In Calcutta in 1971, Yamuna dasi was bringing #Prabhupada his lunch
Prabhupada asked her if she was teaching the girls how to cook. At that point,
Kausalya dasi, who was outside the room, spoke up and said that Yamuna was
actually not teaching them to cook. Prabhupada then looked at Yamuna dasi and
in a very serious tone told her that if she did not distribute her knowledge,
she would become envious. Yamuna then understood that whatever she learned from
Prabhupada she should share with others, including knowledge of cooking.
Once Prabhupada was leaving Paris. The devotees accompanied him to the airport
and sat with him in the departure lounge, waiting with him until the time he
could board the airplane. At one point, Prabhupada took off his flower garland
and instructed the devotees to distribute it to nondevotees. Hari-vilasa dasa
got up and began handing out flowers. Hari-vilasa was struck by Prabhupada’s
magnanimous nature; Prabhupada was not only engaging them in service, but also
teaching them how to preach. He realized that Prabhupada wanted his devotees to
use every minute to spread Krsna consciousness to the conditioned living
entities.
Prabhupada watched them distributing the flowers and he seemed very pleased.
When they returned to their seats beside Prabhupada, he expressed his pleasure
that they had done this, and they too became pleased.
Pankajanabha dasa was nervous when he received brahmana initiation. A devotee
had shown Pankajanabha how to count the different gayatri-mantras on his
fingers, but the method which he showed him was not correct. When Pankajanabha
went in to receive gayatri, Prabhupada demonstrated the correct method of
counting, but because Pankajanabha was nervous, he could not hear Srila
Prabhupada’s instructions, so he repeatedly used the wrong method of counting
the mantras. “You cannot be initiated.” Prabhupada finally said. “Your memory
is too short. Call my servant.”
Pankajanabha stood up and got the servant. When the servant came in,
Pankajanabha told him he was too nervous. Prabhupada then told Pankajanabha to
go outside and practice. He later returned and counted the mantras correctly.
From the time the devotees first moved into the Berkeley temple, the neighbors
caused trouble. The people living across the street from the temple made a
large sign blaspheming the Hare Krsnas and hung it on the front of their house.
When Prabhupada came to Berkeley for Ratha-yatra, the devotees became anxious.
They tried to take Prabhupada down another street so that he would not see the
sign, but road construction and a detour forced the devotees to take Prabhupada
past the house. To keep Prabhupada from seeing the sign, the devotees began
pointing to the opposite side of the street. “Prabhupada,” they said, “look at
the trees, aren’t they nice? Do you see the temple?” Then Prabhupada happened
to turn and he noticed the sign. He said it was nice, and that this was the
only house in America with Krsna’s name on the front.
Yamuna-devi dasi, interview; Hari-vilasa dasa, interview; Pankajanabha dasa,
interview; Visvareta dasa, interview.
– From the Prabhupada Nectar by HH Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
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