The Montreal temple was going very well, but we always had a difficult time paying the monthly rent; and there was some danger that they would lose the temple at one point because they just didn’t have the rent money. Prabhupada actually proposed the idea to me and Pradyumna that we should go out and meet people in the Indian community and explain to them that we are trying to establish this Radha-Krishna temple here and maintain this temple and that we would like their support and help. But in any case, Pradyumna and I didn’t actually follow up that instruction. I think that we just didn’t know how to go about doing it. But one thing that I did know how to do, I knew how to go out and raise money at an airport. I was just a young boy, 17, and I remembered being short on my airline fare a couple of times and I didn’t know what to do. So I just started asking people, “Could you spare a buck? I’m five dollars short on my flight,” and miraculously people were kind enough to give me a few dollars.
Here I was, I had absolutely no skill, I went out and went to the airport and I just started doing that, and I managed to raise a few hundred dollars. I gave it to the temple for the rent, and I wasn’t even aware that Prabhupada knew about it really.
But about four or five years later, just out of the blue Prabhupada said to me, “I remember when you raised the money to save the Montreal temple,” and I was so touched to realize that Prabhupada had this memory of me, that I had done some service to help save the temple. It just really surprised me because I had no idea that Prabhupada was aware of that or that he would remember that. I’ll never forget, in so many ways Prabhupada always expressed such kindness and love for his disciples.
Vaikunthanath das