had cooked for his first twelve initiated disciples, minus one. Kirtanananda was not present at that time. My sister, Janaki, was the first female disciple. Mukunda warned me, “When you meet Swamiji, you can say ‘Hare Krishna’ and fold your hands.” I walked into Srila Prabhupada’s quarters. He didn’t have his shirt on and was sitting in a corner in a shaft of light underneath the window, dishing out prasadam. I said, “Hare Krishna, Swamiji.” He said, “What is your name?” I said, “Joan.” He said, “When will the other family members come?” I said, “I am the only one. No one else is coming.” He said, “Oh. Generally in India the bride side of the family makes a big celebration. Never mind. We will celebrate.” That day I respected prasadam for the first time, and it was a very memorable lunch for a number of reasons. I was a macrobiotic afficionado at that time, and Srila Prabhupada’s prasadam was power-packed not only due to its taste, but also because his hand had touched it. The way he served the prasadam was like no meal I’d ever been served. There was so much affection manifested through Srila Prabhupada’s distribution. Each one of the men ate up to twelve chapatis at that lunch, which means that Srila Prabhupada made and served a minimum of a hundred and twenty chapatis and also served them whatever else they wanted. That was my first meeting with Srila Prabhupada.

In those days we were inefficient in everything that we did and incapable of knowing the significance of initiation. At the fire yajna for our marriage, we didn’t have enough money to buy butter, so we used margarine. When Srila Prabhupada tried to start the fire, he dipped a piece of wood into the margarine. Prabhupada’s hands were magnificent, with long fingers. He held the wood over the flame, but it wouldn’t light. He dipped it and held it over the flame. Again, no action. He looked up gravely and said, “Oh, this marriage will have a very slow start.” I was mortified. I thought, “Oh, Oh. What have I gotten into now?” Srila Prabhupada first gave me the name “Kalindi,” which is another name of Yamuna dasi, but within ten or twelve seconds he said, “No. It is Yamuna devi dasi.” I said, “What does that mean?” He said, “The river that Krishna sports in, in Vrindavan, is Yamuna.

In that early San Francisco period, Srila Prabhupada allowed us to spend time with him all day and into the night, but morning walks were one of the most relishable, glorious times with him. I generally wanted to be on the morning walk. One of the other devotees and I used to get up at two in the morning, pick flowers in Golden Gate Park, make garlands for Srila Prabhupada, present them to him, and go on the morning walk. Those moments in the park were always very special for us, walking next to our spiritual master, trying to chant Hare Krishna just as he chanted Hare Krishna. The morning walks were japa walks, and he walked briskly, chanting Hare Krishna with his hand in his bead bag. He walked like a young man of twenty-five. The first day I went I was wearing wooden yogi shoes, and my feet bled because Prabhupada was walking on and on very fast.

The first time that I assisted Srila Prabhupada in the kitchen was in New York on the occasion of my sister’s wedding. Srila Prabhupada cooked in his apartment in a small galley kitchen with counters on both sides. He gave me the singular task of making a very difficult preparation called aloo kachori. It’s one of the most complex pastries to cook properly because it has to cook for a long time without becoming greasy, which is almost impossible. For nearly eight hours I made aloo kachoris while Srila Prabhupada single-handedly cooked a fourteencourse wedding feast in his small kitchen. In the course of cooking for that feast, I made many mistakes. It was my very first day, and the first mistake I made was to wear a short skirt and a little T-shirt. Sitting crossed-legged I said, “Swamiji, may I have a cigarette?” He popped his head out of the corner and said, “Go wash your hands.” I washed my hands. Then he explained the four prohibitions in Krishna consciousness: no meat eating, no gambling, no illicit sex life, and no intoxicants. A short time later I said, “Swamiji, may I have a glass of water?” He said, “Go wash your hands.” Then he explained that the first and foremost principle in cooking was to engage our senses in the service of the Lord. He said that we should cook for Krishna with love and devotion and not think about our senses, our tongue, our sense of smell or our belly, because we were cooking for Krishna’s pleasure. A short time later I said, “Swamiji, it’s very hot in here.” I was fighting perspiration. “Go wash your hands.” In this way he introduced me to the simplest, most rudimentary principle of external cleanliness. He also explained a simple touch of internal cleanliness and said, “We can serve Krishna through the art of cooking when we are externally and internally clean.”

