19800929 Remembering Śrīla Prabhupāda

The following is a recording of memories of Śrīla Prabhupāda by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja, on September 29th, 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

[audio started abruptly] …called Śrīla Prabhupāda Swamiji. Swamiji. Swamiji. One time Śrīla Prabhupāda commented this name Śwamiji’, it’s not a very appropriate name for the spiritual master. I think I was present when he said that. Maybe he said it more than once, but I was present one time when he said it. So the devotees, rather than speculate, they asked Śrīla Prabhupāda whether they could, or what was the appropriate name that they could call him. They asked what he called his spiritual master. Different questions they asked. Prabhupāda said that, Prabhupāda is an appropriate name for a spiritual master. And so the devotees started to call him Śrīla Prabhupāda. I wouldn't definitely say who was the first, but I seem to remember Govinda Dāsī asking. I remember Prabhupāda chastised her for calling him… not chastised, but just commented. They asked, “Is this a proper name? Swamiji?” And he said, “No, it's not a very good name.” Govinda Dāsī, I think. Montreal, 1968.

Actually… last time we discussed how Narottama Ṭhākura prayed to Lord Caitanya. How he empowered some of his energies to distribute books and some to write the books. Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa wrote. Śrīnivāsa Ācārya distributed. Actually Śrīla Prabhupāda, he… if we analyze the activities of the associates of Lord Caitanya, Rūpa and Sanātana they excavated the holy dhāma. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura wanted that there should be a world organization to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. How Śrīla Prabhupāda, he did singly all the different activities that the different previous ācāryas began. He wrote the literatures, arranged for the distribution, organized the world organization. Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And he also excavated the holy places of Māyāpura, Vṛndāvana, so that people from all over the world could visit these holy places and on and on Prabhupāda was stressed that one tries to follow should try to follow the footsteps of the previous ācāryas and fulfill their desires. And actually, he fulfilled so many desires of so many different previous ācāryas that it's almost hard to find any desire that he did not fulfill. Course, there's still more to be done, but it's just the furtherance of what Prabhupāda's already done, in most of the cases.

The first time that Śrīla Prabhupāda went… maybe not the first time, it was the second time. 1968/69 he went to India for his health. And the devotees were all very much concerned that he might not come back. And when he was returning, then all the devotees from the eastern coast of America and Canada, all gathered at Boston to greet Śrīla Prabhupāda. And there must have been at least 150, 200 devotees present with big signs ‘Welcome Śrīla Prabhupāda.’ And after the plane arrived, there was such a huge kīrtana. The newspapers reported that the devotees were jumping up and down. One of the devotees was playing the karatāla so wildly that he cut his head. He didn't even realize he was bleeding. The newspapers reported that some of the people had cut their head and they were bleeding, but they were not conscious of it and how some of the devotees were chanting and crying and their bodies were shivering. And they reported that in the newspaper.

When Śrīla Prabhupāda was going through the customs, and there was a barricade, a screen about 7 ft high. So you couldn't see what was happening behind the customs enclosure. But we knew that Prabhupāda's plane had arrived and we had heard from some lookouts that he was inside there but no one had a glimpse. Everyone was chanting kīrtana when everything exploded. Prabhupāda just lifted his hands over the screen. He could just see his bead bag and…… HARI BOL! HARI BOL!! HARI BOL!!! (boom) Whole place just jumping up and down.

And that was when people getting caught and newsmen with their TVs are being knocked over. (laughter) And then little while later Prabhupāda came through, out into the lobby, and everyone hit the deck. Paid their obeisances. And everyone had one garment, 150. And there was a ceremony. Everyone was offering the garland to Śrīla Prabhupāda and his head would be completely covered with flowers. He'd take them off. So he would just accept everyone… he was so compassionate. He was accepting everyone's garland. But the newsmen were becoming a little astonished. (laughter) This level of worship they'd never seen. Even you know the prime ministers and the presidents don't get that kind of greetings. And it was piling up more and more flower garments. And the first word that Śrīla Prabhupāda said is that the spiritual master, you may be wondering why man is receiving so much worship, well this is the spiritual master. He is to be worshipped on the same level as God. But if the spiritual master, the guru, thinks that he IS God, he's not God. He is the opposite. He is not God. He's D-O-G. He's dog. Everyone was shocked by this statement. So meeting with Śrīla Prabhupāda and separating with Śrīla Prabhupāda, these are eternal pastimes.

You see in this movie how Prabhupāda was so compassionate. The person, he just kept preaching. Anyone who would come, he would try to convince him. Sometimes after the person would leave, Prabhupāda would turn and say that the person is really… makes them comment. I can't remember exact words but usually sometime would say the person was very foolish or very ignorant, very stubborn. Any comment? I'm just showing you how you should preach. I'm doing this to teach you. Maybe some other questions? Prabhupāda said once that some devotee came in and confessing all of his fallen nature. Prabhupāda told him to try. Prabhupāda gave a commentary that the spiritual master doesn't see the qualification or disqualification of the disciple in one sense but sees the service that is rendered. As long as someone wants to render service, then the spiritual master accepts that and tries to engage that person. Of course, where there's some defect, it's his duty to point it out or to try to correct it. But as long as a person is willing to serve, to accept that instruction, to accept engaging in Kṛṣṇa's service, Śrīla Prabhupāda would engage him. I remember there was one devotee who had trouble and fell down, and a letter came to Śrīla Prabhupāda when he was in Māyāpur. And this devotee had fallen to the prostitutes. They wrote and they said that he has left the temple. He's associating with professional… and this way his character has gone so much down, so far degraded. So they asked Prabhupāda what they should do. Prabhupāda got the letter. I don't know exactly what the secretary imagined; the secretary wrote what Prabhupāda said but could probably never be written.

