Sanatana Prabhu's Remembrances ~ Page 5

Remembrances by
Sanatana Das
part 5

Personal Endeavour

When Srila Prabhupada had a heart attack in the summer of 1972, Syamasundar stayed up all night at his bedside. Towards morning Srila Prabhupada sat up suddenly and said,

“It is all Krsna ‘s plan. I am just an old man, but the personal endeavour must be there.” And collapsed back onto the bad.

Syamasundar told me he thought those were the last words, but in the morning he was OK.

Subhadra and the Sweet Rice

This happened in the Hare Krsna Temple in Detroit Michigan, sometime in the 1970s.

The pujari was offering the Sunday Feast to Their Lordships Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra. He had chanted the mantras and gone outside the curtain to chant gayatri. Suddenly there was a loud crash on the altar. The pujari quickly went behind the curtain to see what had happened. There was Lady Subhadra face down on the offering tray. The pujari lifted Her off and discovered she had a ring of sweet rice around her mouth. Later when Srila Prabhupada was told, he said, “Subhadra liked your sweet rice.”

Late for Mangala-arati

It was sometime during 1973 at Bhaktivedanta Manor near London. Prabhupada stayed from June til November. One morning I was very late for Mangala-arati. The Brahmacari rooms are on the top floor and the Temple Room is on the ground floor. The stairs go down, turn, then go down again. I had just about got to the corner when I saw Srila Prabhupada coming up the stairs. While everyone (except me) was at Mangala-arati, Srila Prabhupada was going for a walk by himself. I offered obeisances at his lotus feet (not easy on stairs) expecting Srila Prabhupada to chastise me for not being in Mangala-arati as mainly we would be glorifying the spiritual master and I was late. As I stood up Srila Prabhupada said, "That is all right. Now you go to Mangala-arati."

In Front Or Behind At Arati

Sometime during the Northern summer of 1973 we were at Mangala-arati in Bhaktivedanta Manor near London. This was before Srila Prabhupada installed Sri Sri Radha Gokulananda, so when you entered the Temple Room Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai were facing you from the other end of the room.
Srila Prabhupada came in and saw a devotee standing with his hands clasped behind his back. Standing beside him, Srila Prabhupada said, "Not like this.", imitating the devotee, "But like this.", putting his palms together in front of his chest.

How To Take Around The Ghee Lamp

Srila Prabhupada was lecturing every night in Sri Sri Radha Vallabha's Temple in Melbourne. First we would go to 7 o'clock arati then Srila Prabhupada would speak, and finally we would have Halava prasadam.
Srila Prabhupada sat on his Vyasasana one day for arati (often he would arrive after arati and give class) I was taking around the ghee lamp just to the most senior devotee and then the next-most and so on. The first few were easy - the person leading the kirtan, the sannyasis and so on.
After offering the ghee lamp to a few devotees I stopped to look around to see who was the next most senior. A devotee pointed towards Srila Prabhupada, and I looked towards him. He looked straight at me and shook his head and frowned.
After that I just took the ghee lamp around to everyone else without discrimination and Srila Prabhupada was happy.

Tune-Out

Ramai Maharaja was leading kirtan. At one point Maharaja changed to a tune we had never heard before.
Srila Prabhupad a smiled, pulled a flower off his garland and threw it at Ramai Maharaja, hitting him hard on the back of his head. Maharaja looked surprised and turned toward Srila Prabhupada who laughed and shouted "sing another tune."

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