As early as 1967, I wanted to go to Vrindavan. I always had an attraction to Vrindavan. One morning I was walking right next to Srila Prabhupada when he stopped, put his cane out to lean on, and said, “You have received a letter from Achyutananada? He wants some men to join his party in Lucknow.” I immediately popped up and said, “I’d like to go, Srila Prabhupada. May Gurudas and I go?” He said, “Yes. We can arrange that. We will start an American House in Lucknow.” Then he walked a little further and said, “No. You should not go now.” He turned around and said, “Someday I will take you to India, and I will show you India on foot.” From that moment I was waiting for that day, and three years later, on October 4, 1970, Srila Prabhupada’s party of American and European devotees landed in Bombay. Our party had arrived in Calcutta via Tokyo just a few days earlier. From October 4th to the time Srila Prabhupada left India in the spring of 1971, he showed us many places on foot, literally walking through the streets with us.

The first San Francisco temple had certain similarities to the first New York temple, as well as quite a few dissimilarities. One dissimilarity was that in New York there were very few women, whereas in San Francisco there was almost an equal balance of men and women. So the chemistry of the temple was different. But in both places we were like Srila Prabhupada’s children. He called us “boys and girls,” and we were. Most of us were between twenty-five and thirty. I think the rasa of our being like his children was foremost, although when one studies the letters of this period, one will find that sometimes Srila Prabhupada referred to us as his “sons and daughters” and sometimes as “mothers and fathers.” He would let the roles reverse for intimacy. I think there isn’t a devotee from these early days who did not feel that every moment with Srila Prabhupada was intimate. Srila Prabhupada had such a way of showing love and affection through distributing Krishna consciousness that immediately we felt how much he cared about us. I would have never known what love was unless I met Srila Prabhupada, and I think that was true for all of us. Through Srila Prabhupada we learned to love each other. With Srila Prabhupada as our father, we had very deep, wonderful, transcendental relationships between each other as Godbrothers and God-sisters.

Prabhupada was lecturing on the Caitanya-caritamrta, and one of the devotees asked, “Who is Lord Chaitanya?” Prabhupada said, “Oh, such a nice, intelligent question. You are so intelligent for asking this question,” although this had been the subject of his lectures for several days. He was so patient with us. Whether we fell asleep or cried, somehow or another, we began to feel a little conscious of Krishna. Most of us tasted Krishna consciousness through chanting and dancing and feasting. That was how we engaged our senses best.

In simple ways Srila Prabhupada tried to teach us cooking technique, procedure, quality, cleanliness, and purity, not with a lot of words, but by his example. The preparations that he taught us were generally fatty and juicy, sweet, succulent, and very sumptuous. That was the era of sumptuous prasadam. The tongue has two functions, vibrating sounds and respecting prasadam, and Prabhupada felt that if he could catch us through those two functions, then we would begin to taste Krishna consciousness more and more. So the food was sumptuous and rich. As for Srila Prabhupada’s prasadam preferences, while he had personal favorites, he liked anything that was well prepared. By this time Srila Prabhupada had a little tummy and was eating immense quantities of rice. Sometimes he would finish off most of a very large thali, only leaving a little maha for all.

