Wednesday 4 April 2012

My experiences and associations with Prabhupada Part-2



Anyway this broadness has been very clearly indicated but at the same time Prabhupada also maintained a very strict understanding of Krishna. Like, at the beginning, when Prabhupada was establishing ISKCON, and he declared that the name of the institution will be The International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Then many actually suggested that better would be to call it The International Society for God Consciousness. But Prabhupada was adamant, ‘No, International Society for Krishna Consciousness.’ And there is reason that Srila Prabhupada did that. People may not understand Krishna, that Krishna is God. Prabhupada said, ‘I have come here to to make everybody understand that Krishna is God.’ That was Prabhupada’s mission, to make everybody understand that Krishna is God.
And many times Srila Prabhupada dealt with this issue. Sometimes especially when he
was dealing with the Christians, Prabhupada used to ask that, ‘You speak about God?
Who is God? What does He look like? Where does He stay? What does He do? So if you
do not have any information about Him but if I have some information, if I provide the
information then why shouldn’t you take it? You do not have any information. I have the
information. So you have to accept that I know better than you. You are speaking about
God but you do not have any understanding about God. You are speaking about God but
you do not have any information about God. So why don’t you accept? Why don’t you
take an honest stand? And accept that, “Okay, I don’t know about God and here is the
information about God. Let me honestly accept it.” But instead you just keep on saying
that, “My God is the only God.” But you don’t have any understanding of God. Who is
your God? You just have the three letters, God. What does He look like? What does He
do? Where does He live? No information. So if somebody comes and provides you some
information, why don’t you accept it?’
So in that respect, Srila Prabhupada was very strong. That, ‘If you want to know about
God, come to me. If you want to know about God, come to me. I can tell you what He
looks like, what His name is, where He lives, what He does and I can even give you His
phone number.’ So this is how Srila Prabhupada was very clearly and emphatically
establishing Krishna Consciousness.
Anyway so another incidence in that program I remember that somebody in a rather
challenging way he was asking, ‘Why don’t you worship Rama? Why you always
worship only Krishna?.’ Prabhupada said, ‘No, we worship Rama also. Our
understanding is Rama and Krishna is the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. When
we are chanting Mahamantra, we are saying Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama.’ And
so the man was quite argumentative and Prabhupada became more and more upset the
way the man was. And Prabhupada’s voice became louder and louder. And finally
Prabhupada was screaming at him, although physically Prabhupada was quite weak at
that time.
Prabhupada’s health condition was quite weak. When he used to come, actually when
Prabhupada was in Mayapur, his health condition deteriorated considerably. Previously
Prabhupada used to walk on his own. But in Mayapur, we had to kind of, hold Srila
Prabhupada when he was walking. There was one way we used to hold Srila Prabhupada
when he was walking. Prabhupada used to have his stick. He used to hold the stick with
his right hand and we used to hold Prabhupada. With the right hand we used to hold him
around his waist and with the left hand we used to hold him on his shoulder. And this is
how we used to give him the support, when he used to go to bathroom, or any place.
When he used to go down to give class or went to attend some programs in the temple,
then Prabhupada was carried in a palanquin. There was a thing made, It was a chair made
with handles and a few devotees used to carry Srila Prabhupada down the stairs and up
the stairs.
So in Bombay other sannyasis, actually Tamal Krishna Maharaj and Bhavananda used to
go beforehand to the program and then at some point Prabhupada and I used to go to the
program. I used to assist Srila Prabhupada. So Prabhupada’s health condition was quite
weak and Prabhupada was giving the class. And he used to sit there. He used to sit there
quite hunched and weak with his physical frailty. But then as Prabhupada would start to
speak, his body would become straight. And then finally Prabhupada was practically
sitting at the edge of his seat, straight and erect as a bolt, and screaming with a pitch, at
the top of his voice, chastising. And I remember, the people also became so upset with
that man, they practically carried him and threw him out of the crowd.
So, sometimes Prabhupada in India especially, sometimes Prabhupada used to have this
kind of confrontation with the people. It’s unfortunate that such a glorious country with
such an inconceivable spiritual asset, that some people are just so adamant and unwilling
to recognise the greatness of a saintly person like Srila Prabhupada. At times I lament that
when Prabhupada was on this planet so few Indians recognised Srila Prabhupada’s
greatness. Nowadays we hear so many people come and say, ‘Oh, I met Swamiji.’ If you
met Swamiji, then why didn’t you come and help him? Why didn’t you surrender to him?
You met Swamiji but what was the use of that meeting? Some bed bugs also met Srila
Prabhupada. (Laughter) So anyway this is the misfortune that they couldn’t recognise
Srila Prabhupada’s glory, Srila Prabhupada’s greatness and take advantage of that. Srila
Prabhupada often used to have this.
Anyway I was just thinking Prabhupada used to go out in the morning walks. So in
Bombay I heard Prabhupada used to go for morning walks. And those morning walks
were very interesting. But I didn’t have the good fortune to go out with Srila Prabhupada
on the morning walk because those days when Srila Prabhupada was in Bombay, he
didn’t go out on a morning walk. That is because his health condition was so bad. But
sometimes when Srila Prabhupada would go back after the program I would go with Srila
Prabhupada and then he would lie down on his bed and I used to massage his feet.
One day Prabhupada was asking, ‘So how did you like my lecture?’ So I said,
‘Prabhupada it was very nice.’ And then Prabhupada said, ‘What was so nice about it?’
Then I related whatever I recalled. And Prabhupada was very pleased.
Then after the program was over, Prabhupada came back to Bombay temple, Juhu
temple, and Prabhupada’s apartment was complete by now. Complete in the sense, yeah,
more or less complete. Only the lift was not in full operation. The lift was used only
when Srila Prabhupada had to use it, at the beginning. When we went down, and up, we
went on foot, climbed the stairs on foot. And those days, so, just Tamal Krishna Maharaj
and myself.



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