Free Write – With Prabhupada – Bhajana Kutir #122

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami -

10:00 A.M.

I was with Srila Prabhupada a number of times in 1975 and 1976, seeing him at temples he visited and at the annual GBC meetings and festivals in Mayapur and Vrndavana. He was very busy completing the construction of his Indian temples, and he gave much attention to his moneymaking managers. I felt a little distant from him compared to 1966 and 1974, but the library party attracted his attention. He was always enthusiastic to hear the latest results of book distribution and read the letters of praise the professors wrote. One time in Manhattan, there were so many important managers and secretaries present that I couldn’t fit into the car with him to go on his morning walk. And when he took his trip to Gita-nagarai in a Radha-Damodara Greyhound bus, I decided not to go because I felt he would be surrounded by managers and sannyasis and I wouldn’t get any attention. I stayed back in the Brooklyn temple and spent the day reading Srimad-Bhagavatam. But he had one private meeting with the library party in Chicago, and in Manhattan, we met with him and told him we had finished the libraries in America and wanted to to go Europe. His eyes opened wide and he gave a big smile and said we should go. I didn’t accompany the party to Europe but went on a concentrated lecture tour of colleges in the USA, which he approved.

I spent a solid month with Srila Prabhupada from January to February, 1977, in Bhubanesvara, Jagannatha Puri, and Mayapur. I went on the tour as his GBC secretary. I took dictation and typed his letters. I joined him in Bhubanesvara. He was living in a small hut. I shared the other side of the hut with a few devotees. Other visiting devotees lived in tents. There was as yet no construction of the temple. Gour Govinda Swami was in charge. He was responsible for eventually building a temple when he could raise funds. From our side of the hut, we could hear Prabhupada talking on his side of the hut because there was an open beam on the ceiling separating the two rooms. Once I saw a rat walking on that beam. Prabhupada gave lectures in the morning and evening in an improvised pandal, and outsiders visited. He distributed lots of prasadam to the visitors. He said some of them were very poor and were attending just to get the kitri. He went on a morning walk in a local zoo, which had flimsy cages for the big animals like a lion. Guru-krpa Swami teased the lion, and Prabhupada told him to stop. He said, “After all, he is a lion.” When I first arrived, Prabhupada had me read the latest letters from professors praising his books, and he was very enthusiastic. He loved those letters. Yogesvara and his wife came all the way from France just to see Prabhupada and get his permission to produce Krishna conscious books for children. It was a big endeavor for them to come to that deserted piece of land in Orissa, but that’s how things were done in those days. If you wanted to see Prabhupada and get his personal approval, and not merely through a letter but explaining yourself face to face, you’d be willing to travel anywhere on earth to catch up to him. He gave them permission, and they were very happy.

While in Bhubanesvar, Prabhupada decided to visit Jagannatha Puri, which was only one and a half hours away by car. He rented a beach-side hotel room. The few devotees who traveled with him slept in their van or outdoors on the veranda outside his room. I wrote in detail about the visit in Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta. Prabhupada bathed in the ocean, visited some Gaudiya Math temples, and attended a function where he gave a lecture strongly criticizing the policy of the Jagannatha Puri temple of not allowing ISKCON devotees to enter the mandir and receive darsana of Lord Jagannatha. While walking up the stairs at a temple, Prabhupada suddenly collapsed and had to be caught from behind by his servant, Hari Sauri. Hari Sauri noted in his diary that this was another side of Prabhupada’s rapidly declining health. While at Bhubanesvara, Prabhupada began dictating the Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. He’d begin at 1:00 A.M. in his hut, and we could hear him through the walls. It was a thrill to hear him beginning the all-important Tenth Canto, and we were all very happy, not knowing that he would not live long enough to complete more than thirteen chapters.

I stayed with Prabhupada for two weeks at Bhubanesvara, and then he took a train to Calcutta. He stayed there three days and then went to Mayapur shortly before the annual meetings. I got to spend two more weeks as his secretary in Mayapur. It was blissful service, typing his letters and being present for personal talks in his room. Jananivasa used to come by in the evening with incense burning in coals, filling the room with smoke to keep the mosquitos down.

I visited Prabhupada several times in Vrndavana in 1977, answering calls that his health was in a crisis. I was finally there for the last few days, ending in his disappearance on November 14, 1977.

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