I was trying to impress Srila Prabhupada

 Gopal Dasa: I arrived in Los Angeles and this was around July 2nd, 1970. Our initiation was scheduled for the 4th or 5th of July, something like that. But Los Angeles temple was new. They just got it and they were designing it, but Srila Prabhupada was there and they had a nice vyasasana. In the mornings, he would come down and sit on his vyasasana and chant his japa with us. Some boys would be in charge of recording Srila Prabhupada. At that time, there was very primitive technology, so we had to use reel-to-reel recording systems, there weren’t cassettes or iPads or iPhones like there are today, but very primitive. So one devotee set up a recording device in front of Srila Prabhupada, put a microphone there.

Srila Prabhupada sat on his vyasasana and he was chanting japa. I wanted to show Srila Prabhupada how austere and how advanced I was. I sat right in front of him. I was sitting in the lotus position because I had practiced yoga for so long and I was chanting, "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare," and I was trying to impress Srila Prabhupada. But then suddenly I felt cramps in my legs and so I uncrossed my legs and I pulled my legs up like this and I was holding them like this. These are probably the most heard two words that Srila Prabhupada ever spoke and probably every devotee has heard them. Prabhupada looked at me and said, "Sit properly!" If you listen to Prabhupada chanting japa, you will hear him saying that. That was from the recording. Those were the very first words that Srila Prabhupada spoke to me. He chastised me at that time.

The next day we were going to get initiated. There were three boys from Seattle and one boy from Vancouver and one mataji - I don’t remember her name. We sat down to get initiated and a devotee named Dayananda did the fire sacrifice and Srila Prabhupada was chanting on our japa beads. I knew that Srila Prabhupada was going to give us a name. Still at that time there were not many books and so I didn’t want to get a difficult name. I kept thinking to myself, "I hope Srila Prabhupada gives me an easy name. I hope Prabhupada gives me an easy name. I hope he gives me an easy name." I continued to think like this.

Then one by one he began calling us up to get our beads and get our names. The first devotee who went up, his name was Bhakta John. He was from Vancouver. Srila Prabhupada, first he asked, "What are the four regulative principles and how many rounds per day are you going to chant?" and he would also say, "Are you capable of doing this?" Of course, everyone said, "Yes, yes, yes." The first boy to get his beads, Prabhupada gave him his beads and said, "Your name is Sridhar." Sridhar and I were friends because we had been bhaktas together. In fact there are pictures here, (checking his phone and then showing the pictures) were taken at a hippie festival in Seattle in 1969 and Sridhara was there. I don’t know if you know Sridhara Swami. He became Sridhara Swami. He was Bhakta John and I was Bhakta Chuck (indicating). This is me here. I am the one cooking. When he gave John, his name Sridhara, I thought, "That’s an easy name. I can remember Sridhara."

The next devotee to get initiated was Bhakta Bob. Prabhupada gave him the name Romaharsana Suta. You know who Romaharsana Suta is? The father of Suta Goswami. When he said, "Romaharshana Suta," I thought, "Oh! This is a hard name! How can I ever remember that name?" Now it was my turn to go up and get my beads. I went up and Prabhupada said, "What are the four regulative principles?" I told him immediately. Then he asked, "How many rounds will you chant?" I said, "Sixteen rounds minimum every day, Srila Prabhupada." He asked, "Can you do that?" I said, "Yes Prabhupada. I can do that." And then he said, "Your name is Gopal. G-O-P-A-L." So he spelt it to me. He said, "Is that okay?" I said, "Oh yes, Prabhupada, thank you very much." That day I got my initiation from Prabhupada.