One day I made Bengali meals and arranged them on the thalis in a Bengali fashion. Srila Prabhupada sat behind his desk, and Pishima sat on the floor directly opposite Srila Prabhupada. As soon as I brought the thalis in and set them down, Srila Prabhupada started making little comical, teasing remarks about his sister. He said, “You know, she says that it is water. I say it is fat.” I thought, “My goodness. He is talking about her weight. What’s going on?” Since Prabhupada’s voice was light-hearted, Pishima started chuckling. He said, “All this,” he was flapping his arms back and forth, “is fat but she calls it water.” He started talking about the days in their childhood when they flew kites, and he said, “I always used to beat her at kites.” He spoke very brother-sisterly about his little sister, and she was laughing, although she didn’t understand a word. In the course of all this jesting, I was bringing in chapatis. When Srila Prabhupada finished his meal, he piled every katori (the little round bowls that all of the moist preparations are in when serving a thali) one on top of the other from the largest to the smallest, nearly twelve inches high. When I walked into the room, Prabhupada knocked down the whole stack with his finger and said, “Yamuna dasi mayi ki jaya!” I said, “Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!” Pishima said, “Gaura Nitai ki jaya!” Then I said, “Oh, Srila Prabhupada. You ate everything.” Srila Prabhupada said, “Excellent!” This was my first meeting with Pishima, and Prabhupada’s mood was light, sweet, jovial, and humorous. Although she didn’t understand a word of what was going on, Pishima truly loved it. She was very fond of Srila Prabhupada. From the day I met her until the very last day I saw her with Srila Prabhupada in 1976 in Vrindavan, I saw that she worshipped her brother, and that he was obviously very fond of her.

With kirtan came the joy of watching Srila Prabhupada pray to Krishna. In the evening on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, he sang Mangalacharanam alone, sitting on his vyasasana, and we were all the rhythm section behind his singing. He almost always had his eyes closed and went very deeply into prayer. Simply observing him pray to Krishna, we got an idea of the depth of prayer even in these early days. When he opened his eyes and looked at you, very often you felt as if Srila Prabhupada was looking right through you seeing everything, seeing Krishna. The San Francisco temple was a very musical place. We had many instruments. Everyone played something, and kirtan established a very reciprocal relationship with Srila Prabhupada. They were simply rock-out sessions. If one person stood, everyone stood. If one person danced, you danced, because we were all packed in together. They were very joyous, beautiful, warm, sweet kirtans.

Generally, Prabhupada would reveal what he thought we needed to know. Some people’s nature is to ask endless questions, but I always felt like a fool asking more than Srila Prabhupada revealed. Sometimes, if we didn’t hear properly, then we would have to ask Srila Prabhupada questions, and he would have to repeat himself. But very often I found the same things that he taught in 1967 were revealed again in 1976, so many years later. Prabhupada kept Krishna consciousness very simple, and my relationship with him was to simply hear and follow his instructions.

When we arrived in London in 1968, Prabhupada wanted us to make a splash, and our small party decided that the best way to become known would be to reach the Beatles, because they were luminaries of the time. So we made apple prasadam dishes and brought them to Apple Records every day to catch someone’s attention. The prasadam went from the lower floors to the upper floors, and ultimately everyone tasted prasadam and became a little addicted to it. The first person to strike a serious friendship with George was Shyamasundar. He and George Harrison just clicked like brothers and became close friends. When George heard that we were into transcendental chanting, he really wanted to hear us. Almost right away we started having kirtans with him in his house. He said, “I want to record this,” so we recorded the Hare Krishna mantra on a fortyfive. That song became number one in Czechoslovakia, was the top of the pops in England, and led to the Govindam album. Srila Prabhupada was very pleased with the connection that we had with the Beatles.

We were behind the closed curtains, adjusting the Deities, when someone inadvertently knocked one of the columns with their elbow, and it fell over. With the speed of lightning, Srila Prabhupada moved the arati paraphernalia off the bottom granite step with his right hand and stepped on the first step with his right foot. With his left foot on the second step, he grabbed one huge column (it was six to eight inches in diameter) with his right hand and Radharani’s hand with his left hand. Little beads of perspiration were on his brow. This was the first time I ever saw him perspire. Srila Prabhupada showed such chivalry in protecting Radharani that I understood what the rasa of chivalry was. This was one example of Srila Prabhupada exhibiting a very personal rasa with Krishna, actually saving Radharani from disaster and exhibiting superhuman strength. The movement of the mind couldn’t have been faster than Srila Prabhupada’s movements that day.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 07 - Pusta Krsna, Yamuna dd, Keshava, Gauridasa Pandit

