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Oh, my dear son has come to see me. How kind.

Nalinikantha das : Announcements were being made that Srila Prabhupada was concentrating on his translating work and he wanted to get a lot done and devotees should not bother Prabhupada. Only GBC's or sannyasis could go to see Prabhupada, and the usual requests for guests and such would be minimized. So I was a small temple president of Phoenix at the time, and I had a $50 donation to give Prabhupada, which was nothing. So Rakshana was guarding Prabhupada, and I made a little pact with him to let me up the back stairs. We talked to Srutakirti, who was Prabhupada's servant, and he also agreed to let me in just for a minute. 
 
So it was 9:20 at night. I was a little afraid of breaking the laws, but I just wanted to see Srila Prabhupada so much. So Srutakirti opened the door and I came in behind him, and Srila Prabhupada had his hand in his bead bag and was facing away from us looking out the back window down the alley past the temple.
 
Srutakirti said, "Srila Prabhupada, this devotee from Phoenix has come to see you." Srila Prabhupada turned around; and as he slowly turned around, the fear of interrupting him and being insignificant was fairly strong. But when he turned around, he had the biggest smile on his face and he was just radiating warmth and love from his heart and giving me a greeting like, "Oh, my dear son has come to see me. How kind." I really learned from that experience that all of us are equal in Prabhupada's eyes and whenever we have anything to offer to him or if we have any love to give him at all, we should just do it without any rules or regulations in regards to status or standing in ISKCON or anything, that we are all equal in his eyes, and he was just happy to see his lost son coming to him for shelter. 
 
It was a memorable exchange, that just with one look Prabhupada could pierce your heart and change your whole life in one glance. I gave him the check as I was leaving and he said, "Thank you very much." Then what happened later was about three months later I got a letter from India from Prabhupada, which was surprising because I hadn't written him, and it was a thank you note for the fifty-dollar check and the donation. He made a personal note and said something preaching to me that pleasing the spiritual master is the way to please Krishna, and I thought it was wonderful that he would acknowledge not only me but also the small donation that we had given him.


Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada-A Chronological Series by Nalini Kanta Dasa