We'll withdraw that one, Prabhupada.
Balavanta: The GBC would make resolutions, and then Srila Prabhupada would approve them. In fact, sometimes he would attend our meetings. He used to chastise us by saying, "Why are your meetings taking so long? You should finish up your business in two or three days, and in the remaining time you should discuss how we can become Krishna conscious and give Krishna consciousness to others." But we would meet for weeks. When Prabhupada attended the meetings he said, "First you should make a proposal, then it should become resolution. Not simply discussing." There was one time when we were sitting with him on the veranda. He was sitting in the sun on an asana at one end. We were in Mayapur, and his heart was obviously absorbed in Chaitanya lila and various ecstasies. Meanwhile, externally, his young disciples were holding their GBC meeting. Someone made a proposal, it was debated back and forth, and then it became time for a vote, yea or nay. The first vote was, "All those in favor, raise your hand," and on this occasion the majority was in favor of the resolution.
Once that became clear, Prabhupada raised his hand too and said, "Yes, I will vote for it." He wanted to see what the majority was before he voted. And then he laughed. But sometimes he was much more serious about our resolutions. The first time I attended a GBC meeting, a resolution was passed that women with children and no husband could not live in the temple. The idea was that this was a tremendous drain on the temple finances. The woman couldn't go on sankirtan, and the temple had to give money for the child and so on. We thought that the husband who fathered the child should take responsibility and that there was no real place for these women in the temple. How can you put a woman with a child in the brahmacharini ashram? It's disruptive. And you can't give an apartment to every woman with a child. It's not practical. So we drew a line. Women with children and no husband cannot live in the temple. Once all the resolutions were fixed, they would then be read to Srila Prabhupada for approval, and typically he would approve them. But after he heard that resolution, "A woman with a child but without a husband may not live in the temple," there was silence. We could feel that this resolution was worse than the others. Finally Satsvarupa Maharaj said, "Srila Prabhupada, should we change that one?" Prabhupada said, "Hmm." He didn't open his eyes, and he said, "As far as I am concerned, my only desire is that they become Krishna conscious. It does not matter if they are women with children or without children. I only want to give them the opportunity to be Krishna conscious." He still didn't open his eyes, and we could feel his compassion, his ocean of compassion. And here we were, the foolish manipulative management. Satsvarupa Maharaj said, "We'll withdraw that one, Prabhupada." Prabhupada said, "Hmm." That whole day's worth of resolutions were scrapped, and we went back, started over again, and changed them. He never actually said that we had to, but by his response it was clear that we were on the wrong path.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 1 by Siddhanta Dasa
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