In the video (by the way, of an exceptional quality) you will see how Srila Prabhupada exits walking from his residential quarters, located at one of the apartment buildings of the old complex built in ISKCON Juhu Beach, Bombay (now Mumbai). Just watch how Srila Prabhupada walks! His gait, unhurried and brisk simultaneously, not only denotes nobility and gallantry, but unrivalled class. What class? -- the class of a paramahamsa. The class of a swan-like man. Or a swan amidst men. And not only one more swan amongst the swan specimens, but the prototype of all swans placidly swimming in the ocean of transcendence, in the bottomless sea of endless width of Radha-Krishna prema.

Arjuna asks Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita (2.54): "Arjuna said: What are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged in Transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk?"

When Arjuna inquired "what is his language", he also included what in modern days is called 'body language' -- the art of interpreting the non-verbal communications a person sends through body postures, limbs motions, gestures, facial expressions, and especially, eye movements. The History is in Your Eyes is the eloquent title of many songs and poems composed in the English language.

The first thing to spring to mind is that Srila Prabhupada looks fresh and radiant, like a full blown lotus flower, after having taken his midday bath. Since crossing the threshold, Srila Prabhupada begins to perform a series of motions and gestures befitting a regal white swan: the manner in which he lordly cleanses his nose using the thumb and index fingers of his right hand; the indication he makes immediately afterwards with the same hand (palm upward) to the brahmacari standing next to the door; the swift movement downward he makes with both his right hand and arm to mandate his audience to seat down, and lastly, the carefree way he scratches the right side of his lotus face with his left hand, and again wipes his nose with the tips of the abovementioned fingers.

While walking towards the asana, Srila Prabhupada is serenely and gracefully interacting with all devotees and guests around him. Just after sitting cross-legged (in a semi-lotus position), Srila Prabhupada gives to the whole world the gift (since we are all watching it right now) of a most pleasing, beautiful smile -- an "oceanic" smile, as Sally Agarwal put it. While smiling, Srila Prabhupada delightfully moves his head sideways, like a Vrindavan khanjarita bird.

Walking meekly and respectfully behind Srila Prabhupada is Caitya-guru dasa, (ex-Bhakti Caitanya Swami), who solicitously carries a clay jug full of drinking water and then gently puts it on the floor. The asana is modest but spotlessly white and clean. Please note: all the way Srila Prabhupada carries his japamala in his right hand. After accommodating himself on the asana, he gently places it in the rear right side.

Srila Prabhupada was in love with the pure chanting of the Holy Names! Indeed, he's eternally enamored of the Names of Radha and Krishna. Anywhere and everywhere you would see His Divine Grace, the yuga-acarya and current Sampradaya-acarya, either softly chanting on his beads Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, or teaching this maha-yugala-mantra to all persons attending his preaching programs, or singing it —feelingly and aloud— in a most melodious, entrancing, deep voice, or broadcasting the glories of the Holy Names during his public allocutions, or while writing his "devotional ecstasies' in his Bhaktivedanta Purports.

Please take notice of a most curious and noteworthy detail: Srila Prabhupada walks just like a swan! First His Divine Grace rests all the weight of his body on the right foot, displacing it to that particular side, and then, in the next step, his body sways to the other side, where he sets his left foot down.

While walking Srila Prabhupada moves along with his back totally straight and his head tilted a little upwards. Past or future, no aristocrat, no British Lord, no king, no pasha, no demigod, can ever surpass Srila Prabhupada's swan-like style!

At the beginning, Srila Prabhupada is wearing fabric slippers, which he then removed and placed at the side of the asana.

Srila Prabhupada's appearance is impeccable: He has just shaved up, and the tilaka marks on his broad forehead as well as in the upper and lower parts of both arms, are clearly visible, although you can see in full detail the Vaisnava spots on his left arm. Srila Prabhupada is wearing his sannyasa dhoti and uttariya. The two light saffron pieces of cloth look strikingly clean.

Three rounds of tulasi beads tighten Srila Prabhupada's neck (although it appears that a separate fourth round of tulasi is there, right over the main set), and a thick upavita, sacred tread, transversely falls from his left shoulder. A beautiful necklace made of intercalated tulasi beads and minute gold balls adorns my Spiritual Master's chest. His Divine Grace dutifully and proudly bears the tridandi-sannyasa attire and all the Vaisnava external symbols.

Srila Prabhupada's face shows exceptional features. According to the Vedic science related with the interpretation of physiognomy, big ears are indicative of a person who has the power of retaining and actually putting into practice all the teachings of his spiritual master. Dilated nasal openings are a sign of a very deep intuition -- In Srila Prabhupada's case, infinite common sense and practical wisdom! Of course, besides of being a Sampradaya acarya who perfectly knew and realized "all the imports" of the Krishna consciousness philosophy, Srila Prabhupada was also a connoisseur of all branches of knowledge. Not in vain, a Japanese gentleman waiting at a Tokyo International Airport terminal asked him amazed: "Wherefrom you have learned all the vast knowledge penned down in your books!"

