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So, how was the book distribution today?

This evening's darsana was the longest yet. Prabhupada talked for three hours, again to a wide variety of guests. There were two philosophy professors: Mr. Kruzowsky, a teacher at the University of Maryland who has hosted the devotees as guest speakers in his class, and Mr. Emmet Holman who teaches at George Mason University. Mr. and Mrs. Furman, who sold this property to ISKCON were also present. They had seen Srila Prabhupada on channel four in the morning and said it was a good presentation. Dr. Sharma came again, along with several other Indian guests, and the remaining space was filled to capacity with devotees. 

Srila Prabhupada covered many topics: varnasrama, yoga practice, duty, and of course, science. Mr. Boyd introduced himself as having just come back from Vrindavana. His daughter Barbara became a devotee in Germany over two years ago. She caught malaria in India and Mr. Boyd went there to bring her back so that she could regain her health. Then he sent her back to Germany. He brought a small packet of photos of his trip to show Srila Prabhupada. He was very positive about his experience and about the devotees in general. Mr. Boyd was especially inquisitive, particularly about organizational matters, both of human society and of our ISKCON movement. To him, ISKCON seemed fragmented; he couldn't grasp whether there was any integration between centers or not. "Your Grace, in regards to the organization of the movement, as such, I somehow am led to believe that there's no coordination between, should I say, your office, and the different temples. Does each temple operate by itself, or each division operate by itself?" Srila Prabhupada was happy to explain how things work. "No. There is separate arrangement for management, but the idea and philosophy is the same. Ultimately, I am managing. I have my twenty secretaries, they are called GBC, they are assisting me to manage. Every GBC has got a certain number of temples to supervise, and ultimately, I supervise everything. Therefore I come occasionally, stay for few days to see how things are going on." He started to laugh. "I have got hundred temples, big, big temples, very nice. They have organized palatial buildings, but I cannot stay anywhere. As soon as I say, 'Ah, it is very nice place,' the time is over, they say, 'You please get out.'" Although it was tongue in cheek, his statement brought simultaneous laughter and groans from the devotees. 

Mr. Boyd also had a question about the position of women in our movement. "Am I to understand that women cannot go back to Godhead without being reincarnated to the male?" "No, not necessarily. Who says that?" Prabhupada said. "Well, for two and a half years I've been getting this from my daughter, that women cannot be reincarnated [sic], and it didn't make sense to me. But I've asked questions and looked through the books as much as I could, and I haven't been able to find anything that said that." "Krishna says that even women can go back to home, back to Godhead," Prabhupada confirmed. "Striyo vaisyas tatha sudras/ te 'pi yanti param gatim. There is no such thing. Anyone who is devotee of Krishna, he or she will go back to home, back to Godhead. There is no such discrimination. Ordinarily it is supposed that woman is less intelligent than the man. That's a fact. But that is in bodily understanding. But in the spiritual platform, either woman or man or cat or dog or brahmana or ... Everyone is spirit soul. Panditah sama-darsinah. One who is learned, he sees everyone on the same level of spiritual platform." 

One of the devotees sought clarity on a topic that is much debated among devotees. "Srila Prabhupada, you say in your books so many times that somehow or other we have fallen into this material world due to our enviousness or our independence." "Many, there are many reasons," Prabhupada told him. "I can't seem to get a grasp on this at all," the boy confessed. "If we in our original constitutional position as part and parcel of Krishna, and in that original position of full knowledge and full bliss and being in our eternal nature ... Now I have some experience of how strong this material energy is and how maya works somewhat, but if I had known this and had this full knowledge, then I would have had this knowledge of how maya works and how I might fall." He wanted to know why he would desire to fall into the realm of maya with all its suffering, if he was originally in full knowledge of existence in the spiritual world. "You read the life of Jaya, Vijaya, Hiranyakasipu, Hiranyaksha?" Prabhupada asked him. "They were Krishna's doorkeepers. How they fell down? Did you read it?" "Yes, Prabhupada." "So how they did fall? They are from Vaikuntha. They are Krishna's personal associates, the doorkeepers. How did they fell down? Anyway, there is chance of falling down at any moment. Because we are living entities, we are not as powerful as Krishna, therefore we may fall down from Vaikuntha at any moment." He quoted Bhagavad-gita [7.27], asking Pushta Krishna Maharaja to read out the translation and purport. "So even in the Vaikuntha, if I desire that 'Why shall I serve Krishna? Why not become Krishna?' I immediately fall down. That is natural. A servant is serving the master. Sometimes he may think that 'If I could become the master.' They are thinking like that, they are trying to become God. That is delusion. You cannot become God. That is not possible. But he's wrongly thinking." 

