Material misery is eternal

Satsvarupa Dasa: Baladeva and I are doing recall. We begin by remembering the walk from my apartment on First Street to Srila Prabhupada at 26 Second Avenue. I rented that apartment just after I met Srila Prabhupada, as a way to start a new life. I wanted to be like a yogi, a clean devotee, and so I kept the apartment bare. Around 7:00 p.m. I start out to see Swamiji. I've come home from work, taken a shower, and changed from my office clothes to black chinos, a short-sleeve shirt, and dirty tennis shoes. I brush my short hair forward and start out. Down the stairs and out the front door facing a tall fence across the street, the playground with handball courts and basketball courts. I turn right and walk half a block up First Street heading west to Second Avenue. Tenement buildings on the right, Puerto Ricans, Ukrainians, office workers, and a few hippies. Coming around the corner on Second Avenue, there's the Mobil gas station, and then you face 26 Second Avenue. I'm twenty-five-and-a-half years old. After setting this scene, I relaxed and listened to B. describe it further, leading me to Swamiji.

Baladeva: "You're looking forward to seeing Swamiji. He's a new and interesting person that you've met, very exotic. Full of unknown things that you want to hear. So you go to the door in the storefront, open it, and there's a hallway ahead and stairs. You go to the right, past the stairs, down the hallway, and into the courtyard. There's a birdbath there and a tree and some green, it's summer. Then you face the back building, and look up to see if you can see Swamiji through his window. You go up the flight of stairs. You've made your journey and you're going to see him. Thinking what it will be like, what he will say to you and the others. Just go through that door, go in and have a seat. There are already people there sitting in his room. He's in the middle of a conversation. Just go there and be in his presence. You don't have to do anything but listen to the conversations and notice how you're feeling. When you feel like talking about it, you can tell me. I didn't get a chance to go and so I'd like to hear how you feel." Baladeva invites me to be there with Swamiji in 1966, but I'm here in 1990, looking back. It seems so long ago. As soon as I speak about it, I encounter the same canned memories which I often repeat. But they're reliable memories and I'm trying to open the cans and see what's actually in them. B: "When was the first time that he looked at you?" S: "That was in the temple room when I asked a question, Is misery eternal?" He answered, "Yes, material misery is eternal. But there is another world". B: "It was more than just an answering of a question." S: "I had been there before and I knew that people raised their hands and he called on them. In order to call on you, he had to look at you and recognize you. Maybe he had already noticed me from the audience." So he asked, "Any questions"? B: "What was your first time alone with him?" S: "The memory I always go to which is established in my mind as my first time alone, was when I asked a question, Is there spiritual progress that you can make that you don't fall back from?" He said, "Yes".