A perfect Vaishnava
Aniruddha Dasa: Makanlal, Nara-Narayan's brother, was in San Francisco when I was there. He and his brother joined in San Francisco in the early days and were sincere devotees. Prabhupada said that they were very nice but a little eccentric (Makanlal said it was all right for me to say this). Makanlal and Nara-Narayan were longhaired hippies who wore typical clothes of those days and were a bit Shakespearean when they spoke. With a sonorous voice, Makanlal would chant, "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare," and it used to irritate me terribly. I would get disturbed during the kirtans. Then once, Makanlal had a preaching engagement at the YWCA in Berkeley, and I drove Srila Prabhupada there and back. The engagement was very nice, but all of a sudden Makanlal was leading the kirtan but I showed my distaste and I left the room. I was not very tolerant and didn't have the right understanding. So, when I was driving Prabhupada home, he looked at me and said, "Aniruddha, this Makanlal sings very nicely, don't you think?" I had to say, "Jaya, Prabhupada." Gradually I understood, trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna, amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih. In a humble mode you can preach and chant incessantly, and that was Prabhupada's mode. He knew exactly how to utilize everybody's service. Even though there were some qualities that were not very nice, he never found fault. He found only the good. He used to say, "It's very easy to be critical, but to find the good is rare." I didn't have the ability to see only the good, but I'm beginning to understand how magnificently Prabhupada had it. To see the good in others is the way to preach, the way to not disturb anybody. Prabhupada was a perfect Vaishnava. One of the qualities of a pure Vaishnava is that he's a perfect gentleman. He doesn't disturb anybody's mind. He's able to see the good in others and evoke it. That's why we all wanted to serve Prabhupada, and that's why we have difficulty with people who don't evoke the good in us. It's very rare to achieve that ability in fullness. But we can achieve it if we follow Prabhupada's example.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 3 by Siddhanta Dasa
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