Open in App
Open in App

Prabhupada decided he was just going to initiate everybody

Vaibhavi dasi: There was a whole bunch of devotees that had joined recently. Some had just joined that week, seven days ago, some just two days ago, but Prabhupada decided he was just going to initiate everybody. When Prabhupada arrived, Bali Mardan and Vegavan were carrying Radha-Krishna Deities. So Srila Prabhupada obviously wanted that there were some brahmanas. So we got initiation, five of us got first and second initiation simultaneously. Of course, I didn't know what a brahmana was. I hadn't a clue really what initiation meant, although I did understand about following certain principles and chanting rounds. But at some point someone announced, "OK, we're going to have five brahmanas here, so you need brahmana threads," and Bali Mardan took off a thread that he was wearing around him and said, "Make some of these." So I got up from the fire arena where I was sitting by the fire, ran out, went up and down the street looking for string, something similar, I got as close as I could. Then I came back and sat by the fire again and was making these long string things with knots in them. Later on, somebody said, "OK, now you're a brahmana so you have to wear a brahmana thread too, so make one for yourself." I said, "What's a brahmana?" and I was confused. And then someone else said, "Ladies don't wear brahmana threads." So that was going on, the initiation was going on, and the installation was also going on. We didn't know the Deities were coming really, and when They came we didn't know what to do. But in the year between the first visit and the second we made a lot of progress, and we'd built a beautiful altar there. And that's when he said, "When I was here before, I prayed to the Lord that He would instruct you from within how to take care of Him, and He has done so." So he was very pleased with the Deity worship by then. When he left the previous year, he was thinking we were very much mlecchas.



Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada-A Chronological Series by Vaibhavi Dasi