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

Prabhupada Memories

Interview DVD 01

Yamuna: This historic footage gives us a glimpse into the first Rathayatra celebrated in the Western world in 1967. On another track there's a kirtan that goes with this Rathayatra. And it was the melody that goes something like this: (Hare Krishna mantra) And that went for hours and hours as we sang it on the cart. A few wonderful things about this Rathayatra were that the crowd that gathered alongside of the cart of partly hippies that knew nothing about Lord Jagannath, and partly some hippies who had tasted Krishna prasad in our Temple and sampled the nectar of the Holy Name in our kirtans, were very genuinely enthusiastic to celebrate this Rathayatra. Lord Jagannath, Subhadra and Balaram faced different directions on the cart. So no matter what side you were on, you were able to get face-to-face darshan of Their Lordships. There was a pastime with this cart where the engine of the flatbed truck that the Deities were seated on stalled. And when we told that to Srila Prabhupada, he said that this was not uncommon that the cart would stall, even if it was pulled by hand, and stop at various places along the route. So he was happy to see that somehow in San Francisco without even knowing about this pastime, our cart stalled on the hill. The route was full length from the Haight-Ashbury all the way to the sea. And when the cart arrived at the sea, there was a very wonderful kirtan on the beach.

The very, very first clothing or decoration that was given to Lord Jagannatha was, of course, given by Srila Prabhupada. And that wasn’t in June of 1968, but that was in December of 1967 when Srila Prabhupada returned from India after recuperation from his heart attack. Srila Prabhupada came off the plane with his danda—first time we’d seen Srila Prabhupada with his sannyasa rod—and hanging off of his sannyasa rod was a little saffron pouch. We thought how curious that was because we thought that the rod you held in front of you, but Srila Prabhupada had this rod over his shoulder and the little pouch was on the end. At any rate, we brought him to the Willard Street apartment. So when Srila Prabhupada sat down in the front room, he had his suitcases opened. He had brought gifts for all the ladies, every lady had a sari, and he brought our temple the first gift of a coconut grater. But in the little bag—he opened it up, unwrapped it and unfolded it and inside were three silken malas, the kind that you get at a deity store. For the small deities, of course, these are very, very thin, maybe a quarter of an inch wide; but these malas that Srila Prabhupada brought were a good inch-and-a-half thick. But because they were in this little bag, they were all crunched up and actually quite unattractive-looking because they had been a little bit damaged. So naturally we had never seen anything like that. What was it? So Swamiji explained that these were decorations that we could offer to Lord Jagannatha and, in fact, Lord Jagannatha, we could even make clothes for Him. So what kind of clothes would you make? Doesn’t He already have clothes on? Isn’t that what the painting is that’s on the deity? “No,” he said, “that’s one kind of painting. You’ll find deities who will be sometimes painted, sometimes there will be carving on the deities that will show that it’s jewelry or clothing but, no, you can make clothes.” So what kind of clothes do you make for a deity like Jagannatha? So Prabhupada said, “Here’s what you do.” So he said, “He wears a turban, He wears a shawl, and They wear a little skirt.” So then he asked for volunteers, who would sew. So Harsharani and Yamuna decided, “Well, we will volunteer.” So for this 1968 Rathayatra, we were working with the builders; and when they gave us the drawing, we had come up with this very, very handsome already made and pleated series of umbrellas, almost like umbrellas that went around these outpourings of these cupolas in this wonderful bright cloth of saffron and gold. Now, Jagannatha, Subhadra and Balarama were in red satin, and you can see the pictures of Them. We even managed to get some wonderful garlands of fragrant flowers for this, red turbans.

