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Gems of wisdom.
Bhutatma: I grew up near the beach and like a lot of other people, I always enjoyed the pleasing sound of the waves as they break and then ebb. Once we were walking on the beach when Prabhupada stopped to listen to those sounds for a minute. Then he said, “This sound of the waves retreating is the sound of the gopis sighing for Krishna.” I thought, “No wonder it’s so pleasing.” Ever since then when I hear those mournful and bittersweet sounds, I think of Prabhupada’s words.
Tosan Krishna: We couldn’t afford to have flowers in the temple back then and we used a pay phone because the temple didn’t have a phone. One day I found a beautiful piece of luxurious velvet with some trim on it in an abandoned, rustic, Catholic Church, and I brought it for Prabhupada. Govinda dasi saw it and she said to Prabhupada, “Tosan Krishna wants to know if you want this.” At the time Prabhupada was directing devotees to help him pack, saying, “Put this thing away, put this here, now roll this, put this there.” Prabhupada was being very exacting. When Govinda dasi asked him that question, Srila Prabhupada, who had been so sweet, suddenly said, “I want nothing!” and the room shook as if Lord Narasimhadeva had entered. After that I didn’t know what was going to happen to that piece of cloth but two months later I visited Srila Prabhupada in Los Angeles and Srila Prabhupada was using it as a backdrop for his Deities. I thought, “He wants nothing, but he’ll engage things for his Deities.”
Kuladri: I was serving Srila Prabhupada in Vrindavan when he was ill. One evening I was sitting on Srila Prabhupada’s bed inside his mosquito net and massaging him with Vicks Vapo Rub, which Prabhupada liked, when somehow or other a mosquito got inside the net. Now, since the living entities in Vrindavan are not ordinary, we have to be very careful—we’re not even supposed to step on an ant. I grabbed for the mosquito, but Prabhupada said, “No.” I went back to massaging and when the mosquito landed on Srila Prabhupada, I flicked it away. Then Srila Prabhupada said, “Now catch it—it is attacking.”
Tosan Krishna: In 1971, I was living in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, and I got a draft notice. I wrote Srila Prabhupada and asked, “What should I do?” He wrote back, “I’ll write you a letter to present to the draft board,” and the key line in his letter was, “My disciples do not have time to squander in these activities.” Luckily my draft board was San Francisco, and when I presented Prabhupada’s letter, it worked.
Atma Tattva: I had a Krishna Book and on the back cover was a picture of Prabhupada looking at a champak flower he was holding. I showed the man this picture and said, “This is our Guru Maharaj, he has translated these books.” The man looked at that picture and then brought some thread and things from a little box and for ten or fifteen minutes measured Prabhupada’s forehead, ears and soon. Then he said, “This person’s features show me that all the four Vaishnava acharyas are present in him. I wish you had a picture of his full form.” So I showed him a photograph of Prabhupada’s full form and he did another study, this time with a lens. Then he said, “I was not wrong. They are all working through this person. You are very fortunate to be with him. I would like to be part of a movement like that in my next life.” I said, “But I thought your ultimate goal is to go to Kailash,” because he was a Shaivite. He said, “Yes, if I go there I can tell Lord Shiva that I want to join some movement like this and I want to spread dharma everywhere.” He was happy and said, “Please give this book to me. It has given me the highest experience of studying a person’s features. I want to keep this book.” So I gave him a complimentary copy.
Ref: Memories of Srila Prabhupada tape 36
