srila prabhupada said...!!!
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
Srila Prabhupada managed to encourage every one of his disciples. He made them feel they had worth, that he loved them, and he showed that he knew their particular problems.
Some were problem cases who could not work well with others, and some were always unsteady. One devotee with problems once came before Srila Prabhupada and pleaded for some relief.
"Srila Prabhupada, I would like to apologize for being so fallen and wretched. I never seem to be able to do anything right. I try to give some advice to people, but it's no use, because even if I think I'm right, they tell me I'm wrong. I just want your forgiveness because I'm so confused."
Srila Prabhupada replied, "They criticized Lord Caitanya and Krsna."
The dejected devotee was astounded to hear this, but he thought maybe Prabhupada did not understand what he meant.
"Srila Prabhupada, I am not trying to criticize Lord Caitanya and Krsna. I'm just trying to apologize. I'm sorry that I'm so fallen, that I'm not better than I am."
Prabhupada repeated, "They criticized Lord Caitanya and Krsna. Even when Lord Krsna was here, they did not accept. Only a few hundred people accepted that He was God. Everyone else was criticizing. And when Lord Caitanya was here, they even threw a pot at Lord Nityananda. They did not like to accept Him. So what to speak of you and I?"
The dejected disciple then became overwhelmed to understand that Srila Prabhupada had indeed understood him, understood him better than he knew himself.
"Then what is to be done?" asked the disciple. "Just go on trying?"
"Yes," Srila Prabhupada said.
There was a similar incident with a devotee photographer. He had trouble rising early and in controlling his tongue from overeating. He was not very regulated or prone to the philosophy, but he liked taking pictures for Srila Prabhupada's books, at which he was very good. One day after following Srila Prabhupada to different places in his travels, the photographer asked Prabhupada's permission so that he could return to his home temple. Aware of his precarious, weak situation in spiritual life, he submitted himself before Srila Prabhupada saying, "Prabhupada, I'm such a rascal."
"That is good," Srila Prabhupada said. "You remain a rascal your whole life." This statement confused the disciple. What to make of it? Was Prabhupada delivering a curse, to "remain a rascal?" Then Srila Prabhupada explained. "Lord Caitanya was also called a rascal. Do you know the story of Lord Caitanya and His spiritual master?" Prabhupada's photographer suddenly felt that his mind and tongue were being controlled because without even thinking he began to tell the story of how Lord Caitanya was instructed by His spiritual master that He was too foolish to understand Vedanta and that He should just chant Hare Krsna. Prabhupada smiled and Srila Prabhupada said no more. In this way, another dejected disciple became pacified, realizing his lack of intelligence and the fact that his only hope was the holy name of Krsna.
Srila Prabhupada's ability in these and many other cases prove that he was a great psychologist. Even when no one else could, Srila Prabhupada knew the ways and means to give a fallen servant some renewed hope and strength. Neither did he do it by resorting to the mundane techniques of personnel managers, who are often cynical and manipulative. Yet on behalf of Krsna, Srila Prabhupada was expert with people.
Nara-Narayana, interview; Bhargava dasa, interview.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Srila Prabhupada Nectar- "You Remain a Rascal Your Whole Life."-Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
One day in Vrndavana, Prabhupada's servant Srutakirti heard him yelling from his room on the roof. Running into the room, Srutakirti was greeted by a shout from Prabhupada: "Rascals!" Prabhupada picked up a block of clay on his desk and threw it at the doorway.
"What's the matter?"
"The monkey has stolen my shoes!" Srila Prabhupada said, and he got up and went out the door.
"Get some pera and get my cane," Srila Prabhupada said. Sruta-kirti went off and returned with the cane and a piece of sweet, while Srila Prabhupada found the monkey, who was keeping just out of reach on the small concrete roof above Prabhupada's room. With his cane in hand, Prabhupada jumped and tried striking the monkey, but it kept out of reach, scampering back and forth and waving the slipper in provocation.
