Smiling from ear to ear...

This photo was taken in the office of the CEO of Dai Nippon printers in Tokyo.

Japan was wonderful. All the young guests who came to see Srila Prabhupada at the temple humbly offered him flowers and bowed down at his lotus feet, many of them offering full dandavats. Respect is part of the Japanese culture, and very beautiful. At Dai Nippon, which was so big that the offices and factory took up an entire city block, they offered His Divine Grace the chance to see their dentist to replace the single lower front tooth he had just lost.

He went to their dental clinic, which was part of their very large medical office, and met the young dentist who would make the solid gold tooth and bridge for him. Since gold is good for the heart, and was an ingredient of the heart medicine Srila Prabhupada used every other day, he asked if they could use gold and they immediately agreed. The young dentist was so joyful, honoring and respectful, and bowed over and over to His Divine Grace as he did the needful and took a plaster cast of his lower jaw and teeth.

The gold replacement was ready the next day, and when the dentist put it into Srila Prabhupada's mouth, he moved his mouth around and exclaimed, "This is very nice, I can hardly feel it!" He reached up and pulled the dentist's head to his heart, hugged him and messed up his hair and thanked him over and over. The young saintly dentist was in bliss, as you can imagine, and was smiling from ear to ear.

Pusta Krishna das: The issue with Srila Prabhupada's teeth was also a little humorous. He said to me, "Just see, I am old man but I still have my teeth." He allowed me to look into his mouth. It appeared to me that his teeth were held together by gold wire that was wrapped around a number of teeth. It looked like the job of an engineer! But, he definitely was somewhat proud of having his teeth.