One very exciting thing about this Rathayatra Festival for me was this prayer,

gauranga bolite habe pulaka-sarira, this bhajan. This bhajan was the theme practically. When there wasn’t a kirtan going on by one of the disciples, this bhajan was played over a little megaphone system of Prabhupada singing it. It sometimes played on the cart if somebody wasn’t leading, in between kirtans. At the end of the procession when the cart was at the beach, this bhajan of Prabhupada played for hours and hours the devotees said. I remember just the short time that I was at the beach that when the wind would move back and forth, it would catch the sound of this magnificent prayer; and in my mind, it’s always been the theme of our 1968 Rathayatra Festival of Lord Chaitanya’s longing for Krishna. I remember that when we were at an ocean kirtan one night, at the very end of the prayers after he said “Jaya Tulasi devi,” he said, “All glories to the Pacific Ocean,” and we said, “Hare Krishna.” He said, “All glories to the Pacific Ocean,” “Hare Krishna,” “All glories to the Pacific Ocean.” And he had his hands raised when he was facing the ocean, and it was the most…I think it was the only time that I can remember Prabhupada adding something other than our classic prayers to the end of a kirtan, but it moved us all. We were thinking how liberal Swamiji was that he was appreciating the place that we were at and the majesty of it.

This is the momentous occasion of the installation of Sri Sri Radha-London-isvara on December 14th, 1969, on the occasion of Odana Sasthi. The night before this event, Srila Prabhupada had us put two candles on the altar where the deities would stand and have a long kirtan to prepare for greeting Them. This was all photographed by the BBC, who brought their cameras, and there was great advertising. There was standing room only and people actually standing outside the temple looking in the window. The days leading up to this were feverish preparation. The altar was put together at the very, very last moment, much by Shyamasundar’s great and hard work. Shyamasundar worked so hard on this event that Srila Prabhupada asked for a plaque to be installed at the front of the temple honoring Shyamasundar for all the work that he had done in the preparation of making this a habitable place for the Lord.

So glorious was this Bury Place Temple. The Deities are given the name Shri Shri Radha London-isvara or the isvaras, the Grand Supreme Lord of the whole of London. Such a poignant moment— witnessing Srila Prabhupada leaving the Bury Place front door on his way to Boston on December 21, 1969. All the devotees went to the airport to see Srila Prabhupada off, save myself who stayed back at the temple. At the moment of Prabhupada’s departure just before he left, he walked into the temple room to say goodbye to the Deities. He came in and paid obeisances: full out flat dandavats on the blue carpet, stayed on the ground for a long time and when he got up I noted that he had tears in his eyes. And he looked over at me and very matter of factly said, “If you just do as I have instructed—what I have taught you so far—you can go back to Godhead. Do it, just do it.” And at that point I, of course, teared up and folded my hands and simply watched Srila Prabhupada as he turned and walked away out the front door. This is a thrilling film for me to see—the airport—seeing as I didn’t see it personally but now I'm seeing it through the footage. Seeing all the devotees hanging onto every moment of Prabhupada’s last few minutes with him. I’m always caught at the wonder of watching baby Saraswati, who was only about 13 months old at this point but so spontaneously involved in the chanting of Hare Krishna and the worship of Prabhupada sometimes following him very shyly behind her mother’s sari and sometimes very boldly out front. But she was so present during the time that she spent with Srila Prabhupada. She was just a little baby body but very consciously present. So devotees who experienced these going and comings, either an arrival or departure, were always wondering if they would ever see Srila Prabhupada again, trying to capture the moment where he carried his bag and with his servants, headed towards the departure gate and got on a plane and left. Thank you Prabhupada, thank you.

Interview DVD 02

Yamuna: Our sankirtan for Lord Jagannatha and for the Rathayatra Festival was, as you can see, completely ecstatic. Jagannatha was the center of our lives. The Lord Jagannatha came to us before Radha-Londonisvara came to us via Shyamasundara. Shyamasundara carved these beautiful deities and They, like in San Francisco, were the center of all the devotees’ lives. During prasadam, we used to even speak about Lord Jagannatha and Lord Jagannatha, Subhadra and Balarama’s beauty, and we would race up from prasadam just to sit at Their feet and sing jagannathah svami nayana-patha-gami bhavatu me. So by the time this event came, you can see how ecstatic the devotees are chanting. In some cases, it was the first time that devotees from all these three European countries were together in one place. London Rathayatra became so famous as the long walking yatra. Later Srila Prabhupada walked in great ecstasy, or danced in great ecstasy throughout the whole event. Srila Prabhupada commented about this Rathayatra. He said, “Make the deities so beautiful that everyone will be attracted to Them. Make it very opulent.” So that was the direction that we were heading was to try to make the deities visible for those that were witnessing Them for the first time, the passersby, and to increase the love of the devotees already familiar with the Lord. How nice to see people that would never have had access to Lord Jagannatha. So this was a real growth period in London. Just as there was a burgeoning of youth interested in spiritual life and breaking out of the mold of the ‘50s and ‘60s in the United States, this happened in London at the same time. So mostly through the Holy Name, the sankirtan, we attracted people. Sometimes it was prasadam, but mostly it was through sankirtan. Look at them, the crowds, just immense. And this is only after being in England for two years. The first year, 1968, we were the handful, ’69 it was increasing, and this is by ’70, not even a full two years. Of course, Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in 1969 was the catalyst. We were the seeds being planted, and he was the blossoming creeper of Lord Chaitanya’s love. And when he came, everything ignited like a firestorm! It was like a firestorm actually, with the thunder and the voracity and the speed of a firestorm.