Vipina asked why Krishna doesn't protect us from that desire. "He is protecting," Prabhupada said. "He says, 'You rascal, don't desire, surrender unto Me. But you are rascal, you do not do this." "Why doesn't He save me from thinking like that?" Vipina asked. "That means you lose your independence," Srila Prabhupada said. Vipina nodded in understanding. "And no love." Srila Prabhupada went on, giving another Bengali saying to illuminate his point. "That is force; it is not prema. In Bengali it is said, 'If you catch one girl or boy,'"?he assumed an aggressive countenance?"'You love me, you love me, you love me.' Is it love? 'You love me, otherwise I will kill you.'" Everyone was laughing at his graphic depiction of so-called love. "Is that love? So Krishna does not want to become a lover like that, on the point of revolver, 'You love me, otherwise I shall kill you.' That is not love, that is threatening. Love is reciprocal, voluntary, good exchange of feeling, then there is love, not by force. That is rape." It was after nine o'clock when Prabhupada called a halt to his final darsana here in Washington, D.C. 

After three hours of direct exposure to Krishna's pure devotional potency, everyone left with prasadam in their hands and gratitude in their hearts. There is nothing so satisfying as an evening with Srila Prabhupada. Even those who are not devotees are deeply touched by his sincerity, knowledge and concern. His unbiased analysis of love, life and the universe, delivered with gentle gravity and humor, is always well received because there is an absence of malice in his heart which any reasonable person can detect. He is, truly, our "ever well-wisher."  

After the darsana Srila Prabhupada went out on the back porch for a while to take a little prasadam and milk and to relax in the cool night air. Dr. Dinesh Sharma spent a few minutes with him. He has been attending morning Bhagavatam class and is very enthusiastic to help with the B.I. He is highly educated, holding four doctorates in chemistry, biochemistry, clinical endocrinology and one as a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry in London. He also has a law degree and is involved with computer information and control engineering. He told Prabhupada how he had been a "hard-core Vedantist" and a follower of various Mayavadi institutions. Then once, while in an asrama in Calcutta, he had cried out to God, "Please find me the path again!" Almost immediately afterward he met the ISKCON devotees, and his heart has since been changed by chanting Hare Krishna. He said that once he was meditating on Hardwar, his birthplace. "All the time your face was appearing behind Ganges, and it was very strange phenomena." He was amazed that two days ago he had been meditating on five verses of the Bhagavad-gita and had come to the temple to ask Srila Prabhupada to explain them. But during the course of the evening's discussion, without any prompting, Prabhupada spoke on four of them. Prabhupada was very pleased to obtain the services of such a highly qualified person. He called Svarupa Damodara prabhu in and advised him to engage Dr. Sharma as fully as possible in writing for the new journal and helping with other Bhaktivedanta Institute projects. 

Srila Prabhupada took a break for a while by the swimming pool, sitting quietly, enjoying his well-earned peace and privacy. He chanted a little and then got up to go back in for his evening rest. As he emerged from the pool enclosure to return to the house, a couple of devotees stepped out of the darkness. I recognized them as RDTSKP men, one of them Praghosha dasa and the other, Subuddhi Raya dasa, a New York devotee. They both immediately hit the ground in full prostrate obeisances. "Jaya!" Srila Prabhupada said, stopping to stand quietly before them as they got up. I introduced them to Srila Prabhupada as airport book distributors who were just returning from selling his books. His interest aroused, Srila Prabhupada smiled softly and benevolently. "Coming back so late?" he said. And, before they could answer, "So, how was the book distribution today?" Grinning, Praghosha spoke up, both excited and sobered by the close proximity of his spiritual master. "Well Srila Prabhupada, today, Vaiseshika and I, between us, we sold one hundred and thirty books." Prabhupada looked over to me with a big smile and tipped his head side to side. "Ah, victory!" Then he set off for the house once more, keeping the two of them in tow. 