"These monkeys are such rascals," Srila Prabhupada said, appearing serious and intent. Knowing well the monkey's game, Prabhupada asked his servant to extend the sweet as a trade for the slipper. As soon as the sweet was offered, the monkey came forward and extended the slipper. He came closer and closer but then snatched the sweet and kept the slipper. Three times they tried the same thing and the monkey cheated and won each time. Triumphantly the monkey sat back out of reach, growling and making grinning faces. Finally, he placed the slipper in his mouth and began chewing. Prabhupada had been keenly involved in trying to get the slipper back, but now Srila Prabhupada said, "He's ruined the shoe." The monkey had ripped out the heel and the inner sole stuffing. Prabhupada went back to his room, and after trying a few more moves, his servant also walked away. The monkey then dropped the shoe and ran off.
Later, a devotee climbed on the roof and brought Prabhupada the chewed slipper. Prabhupada decided to keep it and use it, even though it was ripped and teeth marks were visible. He continued to wear it for a year after the incident.
The devotees asked Prabhupada if it were true that the present-day monkeys in Vrndavana were very special -- were sages from past lives who had fallen down from spiritual life and who would be liberated in their next life. Srila Prabhupada said, "Yes." Although the monkeys are mischievous and steal food, Srila Prabhupada said, still, in Goloka Vrndavana Krsna allows them to take butter, and He Himself distributes it. Exactly who this monkey was or what was his relationship with Prabhupada, no one could say for sure. The only thing certain was that Prabhupada considered him a mischievous rascal, and that this incident took place in inconceivable Vrndavana-dhama.
Srutakirti dasa, interview.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Srila Prabhupada Nectar- "The Monkey Has Stolen My Shoes!"-Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
During a winter visit to Japan, Prabhupada stayed in a cottage where the walls were made of paper. The landlord supplied a kerosene heater, but it only warmed a small area. Prabhupada wrapped himself in his gray wool cadar and went on translating the Bhagavatam through the cold early morning hours, but he remarked that it was very uncomfortable. When devotees went to the landlord and asked for a second heater, the landlord's wife objected. The landlord finally found a spare second heater, but the kerosene fumes made the room too stuffy. In addition, the house was filled with a bad odor. In that neighborhood there was an open sewage system: a truck was supposed to come by with a vacuum cleaner and suck out the contents of the stool pits, but the truck hadn't been there in over a week. In anxiety that their spiritual master was suffering much inconvenience, the devotees went to the landlord and pleaded with him to do something about the stench. The man was humble and accommodating, and he respected Prabhupada as a spiritual leader. He agreed to clean out the pits himself, using hand buckets. But the landlord's wife again objected that her husband should make such an extraordinary, humiliating effort to accommodate Srila Prabhupada. The man did it anyway, and the bad odor disappeared.
On Prabhupada's last evening in the paper cottage, he gave a public lecture. The house had one floor plus a stage-like mezzanine. The speaker's dais was set on the stage, along with a microphone. The little dwelling was filled with guests, and Srila Prabhupada led kirtana and then began lecturing in English, which at least some of his audience could understand. In the midst of his talk, the landlord's wife, a small, middle-aged Japanese lady, entered the house and began screaming in anger. A few devotees moved forward to stop her, but she evaded them. She walked up onto the stage beside Srila Prabhupada, making angry gestures and completely disrupting the meeting. Prabhupada asked a guest who she was and what was the matter with her, and he heard that the lady was the landlady and that she was angry that Prabhupada had made her husband clean out the stool pits. When he understood, Prabhupada broke into a grin. He leaned forward and spoke into the microphone, as if making an announcement. "Japanese landlady," Srila Prabhupada said, and the audience and devotees relaxed and laughed. It was as if, by two words, Prabhupada had made a philosophical statement, explaining the universal phenomenon of landladies and how they had to be tolerated. After a pause, Prabhupada continued his lecture, and the landlady, who had become disarmed by Prabhupada's smiling words, went down the stairs and left the cottage.