Srila Prabhupada's lips are plump. His mouth is a major element on his face. Thorough his lotus mouth, paramahamsa Srila Prabhupada bountifully inundated the whole world, n the present Kali-yuga, with the purest presentation of Krishna consciousness, strictly obeying the order of his gurudeva; accepting the words of his Spiritual Master as his life and soul (vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana).

Several of Srila Prabhupada's teeth have full gold crowns: a millenary fashion not only in India but in all the major civilizations of the planet. In conformity with Vedic jyotish, wearing golden pieces on the body ensures good health. It is also a beautiful decoration.

Once seated on the asana, the cameraman makes a close-up of Srila Prabhupada's lotus face. You can behold the fine features of his face and also perceive the smoothness of his dark-golden skin. Srila Prabhupada avoids looking directly at the camera, but these two oculi are sharply capturing all that's happening around him. His seventy-plus years and the titanic efforts he has made so far have produced an evident tumefaction in the muscular walls around his eyes. His Divine Grace's glance is crystal-clear and deep. The glance of the paramount mystic!

If you watch carefully, the first thing Srila Prabhupada does is ask the devotees to chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. The mission of his life!

Another peculiarity: note Srila Prabhupada's heavy and paused breathing -- a clear symptom of tachycardia. Srila Prabhupada sacrificed his food [prasadam] intake, his sleep, …his very life! to perfectly and triumphantly carry out the specific but colossal order his Spiritual Master imparted him! Srila Prabhupada worked himself to death in order to save us! Srila Prabhupada labored so hard, served so selflessly and tirelessly, and adored Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga with such a peerless zeal and intensity, that he reduced his bodily necessities to a mere ascetic expression!

Here is Srila Prabhupada's daily routine, as recorded in Hari Sauri's A Transcendental Diary:

6:00 a.m. — Wash, brush teeth, and take Ayurvedic medicine.
6:30 – 7:30 a.m. — Morning walk.
7:30 – 8:30 a.m. — Greet the Deities, guru-puja, then Srimad-Bhagavatam lecture.
9:00 – 9:30 a.m. — Breakfast of fruits and chira.
9:45 – 11:15 a.m. — Rest on roof for an hour and then meet people (usually by appointment).
11:45 – 1:15 p.m. — Massage with oil.
1:15 – 1:45 p.m. — Bathe.
1:45 – 2:30 p.m. — Lunch prasadam.
2:30 – 3:00 p.m. — Sit in room or chant japa.
3:00 – 4:00 p.m. — Rest.
4:00 – 5:00 p.m. — Meet with specific people or devotees, or chant.
5:00 – 6:30 p.m. — Give public darsana.
6:30 – 9:30 p.m. — Meet public or senior devotees, GBC business or just preach.
9:30 – 0:00 — Take hot milk, massage and rest.
0:00 – 5:00 a.m. — Rise and translate.
5:00 – 6:00 a.m. — Light rest or japa.

Finally, I want to call the attention of the viewers of this video to a particularly enlightening event. A most didactic, exemplary event. When the video comes to the point where the little dancing girls begin their simple, almost paltry dance in front of Srila Prabhupada …he turns away his eyes from looking at them! Not once or twice, but thrice. Srila Prabhupada deliberately, purposely, chooses to glance in a different direction!

Srila Prabhupada was fully aware that his disciples were intently watching his every move. And he was also keenly conscious that his behavior would be not only be recorded, it would be emulated.

As a topmost paramahamsa, Srila Prabhupada was above the influence of the three modes of material nature, beyond any mundane temptation. What is more, by Providence's arrangement, this formidable lesson was forever recorded in celluloid for the benefit of all present and future generations of sannyasis in the disciplic line of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Srila Prabhupada was the perfect, self-realized Spiritual Master: he always preached by his own example!

Srila Prabhupada's heart is the repository of pure love for Radha and Krishna, nothing more. From his sacred heart only ecstatic prema emanates. He assumed the bhava, the mood of a universal Spiritual Master only for our welfare (sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhoksaje). As a jagat-guru and Sampradaya Acarya, I repeat, he set the ideal example for all his followers (by extension, for all true followers of Sri Chaitanyadeva headed by Srila Rupa Goswami) in the next ten-thousand years and beyond. He personally taught the meaning of a saying he quoted very often in his divine teachings: "Ceasar's wife must be above any suspicion."

The last thing I want to say is that at the moment I'm finishing these lines, this video of Srila Prabhupada only has 2,986 hits, probably corresponding to a similar number of viewers. It's a rarity! Indeed, …what a wonderful gift my Mexican Godbrother sent me!

All glories to yuga-acarya and current Sampradaya-acarya, Srila Prabhupada! All glories to the crown-jewel swan swimming in the ocean of Radha-Krishna prema! All glories to the glorious paramahamsa who turned into reality (i) the dearmost desire (namo bhistam) of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada, (ii) the wondrous prophecies forecasted by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and (iii) the very words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, to the effect that the Holy Names of Lord Krishna would be chanted in every town and village of the Earth, Om Vishnu Pada Paramahamsa Parivrajakacarya Astottara-sata Sri Srimad His Divine Loving Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada!

BY: ANIRUDDHA DAS