Prabhupada said, "Any questions?" Immediately, many hands shot up. There were a lot of questions. One man, who wanted to hear himself talk more than he wanted to ask Prabhupada a question, stood up and warmly said, "Your Divine Grace, how are you enjoying your stay in Australia?" Prabhupada said, "I like it very much." Everybody clapped. "Yeah!" Prabhupada said, "I like every place very much." Everybody went, "Umm!" Prabhupada said, "Because everything belongs to Krishna, therefore I like every place.” The next person asked, "What do you think about Sai Baba?"
Prabhupada said, "Who is he?" Prabhupada's technique was to diffuse a person like that. There were a couple of other questions, then a puffed-up young man, 22 or 23 years old, said, "Today, I choose to be God. Today I choose to take the responsibility of the whole universe upon myself; therefore I am God."
When Prabhupada got mad, his lower lip would quiver a little, when he heard this young man, his lip began to quiver. Prabhupada took a deep breath and said, "My God is powerful." The man said, I choose to be the all-powerful God." Prabhupada said, "I choose to kick your face with shoes. Can you stop me?" The man said, "Give me some time." Prabhupada said, "My God is powerful all the time why should I accept you as God?" The whole auditorium burst out in laughter, and that man was mortified. Prabhupada said to him, “Please, don't waste your time on this nonsense. Try to be godly, don't try to be God." In this way Prabhupada immediately changed from a ferocious lion to a soft, beautiful rose. This was Srila Prabhupada's quality. He would use very harsh language. He would deal very strongly when someone was offensive to Krishna, but at the same time, he saw in everyone an opportunity for him to extend Krishna's loving, tender hand. Prabhupada's vision was that his spiritual master had sent everybody that he came in contact with, and his service was to bring them back to home, back to Godhead.
Madhudvisa Dasa