Prabhupada visits Lalita Prasad

Gopijanavallabha Dasa: After the Gaura-purnima festival when it was over, Prabhupada was going to Vrindavana. That time to the Krishna Balrama temple was going to be opened. So we had to travel. I was traveling with Prabhupada to Calcutta. Prabhupada went to Calcutta first. On the way to Calcutta, we were with Prabhupada’s group - his car, our cars, bunch of different cars were going to Calcutta.

On the way to Calcutta, we went to one small village on the way to Calcutta. Bhaktisiddhanta’s brother's name was Lalita Prasad. He was living there, very old, maybe ninety-six years old. So we walked through the gates and into where Lalita Prasad was. Prabhupada sat down and greeted him, dandavats (offers namaskara) and he sat down in a rocking chair.

We all sat around Prabhupada and Lalita Prasad. He talked with Prabhupada and Prabhupada talked with him for about ten minutes, fifteen minutes in Hindi. Most of the Westerners did not know Hindi at that time. It was very interesting because just being around Prabhupada was very thrilling. So Prabhupada said, "Okay. Now everyone go and take prasadam." We went outside, we took prasadam around in the courtyard with clay cups filled with prasadam.

Then they said, "Okay we are going to bring you somewhere," and they brought us back into a garden in the back and they said, "This tree is a Parijata tree which was brought from the heavenly planets." So we went back there and Prabhupada was still with Lalita Prasad. We saw the Parijata tree and then we travelled to Calcutta where Prabhupada gave classes and then he left.