Most people had their faces skewed, staring and wondering, “What are they doing?” We even tried to preach to them in English. As soon as the kirtan party would stop, we would all either chant japa with some ferociousness or go out and preach to whoever was standing and staring at us. There’s the famous Brothers Airway prop plane that was really not fit for human travel. It was the inside of a freight company’s plane with absolutely no facility. You could see straight into the cockpit from the main body of the plane. I remember there were these guards with big machine guns, huge, huge guns pointed at Giriraj as he was walking along. They couldn’t put him in a category and weren’t sure what he was invocating but they had their guns on him, and he was completely oblivious, immersed in the Holy Name.

Our sankirtan party from Europe and England arrived in India on October 4th, 1970. And I was only in Bombay for under two weeks, but those two weeks were two of the most powerful two weeks in my life because at this time Srila Prabhupada allowed us to taste kirtan in Lord Krishna’s Bharatavarsa. The center of our activity every single day was nagar sankirtan. That was our main engagement. We had prasadam in the morning, a morning program, chanted our rounds and then went out on kirtan, sometimes twice a day. This kirtan party was so wonderful. We were like a family, a tight family, and each person played a role. Those are Malati’s banners, the same ones we brought from England. The heartbeat of our kirtan were the mridangas of Dinanath and Rishi Kumar, they kept the rhythm going, and all of the rest of us played either another drum or kartals. And we were shoulder to shoulder, just like godbrothers and godsisters, with so much affection and respect we had for each other. We felt as if Srila Prabhupada were our father and we were all his spiritual children, and there was such a nice mood in this early sankirtan leg of Srila Prabhupada’s mission in India.

After kirtan took place, Srila Prabhupada wanted his books displayed. And he would inevitably speak something of his books or have a disciple speak something about his books and surround himself with his books, and I can think of no place where this activity didn’t take place, where he didn’t want his books displayed and sold and made available. He would very oftentimes give a gift copy to whoever was hosting.

Sankirtan at Mathura Junction station, this being such a holy place and the first time that any of us had touched the holy dham. We were in a trance of ecstasy feeling Lord Krishna’s presence by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy. When we jumped from these trains to do kirtan, it was the life-giving aspect of our existence. The trains were just vehicles to take us from one kirtan to another. That Srila Prabhupada allowed us to become so attached to kirtan is a miracle, but it was from the beginning in India our main activity. Very oftentimes people didn’t join in in the kirtan because they were so quick, just a short 4 or 5 minutes in a station, sometimes 10 minutes. And it was so nice, our party, various people would lead kirtans. It was not one person all the time, people shared the leading of the kirtans. Such a nice experience and, again, the camaraderie was so strong.

Arrival in Amritsar. Srila Prabhupada was so tireless in this preaching phase. From mangal arati until eleven o’clock at night we had engagements, and all of his youthful devotees, 25 and early 30’s, could barely keep up with Srila Prabhupada. When we weren’t having kirtan at the pandal itself, we did nagar kirtan throughout the streets of Amritsar and they were very receptive to our kirtan party. This is a very large Sikh population where the Golden Temple is.

