Srila Prabhupada and Sahajiya Artist

Anakadundubhi Dasa: Srila Prabhupada noted symptoms of prakrita-sahajiya - the tendency to take devotional service cheaply and to imitate the realizations of highly advanced devotees - in one of his artist-disciples, and he gave him early warnings of danger. One time in Vrindavana, the artist brought a sketch before Srila Prabhupada for his approval before beginning a serious painting. Srila Prabhupada's first remark was, "Is this Siva and Parvati?" "No, Srila Prabhupada, it is Radha-Krishna." "They look too old," said Srila Prabhupada. "They should look no more than sixteen years old - very fresh youth." The artist went back to work and redid the sketch, but when Prabhupada saw it the second time, he again said the couple looked too old. He then showed his disciple a picture on his desk of the ISKCON Calcutta Deities, Radha-Govinda, and he said, "They should be painted like this. Krishna is a young, sweet boy." For the third time the artist did the sketch and showed it to Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada was still unenthusiastic, but since he did not specifically forbid the work, the artist took this as his permission and began work on a large canvas. After weeks of work, he brought his opus before Srila Prabhupada. The painting showed Radha and Krishna on a swing. Krishna was lifting Radharani's veil and looking into Her face in a very intimate, conjugal way. The more traditional elements of Radha and Krishna standing together, appearing in the artist's preliminary sketches, had evolved into a scene more imagined by the artist. "It is concoction," said Srila Prabhupada. Despite all the effort put into it by the artist, Srila Prabhupada couldn't spare feelings on such an important, responsible matter as the depiction of Radha and Krishna. In a mood of hurt pride, the artist took back the painting and did not inquire further about what was wrong or what he should do to rectify it. On another occasion in Mayapur, Prabhupada alerted the same artist that his spontaneous expression was unauthorized. While painting large portraits from the Caitanya-caritamrita on the boundary wall to ISKCON Mayapur, the artist had created his own original Bengali verse and painted it in large script. When Srila Prabhupada first noticed it while on a morning walk, he became disturbed. "You should not have dared," he said. The verse employed a metaphor praising Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda. Prabhupada said the sentiment wasn't bad, although the Bengali wasn't perfect - but the main objection was that his disciple had dared to put his own verse on the wall rather than one provided by the previous acaryas, such as Narottama dasa Thakura. Srila Prabhupada even mentioned the incident in that morning's Bhagavatam class. "Don't concoct," he said. "The sahajiya tendency is to take everything cheaply. Don't do this," said Prabhupada, "or you will become a sahajiya and everything will be ruined."