Prabhupāda Nectar

Prabhupada Nectar

We all know Srila Prabhupada was mahatma. We have faith in him. We like to hear a philosophical discourse proving Srila Prabhupada in intellectual language. And it will benefit our preaching to know the sastric references; how he is saktyavesa-avatara, how he has a spiritual body, and how his knowledge is never imperfect. It will strengthen us to know these things. As Krsnadasa Kaviraja has said, one should not avoid argumentative logic in defense of Krsna and His devotees. But that is not the only way we know he was a pure devotee. We know because we were with him and saw what he did; because he entered our hearts ad planted the seed of the devotional that is still growing for each of us. I am not saying the new disciples to Krsna consciousness cannot know this. In fact, by the feelings-in-separation (vipralambha) of his disciples in parampara, new bhaktas today are knowing Srila Prabhupada just as sweet, sometimes sweeter, than those who were on the planet at the same time he was. It is a fact, association with Srila Prabhupada is growing sweeter, and we are realizing his presence even more, day by day, by the power of devotional service in disciplic succession. His Holiness Kirtanananda Swami helped me realize this when I spoke to him and confided that I had so much intimate association with Srila Prabhupada in the beginning, in 1966, but later my physical intimacy diminished. He said, "But now you are more closely with Prabhupada with every breath than you were even then." I happily admitted it was a fact. Although I very proudly consider it my greatest personal fortune that I was there in 1966, it is a fact I was then less Prabhupada conscious and less Krsna conscious than I am now. So it is also a fact that new devotees, the disciples of his disciples, may find themselves bathing in more Prabhupada katha and relishing his inspiration as grandfather guru even more than anyone has before. (Wasn't Krsna dasa Kaviraja relishing Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu only after His disappearance by hearing from Raghunatha dasa Gosvami and reading the notebooks of Murari Gupta and Svarūpa Damodara, and reading Vrndavana dasa Thakura's Caitanya-bhagavata?) My point is, let us keep the subject matter of Srila Prabhupada alive and foremost. It will not die with the present generation of disciples. "he reasons ill who says that Vaisnavas die when thou art living still in sound. The Vaisnavas die to live and living try to spread the holy name around." So as an introduction to these 1978 Vyasa-pūja homages to Srila Prabhupada, I would like to churn a little of the ocean of Prabhupada nectar. Why? Because it is a great transcendental happiness. Because we love him and because those who do not know will derive the greatest benefit. To remember and glorify the Vaisnava is to glorify Krsna Himself.

His disciples and his disciples' disciples know he was mahatma. We are as certain of this as we are certain we have found the truth when we read the pages of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. We know by knowledge, by service, and by faith. And what is that faith born of? It is the causeless mercy of the devotee and the Lord. And the faith is also coming from the Supersoul in our hearts, rewarding us for past accidental service or our past devotional acts. "Be with Prabhupada," the Lord dictates in our hearts. "Know him; approach him; he is a great soul. You can surrender unto him. He will impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth." And by what we hear and learn about Krsna we are able to defeat all doubtful speculation, atheism, and illicit desire. We are given strength to preach the sahkirtana movement of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Let us now hear how others knew him.

In Navadvipa, last March, I approached Srila Prabhupada's associate over many years, Narayana Maharaja, and he told me many pastimes about Srila Prabhupada. After about an hour, I then asked him what he thought of the plan of a biography.

Satsvarūpa dasa Goswami: The disciples are pretty much wanting to hear the compilation of his actual life activities, not just his ideas. Is that all right? Like Caitanya-caritamrta?

Narayana Maharaja: Yes, you can do that also. You can do.

SG: Is it all right to get the impression from his leading disciples to tell his story?

NM: Yes, I think it will be not proper to go into detail with worldly stories, all these things.

SG: Even during his sannyasa and his preaching activities, are they considered worldly?

NM: That should be written, but not worldly things.

SG: Let's say, like he was saying, that Svamiji went to the park and played on the karatalas …

NM: This thing should be done.

SG: Or even more intimate, but still spiritual.

