Swami in Town
Govinda Dasi: Gary and I were well situated in Texas when we were mystically, incredibly drawn to the Haight-Ashbury area 1,500 miles away just a couple of months before Prabhupada arrived there. In San Francisco, we saw some flyers that said, The Swami is coming to town, Chant and be high forever. This sort of thing. Gary looked at one of these flyers and said, When this Swami comes to town, we'll go see him and we'll do whatever he says to do. We went to Frederick Street and learned about the classes and Mukunda Das, who later became Mukunda Goswami, arranged for us to visit Prabhupada. In our first private meeting, Prabhupada was sitting in a lounge chair in the sunlight looking effulgent and peaceful near some bay windows in his apartment. I sat in another chair opposite him and Gary sat on the floor. Prabhupada began to ask us questions about our lives, who we were, where we had come from, what we were doing. He was personally interested in us, as he was in each of his disciples. We told him that we were artists and had studied art. He asked about our parents, our family. In the course of the conversation, I told him that I had traveled all over Europe and had studied art in various places, and he was quite surprised. He raised his eyes and said, "Oh, you have traveled so much?" I looked like I was 16, although I was actually 19 or 20. I said, "Yes, Swamiji, but none of it has made me happy." He smiled and said, "Ah, that is required, to be disgusted with material life."
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 3 by Siddhanta Dasa
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