Disciple of Swami chinmayananda became servent of Srila Prabhupada
Sri Nathji : Before the Juhu temple was even conceived, Prabhupada lived at Seaface Park in Bombay, and every day my wife and I used to meet him there. Out of respect I would offer my obeisances and listen to Prabhupada, but I was a Mayavadi, and I would also argue with him. I said, "Prabhupada, Brahman is supreme, not Krishna. Brahman takes the form of Krishna, Rama, Nrisimha, etc." Prabhupada tolerated my nonsense. He would give us prasadam. He would give us his association, but he would say, "Who has told you all these nonsense things? This is all rascaldom." I would say, "My spiritual teacher is Chinmayananda Swami."
Prabhupada said, "Oh that rascal. He's the biggest Mayavadi in the world today. Ask him, 'If you're Narayana, why are you getting old, why are your teeth falling out, why is your hair getting gray? Why are you not looking young like Narayana?' He's calling himself Narayana, and he calls other Mayavadis Narayana. Other Mayavadis call him Narayana. This is all nonsense. God is always God. He doesn't become God. We are always jivatma, and we'll always be jivatma. We are parts and parcels of God and the part-and-parcel can never be the same as the complete whole."
I was confused because, although Prabhupada's logic seemed quite clear, I still thought that he might be conning me. When you come from a city like Bombay or New York, you meet many con artists. In India, lots of so-called spiritual teachers collect money and sell mantras and do all sorts of other nonsense. So I'd go back to Chinmayananda Swami and ask him, "Swamiji, why do you get old? If you control Mother Nature, why are you getting old? Can you not control that?" And he would say, "I have to look old so that people respect me more." I'd go back and tell Prabhupada, "He has to look old because people will respect him more." Prabhupada would say, "That is rascaldom. Mother Nature is under Krishna's control and not under his control. He will always be controlled by nature. You go and tell him that."
And Prabhupada would usually quote some verse from Bhagavad-gita, like the verse where Lord Krishna says, "I am the seed-giving father." How could Swami Chinmayananda be the seed-giving father of everybody? Again I'd go back and tell Swami Chinmayananda that. Slowly, over a period of seven years, I tried to find fault or inconsistency in Prabhupada's books, teachings, tape recordings, and letters. I couldn't find a single inconsistency or untruthfulness. There was no duplicity. Duplicity is very common in those who are doing some sort of variation or concoction of religion.
But Prabhupada was sticking to the original teachings of Lord Chaitanya, the original teachings of Lord Krishna. It was unique. Eventually Prabhupada asked me to invite Chinmayananda Swami to come and have a debate. I asked Prabhupada, "What point shall we debate?" Prabhupada said, "We shall debate whether Chinmayananda Swami will lift Govardhan Hill or not. If he's God, he should be able to do that. God did it. If he knows what's in my mind and everybody's mind, then he's God. He's Paramatma. But if he only knows about his own body, and that too not fully, he's just another human being who's trying to cheat God and trying to cheat everyone else."
I told Chinmayananda Swami, "Are you prepared to have this debate? It'll resolve this awful doubt I have now as to which of you two are the real spiritual master." But Chinmayananda Swami refused. I asked Chinmayananda Swami, "Can you please tell me whether you can know what's in the minds of everyone? God knows what's going on in everyone's mind. Can you do that? For instance, if I sat down now and thought about something would you be able to write down what I was thinking about?" He said "No. I am not a mind-reader." I said, "No, no. I am not talking about reading minds. If you are really at an elevated level where you are one with God, then it's like you've plugged yourself into a computer that has so many facts. You should be able to retrieve information." He couldn't do it. Then I surrendered to Prabhupada. I became his driver.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 2 by Siddhanta Dasa
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