Before we went to India for the first time, in San Francisco in 1967, Achyutananda sent us pictures of Srila Prabhupada on nagar sankirtan in Calcutta. And when we saw Prabhupada chanting in the streets of India in this one still picture, all of us were just praying for the day that we would join Srila Prabhupada. He said he would take us to India and show us India on foot; and when we were in San Francisco, we had no idea what that meant. But this is what it meant. Going on pilgrimage to a place is one thing; but until you’re on foot in the streets, walking as those before us have walked, chanting the Holy Name, you can’t taste India.

Generally, the women were placed in the front in sankirtan in those days rather than in the back, and we all danced in the same way. Or sometimes we were in the middle of the kirtan party and the men surrounded us. Shyamasundara and Kausalya and Yamuna and Malati and Hansadutta, Chidananda, Giriraj, Gopal. This is the time when we met Mr. John Griesser for the first time, who came to film Srila Prabhupada, and he joined our party. I think he was the only nondevotee in our party, and that person later became Yadubara das.

As Srila Prabhupada described this Magh Mela at the time, they reported seven million saintly souls that went to take part in the festivities throughout the month. Never had we been in such crowds of people or lived amidst so many people. Srila Prabhupada determined what our activities would be from morning till night at this pandal. So it was both for purification and for example of what Vaisnavas do. And while a program of deity worship went on with aratis and offerings throughout the day, one of the main engagements of the day was prasad distribution. So virtually people were cooking and distributing prasadam throughout the whole day, and different devotees volunteered for that cooking service. Sagar Maharaj was instrumental in showing us how to shop in this environment, and Rebatinandan Maharaj was quite instrumental in the making and distribution of both halava and kittri.

The Rupa Gaudiya Math in Allahabad. This was a most exciting event for all of Srila Prabhupada’s Western disciples. Not only were we attending a program with Srila Prabhupada, but we were attending a program at a temple that he was very instrumental in serving in the years before he left India when he lived in Allahabad. Here’s the deities. We were all aware of the fact that Srila Prabhupada had, in his business years, arranged for the arca-vigraha at this mandir, the Radha and Krishna deities. It was his service. This is, in fact, one of the first arca-vigraha that I ever saw a photo of in my entire life. When we were in San Francisco in 1967 and some very early photos were sent from Calcutta taken by Achyutananda and Ramanuja brahmacari, we had a photograph of these deities that were sent to us in San Francisco. So it was one of the first Radha and Krishna deities that I ever saw from India. So they always remained very dear to me. Srila Prabhupada was very proud of the fact that of all these pandals at the Magh Mela that year, none attempted a deity worship program of Radha-Krishna arca-vigrahas but ours. So we became very famous for even that aspect of our presence. The arca-vigraha was Sri Sri Radha-Madhava.

Interview DVD 03

Yamuna: What an appropriate event for Srila Prabhupada to be received as a very important person at the Delhi Palam Airport when he arrives for the first Delhi pandal in Connaught Circus, and many members of the government were invited to greet Srila Prabhupada. Gurudas is the official host. Srila Prabhupada is always so much untouched by praise. He humbly receives whatever level of consciousness that his disciples have been awarded with and receives it with such humility.

You can watch him observing people and their progress in their spiritual life, so perceptive. He was able to see externally and internally the progress of his disciples. I find that so thrilling to watch the behavior, and he seems oblivious to anything other than the bhakti, the advancement in Krishna consciousness. He gives the same message country after country, encourages each disciple. But it was very appropriate for someone who had lived and served in Delhi in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, singlehandedly, alone, with no help, and just within 10 years such a tremendous change of appreciation. Prabhupada was big news. When these pandals happened in India, in Bombay and Delhi and Calcutta, they were very widely covered and the society of leaders were very aware of Prabhupada’s presence, all the way from the Prime Minister on down through the Cabinet. The Prime Minister herself was very appreciative of our Krishna consciousness movement. And through some of the honorary members of Parliament who spoke on our behalf to her, she was helpful in the early years of our Krishna consciousness movement, met with the devotees and gave a good word. That was Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

