Unforgettable Instructions While Boarding The Aircraft
Indradyumna Swami: When it was time to go to the airport for our flight, Bhagavan and I left a little early. In those days everyone in the temple would go to the airport to see Prabhupada off, but this time most of the other devotees got stuck in traffic. Somehow we avoided the jam and got to the airport first. Srila Prabhupada and Pradyumna arrived just behind us. We checked in our bags and went to the passport control, and by that time hundreds and hundreds of devotees had arrived. It was chaotic. Everybody wanted to see Prabhupada, offer their obeisances, and maybe ask a few questions. After the passport check, an officer checked our hand luggage. I was next to Prabhupada when that officer said, "I want to see inside your white bag." Prabhupada kept all his important papers, his glasses, his kartals, certain documents, and medicine in a white bag he carried whenever he traveled. I was curious to see inside that white bag, but when the officer asked him, Prabhupada had trouble with the locks. The bag was old and it was made in India. The officer became rough, "Open that bag, I said!" I leaned over the counter right into his face and said, "If you speak to my spiritual master like that again, I'm going to break your face." The officer stood back and said, "I thought you people were nonviolent." I said, "You're speaking to a pure devotee. You should know the proper etiquette." He said, "Okay young man. You open the bag." I said, "Okay." I turned the bag around and it opened, just like that. I became mesmerized looking into the bag was a confidential insight into Prabhupada's possessions. The officer said, "Excuse me, I want to see in the bag." I turned the bag around, the officer looked in it and said, "Okay, thank you." While Pradyumna and Bhagavan went through the same check in formalities, Prabhupada and I walked to the plane. Just the two of us were in the hallway. It was the first time I'd been alone with Prabhupada. Prabhupada turned to me and said, "Because people in this material world associate with the modes of nature, they have no good qualities. Do you understand, lndradyumna?" Prabhupada was speaking to me. I didn't really understand but I said, "Yes." We walked a little further, then stopped, and he said, "They are hovering on the mental platform without Krishna consciousness, but with all bad qualities. Do you understand, Indradyumna?""Yes." Just before we got on the plane, Prabhupada stopped again and said, Because people associate with the modes of nature, they're going down. But if we can revive their Krishna consciousness, they will develop all good qualities. "Do you understand?" I said, "Yes, now I understand." Hearing the same knowledge three times had a special potency, it entered my heart. I said, "Yes, I understand that they have bad qualities because they're associating with material nature. But if we revive their Krishna consciousness, then all their good qualities will come out." I felt, "Wow, okay, now I understand!" It was a mystical experience.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 3 by Siddhanta Dasa
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