No more, cut cut' while I'm speaking.
Bhargava das : Prabhupada really didn't like being photographed, but he accepted it because it was useful for the publications. And he didn't like being photographed when he was speaking, and he told me a number of times that it broke his train of thought. But I was very impulsive and very romantic so I liked these shots where Prabhupada was speaking and he'd use his hands, these speaking mudras. At first I was using a Canon single lens reflex camera, and it's kind of noisy. So he said, "No more, cut cut' while I'm speaking." Then later on when I was able to get a Leica camera which doesn't have the mirror that flops up, it has a much quieter shutter noise, and then when I photographed Prabhupada while he was speaking he said, "No more 'ch ch' while I'm speaking."
So he could tell the difference between the cameras. He had a very refined sense of smell and a very refined sense of hearing. In South Africa, I set up a whole bunch of lights and I was photographing Prabhupada, and it irritated him because it was in a small room and I went overboard with all these flashes. I wanted to get really beautiful saturated color and everything bright. But I wasn't discreet enough, and he got angry at me. Then the next day he got his books.
These were joyous moments for Prabhupada, when he'd see the Bhagavatam manifest in book form. He was opening his books and he was looking at them, and he touched them with such delicate touch that you could see it wasn't his book and he was just so happy that the Bhagavatams were coming out into the world. Because it was such a nice moment, I really wanted to catch some photos of it.
I had a high-powered battery that didn't really need any recharging on the flash, it was like an old press photographer's unit, and I just fired off probably six or seven frames one after another. And from the day before and that day, it really irritated Prabhupada. So I said to Prabhupada, "Prabhupada, I'm such a fool." He said, "If you are a fool, then go away. That is my order." So I took it very seriously. I walked out of his room and then I put my camera down, and I went out of the temple at about six o'clock in the evening. As I was walking I was thinking, "Should I commit suicide? Should I drown myself in the Triveni? Should I exile myself here to South Africa and just do humble service?" Then about ten o'clock my mind cleared and I thought, "Prabhupada would never excommunicate me for taking too many pictures."
Then I got really embarrassed and I called up the temple, and I was out in the suburbs somewhere. I had walked for about four straight hours. They came and picked me up, and the next day I came back and they told me, "Prabhupada wants to see you." This was the only time I didn't want to see Prabhupada. I went into Prabhupada's room and he said, "How come you didn't come to the engagement?" I said, "Well, Prabhupada, I thought you said I shouldn't come." And he said, "I never said you shouldn't come. But even if I said you shouldn't come, still you should have come." And the whole thing was just too emotional for me. I thought I had put Prabhupada through so much trouble just disappearing like that. Prabhupada spoke at Wits University for two nights in a row in Joburg, and the second night I went but I just took a few snaps from a distance with a long lens. This photographer who was an Indian man who photographed for the devotees down there, he was a Life Member, and he came up to me and he said, "Are you all right? Prabhupada was asking, ?Where is Bhargava? Where is Bhargava?'" I had mixed emotions after I heard that. I was very happy that Prabhupada cared about me that much, but at the same time I felt very bad that he had to worry about me. After that, I was very standoffish about photographing him.
Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada-A Chronological Series by Bhargava Dasa
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