Satadhanya Maharaja, interview.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Srila Prabhupada Nectar- "Japanese Landlady"-Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
Srila Prabhupada was very strong in his denunciation of materialists. He would denounce even big industrialists as thieves. Everything belongs to Krsna, Srila Prabhupada said, and the capitalists (or communists) have taken far more than their God-given quota. Sometimes when disciples heard Prabhupada's criticisms, they wondered how they could repeat such things to the nondevotees. Prabhupada himself spoke with businessmen, and on those occasions, devotees would see his successful method of explaining to self-centered men the concept of isavasya, a God-centered society.
On a morning walk around White Rock Lake, devotees pointed out to Srila Prabhupada the mansion of one of the world's richest oil men. The white building on the spacious property was barely visible in the distance beyond the lake. Prabhupada didn't take much note of it as he walked along the shore, which was bordered on the waterside with tall palm grass, while the road before them was littered with paper and beer cans. A devotee described how he had tried to approach the oil billionaire to give him a Bhagavad Gita, but he had been successful only in giving a copy to one of the friendly entrance guards.
"What would you have said," asked Prabhupada, "if you were actually able to see him?" About ten devotees walked with him, and one spoke out. "I would tell him that we have a school here in Dallas and that actually we are model citizens."
"What else would you say?" Prabhupada asked. One devotee replied that she would invite him to visit the temple, and another said he would bring him prasadam.
"No," Srila Prabhupada said, "you should say to him, ‘You are a big thief. You have taken for yourself so much oil which all belongs to God. So now you will have to be punished.'" Prabhupada's followers felt embarrassed that they had not given Prabhupada such a strong answer, and they were also surprised. As the quiet morning walk continued, Prabhupada went on to say that one day the lord of death would come for the oil billionaire and no entrance guards could stop him. At that time, no matter what the richest man in the world might say, death would take him away to face his karma.
Not long after Prabhupada's visit to Dallas, the Texas billionaire died. Some of the devotees remembered Prabhupada's words and how they never were able to approach the man. One of the devotees present on the walk was Dayananda dasa, who vividly recalled this whole incident years later, when he witnessed Prabhupada in the presence of a wealthy industrialist.
The scene was Mayapur and Prabhupada was taking his morning walk on the roof of the residential building. Jayapataka Swami introduced Prabhupada to a prominent businessman who had come to visit from Calcutta.
Speaking in English, Prabhupada greeted him pleasantly.
"I am pleased to see you," Srila Prabhupada said. "Thank you for coming to Mayapur. So, what is your factory?"
The businessman from Calcutta, a heavy-set man in an immaculate white dhoti, kurta, and vest, spoke in a loud voice.
"I manufacture glass," he said.
"Hmm," Prabhupada reflected. "So where does the glass come from?"
The man was now walking beside Prabhupada, along with other devotees and friends, as they circumambulated the roof, talking and viewing the surrounding flatlands of Mayapur.
"It is from silicon," the man replied. "It is from sand."
"Yes," Srila Prabhupada said, "but who owns the sand?"
The Calcutta man was not only an intelligent businessman, but he was pious and could understand what Bhaktivedanta Swami, as guru, was driving at. He said, "Oh, the sand comes from Bhagavan."
Prabhupada replied quickly, "Oh, you are stealing from Bhagavan?"
Prabhupada's retort made everyone laugh -- even the industrialist could not help but join in the laughter. After the quick exchange, the Calcutta businessman dropped toward the back of the group, and others came forward to ask Prabhupada their philosophical questions. Prabhupada's morning walks were often this way, fragmented conversations with different guests and devotees who would come forward and ask Prabhupada some query. He would answer one after another, sometimes developing different themes or going from one theme to another. After walking for about half an hour, the industrialist again moved to the front for another round of questions with Prabhupada. He had been considering what Prabhupada had said and he felt a little guilty.
"Swamiji," the man offered, "although I may be taking from Bhagavan, but I am giving in charity also."
Prabhupada smiled and replied, "Oh, you are just a little thief." Again everyone on the walk laughed at Prabhupada's last word on the subject. Thus Srila Prabhupada showed the practical application of the theoretical advice he had given in Dallas.
