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Initiations

Kurma Dasa: Srila Prabhupada had brought with him 11 sets of chanting beads for the new initiates. Being five sets short, someone ran out to purchase more from a Kings Cross bead shop and returned, just in time, with some smaller sandal wood beads.
 
Willy: I was the first one up to be initiated. Prabhupada chanted one round on my beads and then he asked me what were the rules and regulations. I wasn't sure what he was referring to. I had been reading the Nectar of Devotion, and I thought perhaps he meant the 32 primary items of devotional service. So I asked him: Do you mean the four regulative principles? Yes, he replied. Then he showed me how to chant. He held the japa beads on the upper part of his middle finger and chanted Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, very fast, and then Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. When he chanted Rama, he chanted very slowly, with a deep voice that seemed to stretch out the 'Rama'. He asked me many questions, including where I was from. I told him I was from Sweden. He asked about the Swedish weather and I told him about the severe winter there that five months of the year it just snows. He seemed to be very interested that I was coming from a Scandinavian country. He named me Ajit Dasa, and he said that this means 'the servant of the unconquerable Lord'. Prabhupada continued chanting one round on each string of beads and called the devotees up one by one to receive them. 
 
Carol: Prabhupada said: "Your name is Krishna Premi because you are always crying for Krishna". Alan became Acarya Dasa and Anne was given the name Ahoula. 
 
Renate: Prabhupada named me Nartaki. He explained that this means one who dances before the Deity. "You should dance for Krishna," he said. Sheryl and Rosemary received the names Rasarani and Rishabha; the two shy young schoolgirls became Govinda Nandini and Govinda Mohini; slightly-built Mark became Mahaprabhu Dasa. Prabhupada called up Stan. "What are the four rules?" Stan answered nervously, "No meat-eating, no illicit sex, no gambling and no intoxication." So, Prabhupada spoke slowly, do you know the maha-mantra? Stan recited it. Alright, said Prabhupada, handing Stan his beads. your name is Raghunatha Dasa. And Raghunatha's wife received the name Gaurangi. 
 
Philip: When I came up to receive my beads, Srila Prabhupada asked me whether I was Australian. I answered no, that I was born in England. He asked me my age and I answered that I was eighteen. "So young!" he said. Prabhupada handed me my beads and said: 'So, your name is Kurma Dasa. Kurma is another name of Krishna. You are Kurma Dasa, servant of Krishna.' Nick became Nirmala Kumar, and Edwin, the young boy from New Zealand who had shaved off his beard only the previous day, received the name Bhajanabhi Dasa. Christine was given the new name Vaibhavi. 
 
Vaibhavi: When Prabhupada told me my name, I couldn't hear it and he had to repeat it a number of times. I still couldn't figure it out. Prabhupada's Bengali accent was so thick, that it sounded to me like 'Boy Bubby', but I knew that couldn't be right. Halfway through the ceremony, we discovered that there were no sacred threads for the brahmana initiations. In actual fact, we didn't even know what sacred threads were, not to speak of how to make them. I left the crowded temple and ran down the street to buy some string, and, while Prabhupada was initiating people, I was sitting there in the arena making sacred threads, copying the one that Bali-mardana had taken off himself.


Reference: The Great Transcendental Adventure by Kurma Dasa