Nirvana
Govinda Dasi: At the time of my initiation, there were no saris, most of us didn't know what saris were. I had been an art student, and art students wore jeans. So I was initiated in paint-stained beige jeans. It didn't seem to matter to Srila Prabhupada. That was what our life was like at that time. During my initiation, I saw him put colored dyes down and build the fire, and I thought, "What is the depth of meaning to this? What is really going on?" I didn't have any back ground information. Bhagavad-Gita wasn't printed yet. The only thing we had were Prabhupada's three Srimad Bhagavatam volumes, which we read right away. I had some misgivings during my initiation so afterwards I went upstairs to visit Srila Prabhupada and I told him that I didn't feel liberated. I thought that when I got initiation, by golly, it was going to be immediate nirvana. Prabhupada was very patient with me. He said, "Just see the fan over here" as there was a fan on in the corner. "If I unplug it, it may spin a few more times. But because it has been unplugged it will eventually stop. So it's like that. Although your material life may not cease immediately, because it has been unplugged, it will spin a few more times. But just follow the process as I have told you." He explained the concept very beautifully and gently. Then he gave us our first job to make a four-foot-by-four-foot Radha-Krishna painting.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 3 by Siddhanta Dasa
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