Srila Prabhupada's Ecstatic dancing in Ratha Yatra in London

Vaiyasaki: I'd gone to London to try to become a famous rock musician, and after I met the devotees on the streets there, I started visiting the temple. In the temple, the devotees told me about Srila Prabhupada. I heard a tape of him chanting and saw pictures of him. But it wasn't until 1973, when Prabhupada came for Ratha-yatra, that I saw him in person. The Ratha-yatra procession started at noon at Marble Arch, but I arrived a little late. I went to the front of the procession, and there was Prabhupada dancing and surrounded by a circle of devotees. He was 77 years old, yet he danced along the whole four or five-mile Ratha-yatra route.

Sometimes Prabhupada got a little ahead of the procession, and then he would turn around, look at Lord Jagannath on the cart, and raise his arms. At some point, the police became anxious that the procession was moving too slowly, and one of them said, "Please ask the Swami to move on." A devotee would tell them, "Oh, yes, officer," but no devotee ever asked Prabhupada to move on. It was quite awe-inspiring to see a 77 year-old man filled with the ecstasy of Krishna-prema, dancing for the whole Ratha-yatra route. When the procession arrived at Trafalgar Square, there was a big fire sacrifice for a wedding and initiation ceremony. So my first experience with Prabhupada was really grandiose and fantastic.