NM: How he preached, how he converted, how he persisted, and how he brought all you. This should be done. His mercy should be expressed, how was his mercy. How he loved all wise, and everything. He did not love you for your physical feature or beautifulness or anything. He loved you only to attach you to Krsna, bring you to Krsna, the lotus feet of Krsna. You are flowers, you are as flowers, and he took you all in his anjali and put on the lotus feet of Lord Krsna. Ordinary man does not get any of this flower, but ordinary flower. So putting you as flowers, he gets you as a flower at the feet of Lord Krsna he worshiped with you. It was his mercy on us.

Now, as before a grand fire yajna, devotees are offering their oblations of memories of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. For if ever a person deserved commemorative praise, it is he. We shall fail to express most of his actual greatness or dearness to Krsna. But as Krsnadasa Kaviraja says, "Although the sky of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's pastimes is unlimited, we can try to fly as high as we are able." Srila Prabhupada himself sometimes remembered how he came here on the order of his Guru Maharaja at such personal risk at seventy years old with no money to speak of, suffering two heart attacks on a one-month-and-ten-day ocean voyage. What was it like then in New York when he was all alone? He recalled some of it for the devotees when he visited New York in 1976. he was driving in a car to go for a morning walk, the car went past Seventy-second Street, where he had stayed for some time, all alone, in 1965, and the following dialogue took place:

Tamala Krsna Gosvami: This is Seventy-second Street, Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: Yes, I know.

TKG: You were going to show us that building?

Prabhupada: It is on the corner of Amsterdam and Seventy-second Street.

TKG: That means the next street.

Prabhupada: This is Amsterdam?

TKG: No, Columbus Avenue. The next is Amsterdam.

Devotee: There is 100th.

TKG: That's the building, Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: Yes.

Devotee: It says Watergate. Watergate Hotel.

TKG: Which floor did you live on?

Prabhupada: And I was trying to purchase one house here.

TKG: Which floor did you live on, Srila Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: I think the third floor. And there was an electrician, he was my friend, one Jewish gentleman.

Devotee: And you would walk on this street?

Prabhupada: Yes, there is one building with temperature. Oh, here is Broadway. I was taking bath in this station sometimes. I would take in the station. I think this building is new. I was going to Dr. Misra's apartment for cooking.

TKG: What street did he live on?

Prabhupada: He? Seventy-eight, Riverside Corner. Yes, I was purchasing my goods from this store.

Devotee: West End Superette.

Prabhupada: The were charging a little chili powder, twenty-five cents. In India it may be one anna.

TKG: You were purchasing here?

Prabhupada: Yes, because I was going to cook my food there, so whatever I needed I used to …

TKG: How come you didn't cook your food where you were living?

Prabhupada: Eh? There was no place.

TKG: What was it like there?

Prabhupada: It was an office. That building is meant for office, not for residential.

TKG: You rented a room there?

Prabhupada: Yes. I was paying seventy-two dollars a month.

TKG: And where did you sleep? Was there a bed?

Prabhupada: No bed there, where I was living. There was toilet and water, but no bath and no cooking.

Devotee: Did you have to go there to bathe also?

Prabhupada: Yes, I was taking in the building there.

TKG: Where did you … did you sleep on the floor?

Prabhupada: Yes, I had little platform, so on that platform.

TKG: You are the most bold person in the whole world.

Devotee: We will never be able to do what you have done.

Prabhupada: There alone I was doing, and then gradually one or two boys began to come.

TKG: Did any of them come up here who are still with you now?

Prabhupada: No.

TKG: Only when you went downtown did permanent men come?

Prabhupada: Yes.

Devotee: That's amazing. How long were your there, Prabhupada?

Prabhupada: Here? About six months. Then when my things were stolen, when one boy was coming whose name was Paul Murray, he invited me, "You come to my loft." He took me to the Bowery Street.

TKG: You must have felt very bad when your things were stolen.

Prabhupada: Yes, I had little disappointment, but some friends, they offered me, "Oh, never mind, you take my typewriter." Somebody, "You take my tape recorder."

TKG: Things were very easy then?

Devotee: Not easy.

Surabhi Svami met a man in the Vancouver temple who met Prabhupada on a park bench in 1965 in Prabhupada's first days in New York. There must have been hundreds and thousands who contacts Srila Prabhupada in some way, and certainly their lives are benefited more by that association than by any other event in their lives.

