My disciples will have gone back to Godhead by then.

Nara Narayan : Prabhupada and Allen Ginsberg had a joint program at a university in Columbus, Ohio. Prabhupada led an incredible kirtan. Everyone was ecstatic and wanted to dance, but it was an auditorium and there was no place to dance, so they danced on the armrests of the theater seats. Not only devotees danced, but everybody, thousands of students. Ginsberg was excited about Krishna consciousness. Although he never became a devotee, he was enthusiastic about chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. He used to hold kirtan all over the place on his own.

There was supposed to be a wire to hold the microphone around the speaker's neck, but it was missing. Allen Ginsberg offered Srila Prabhupada his shoelace as a substitute, but Prabhupada did not want to take Allen Ginsberg's shoelace to hold a microphone. He said to me, "Nara Narayan, give me your sacred thread." He had told me never to take the sacred thread off, but now he gave me a direct instruction to take it off. I felt exalted. I said, "Sure," took it off and handed it to Srila Prabhupada. He said, "Thank you," and put the sacred thread on the microphone.

The whole program went fabulously. Allen Ginsberg chanted, Prabhupada chanted, and it was very exciting. It gave a great boost to the beginning of the Columbus temple.

I was designated to wash Allen Ginsberg's clothes in the laundromat. He and Prabhupada were carrying on great dialogues in the small temple room. All the devotees couldn't fit into the room, so we drilled a hole through the wall of the closet in the next room, and a dozen of us, trying not to cough or sneeze, peered through that closet wall at what was going on in the temple room. During one of those sessions Srila Prabhupada talked to Allen Ginsberg about the nature of Kali-yuga.

Prabhupada described how bad Kali-yuga was going to get, how there would cease to be any foliage, how all the animals would be carnivorous, how people would be cannibals, and how fruits will be big seeds surrounded by skin. There would be nothing to eat, and what few devotees there were would live in caves. He described the Krishna conscious version of the end. Allen Ginsberg said, "And your disciples? They will be in the caves?" Srila Prabhupada said, "My disciples will have gone back to Godhead by then." Ginsberg was very impressed. He said, "Oh, really?" Prabhupada said, "Yes. They are very advanced. They are going to go back very shortly. They are chanting. They are taking part in this process. They are becoming pure devotees in this lifetime." Ginsberg said, "Yes. And what will happen to the rest of us?" Prabhupada leaned over to Ginsberg, and Ginsberg leaned over to Prabhupada. Prabhupada said, "Allen, at the end of Kali-yuga, I will eat you and you will eat me. To avoid this you must go back to Godhead."