Prabhupada is pleased to see the devotees dovetailing their propensities

After seeing Prabhupada and observing how New Dwaraka is managed, Brahmananda flies to Japan to oversee the completion of the new KRISHNA book. His mission is to negotiate with Dai Nippon Printers to print Back to Godhead and Srimad-Bhagavatam because they can do a better job at a cheaper price than ISKCON Press. Prabhupada is now printing 125,000 copies of BTG monthly, plus 15,000 copies each in French and German. Back to Godhead magazine is the bread and butter of the movement. Prabhupada also wants Brahmananda to visit various temples to ensure that the proper standard is being maintained, and to send back regular reports. Like Tamal Krishna, Brahmananda is being considered for a possible GBC post.

Los Angeles is a hub of activity these days as many temple presidents arrive from around the movement. Kirtanananda Swami has come from New Vrindavana and also shows his skill at playing the organ before the Wednesday evening class in the sanctuary. Prabhupada is pleased to see the devotees dovetailing their propensities in the service of Krishna and wants to have more programs with organ playing. With so many senior devotees present, the ecstasy of the temple increases, attracting more new people to join, who are turned over to Vishnujana as their leader and older brother.

Danavir: I had met the devotees Friday night at Westwood chanting right in front of the bank. Then that Sunday I came to the temple about noon. Somebody recognized me from Friday night and asked, "Would you like to go on sankirtana? We're going down to Griffith Park." I said, "Yeah, why not?" The feast was at four, but I came early. "OK, just get in that van." It was a white Econoline van. So I got in and sat down with the other devotees. The last devotee in the van was Vishnujana, so he sat right next to me. He said, "Haribol, Hare Krishna." The way he spoke sounded amazing. I thought, "Who's this? This one's obviously a little different." He was very friendly and made a warm gesture to me. He used to do a puppet show in the park on Sunday, and also his famous harmonium renditions, telling the story of Mrgari the hunter, or other pastimes. Especially where there were children, he would draw them over and do the harmonium stories. I moved in the next Sunday, and he was the temple commander as well as the sankirtana leader. He would wake everyone up in the morning. We would all be sleeping on the floor in the brahmacari ashram, and he would turn on the lights and say, "Hare Krishna. Time to rise and shine for Krishna. Haribol." That was how he would wake everybody up. I remember going to him the first time for some duties. He was sitting on top of one of the vehicles in the parking lot next to the kitchen playing a mridanga on a sunny June day. "I'm here to report for duties." He said, "Thank you very much," and gave me a couple of duties to perform. It was amazing how he was temple commander. He was just sitting there chanting, and people would come to him for duties. He would give them duties and send them off. They'd go off quite happy, and then come back for more. It was a mystical way of being temple commander. It worked because they could feel that he really appreciated whatever they did in their service, so they were very excited and enthusiastic to do the services he asked them to do.

Riktananda: Vishnujana, your eyes always focused on him. He seemed to be a center of energy like a vortex. But he lived very simply. He slept right on the floor with us. After breakfast prasada he would lean up against a truck bumper and give everyone their duties quite informally but with enough determination that we knew better than to argue or goof off on the service. He was quietly very forceful. He wasn't stiff and fomal about his position, but neither was he very casually familiar with the main body of devotees. He exhibited the rare trait of leadership that is both very firm and very patient, even gentle. He was large-boned and hence quite strong physically, and his hands seemed fashioned of steel from so much vigorous mridanga playing. But this firmness was accompanied by a refined sense of appreciation for art, music, and a kindness in dealing with devotees, particularly new ones. Almost always he would grab me by the shoulders and say, "Prabhu, you clean the sanctuary." He'd always have me clean the sanctuary. He could make me do anything. He was dear to everybody, and everybody was dear to him, sarva bhutatma-bhutatma. He was an older and wiser godbrother who was very firm yet very patient, biding his time as temple commander in order to get to his first love, chanting and playing the mridanga and harmonium.

After lunch, Vishnujana takes out the daily sankirtana party to downtown LA. The afternoon party is a full van of devotees, including the women, usually Kausalya, Srimati, Sacidevi, Sahadevi, and Caitanya dasi. Vishnujana plays a big, heavy pakwaj drum these days. It takes him fifteen minutes to finish the ritual of taping his fingers with pennies. Sometimes he will break a drum-head, but Gargamuni is the financier and buys him whatever he needs to keep the party going out. The devotees dance in two rows, facing Bullock's Department Store, with their backs to the street at the edge of the sidewalk. Vishnujana is perpendicular to the building facing the troops. The men are in the back row and the women are in the front, dressed in silk saris and wearing nose rings. They are very good with their kartals, all perfectly in unison. The married women wear yellow saris, and the rest wear saffron saris. Everyone dances together and they have to be in step. Vishnujana has a unique a way of dancing up and down on his toes like riding a bicycle, not jumping, but just walking. And he is so good with his pakwaj. As people pass by between the sankirtana party and the building, they get blasted with the transcendental sound. Vishnujana doesn't like to move the party around very much, so he mostly chants at one spot. Occasionally, he will take a tour down the street, but basically he likes to stay in one place. Everyone agrees it is a wonderful sankirtana party.

Danavir: He liked to go with one tune for an hour. Then he'd stop chanting and call everyone over and tell some stories about Krishna. He was the only one who knew Krishna stories, because KRISHNA book hadn't come out yet, but he had access to the manuscripts. It was pretty exciting because you'd get to hear stories that no one else knew. It was very hot downtown, but I was in training so the workout for me was great. We would take out a jug of lemonade, but we didn't use cups. Someone would hold it for somebody else to drink, Prabhupada style. No one would touch their mouth to it. It was hard to control my mind during the chanting, so I'd be looking at the clock waiting for when it would be over. But the thing that kept me going was Vishnujana himself. There would be two lines of devotees, and he'd be out in front facing us when he'd chant. He wanted to give us something to look at other than the karmis walking by, so he'd look at us chanting and smile. That's what kept us going, his enthusiasm and his very warm smiles.

