Everybody was dumbfounded
Every morning Prabhupada enjoys taking a walk on the beach with a few senior disciples. When he returns, there is always an exuberant and joyful welcome from the devotees who line the walkway on either side in front of the temple. When Prabhupada walks by, each devotee steps forward to hand him a flower and then offer obeisances. Srila Prabhupada reciprocates the loving gesture by touching each devotee on the head as he passes.
Riktananda: Vishnujana had this delightful way of greeting Srila Prabhupada. Everybody knew he had a powerful, transcendent way of chanting, but there was this one way he had of chanting one word in the pranama-mantra. He would accent the word srimate and just carried it high with great exuberance. After the morning walk we were lined up on the steps to greet Prabhupada when he would come back about 7:00AM before greeting the Deities. Vishnujana would invariably greet Prabhupada as he got out of the little Ford Pinto that the temple had bought to carry him around. He would step out onto the curb, and immediately Vishnujana would go "srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin," and his hand would go up very gallantly and salute Prabhupada. Prabhupada would smile very nicely. There were moments like that when the demigod and the representative of the Personality of Godhead would share their love, and we'd all bask in it. It was a very sweet moment for everybody. It would burn away any envy that you might have, "Why can't I chant like that? Why can't I be right there greeting Prabhupada?"
Yasodanandana: What personally impressed me about Vishnujana was he always had such eagerness, like an uncontrollable urge, to chant the Holy Name. And his demeanor, his attitude, his preaching was so sweet. He wanted to bring so many people back to Prabhupada, back to the temple, back to our movement. The devotional energy he used to manifest was just incredible. He was so attractive, that there was not a day of the week that he would not bring some people back to the temple attracted by his chanting. That was something that really impressed me about Vishnujana. It was very touching. Every morning he would lead kirtan in the temple. He just wanted me to play one beat for hours, so it would be a supporting beat, and he would go into this ecstatic chanting and dancing and jumping. It was very, very blissful. He liked the way I played, very strong and steady. Everybody had been saying, "Wait until you see Vishnujana chant," but I never understood it until the first night I saw him on Hollywood Boulevard chanting and playing this huge pakwaj drum. He started this beautiful kirtan that went on for four and a half hours. It was just incredible. Every half hour or so he would stop and give a little talk to the crowd. He was very methodical in his kirtan, very systematic, very blissful, and very, very inspiring. Prabhupada was pleased with his chanting.
Nanda Kumar: What I saw was that he could talk to a person and see their soul. That's the way Vishnujana was. He was on a platform of seeing everybody as spirit soul. He never had any artificial renunciation towards women, and he never had any strong desire to associate with them. Everybody liked him. He was the kind of person who could go into a biker bar in full Vaishnava regalia, and everyone would like him. No matter where he went, like the Goswamis are described, "popular to the devotees and the ruffians alike," and that was Vishnujana. No matter what kind of person it was, Krishna would direct him with exactly the right energy for that person. That made him such a great preacher. I can't imagine anyone having anything against him. He didn't have anything in him to complain about.
Sukadeva: Vishnujana had the type of personality where you could gauge if a person was envious or not. If a person did not like Vishnujana you could tell that he was an extremely envious person. Because Vishnujana had such a personality that anybody who saw him, liked him.
Meanwhile, up in Northern California, all the householders have moved over to Berkeley, so the core of devotees at Frederick Street is brahmacari. They have a little temple with no overhead; just down-to-earth, homespun Krishna consciousness. The mood is simple, a pure preaching atmosphere. Thus the brahmacaris just do kirtan and distribute BTGs.
