Initiation - Nartaka Gopala Dasi

Nartaka Gopala Dasi: After Modinagar, we went to Aligarh. I remember at Aligarh, Prabhupada was staying in a house and we would go for mangala-arati. We would go to the roof of the house and we'd be running around chanting in the mangala-arati. It was very beautiful. 

Then from there, we went to Vrindavana. That's where they had, it was one of the largest, maybe it was the largest initiation ceremony while Prabhupada was on the planet. There were a lot of devotees, maybe 100, I don't know how many exactly in this yajna. I had to wait about 4 or 5 days to get the Gayatri mantra because they were doing it in batches, you know.

Prabhupada was personally giving it to us from his, in his quarters. So the day I went, then there were four ladies with me. I had made, while I was on sankirtana in America, every day at the lunch break, I had made some shoes for Prabhupada, like the shoes he's wearing in this picture, the wooden shoes that have a peg coming out between the toes. So I had carved out of wood, and gold-leafed the edges, and the peg coming out-I had carved like a lotus flower and put a jewel in it. They were very pretty. Then, rubbed sandalwood oil on to finish it up. They were very beautiful. And, I made a purple velvet bag with Srila Prabhupada's name on it, to keep the shoes in. So, I had brought a gift for him, you know, to give him, and some flowers also I got from where we were staying.

He gave us Gayatri mantra. There were five ladies - four ladies and me, so five of us together. Then they all left, but I haven't given him his gift, so I gave him his gift. And so I was alone in the room with him. I had brought some flowers, and I put the flowers down first. He didn't say anything to me, but I gave him, you know.

I said, "Here's some flowers, Srila Prabhupada," and I had given him hibiscus. You know, hibiscus flowers, hibiscus are really meant to offer to Mahadeva, you know Uma Mahadeva, and I didn't know that. Not much later, one of the male, one of the boys, brahmacharis brought a few hibiscuses, and Prabhupada said, "But these you cannot offer to the spiritual master." And the devotee was, "Well, what can I do with them?"

Then Prabhupada took two flowers and he put one behind each ear, and he smiled real big. So I didn't realize that you're not supposed to offer this, but he didn't say anything to me.

But I gave him the bag of with the shoes, I said, "I made this for you Srila Prabhupada." So he took the shoe out and he held it up, he said, "Oh, thank you, thank you very much," you know. The next day when I went on, I saw that he had put them up on the mantle where they have the small Krishna and Balarama Deities that they kept in Prabhupada's quarters. Maybe they're still there, I'm not a hundred percent sure, even probably. They were on the mantle for a while, maybe they still are. I'm not sure where they have them, no, but he had them up on the mantle  - the shoes that I made.