Surabhi Svami: So how did you meet him? He approached you, or you approached him?

Man: Well, I sat on the bench with him because I saw that he had a dhoti. I know now, but I didn't know what it was then. But a quite unusual dress. And I usually sat on that bench that he sat on like that. And then he had a special quality about him that was very dignified.

SS: Sitting straight?

Man: Oh, yes. And he was a very old man, and I didn't speak right to him, right along. But then I didn't think he would speak English, the way he dressed. Yet he spoke very nice English. Very well, English.

SS: So what did he tell to you? Did you start to speak to him, or he spoke to you first?

Man: Well, I actually spoke to him. I asked him if he was from India. And he said yes, he had just come from India. This was a few days here; a day here. I think it was a day before. He was saying he was coming by boat. Long trip.

SS: What else did he say the first day you met him?

Man: The first thing off the bat, he starts speaking spiritual things right away. "There are the temples here. We have temples." Like that.

SS: Where, in India?

Man: No. "We have temples here," he said. "But it is not the time yet to open them, to enter them. We have temples, we have farms." Then he mentioned books. He said, "there are a lot of books. Yet they are not open yet. They are not read yet. There is a time that is separating."

SS: He mentioned books? He mentioned farms? He mentioned temples?

Man: Temples, books, farms … I think that's it. He kept on mentioning more to that effect.

In 1966, one boy met His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and was given full manifestation of his mercy. He went away, but came back years later and is now a very nice devotee named Prabhupada dasa. Here is his memory.

Prabhupada dasa: One time I simply expressed how much I was in difficulty and how much I was not even able to maintain myself, and how much I wanted some help and wanted some shelter. That particular time was pretty much the climax of the whole period for me; then Srila Prabhupada personally offered me a dhoti and told me, he said, "Please join us. We'll solve all your problems."

Puru dasa: He handed you a dhoti ?

Prabhupada dasa: Yes, he handed me a dhoti. I didn't quite take it up. I was embarrassed. The idea of putting on a dhoti seemed extremely strange to me, very foreign. I was embarrassed. And I also was obviously not quite ready. Even though the offer was made in such an attractive way by a pure devotee, I was so contaminated that I wasn't quite able to. I was tempted, I was very much tempted, but I started backing up, looking at Srila Prabhupada, taking backward steps. And in a shuddering voice, I said, "I am not quite ready." And then Srila Prabhupada walked after me, and I distinctly remember a tear in his eye. He said, "Please come back," as I left.

Citsukhananda remembers when Prabhupada went to Mexico in 1972 and manifested his opulence of nonstop preaching and ecstatic mood.

As usual he was up since 1:30 A.M.; so he must have slept maybe an hour. I think he slept for an hour. From 1:00 to 2:00. And he began his work meditating on Krsna at that time. We were all just amazed. His lights were on in his room. And we went into the temple room and chanted mangala-arati, and after that Srila Prabhupada asked me again, "What will we do today?" I said, "Oh, we will go to Cuernavaca. We've arranged a whole plaza, the whole central plaza of Cuernavaca City. They're giving it to us today for your lecture, with microphones and a bandstand and everything all ready for you to come." He said, "Oh, this is very nice." "And after that we will give a lecture at a hotel with prominent ladies and gentlemen. A very nice hotel, in Cuernavaca. And then we can go to Laksmipriya dasi's house and take prasadam." He said, "Yes, this is very nice." So Srila Prabhupada gave a wonderful lecture and the whole city was ecstatic, and just then, before going to the hotel lecture, the plaza was filled with people, and we had a very ecstatic kirtana and Srila Prabhupada was very, very happy to be able to speak to so many people. And the questions that the people were asking were very nice. Nothing more enlivening for Srila Prabhupada than to see someone who was trying to understand what he was speaking. So then we went to the hotel after, and there at the hotel Prabhupada spoke to about sixty or seventy ladies and gentlemen, very nicely dressed, suits and ties, and a very special occasion in this luxurious hotel. And Srila Prabhupada began speaking Krsna consciousness as always-simple and nice. So from 8:00 in the morning until 8:00 P.M. he had not taken a bite of food. A little water he had taken. He didn't want anything. We offered him fruit and things, but he didn't want. And we offered him to take some feast at Laksmipriya's house, but he said, "No, I will go back to the temple." And then we went back to the temple. At that time he had brought some servants with him when he came from Los Angeles. Now Srila Prabhupada was in his room and he was in great ecstasy. I didn't get a chance to see it, but from what I understood from Pradyumna, he explained to me, "Prabhupada's in ecstasy right now in his room. His eyes are shining and his mouth is very bright." And he said to them, "This is the way to be happy. Work all day for Krsna." All he wanted was a hot cup of milk with around eight puris and a cup of sugar. He crushed the puris into the sugar and drank the milk. And he drank it with great joy and happiness and he said, "This is our life. To serve Krsna work all day for Krsna and take a little prasada at night." He said, "This is happiness. This is life."

