Transcendental Rascals
Nischintya Dasa: Either because I was the sankirtan leader or because I had distributed more books than anybody else, I was going to get to bathe Srila Prabhupada's feet. Prabhupada's feet were swollen, and I could feel that Prabhupada had gone through so much. It wasn't like he was touring around the world enjoying. Prabhupada was giving his life so that we would have life in Krishna consciousness. When I was bathing his feet, I was in ecstasy and somebody behind me said, "Hurry up, hurry up!" Then I got nervous and hurried. After that, anytime anybody said anything, I was oblivious to whatever they said. I thought, "You will get this close to Prabhupada only once, twice, three times in your lifetime. Just get this mercy and forget what anybody says." Once I had made the sandalwood paste and was ready to put it on Prabhupada when Tamal Krishna Goswami took it from me and put it on Prabhupada. I thought, "Who does he think he is? I made that paste."
The next day I had a big chadar on and I hid the sandalwood paste and flower underneath it. Tamal looked all over for the sandalwood paste, and finally he gave up, offered Prabhupada a flower and paid his obeisances. Foom! My chadar went off and I put the sandalwood paste on Prabhupada. Prabhupada smiled. I think he knew what I did. We became transcendental rascals to get Prabhupada's mercy. I was attached to that chadar because while we were in India at Haridas Thakur's bhajan-kutir, Gurudas said, "Prabhupada needs something to sit on", and that chadar came off, "Here."
Later Gurudas gave it back to me and I thought, "Prabhupada sat on this chadar." On that day, Prabhupada gave the lecture in an Indian language, and we had no clue as to what he was saying. But I sat at his feet, looked at his feet and at him talking, and thought, "I'm getting purified even though I don't understand anything he is saying." That was also very sweet. Usually in India I didn't get that close to Prabhupada. But that time, I was able to get close and do some personal service. In Hawaii, it was more intimate, you could get close, and you could pull tricks like hiding the sandalwood paste from Tamal Krishna Goswami to put it on Prabhupada yourself.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 3 by Siddhanta Dasa
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