Riktananda: He was determined to keep his spiritual eyesight as focused as humanly possible. Because he seemed to be equal to all, particularly out on street sankirtana, he made the women devotees feel equal to the men in his presence, and they gave an energy to our street chanting that hasn't been seen since. His voice was always on the verge of disappearing or splitting into simultaneous octaves, because of the stress he placed on it by chanting so loudly and forcefully many hours of the day, week after week, month after month, year after year. It was as if he suffered some damage to his vocal cords, because he would have to summon up special energy to overcome the tendency of his voice to collapse into a hoarse whisper. But he did overcome his hoarseness and almost always went out front to lead the chanting. On only one occasion do I remember his not leading the sankirtana party and remaining content simply to chant in the chorus of devotees. Sometimes there can be rowdy people on sankirtana, but Vishnujana takes the lead and goes right up to them during the kirtan. Without stopping the chanting, he just moves closer to give a big smile to a drunk, or an angry woman. He has a very big presence, bigger still because he's chanting, and with a big drum. So he's always able to disarm any hostile elements. What else can a person do with all that mercy pouring on them? It simply lights their own condition. After being disarmed by Vishnujana, these people usually just shuffle away.

Sacidevi: There was one bum that actually quite frightened us. He was a drunkard and very belligerent. Vishnujana used to stop the kirtan and walk around talking to people, kind of like a lecture, and this man badgered him quite a bit. We were actually afraid for him. He kind of ignored the man, but he wasn't afraid. Eventually the man's heart melted. His personality transformed from anger, resentment, and belligerence, to being friendly and soft. Vishnujana touched his heart and actually got him to say the Holy Name.

Narada Muni: One time I saw him get angry at a karmi. There was one demon-possessed personality who came to harass the kirtan party. Of course, they used to come to harass us all the time, and he was always undisturbed, but this one lady came up and she struck the mridanga, which was like an extension of his personal rasa with Krishna, so he immediately pushed her back with real authority.

Kesava: Vishnujana was obviously a person who was never antagonistic to anyone, much like Jayananda. On one or two occasions, I saw Vishnujana neutralize antagonists, without hurting them, but neutralize them very fast. He wasn't easily intimidated. A couple of times he squared off, faced people down. He never had to really do anybody in, but he was right there. He had kshatriya spirit in him, too. With all the sankirtana, taking care of the new bhaktas, and being temple commander, Vishnujana is fully engaged. In fact, he is over-engaged and barely has any time off to just relax and reflect. The process of self-realization requires contemplation and awareness of how the anarthas are diminishing, how the mind is coming under control and not drifting off, and how much joy is actually being experienced from the platform of the soul. Everybody needs to experience joy, because the living entity is anandamayo 'bhyasat. Where that joy is coming from is an important consideration. If one enjoys bodily pleasures, it means that one is conditioning oneself to the bodily concept of life. Krishna consciousness teaches how to experience pleasure directly from the platform of the soul, reinforcing the spiritual concept of life. It all boils down to where our pleasure is coming from, and everyone can see that Vishnujana's pleasure comes from chanting Hare Krishna.

Danavir: We'd come back around 6:00 PM, shower, and go to the evening arati. He would lead arati and play mridanga. After that we'd go out on sankirtana again! This time we'd go to Hollywood Boulevard because the play "Hair" was popular. We'd chant until midnight in front of the Aquarius Theater. When people went in and when they came out, we were there. We got them before they went in and after they came out, because we were there about four hours. Hollywood was really a hot spot, and there were a lot of people out. We'd be chanting, and some devotees would distribute Spiritual Sky incense packs, and others would distribute magazines. On Friday and Saturday night we'd stay out until about 1:30 AM, and get up later. In those days we'd take five hours and forty minutes rest. That was the allotted rest period. In those days we had guard duty in two-hour shifts all night long: Deity watch. There would always be somebody in the temple room, and at night somebody would be there awake to guard the Deities. Vishnujana volunteered to stay up late and do his watch for two hours, so he was only sleeping three hours and forty minutes. So whenever he would sit down, he'd fall asleep, unless he was chanting, because he wasn't sleeping enough. He was pushing himself. So in the van to and from sankirtana, he'd be sleeping a lot of the time. During japa he had a hard time, because he was really pushing himself.

Visala: Vishnujana was a remarkable person. He looked like a demigod. His lectures were very intelligent and inspired everyone. Love always emanated from him, and everyone felt happy to have his association. When we used to go out for sankirtana in downtown LA, Karandhara was leading one party and Vishnujana was leading the other. Everybody was trying to get on Vishnujana's party. Karandhara was a great soul, but everyone was so excited to be with Vishnujana. He was such a wonderful devotee. When he spoke, you felt Krishna was speaking. In the sastra it says, "When a brahmana eats, Krishna is eating through him, when a brahmana speaks..." I always felt that Supersoul was with him, that he was pure and without false ego. The philosophy was coming out loud and clear and genuine. He was very sincere. Once I asked him, "Do you really think that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead?" He said, "Yes. There is no doubt that Krishna is the Supreme." A third class devotee has all kinds of doubts, a second class devotee has some doubts, but a first class devotee has no doubts. I always felt he was a first class devotee. But how can a third class devotee recognize a first class? I read a letter where Prabhupada said Vishnujana sang like a Gandharva. Prabhupada was pleased with his singing. Everyone was pleased with him. Everything he did seemed to be with enthusiasm and intelligence. I always just marveled at him, and considered him elevated. All glories to Vishnujana.