Yasomatinandana das Remembers Srila Prabhupada

Prabhupada Memories

Interview 01

Yasomatinandan: The very first time I saw Prabhupada was when I went to the temple in Sydney one Sunday. Srila Prabhupada didn’t give the lecture but had Hanuman Swami give it. That impressed me because I thought that the knowledge was absolute and he wasn’t promoting himself as a personality. I had already read Easy Journey to Other Planets and was also impressed by that book. I thought, “This guru knows how to attract different people for a higher purpose.” After the lecture, I drifted towards the kitchen. By that time, Srila Prabhupada had gotten off his vyasasana and was on the opposite side of the kitchen door. Prabhupada stopped and looked at me, and I realized he was actually looking at me—a soul, not my body. His look said, “Where have you been?” Prabhupada’s eyes had a profound effect on me.

Once in Melbourne, Prabhupada was walking through the park when he stopped and said, “All sound is transcendental to a pure devotee.” We pondered that and walked on. I said, “Srila Prabhupada, are you saying that these car horns are transcendental to a pure devotee?” Prabhupada said, “Yes.”

One thing he said really affected me. He asked Upendra, “Are you studying my books?” Upendra said, “Yes, Prabhupada. I read your books every day.” Prabhupada thumped the desk, “You read my books, but I said, ‘Do you study my books?’” Prabhupada was emphatic about the difference between studying and reading. He said, “You must know the meaning of every word.” If you learn a verse, know the meaning of every word. I took that to heart.

For a long time we’d been preparing a new altar. We had carved Jagannath Deities, and with great difficulty I had carried big, heavy brass Deities of Gaura-Nitai back from India. We were looking forward to worshiping Them, and when Prabhupada first came to New Zealand, I asked, “Srila Prabhupada, can we install Gaura-Nitai and Jagannath Deities?” Prabhupada sat there looking at me, and after a while he looked over at the sannyasis. He said, “Dolls, just dolls.” He thought that I was thinking that the Deities were simply dolls, idols; that’s all. I was shocked, because I wasn’t actually thinking that. Then Prabhupada said, “Why do you want to install Them?” I said, “It is Lord Chaitanya’s movement. I think we should worship Gaura-Nitai. And the Jagannath Deities we now worship are six inches tall. If we have Ratha-yatra no one will see Them.” Prabhupada went, “Hmmm.” The next morning when we greeted the Deities, Prabhupada saw that I had actually built an altar. He turned to me and said, “So, you’ve made some preparations?” I told him that I had. He said, “Oh, yes. We will install Guru Gauranga and Jagannath, Balaram, and Subhadra.” But after the Deities were installed, when the curtains opened for the first time, Prabhupada said to the pujari, “Shut the curtains.” I asked Prabhupada, “What’s wrong?” He said, “Gaura-Nitai have no crowns.” I went back into the Deity room, and I managed to find a couple of bangles from Radha and Krishna, and I put them on Gaura-Nitai’s head. Then I reopened the curtains. Srila Prabhupada was still standing there, and I said, “Is that all right?” Srila Prabhupada said, “And now you must have Ratha-yatra.”

Someone told Prabhupada that I knew the entire fifth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. Prabhupada said, “So?” Suddenly everyone turned around and looked at me sitting at the end of the room. I recited the first sloka of the fifth chapter, but it sounded lilting and out of tune. To ease my embarrassment one Life Member said, “Very nice melody.” Prabhupada said, “Yes, very nice melody. Thank you very much. Sit down.” Prabhupada was very tolerant.

To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 17 - The Australian Yatra

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

Following Srila Prabhupada

Interview DVD 06

Yasomatinandana: Here we see Srila Prabhupada, so transcendental, so detached, and watching these girls dance. He is so patient. Jagat Guru of the whole world, he is writing books that will last for 10,000 years, and yet he is so at home in all situations. He is so peaceful. That’s what now we see after 30 years because in those days we were very young, we took it for granted. But now that we have become older, we realize that even in the old age Prabhupada had no anxiety or no worries. His only worry was how to save the world in Krishna consciousness. Here in Bombay he was very intimate with all the devotees as well as the guests. Whoever came forward was blessed by Prabhupada immensely. So this was a place you can say where Prabhupada distributed love of God very freely. Patrapatra-vicara nahi, nahi sthanasthana. Without considering of who is deserving and who is not, without considering this place is OK or not, Prabhupada just magnanimously passed out loving devotional service. He is smiling so royally, so blissfully. This is his famous style. He would nod his head, approving whatever was going on. Akshayananda Maharaj, he is asking Prabhupada, showing the book, and he is going to read now. This was Prabhupada’s another famous pastime. A guest would come, he would quote a verse from Bhagavad-gitaand then he would say, “Open the Bhagavad-gitaand start reading.” Then he would ask us to read the whole verse and the purport and again speak on that. This way every darshan became a perpetual Srimad-Bhagavatamclass. From four o’clock in the afternoon till nine o’clock or practically till he took rest, he would constantly speak.

On one occasion, Srila Prabhupada was criticizing the Mayavadi philosophy, especially the philosophy of Vivekananda and Ramakrishna. Yatha math, tatha path: as many ways, so many conclusions. In this philosophy, it means that whomever you want to worship you can worship. Whoever your heart goes to you can worship, and you will attain the same supreme destination. Srila Prabhupada was extremely opposed to this conclusion. So whenever such idea came, he would put them down forcefully and call them rascals who believes in such nonsense philosophy. So one time one of the Dr. Patel’s friends, Mr. Shah, he started screaming, “Why you always criticize?! You always criticize so many different people!” So devotees were ready to push him away but Prabhupada said, “No, no, no, don’t do anything.” So for three or four minutes he kept criticizing, and we kept walking. Finally Prabhupada said, “What can we do? We have to train our disciples against all kinds of deviant philosophies. Therefore, sometimes we have to criticize. Krishna also criticizes in the Bhagavad-gita, na mam duskrtino mudhah, prapadyante naradhamah. Krishna also in this way criticizes people who do not surrender to Him. Therefore, we also have to do that,” Prabhupada would say. So then he kept quiet. It was about five minutes before we came to the temple, just at the corner of Gandhigram Road. So we all came back quietly. Prabhupada would not let any of us become upset with the man. Then as usual we came to the vyasasan and Guru-puja was going on. We were offering flowers. So this Mr. Shah also came to offer flowers. He offered flowers to Prabhupada’s lotus feet, then he put his head on Prabhupada’s feet and started crying like a little baby. He was just crying incessantly. He knew he had committed a great offense. Srila Prabhupada was so kind, he just put his hand on his head and said, “It’s OK, it’s OK.” So gradually cooled him down. After that, next day Prabhupada said, “We don’t want to talk because if Dr. Patel comes he will again argue. Let us instead read Krsna Book.” So this is how this Krsna Bookreading started instead of the discussions.

That’s me playing the big bass drum. Sometimes we’d have a big kirtan in Sydney temple and just as a kind of embellishment, Madhudvisa brought out a big bass drum one time. I used to be a drummer in an rock ‘n roll band before I joined the Hare Krishna movement, so I would put on the bass drum and I would give a bit of an extra thump, a bit of an extra impetus to the kirtan. So when we had Rathayatra, myself and my brother, Jamal Arjuna, would strap on these big marching band bass drums and play them in a rhythmic mridanga-type what we called the “nama hatta beat,” a moving, exciting sort of rhythm, and it would add a new dimension to the kirtan and to the Rathayatra parade. It was very nice to see Srila Prabhupada coming off the rath cart and actually walking in the Rathayatra procession with us.