Srila Prabhupada was extreamly relaxed
Shyamananda das : One of the nicest engagements I remember was when we went to Tarrawarra Abbey. It was a Trappist monastery up in Yarra Glen up the back of Melbourne, and those monks were in silence up until the end of the '60s. So they were very strict vegetarian. At the Franciscan monastery, Prabhupada spoke quite pointedly about not killing, which he tended to do around Christian people because "thou shalt not kill" was the point at which he would enter the engagement with them; but at Tarrawarra he didn't. He spoke in a much more relaxed manner, and I never saw him so comfortable among men that weren't actually devotees.
There was a point in the evening where he was sitting on a couch and the monks were sitting around him, and he actually had his arm over the back of the couch around one of the monks' shoulders virtually and he was sitting up. When Srila Prabhupada was relaxed, he was extremely relaxed; but he had a very regal bearing. And like anyone who has a great regal bearing, when they relax it's extremely attractive because it's intimate, it's not something that you'd normally get to see. Prabhupada's bearing in public was impeccable, and I very rarely saw him let that go and just relax.
I also saw in that moment how Srila Prabhupada was not sectarian. It was always about the principles. If the principles were being applied and lived, then he would embrace that in whatever form that took; and he had a remarkable way of speaking to that part of everybody.
When you read the qualifications of a Vaisnava, always respectful to others, and you read those things and those words, you can take them superficially or you can take them very deeply. And in moments like that, I got to see very deeply what something like that really meant , the profound respect for the sincerity of those souls. And these monks put on such a feast for us and they went to so much trouble, and he was so happy to see that and just to be amongst men who were trying to love God and were following some rules and regulations. I could see that he felt a degree of comfort and affinity that I never witnessed before or since. It was absolutely wonderful.
Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada-A Chronological Series by Shyamasundara Dasa
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