Prabhupada House
Madhudvisa das : There are all the devotees. You can see Prabhupada after arriving, 10 hours on the plane, 12 hours, sometimes 15-hour flight, he was always fresh and spry. Navayauvana, Krishna is Navayauvana. So Prabhupada was the servant of the ever-fresh Krishna, so he was always spry himself too. Prabhupada is weighted down with the flowers. There were never too many flowers. Prabhupada would distribute the flowers. There he is, from material calculation an old man, walking with the young, spry, enthusiastic devotees. This was a great scene.
Prabhupada felt comfortable in the presence of all the young enthusiastic devotees. He didn't feel out of place. Srila Prabhupada would only come to Australia once a year, which was quite good considering the remoteness of the country. But Prabhupada came to Australia six different times.
This is a good picture. On the right is the temple, and on the left is the Prabhupada House. Beautiful yellow and white, we painted the whole house. Up on the top it said "Prabhupada House." There's a widow's walk on the top where they could look out onto the ocean, and there's Prabhupada walking in.
This old house was about a hundred years old, a Victorian house, a historical house. It was the first house in the whole neighborhood that was built by this rich man. All the details about it you can get from Kurma's book, The Great Transcendental Adventure by Kurma das, the cook. The whole house was redone and we made it very elaborate, ebony wood and the drapes and the walls and the floors were all done over and the chandelier. Prabhupada walked in, he looked around and he said, "All this is for me?" And we said, "Yes, Prabhupada, this is Prabhupada House, your house." So we were very, very happy. Before this time, we had always been operating out of small houses and storefronts and the devotees collecting in the streets and enduring a lot of different hardships distributing Srila Prabhupada's books. So moving into this new temple and inviting people was the crowning glory of all their efforts, and it was a time of great pride for the devotees to showcase their spiritual master in such a beautiful setting and such a relaxed atmosphere. This marked a great historic time in Australia yatra.
Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada-A Chronological Series by Madhudvisa Dasa
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