Srila Prabhupada answering question of Bhakti Tirtha Swami
Bhakti Tirtha Swami: In New York in 1971, there was a devotee named Bhakti Jana who was trying to start a program in Harlem and was gathering some black bodies to help him. I visited the temple on weekends and had connected with Bhakti Jana. When Prabhupada came, he met with those of us who worked in this Harlem project. We came in for darshan, and I was lucky to sit close to Srila Prabhupada. Like everyone else, I felt he was looking at me piercingly and intimately. At that time I asked a question due to my experiences in the temple in New York.
I had graduated from the University of Princeton and was working as an assistant to the public defender in New Jersey, but when I went to the temple, not many devotees preached to me. Maybe they saw that I was puffed up, but anyway, I said, "Srila Prabhupada, there are prejudices in this movement." Prabhupada looked at me and said, "Ah. Someone is thinking you're the body? And if you're disturbed that they're thinking that you're the body, then you are also nonsense." That was the spirit. Prabhupada told me in so many words, "Bodily consciousness is there in so many ways, but if you get distracted because of that, then that is your nonsense."
I had graduated from the University of Princeton and was working as an assistant to the public defender in New Jersey, but when I went to the temple, not many devotees preached to me. Maybe they saw that I was puffed up, but anyway, I said, "Srila Prabhupada, there are prejudices in this movement." Prabhupada looked at me and said, "Ah. Someone is thinking you're the body? And if you're disturbed that they're thinking that you're the body, then you are also nonsense." That was the spirit. Prabhupada told me in so many words, "Bodily consciousness is there in so many ways, but if you get distracted because of that, then that is your nonsense."
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 2 by Siddhanta Dasa
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