Praghosha told him some experiences he had selling books during the day. "I met one soldier that bought four books from me, Srila Prabhupada." "Four books?" Prabhupada said, pleasantly surprised. "Yes Prabhupada. And he gave eighty dollars." Prabhupada stopped, looked at me, and raised his eyebrows. "Four books, eighty dollars. That is a handsome profit!" "Prabhupada," Praghosha said, "this boy was particularly nice, and he asked me if it was possible for him to remain a solider and still be Krishna conscious." "Accha," Prabhupada said, stopping for a moment. "So what did you answer?" "Well, Prabhupada, I told him that the Bhagavad-gita was spoken to a soldier. And it was actually meant for the warrior class, and that yes, he definitely could be a soldier, Arjuna was a soldier." Prabhupada nodded and in a relaxed fashion began to walk on. "You have answered right. That is our philosophy. Yes, this is a fact. Arjuna was a soldier, he was a military man." Prabhupada arrived back at the house and climbed the few steps to enter the door. The two men hung back, unsure whether to follow or to remain. I thought Srila Prabhupada would end it there. A senior man might have automatically gone in with him, but regular devotees would not assume that right. To my surprise and their extreme delight, he half-turned and innocently inquired if they would like to come in. He was obviously enjoying their association and he wanted to hear more about book distribution, direct from the mouths of his men in the field. They eagerly followed him inside, and as Prabhupada made himself comfortable on the couch, they sat on the carpet at his feet. Prabhupada crossed his legs, leaned back and stretched his arms along the back of the couch. "So, how is the book-selling?" Just to make sure Srila Prabhupada knew who he was, I interjected and told him, "Srila Prabhupada, this is Praghosha. He has been distributing your books for many years in the airports and recently he has been trying to develop a program for selling the books in encyclopedia sales." 

Prabhupada had been informed of the attempt by Tamal Krishna Maharaja in Los Angeles, so he asked, "So how did that go?" "Well Srila Prabhupada, Tamal Krishna Maharaja and I worked at it for some time, but we determined that it was going to take more back-up and more arrangement than the BBT had together. And so he decided that for the time being I should just go back on just selling books individually in the airports." Prabhupada said, "That is all right." Then he questioned him how his book-selling was going. It was highly apparent that Praghosha was bathing in the nectar of this most unexpected association. Srila Prabhupada was sharing the friendly, relaxed ambience of his room, giving him a personal darsana, and inquiring interestedly about his service. Praghosha took full advantage, narrating a few experiences garnered in the course of his book-selling. He mentioned a group of boys who meet regularly to read Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita. "Our Gita?" Prabhupada asked guilelessly. When Praghosha confirmed it was his translation, Prabhupada raised his eyebrows and looked over to me. "Just see," he said as if it was a most unexpected and wonderful thing. "So you are staying here in Washington now?" he asked. Praghosha explained that he was staying in New York and Prabhupada smiled. "Oh, I was in New York, I began in New York." He said it so unassumedly, as if Praghosha might not have known. Then he asked if the devotees there were selling prasadam. When Praghosha confirmed they were, he asked him what they were selling. "Well, they are selling vegetables, some rice ... " Prabhupada stopped him. "Kacauri? They are selling kacauri?" "I don't know, Srila Prabhupada." Prabhupada tipped his face upward. "They must!" he said. He told Praghosha that if people got the opportunity to eat kachauris cooked in ghee they would lose all taste for meat. "Bali-mardana, he is in New York?" he asked. Praghosha said he was. "Ah," Prabhupada smiled. "Then Bali-mardana, he must cook the kacauris and they must sell kacauris every day. He makes the best kacauris in our ISKCON." 

Srila Prabhupada turned to Subuddhi Raya who sat quietly listening, and asked his name and where he was from. Subuddhi identified himself, saying he was also from New York but that he had previously been in India. The mention of India sparked Prabhupada's interest. "Oh, where were you in India?" "I was with Gargamuni Swami on the Library Party." Subuddhi started to explain why he had left. He was a bit captious, faulting Gargamuni Maharaja personally for not giving his men enough time to execute their sadhana. Prabhupada didn't want to hear criticisms of other devotees, so he cut him off. "Why did you leave?" he said, and then added, "Anyway, they are working hard." He looked back to Praghosha and asked him if he would be in New York for the Ratha-yatra. Praghosha said that he wouldn't miss it for the world. Prabhupada gave a big smile. "Yes, it is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. This will be a wonderful Ratha-yatra." Prabhupada moved his arm from the seat back and pulled around the watch on his wrist to see the time. It was late. "You had prasadam? Take prasadam. Palika is here?" I went to find her. When she popped her head in the door, he asked what was available. She disappeared into the kitchen and a minute later was back. "Srila Prabhupada, we don't have any prasadam left. There's just mango ice cream." The ice cream had been sent from New Vrindaban and was still fresh. "Would you like some mango ice cream?" Prabhupada asked them. "Yes, Srila Prabhupada," Praghosha said, a grin spreading across his face. He didn't care what it was; it was prasadam directly from his guru. Palika soon handed out several ceramic bowls filled with the solid, creamy nectar. "So I will see you in New York?" Prabhupada asked. "So, all right. Thank you." He got up and left for his bedroom. The two men offered their obeisances and exited, the grateful and unexpected beneficiaries of Srila Prabhupada's special mercy.


Reference: Transcendental Diary Volume 3 by Hari Sauri Dasa





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