My books are like a drug store
Sureshvar : Srila Prabhupada stayed in New Dvaraka for more than a week in June 1976. It was at this time that some devotees had formed a "Gopi Bhava" club, and Prabhupada corrected the sahajiya tendency that they had developed. I went to one of their Gopi Bhava meetings, and I knew something was wrong, because they minimized Bhagavad-gita. Prabhupada came down heavily on these Gopi Bhava devotees, and it's what they needed, what we all needed to hear. They were the first full-blown sahajiya group in the West. It was a weed growing around our creeper of devotion, bhakti lata, so Prabhupada pulled it out strongly. There were many famous quotes that came out of their meeting. The devotees asked him, "But Prabhupada, you say that everything is in your books, and the pastimes of the gopis are there too." He said, "Yes, my books are like a drug store but when you walk in the drug store, you can't just buy any medicine. You have to get the medicine that's appropriate for you. First Kurukshetra lila, then rasa lila." Another answer Prabhupada gave to one of their challenges was, "First deserve, then desire." So Srila Prabhupada was so sweet but so heavy. He was as hard as a thunderbolt and as soft as a rose. At that time I was indexing the Eighth Canto at the BBT in Los Angeles, and I had mixed feelings. On the one hand I thought, "Boy, Srila Prabhupada's been here a week. This is great." On the other hand I thought, "I wonder when he's going to leave," because he was so heavy. I wasn't even his personal servant. I was just living in the same neighborhood where he stayed. He was in his quarters in Rukmini-Dwarakadish dham, and I was thinking, "This is intense. I don't know how long I can go on being in the same neighborhood as Prabhupada." So that was another indication that I had a long way to go before I could be intimate with Srila Prabhupada.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 1 by Siddhanta Dasa
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