Two things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other
Urmila dasi : The first time that I ever saw Prabhupada was in the morning. He was sitting on the vyasasan at the Chicago temple. He was giving a lecture about how we all want to see God but we can't even see a little piece of God, the soul. Otherwise, why would we be crying when some relative has died? And if we haven't seen a piece of God, how can we think that we can see God? I was standing right near the vyasasan, maybe two feet away, and fanning Prabhupada with a peacock feather fan all during the lecture, and I was simultaneously very happy and very disappointed.
I was very happy because I realized that hearing Prabhupada there on the vyasasan was no different than hearing a tape recording of him. All that time I'd been listening to Prabhupada lectures on tapes, I'd been with him hearing him, and I felt so happy and so satisfied. But I had wanted something different. I hadn't wanted it to be just the same as a tape recording. I had wanted to get to know Prabhupada the person.
A few hours later, my father, my husband and I went into Prabhupada's room; and right before, Prabhupada was speaking to a reporter, which is what you're seeing here. He was very much joking, very congenial, very relaxed. Right after the reporters left, then my father and my husband and I were introduced.
At that point, Prabhupada leaned back on the cushion and he had one of his legs up, and his dhoti was such that you could see his calves and his lotus feet. I remember thinking how soft his skin was, it looked like the skin of a baby. As the conversation began to unfold, I realized that here Krishna was fulfilling my desire to get to see Prabhupada as an individual person.
When I was listening to him on the vyasasan, I was seeing him as the guru, as the acharya, and here I was seeing him as Prabhupada the individual person. It was very, very sweet. This was the first time also that my father had met Srila Prabhupada. My father had been coming to the temple periodically since I joined. First he introduced himself but Prabhupada thought that my husband was my father's son, and then he understood that it was the daughter. He said, "Do you have any sons?" My father said, "No, only daughters." Prabhupada said, "Oh, only daughters."
Then my father said, "I'm coming to this temple not because I want to see Krishna but because I want to see my daughter and my son-in-law. Is that all right?" Prabhupada said, "Yes. They are loving Krishna." And I was thinking, "I don't love Krishna." He said, "Chanting and dancing are symptoms of loving Krishna, and they are loving Krishna and you are loving them. So two things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other."
Then my father said, "But I'm a Jew, and is it really all right that I come to the temple even though I'm Jewish?" Prabhupada said, "Yes. There can be many planes going through Chicago, but they have to know they are going through Chicago. Otherwise, what is the meaning of many planes? So there can be many religions, but they have to know what is the goal. The goal is to know God and to love Him. If you know that the goal is to know God and to love Him, then there can be many religions." After we walked out, my father turned to me and said, "Now I know why you've come to this Hare Krishna movement. That is a genuine holy man."
Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada-A Chronological Series by Urmila Dasi
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