Dayananda dasa, interview; Satsvarupa dasa Goswami.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Srila Prabhupada Nectar- "Oh, You are Stealing From Bhagavan?"-Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
A young Californian man, David Shapiro, became attracted to Prabhupada through his books and through the devotees' association. He then moved to the Los Angeles temple at a time when Prabhupada was visiting, but unfortunately, David's mother was outraged that her grown-up son had chosen to become a Krsna conscious devotee. A journalist, she went on a letter-writing campaign against the Krsna consciousness movement. She wrote letters to the newspapers and also to government departments, complaining that her son was practicing too much renunciation in Krsna consciousness and she felt this was a mistreatment. David tried to pacify her, but he was not very good at it. Most of the time he was washing pots in the temple kitchen or going out on chanting parties downtown, and he didn't remember or bother to phone his mother. The devotees in the temple didn't help much when they sometimes forgot to pass on messages from his mother. As part of her letter-writing campaign, David's mother also wrote letters to Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada replied to one of her letters, but she was not interested in any dialogue or consideration of her son's spiritual benefit as described by Prabhupada. She just wanted her son to return.
Sensing that the Los Angeles temple could get into trouble through this woman, the temple president asked David to leave the temple. Although David was a submissive devotee, he refused to leave and began to cry. He said, "I'm not initiated. I've been in this movement for a year, but I'm not initiated, so I don't have a link to my spiritual master. How can I leave the temple without a link? I may never come back!" Both the temple president and David were bewildered. Prabhupada was then informed how the boy had refused to leave and he called him to his room.
David came into Prabhupada's quarters and bowed down before him while Prabhupada was taking prasadam.
Prabhupada spoke mildly: "So you have been having some difficulty with your mother?"
"Yes, Srila Prabhupada."
"That's all right," Srila Prabhupada said. "I've decided to initiate you." Right on the spot, without any of the usual, formal ceremony, Prabhupada gave David his new, spiritual name.
"Your name is now Nrsimhananda dasa. Is that all right?"
"Yeah, that -- " David could hardly speak.
Prabhupada continued, "I'm giving you this name, Nrsimhananda because through this name you will always be protected from your parents." Prabhupada then offered some prasadam from his plate to Nrsimhananda and Srila Prabhupada said, "Now you can go home and stay there for some time. That will be all right. I think you can make vegetarian prasadam there?"
"Yes," said Nrsimhananda.
"So you can go for some time, and also come back," Srila Prabhupada said.
Nrsimhananda understood Prabhupada's desire, and he had faith that it would work. "Thank you, Srila Prabhupada," he said and left.
David Shapiro, now Nrsimhananda dasa Brahmacari, returned to his mother's home. Ten months later, when both son and mother had gained a more mature outlook about Krsna consciousness, Nrsimhananda rejoined Prabhupada's movement, this time to stay.
Nrsimhananda dasa, interview.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Srila Prabhupada Nectar- "Your Name Is Now Nrsimhananda Dasa. Is That All Right?"-Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
Srila Prabhupada wanted devotees and guests to be attentive while he spoke on the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. One time when Prabhupada objected to a baby's crying, a person in the audience challenged, "If you are a guru, why are you disturbed?" Prabhupada replied that it was the audience who was disturbed from attentive hearing and that was why he had asked the baby's noises be stopped. Even when Prabhupada spoke Hindi, which most of his disciples could not understand, he expected them to stay and be quiet. Srila Prabhupada said that even if they couldn't understand the language, the sound vibration would purify them.
