Prabhupada got up, began dancing, jumping up and down
Srila Prabhupada: People follow, imitate Americans. I am traveling all over the world. Everywhere I see they are trying to manufacture the skyscraper building, imitating your country. So if you kindly become Krishna conscious and chant and dance in ecstasy devotional love of God, the whole world will follow you and it will be Vaikuntha, there will be no more trouble. Thank you very much.
Padyavali dasi: Prabhupada went onstage. Vishnujan was on the corner of the stage, Bahudak was in front of Prabhupada. Behind Bahudak from the crowd there's a hand sticking up, that's my hand. I was standing there with Vishnujan's mother and Vishnujan's sister; and I had been explaining to his mother what the harmonium is and the mridanga and how popular and how well-loved Vishnujan was in the movement and how much we appreciated his singing, that he actually was the best. She was very proud of her son. Prabhupada, after he finished his short lecture, he started to throw the roses from the stage. I was hoping that Vishnujan's mother would catch something, and Prabhupada threw the whole bunch of roses and she caught it.
Visakha dasi: When Prabhupada went on the stage at the end of the procession, I also tried to go on the stage. But some person who I didn't know stopped me and said that no women were allowed on the stage. So I tried to reason with him, saying that I was authorized by the BBT trustees and they had paid for my fare and my film, but this person was adamant. So I left the stage and I went to the middle of the field behind the huge assembly of devotees and guests, and I sat down in an empty chair there. A short time later I looked and, to my surprise, Srila Prabhupada had gotten up off the vyasasan and was raising his arms in the air and beginning to dance. So I immediately climbed on the chair and began to take photographs, and it turned out that I could not have found a better position to be in than that very one where I was. So I'm grateful to this person, who apparently was an obstacle but in fact was a great help in my service.
Hridayananda Goswami: I actually had a premonition that something amazing is about to happen, and then it did. Prabhupada got up, began dancing, jumping up and down. And as he danced and held out his arms, he stretched out his arms toward the crowd, he began turning as he danced from side to side in stages. And we could see Prabhupada showering blessings on the people, it was practically visible. There are many pictures, there are many photographs, there are these extraordinarily ecstatic expressions on the faces of the devotees. It truly was a mystical spiritual experience. I personally am always more inclined toward philosophy and spiritual logic than just esoteric mystical things, but this was miraculous. It was truly miraculous. You could see Prabhupada showering blessings on the people.
Kaumudaki dasi: Then he left the stage and went back to the temple, and we kept dancing and chanting until the sun went down. We felt lighter than air. We were so joyful and so happy to be dancing and chanting with Srila Prabhupada. It was the most wonderful, joyous event.
Praghosa das: We were out in the crowd serving prasadam, and there was a kirtan on the stage. There were a lot of people sitting in rows and we were serving, but there were also a lot of people behind the rows standing facing the stage listening. At a certain point in time, the crowd was chanting and they became visibly stirred, roaring. Everybody's hands were up in the air and all the devotees that were serving the prasadam, we all... "What's going on?" We look at them, and then we turned around and looked back at the stage and Srila Prabhupada was on the stage with his hands up in the air and he was jumping up and down with a big smile on his face. It was almost like a transference of incredible happiness just shot through the crowd, and everybody simultaneously in that moment became surcharged with mercy really, Prabhupada's mercy. He gave everyone mercy. Clearly he was so happy to see everyone celebrating Rathayatra.
Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada-A Chronological Series by Kaumudaki Dasi
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