This is literally the first day of the Delhi pandal. There is the wonderful asana, and behind those curtains are the incredibly beautiful Deities of Radha-Gokulananda, Who were officially installed by Srila Prabhupada at this time on the occasion of the Delhi pandal. There was an instance for both the pandal in Delhi, the first Bombay pandal, those Deities went to Australia and New Zealand, these went to the Manor, and in Jaipur the Radha-Govinda Deities which ultimately went to New York, Prabhupada considered that these festival programs were an installation of the Deity. In other words, They were worshipped in his presence. So for a pure devotee to be introducing Them to worship is naturally a form of installation. So these Deities, They were different pastimes in these three places of London and New York and Dallas, where devotees actually made some adjustment on the arca-vigraha in some small way. When Prabhupada heard that he said, “No, these Deities have already been worshipped, this should not take place.” It so happened that I was the person that was arranging for Their worship and installation and that aspect of the pandal, and shortly after the end of that program I literally fell unconscious into a coma for three days.

This is the first expansion of Srila Prabhupada’s energy that has become the Glory of India project today. Srila Prabhupada, when he left for the West, knew he was going to come back and inundate India with Krishna consciousness just the way Lord Caitanya inundated the subcontinent of India with Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada’s destiny was to do that. And when he brought his disciples back from the West, who were enthusiastic but very new disciples, he started sending them various places for preaching work. So Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay were the first three big cities that Srila Prabhupada worked on; and because this was the capital, it was important. We were only there for maybe a month, but that month seems like it could have been a hundred years. It was so important at the time. So these were just the very little beginning foundation blocks of what later became the Delhi temple project.

Interview DVD 08

Yamuna: This tree was a place of pilgrimage for Gaudiya Vaisnavas long before the Krishna Balarama Mandir was constructed in Vrindavan. In the early 1970s, there were purported to be very few tamal trees in Vrindavan, one at Rasatali and one at the samadhi of Rupa Goswami in Radha-Damodar. So when Srila Prabhupada noted that the land had a tamal tree on it, he was very, very pleased. There is an interesting pastime about this tree. Long before Srila Prabhupada sat under this tree as we are witnessing in this footage, he envisioned himself sitting under this tree and looking at the Deities of Krishna Balarama. He said, “We will have kirtan under this tree.” And he said, “This tree should be worshiped. And the soil under the tree, a teaspoon of it should be taken and mixed with sand and water from the Yamuna River, and then with a coconut husk you should clean the aratik paraphernalia in our temple with his holy substance.” This is a very sacred place for us, and let us pray that not only now but in the future Srila Prabhupada’s wish will be fulfilled and Gaudiya Vaisnavas will be able to worship this sacred tree in this sacred location for many, many more years to come.

Interview DVD 11

Yamuna: There was one conversation that took place with Srila Prabhupada in the fall of 1969 en route to a lecture at Conway Hall from where we resided at John Lennon’s estate called Tittenhurst. I was present in the van that brought him there. Generally speaking, only the driver and Srila Prabhupada sat in the front of the van, and they were bucket seats. And then the back of the van was left empty, just the metal floor. So I was sitting with my back leaning against the back of his seat on the floor chanting japa. We had been en route some time. It was very dark by then, and Srila Prabhupada said just loud enough for me to hear, “When I leave this body, see that it is taken around Vrindavan on a palanquin on parikrama.” It was so short, it was just a sentence out of the dark in the night, and very stunning to me because I was absorbed in japa, something Srila Prabhupada had never mentioned and I had never thought of. So I rose to my knees and leaned over so my head was just even with his shoulder and I said, “Srila Prabhupada, why are you telling me this? Better you tell this to Tamal Krishna because he has more capacity to see that it is done than I do.” And Srila Prabhupada paused briefly and then said, “No, you can tell him,” and fell silent. And I too fell silent. So that this came to pass is very salient and so important because while I did mention that to Tamal Krishna sometime after the conversation, it wasn’t something that we spoke about in subsequent years. So that it happened through whatever arrangement of the devotees there means that Srila Prabhupada’s wish was fulfilled, and so many Brijbasis were able to pay their respect to Srila Prabhupada in this traditional way.