One time in New Delhi, while Prabhupada was speaking to a government minister and other guests in his room, two of his disciples created a disturbance. Brahmananda Swami was ill and needed the address of a doctor, so he entered the room to catch Tejas's attention. At first Tejas didn't want to speak at all, but Brahmananda insisted and poked him in the side. Tejas turned and gave the doctor's address, but Brahmananda requested more information, and the two of them began to argue. In response to the disturbance, Prabhupada stopped speaking. When the devotees looked at him, he was staring at the spot on the ceiling just above where they were sitting. Prabhupada then lowered his vision from the ceiling and looked straight and steady at the two offending disciples. "It is very annoying to me," Srila Prabhupada said. He shook his head with displeasure and added, "It is very disconcerting." These last words were spoken in a soft tone, but with anger. The atmosphere of the room became very tense. The distinguished guests were looking at the boys and Prabhupada, and the boys were devastated. Prabhupada's displeasure continued unrelieved, until suddenly another devotee entered the room and announced, "Prabhupada, the car is ready." Only by Prabhupada's rising to exit for another engagement did he release his disciples from his instructive displeasure.
In 1969, when Prabhupada stayed at John Lennon's estate, he liked to walk in the misty morning through the gardens and groves. It was there that Prabhupada met the head gardener, an old English gentleman who used to wear a tweed suit jacket even when digging in the earth. The gardener had shown no interest in the philosophy or the devotees, but when Prabhupada came he was interested to meet him. On Prabhupada's first morning walk the head gardener presented himself. Prabhupada was also dressed in a gentlemanly way, wearing a long black coat, black hat, and Wellington boots.
"I am the head gardener here," said the man. Srila Prabhupada said he was glad to meet him and asked him, "What are you growing?" The gardener eagerly showed Prabhupada some of the plants and fruits he was raising in the greenhouse, including watermelons and varieties of flowers. He also pulled out trays from underneath a greenhouse table and showed Prabhupada his mushrooms.
"Oh, we do not eat this," Srila Prabhupada said. "This is fungus." The man admitted that it was a fungus. Prabhupada explained that mushrooms do not have a good taste, and because they grow in a dark damp place, they are considered food in the mode of ignorance. Srila Prabhupada then suggested that the gardener should try to grow ladyfingers, but the man didn't know what Prabhupada meant. Prabhupada pointed to his own fingers. "You should grow these ladyfingers." He gave the Hindi word, bhindi, which the man also couldn't understand. Finally the gardener understood that Prabhupada was talking about okra. Prabhupada asked if the man could grow mangos, but he said he couldn't, not even in the greenhouse.
"What is your age?" asked Prabhupada. The gardener replied that he was sixty-six.
Srila Prabhupada said, "Do you still have all your teeth?"
The gardener seemed to be a little embarrassed, but replied, "No, I don't. I have all false teeth."
"My age is seventy-two," Srila Prabhupada said, "but I have all my teeth." Prabhupada opened his mouth and showed.
The gardener replied, "I've lost all my teeth because I like sweet things too much."
"I also like sweets," Srila Prabhupada said. "I eat many sweets myself -- rasagulla, gulabjamuns. But I am eating the right kind of sweets. You should also eat these sweets."
After that, when taking his morning walk, Prabhupada regularly greeted the gardener with a few words, or at least, whenever the gardener was working at a distance, they exchanged a wave of hands.
Prabhupada in Delhi, Tejas dasa, interview; gardener in England, Dhananjaya dasa, interview.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Srila Prabhupada Nectar- Little Drops of Nectar -Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
Calcutta was Prabhupada's hometown, and even in the 1970s when he had ISKCON centers in major cities all over the world, his visits to ISKCON Calcutta brought old friends and acquaintances to see him. One evening he was sitting in his room with old family friends from the Mahatma Gandhi Road neighborhood where he had grown up. They insisted that he come and visit the Radha-Govinda temple. Although it was almost 10:00 P.M., Prabhupada suddenly decided to go, so he traveled by car, along with some of his Western disciples. As he passed his old neighborhood, he pointed out the house where he was raised as a child and the spot where he used to purchase kites. At the Govindaji temple, relatives came forward, embracing him and touching his feet. Old and young surrounded him, smiling and chatting in Bengali. Prabhupada then went before the Deity of Govinda, whom he had worshiped from the beginning of his life. "Practically everything I have done," he explained to his disciples, "is by the grace of Radha-Govinda." He recalled his original Ratha-yatras up and down Mahatma Gandhi Road and how his father paid for the festival. Srila Prabhupada said that the same spirit he had imbibed here he was now carrying on throughout the world in Ratha-yatras and by establishing many Radha-Govindajis all over the world.
