Ramesvara: It was 1976 and Srila Prabhupada was coming to visit New Dvaraka for the last time. Every morning we would drive Prabhupada to his morning walk either to Venice Beach or Santa Monica. This particular morning, Tamal Krishna Maharaj and myself along with Prabhupada’s servant were driving Srila Prabhupada to his morning walk in Santa Monica. It was typical that we would either ask philosophical questions or we would talk about something in the world news or current events that we found controversial or exciting and have Prabhupada comment on it. This particular morning, a news story had broken the day before that was, to us, somewhat astonishing. There was a group of demented artists in New York that had captured headlines all over the world by having a party in which they served and ate the flesh of aborted fetuses. This artist, the leader of this group was Andy Warhol who was famous for sensational shock. We told Srila Prabhupada this story and I expected Prabhupada to comment on the demonic nature of the living entity and the horror of slaughtering anyone for food. But instead he leaned back on the back seat of the car and said, “Yes, they have not yet learned in this Kali-yuga that human flesh is the tastiest of all meats. That will come in the future of Kali-yuga.” Tamal and I were astonished at Prabhupada’s response to this story.
It was not what we were expecting. And in that instant I realized Prabhupada knew everything. He knew what the future of Kali-yuga was. How did he know what meat tastes like, what to speak of which meat is the tastiest is? Our minds were literally I guess you could say, blown. We were just amazed that Prabhupada knew everything and I blurted out, “Srila Prabhupada, you know everything about everything. You see the future, you comment on things that are current, but also talk about the future.” I said, “This is what makes your books so unique. Previous great acharyas have written commentaries on Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, but your commentaries are not only perfect for the time that we’re living in, but they’re perfect for the future because you have the ability to see the future. It’s just amazing to me how unique and special your books are.” Srila Prabhupada smiled and said, “Yes. My books will be the law books for humanity for the next ten thousand years. That is how I think as I write each word.”
Contributed by Mahavishnu Das