Prabhupāda was so appreciative of that person's previous service that he was actually crying. And he said that they should go and beg that person to come back. They should beg him to come back to Kṛṣṇa. They immediately wanted to condemn that person and write him off. But Prabhupāda wanted them to go and beg that person to come back, to practically drag him back or by their affection… that he had rendered such nice service at one time. It was such a pity if he spoiled his life. To actually get the mercy of the spiritual master in being chastised… Śrīla Prabhupāda, he would not chastise everyone. It was a special mercy if one was chastised. I think before I went to India I was fortunate enough. At that time I didn't feel very fortunate.

But I was here in Los Angeles at that particular moment when Prabhupāda took some caraṇāmṛta that had salt in it.(laughter) He was very displeased and everyone was trying to pass the buck who actually did it. Prabhupāda was relentless to find who was the actual responsible person to bathe Kṛṣṇa in salt instead of water. Finally the person was located. Prabhupāda said “Very serious offense, very careless.” Words cannot describe the mood that was present at that moment. And Prabhupāda would… after instructing a disciple or chastising someone, he would sometimes apologize and say, “Actually I'm very harsh. I don't know how you tolerate me. But actually this is my duty. It's a thankless task to be spiritual master. One has to find out what are the defects of a disciple. If you do not find out what are the defects, then, if the disciple had no defects then he'd already be perfect. So the reason he's not perfect is because he has certain defects, certain obstacles. So those have to be purified.

At the same time, I remember that… sometimes, one of Prabhupāda's attendants or secretaries would get into it. Prabhupāda would be counseling or chastising, whatever you want… instructing a disciple. And one of the other Godbrothers somehow got on the bandwagon, so to speak. And he would try to say something to criticize that person. And Prabhupāda would immediately, completely crush that other person. Said “Oh, you are such an expert. Now you have suddenly become the… you could not see before, now you are seeing because I am saying. Before you could not see? Before you could not advise? Now you are advising?” Because that's the specific responsibility of the spiritual master. Not that everyone has that responsibility to criticize.

There's different relationships in spiritual life. In Māyāpur, we have sugar cane. We grow every year and we crush that into sugar… Gur. And so it was being stacked up outside the kitchen, and all the Bengali Gurukul and the babies, they liked to. it was near the gṛhastha quarter so they had cut up the sugar cane. The little kids were chewing on it. When you chew on sugar cane, after you chew it, then you get the pulp left. They're spitting it here and there. So whoever was in charge of the cleanup, swept the spittings up by the unoffered, uncrushed raw sugar cane. And Prabhupāda saw the pile of these things near the unoffered sugar cane and he started to chastise the Indian devotees that, “You call yourself Hindus. You've come to the temple just to go to hell. You have come here just so you can go to hell. You call yourself Hindus? Indians? You are sweeping the spittings by the bhoga which is going to be offered to Kṛṣṇa. This is your culture? This is what you have learned from your childhood?” And he was heavily chastising the devotees. There suddenly one little toddler, two-year-old, comes walking by with a sugar cane (laughter) and one of the 60-year-old man, suddenly he goes and he grabs away the sugar cane from the kids. The kids starts bawling you know and he grabs the… “(imitates man shouting) What are you doing here eating sugarcane here?” And then Prabhupāda says “Oh, ustādī korcho?” Ustādī means like, it means like “Now you're the coach?” “Now you're coaching? You couldn't see before. Now I'm saying, now you're grabbing the candy away from the baby. But before your eyes were blind.”

So that was a special privilege that was reserved for Śrīla Prabhupāda especially. Anyone who's in a responsible position of course, he always has to preach and cultivate the people working under him to come up to higher levels of responsibility, proficiency in their service. But criticism is not useful unless it's actually constructive. Prabhupāda would… he would only criticize his godbrothers in very close association, on a very specific philosophical point, if there was some disagreement. He didn't like the fact that one of his Godbrothers painted a halo around, or his disciples or whatever. They painted a halo around the picture. He wouldn't discuss this in public but he just sometimes saw this… Bhaktisiddhānta, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, they don't have any halo. So why he should paint halo? Effulgence. He cannot produce it, so why should he paint it? But these are very specific things. But that was just to instruct us. And then he would say… if another disciple started to say that, “Yes, well, your god brothers are really…”, and then he'd say, “They are MY godbrothers. They are not YOUR godbrothers!”

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Verified by: Bhakta A. (JPSA)
20240711 - Śrī Māyāpur, India