In India, when out walking or traveling, Prabhupada would often deal directly with merchants and laborers rather than allow his Western disciples to be cheated. One day, on leaving the temple grounds in Mayapur, accompanied by a few devotees, Prabhupada approached a ricksha-walla and asked him how much he wanted for a ride to Navadvipa-ghata. The ricksha-walla said two rupees and Prabhupada told him it was much too high. "Why are you asking so much?" Prabhupada argued. "We are coming to preach. We have brought devotees from all over the world." But the ricksha-walla said that two rupees was the final price. Prabhupada held his head high, turned to his disciples, and Srila Prabhupada said, "We shall walk." The contemplated walk was several miles, but Prabhupada began to walk steadfastly and his disciples joined behind him. His walking pace continued strong and fast for a few minutes until the same ricksha-walla drove up, pulled in front of Prabhupada, and stopped. Without speaking or even turning sideways, Prabhupada stepped up onto the ricksha and went off victoriously at the one-rupee price.
Visit to Radha-Govinda, Abhirama dasa, interview; ricksha bargaining, Satadhanya Maharaja, interview.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Srila Prabhupada Nectar- More Little Drops of Nectar-Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
"There is no question of using paper or plastic fruits and flowers for worshiping the Deities. If no fresh fruits or flowers are available, then you can decorate with some fresh leaves. You have seen our temples; nowhere do we use such things. You are experienced devotee. Why you propose like that? We are not after decoration; we are after devotional service for pleasing Krsna's senses. Decoration must be there, of course, to make the temple as opulent as possible for pleasing Krsna. Outside the temple, you can use the plastic ornaments. But not for worship. For daily worship there must be fresh fruits, flowers, and leaves."
-- Letter of December 26th 1971
"Who is in charge of the Deity room? It must be secured at night, every window and door must be locked, and you must personally see to this. You have had sufficient experience at Bury Place that the Deity was attacked. You have already experienced that, so you should not be negligent in this matter. Please see that adequate security is given to the temple, especially to the Deities, so that They will not be exposed to any attack."
-- Letter of January 1st 1974
"Regarding your questions, it is not very good to put "statues" of Radha and Krsna on a shelf. If They are not worshiped as Deities, what is the use of such display? Visitors will get the wrong idea that They are merely decorative figures or idols, that we do not take Them very seriously. Why you do not worship Them on the altar?"
-- Letter of December 8th 1971
"The proper method of dressing Jagannatha is as a ksatriya king, and there is no limit to the opulence you can give Him."
-- Letter of February 19th 1973
For a few years Prabhupada traveled with small Deities of Radha-Krsna. His personal servant and secretary were responsible for making arrangements for the Radha-Krsna Deities as Prabhupada moved from one location to another. On one occasion in India when Prabhupada made a temporary stop, his servant did not unpack the Deities. Prabhupada became angry and asked why the devotee had not unpacked.
"I didn't think it would be very rational," replied his servant, "to unpack the Deities in these conditions." Prabhupada replied with a shout, "You are unpacked, and you are very comfortable Srila Prabhupada said!"
Letters on Deity worship, Himavati-devi dasi, December 26th 1971; Mukunda dasa, January 1st 1974, Patita Uddharana dasa, December 8th 1971; Kirtika-devi dasi, February 19th 1973; Pancadravida Swami, interview.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Srila Prabhupada Nectar- Srila Prabhupada Said: on Deity Worship -Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
Prabhupada wanted his devotee-scientists to form the Bhaktivedanta Institute. By writing books and giving lectures, they should destroy the theories that life comes from matter and that there is no supreme being. The atheistic scientists will be very stubborn, he warned them. To illustrate the stubbornness of the materialists, Prabhupada told the story of "scissors philosophy."
