Srila Prabhupada and Geroge Harrison
Dhananjaya Dasa: At 5:00 A.M. on Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur's Disappearance Day in December 1970, a stretch white Mercedes limousine with blacked out windows came to our temple. The chauffeur, with his cap, his dark suit and his polished black shoes, had a diece of paper with my name on it. I was called out of the temple room, I identified myself and the chauffeur said, I've been told to take you to the fruit and vegetable market. I said, who told you to do this? He said, George Harrison is with John Lennon on a yacht in the Thames, and he remembered it was an auspicious spiritual master's day, so he gave me 100 pounds. John gave permission to use his Mercedes and I'm to take you to the fruit and vegetable market to get fruits and vegetables for a feast. While partying with his friends on a yacht, George spontaneously decided to do this.
Srila Prabhupada wrote to me, "How is the preaching in London?" That year so many boys and girls joined our temple that the brahmachari and brahmacharini rooms were overflowing. About 65 devotees were living in a property meant for 10 or 12. I reported this to Prabhupada and he wrote back, "Contact our good friend Mr. George Harrison and ask him to help us to find a bigger property." George Harrison happened to be in town at the time, that year he recorded the album later called Living in the Material World, which had an insert of a big color print of Krishna and Arjuna, the same picture that's on the cover of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. When I visited George I'd take him all his favorite types of prasadam, like deep-fried potatoes, cauliflower and deep-fried curd soaked in sour cream, samosas, cauliflower pakodas different kinds of sweets like burfi, sandesh and simply wonderfuls, as well as the strawberry buttermilk nectar that we became famous for. I was seeing him once a week until he said, if you keep bringing all this stuff you have an open invitation to come as often as you want. Then I began visiting him three or four times a week and when I felt it was the right opportunity I said, George, now we have so many devotees in our temple that we're running out of space. Could you help us find a bigger place? Without hesitating he said, Sure. No problem. Visit different estate agents, see different properties and if you find something really good, call me and I'll come with you to check it out. George was an exceptional person and he constantly thought about how to spread Krishna consciousness.
For instance, although it's a single album, his album cover for Living In the Material World is double 'it folds out' because George wanted to put a set of japa beads, a bead bag and a set of instructions how to use them into the other slipcover to be sold along with the record. And a lot of the lyrics on that album are Krishna conscious. One of the songs, called "The Lord Loves the One Who Loves the Lord" George was very clear for whom that song was meant. He said, I wrote that for Srila Prabhupada. George told me he got inspired when I interrupted him with my visits to his studio.
Once he said, "Every time you come here I can't get any recording done". This recording studio costs 3,000 pounds a day but when you come, I don't get anything done. We sit down, eat prasadam and talk about Prabhupada and Krishna consciousness. He loved distributing Prabhupada's Gita to his friends, and we'd supply him with beads and bead bags so his friends could chant japa. He had the mood of giving to others the wonderful opportunity of Krishna consciousness that he had received from Srila Prabhupada and the devotees. When I asked him. Why don't you take initiation from Prabhupada?"] He said, I don't need to, I've already got a spiritual name. I said, What do you mean you've got a spiritual name? He said, My name's Hari's son, son of Hari and then he laughed, that was his Liverpudlian dry humor. When I went with him to visit different properties, he would have one hand on the steering wheel, steering the car, and the other hand in his bead bag, chanting.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 3 by Siddhanta Dasa
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