I don’t want to get married!

Gopal Dasa: We all went to this temple and on this particular occasion, the Deities were behind Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada was sitting in his vyasasana here, the men on the right side and the women on the left side. But also amongst the women were men of the Mullik family, but all the devotees on the right side. Somehow, all the devotees were sitting a little bit back from Srila Prabhupada’s vyasasana. But I was sitting right next to Prabhupada.

Srila Prabhupada began to acknowledge all of his old friends, starting with the most elderly and so probably they were childhood friends of Prabhupada, and he was speaking in Bengali to them, asking how they were and this went on from one to the next and the next. Then he came to one man and this gentleman spoke in English and Prabhupada spoke to him and this man said, "Oh Swamiji, you have to help me. I’m having such a big problem. I don’t know what to do." Prabhupada said, "Yes, yes what is your problem?" He was doing this out of being courteous and wanted to get on to the main part of the program, but this man said, "I am having so much problem. I need to find a husband for my daughter. I don’t know what to do. We’ve been looking and looking." Prabhupada was like, "Yes, yes."

And then this man was going on, "Oh, what to do? I can’t find a husband." I was thinking in my mind, "Hurry up, man. Let Prabhupada go on and finish this program. You’re wasting his time!" Finally, the man pointed to his girl and said, "I need to find a husband for my daughter." And he pointed to this young girl sitting there. She was ugly and fat and I thought in my mind, "No wonder you couldn’t find a husband. Look how ugly she is. She will live in your house forever. Get used to it." This man was like, "What am I going to do Swamiji?" And then Prabhupada got tired also and he raised his arm and said, "Stop!" He says, "You don’t have to worry anymore. Your daughter will marry this boy." He pointed to me. I was like, "Oh! No! Prabhupada. What did you do? I don’t want to get married!"

After the program for several days, I was in the Calcutta temple and I kept waiting and thinking that any day now the car is going to come to pick me up and my life will be ruined. Luckily they never came, so I didn’t have to marry.