Yaduvara remembers Srila Prabhupada in India:

In March 1972, we were in Calcutta for the first Mayapur festival. Everyone went to Mayapur. Prabhupada stayed in a little grass hut, which still stands at the entrance as you go in, on the left-hand side of the gate. Prabhupada liked that hut. He said, "You can build me the biggest palace, but still I would prefer to live here," and he was very comfortable in that little hut. It was actually very cool. This is when Bob Cohen, who is now Brahmatirtha, first me Prabhupada, and his famous discussions are in the book Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers. Prabhupada took a liking to him immediately, a very intelligent boy, and of course he later became a devotee, as well as his wife, who is now Bhakti dasi. Bob Cohen asked: "What do you mean by 'separated energies'?" Prabhupada had a glass of milk at that time. He said, "Just like this milk. It is the separate energy of the cow." All of us were struck with wonder at the simplicity of the perfect example Prabhupada immediately presented. At that time there was the cornerstone-laying ceremony. Before the cornerstone was laid there was a hole dug, and the ceremony was performed and a little golden Ananta with a jewel was put in the pit. I remember going up to Prabhupada's room before. I wanted to photograph that Ananta before He went underneath the ground. So Prabhupada took the Ananta made of gold from where he had it. Somehow or other he produced it, and as he brought it out, the jewel on His head was glittering. Prabhupada held it, and it was a wonderful sight.

Kancanabala-devi dasi remembers Srila Prabhupada in Vrndavana:

"I always wanted to see His Divine Grace in India, Vrndavana-dhama, as that is his real home, where Sri Krsna appeared, and Srila Prabhupada's own room in Radha-Damodara temple, where he translated the first three volumes of Canto One, Srimad-Bhagavatam. It was ecstatic and overwhelming to finally see this, catching such sublime and transcendental mood. Srila Prabhupada looked so natural, sitting peaceful on his vyasasana or under the tamala tree in the courtyard of Krsna-Balarama Mandira. And his sacred room in Radha-Damodara Temple was exquisite, where you could really catch the essence of Prabhupada's presence. It was a simple, petite room, but so beautiful."

And I have sat before His Holiness Sridhara Maharaja in his mandira in Navadvipa-dhama and heard him speak, moved with ecstasy, describing our Srila Prabhupada, his Godbrother.

Sridhara Maharaja: "I would be immensely proud of his activities, and I heard also that many prominent members of the Gauḍiya Mission, they appreciated very much, greatly appreciated. It is a wonderful thing and superhuman that he has done. Success, in such a small span of time. Indeed, it is some divine power works through him only. Then it is possible. Special, divine power worked within him. So much success is otherwise not possible. That is our conception and confidence. Astounding, not only astonishing but astounding. What began, he has pushed it to the greatest extent. Bhaktivinoda Thakura also prophesied, also Mahaprabhu, that "In no time the day will come when Western intellectuals will also flock under the banner of Mahaprabhu." It is Mahaprabhu's teachings, it is so plain and so grave and so natural that people will recognize the greatness. Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta also sent his disciples several times in that way to the West, but most unexpectedly after his departure, this one disciple became very successful, most gloriously, and we are all proud of that, very much proud. Hare Krsna, Gaura Hari."

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