Two men were arguing about which cutting instrument should be used, a knife or scissors. "Knife!" said one. "No, scissors!" said the other. Their talk became a heated fight.
"If you don't agree," said the man who advocated the knife, "I will throw you in the river."
"No, I'll never change my mind. It's scissors!" So the knife advocate threw the other into the swift river. He swam for a while but became exhausted and began to sink. But he was so stubborn about holding his point of view, that even after he was sinking under the water to his death, he held up his arm and crossed his fingers back and forth like a pair of scissors cutting.
"The scientists will be like that," Srila Prabhupada said. "Even after defeating them with all logic, still they will say, ‘Life comes from matter.'" But more sane and innocent people would be convinced by Vedic presentation that life comes from life.
Srila Prabhupada did not like his disciples to perform artificial austerities. When one devotee appeared bare-chested in the cold at a Kumbha-mela, Prabhupada reprimanded him. On another occasion, in America, he teased his disciple Nara-Narayana, who came into the cold temple room wearing only a light T-shirt.
"Nara-Narayana," Srila Prabhupada said from the vyasasana, "you must be eating chickens." The other devotees turned and stared.
"Yes," Srila Prabhupada said, "this is how the Mohammedans keep warm. Are you eating chickens, Nara-Narayana?"
"No, Srila Prabhupada."
Prabhupada then began telling a story how the Mohammedans keep warm. The system is that a man tries to eat one hundred chickens by eating a single chicken. A farmer will take a hundred chickens and then feed one of them to the ninety-nine. He then feeds another one to the remaining ninety-eight, and another one to the remaining ninety-seven. Finally, when there are only two chickens left, he feeds one chicken to the other. Then that chicken is fed to the emperor. In that way, it is considered that he is eating one hundred chickens.
Yasomatinandana dasa, interview; Nanda-kumara, Nara-Narayana, interviews.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Srila Prabhupada Nectar- Prabhupada Tells Short Stories -Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
In order to push his disciples to work harder, Prabhupada sometimes used sarcasm. He was tired of delays by the workers in constructing a Mayapur residential building and he blamed it on his devotees. When one of the leading managers among his disciples made an excuse, Prabhupada retorted by quoting a humorous verse:
"Big, big monkey, Big, big belly, Ceylon jumping, Melancholy."
Everyone laughed with Prabhupada, without at first catching the meaning. He explained that his managers were like the monkeys who, unlike Hanuman, could not jump to Ceylon. Despite having big muscles and big bellies, when asked to do something heroic, they could not.
One of Prabhupada's disciples had a chronic disease that the doctors couldn't diagnose, although the doctors said she was incurable. Srila Prabhupada said that these doctors were like a group of men who formed a conspiracy against a man named Bhagavat.
Bhagavat's friends wanted to play a trick on him, so about ten of them conspired. Then when Bhagavat went to visit one of his friends, the man gasped and cried, "Oh, you have become a ghost!" Bhagavat, in amused disbelief, replied, "No, I haven't become a ghost. What's the matter with you?" But the friend repeated, in a horrified voice: "You've become a ghost!" Bhagavat didn't take it seriously, but when he saw his next friend, the man acted in the same frightened way. After this happened ten times, Bhagavat himself became horrified: "Yes, I've become a ghost! I've become a ghost!" Prabhupada indicated that sometimes by conspiracy and maya we think that we are sicker than we really are.
One time, while Prabhupada was eating jackfruit, he joked about the taste of jackfruit. A man in a foreign land tried to describe jackfruit to a friend, but he confessed that there was no way to describe it unless you tasted it. When the friend insisted on some verbal description, the man replied that if you were to drink sugarcane juice through a Muslim's beard, then you might understand the taste of the jackfruit. Srila Prabhupada said that attempts to understand the rasa dance of Krsna by unrealized persons are like that.
Jadurani-devi dasi, interview; Harikesa Swami, interview.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Srila Prabhupada Nectar- More Short Stories -Satsvarupa dasa Goswami