Dhanurdhara: I was traveling in California during summer break from college. When we arrived in San Francisco, we came across a kirtan party in Chinatown, so we joined in. The next day we were walking past the temple on Frederick street and saw the devotees through the window. Gaurahari looked out the window and invited us in, "Ahhh, Krishna has brought you here. Have some prasadam." We saw this mechanic in an old car next to our van, and he was fixing something. When he finished, he stuck his head out from under the hood, and a few devotees came out of the temple. He put them in the car and sent them off someplace like a father. This was Jayananda. He asked us to help with the Sunday feast, so we peeled plums for the plum chutney. Then he said, "You can go out to the park for sankirtana." When we came back, he was at the door. "It costs one dollar to get in for the Sunday feast." "What! We just helped, and everybody said we can come for free." But he was insistent that we pay. Normally that would have really flipped out some hippies, but we said, "We don't have any money." He said, "Have you got any travelers checks?" "Yeah." "They cash them across the street." Somehow or other, he convinced us to pay. The next day he was in the temple, preaching to two nuns and some older lay people. I could see that there was intense compassion for them. His preaching was in the mood of, "You're suffering. Take to this Krishna consciousness." I remember very clearly his profound compassion. Even though I didn't know the philosophy, I knew he was really genuine in his concern for their welfare. The day after, we went out again for sankirtana. We drove to the sankirtana spot, but the engine conked out on one of those hills. So everybody had to get out. Then the Berkeley van came by, and everybody was packed into that. We were nice college students, so we got into the van last, but the driver denied us entry, saying, "No, you can't come in. There's no room." Jayananda said, "Can't you squeeze them in?" He was pleading for us. The driver said, "No way." So Jayananda said, "OK. Stay with me." He started to fix the engine and told us, "Just chant Hare Krishna." One of my friends had a guitar, and we started doing kirtan while he fixed the van. After he fixed it, we drove off to join the kirtan party. So it was very impressive, his heart, his compassion.
In Europe, Tamal Krishna has been doing better since his marriage to Madri devi. "The householder couples have demonstrated that they are able to open and maintain centers. So it is very encouraging that London temple is being managed by one pair of husband and wife very nicely. Similarly each pair should take care of a center; and if you love me at all, then all of you try your best to open at least 108 centers during my lifetime, that is my special request. At the same time, we must be very careful to see that every center is going properly." Letter to Tamal Krishna, May 27, 1970
Again Srila Prabhupada declares his desire to see 108 Krishna conscious centers where people can take shelter of the Holy Name. His strategy is to marry the new girls as soon as they are trained up and send them out with their husbands to open new temples. It's a recurrent theme in his preaching as he takes advantage of every opportunity to provide another oasis in the desert of the material world. He feels confident that his householder disciples can serve him with doubled energy. He has good reason to believe this. In London they have already accomplished what his sannyasi godbrothers could not, and in America the householders are taking responsibility to establish and manage dozens of new centers.
Prabhupada is now mainly interested in book distribution and doesn't want to tax his brain managing ISKCON's many departments. He wants a GBC body that will be able to alleviate his management headache so he can just concentrate on writing his books. He has a plan to tour the East Coast temples, beginning with Boston, and give the sannyasa initiations at New Vrindavana during the Janmashtami celebration. But after receiving a letter from Syamasundara with a proposal to purchase a bus and travel from town to town preaching in schools throughout England, Prabhupada feels that this will be the best program for his new sannyasi candidates. He wants them to leave at once and start preaching. He also wants to go to London for a month in order to be close to his new sannyasis. Therefore, without any warning, he announces that the sannyasa candidates should be ready for their initiations after the Sunday Love Feast on Monday morning. The sannyasa initiations after Ratha-yatra are sudden.
At this point no one has any idea that something is wrong and that Srila Prabhupada is disturbed. Everybody is pretty much absorbed in whatever service they are doing. There is so much to do, and everyone is thinking that ISKCON is going to take over the world in the next few years. "We've got a lot of work to do if we're going to do that." Nobody doubts it, especially people like Vishnujana that the whole world will take to Krishna consciousness. As far as everyone is concerned, Prabhupada is now introducing the sannyasa order and these are all respected people. They are the leaders in the movement so they are the most qualified.
Rishabhadeva: His Divine Grace was speaking very strongly in his rooms and in the temple. Of course, he was not saying there is maya in the temple because of this or that. It was just straight, pure philosophy, but it was obviously being geared to some events that were taking place. It was a reflection of some reformation that Prabhupada wanted for the Society. I personally heard that Prabhupada was very upset. He was speaking so strongly you could hear his voice in loud decibels. But no one knew what was going on.
Bhakta dasa: Everybody was dumbfounded at this turn of events. This was a new thing, and nobody knew what was going to happen. We knew they'd be leaving as soon as they took sannyasa. Sannyasa meant to go out with nothing and depending on Krishna. When they took sannyasa, we needed some bamboo sticks for their dandas. We didn't know where to get any, but someone suggested we go to a park in Beverly Hills where there was some bamboo growing. So we thought, why not? So we got the bamboo and somebody wrapped it up. The day Vishnujana took sannyasa, I shaved his head.