Prabhupada worked with a manual typewriter when he began his publishing of
articles and his Srimad- Bhagavatam in India. He would carry the typed
manuscripts to the printers, where they would typeset the pages into printed
pages.
Prabhupada worked with his old manual typewriter at his rented workroom at
Chippiwada in Old Delhi. He was a poor sannyasi and had to beg for paper and
printing and had to bring the paper himself and have it carried by rickshaw
to the printers. He then read the printed pages and entered corrections by
hand and carried it back to the printer. He wrote in the quiet of his room
at the Radha Damodara temple, but conducted his printing business by walking
through the busy streets of Delhi.
When he came to America, he continued to work with his manual typewriter,
composing the translations and purports of Srimad-Bhagavatam. He was on the
Second Canto and carried hundreds of pages of already-completed manuscripts
with him. But then his typewriter was stolen from his room at Dr. Misra’s
ashram. When he moved to the Bowery, he was given another typewriter and
continued his work. At 26 Second Avenue he engaged Hayagriva in editing the
pages he had already typed. Then Gargamuni bought Prabhupada his first
Dictaphone, and e began using it, speaking directly into the microphone and
making tapes. He stopped using the typewriter.
I was one of the first ones to type the Dictaphone tapes. No one else wanted
to do it. I had my own manual typewriter at my apartment, and I would also
type the tapes in Prabhupada’s apartment at 26 Second Avenue. When
Prabhupada moved to San Francisco and I moved to Boston, I continued to be
the sole typist of the tapes. He began The Teachings of Lord Caitanya and
sent me the tapes in the mail. He sent them in loosely-taped envelopes at
the rate of about two per week. Typing the tapes was very dear to me.
Hearing my master’s voice in my ears and typing early in the morning before
I went to my welfare job gave me intense feelings of separation. I used to
hear his voice even when I wasn’t typing. I kept the carbon copy and sent
the original manuscript to him in the mail. We had much correspondence about
which tapes I had and which tapes he had. In this way I typed the Third and
Fourth Cantos of Srimad-Bhagavatam, the entire TLC and the Krsna Book. In my
morning lectures at the temple I would recite Krsna Book stories to the
devotees. Typing was my life and soul. This picture shows Prabhupada and I
conferring over the Dictaphone during one of his visits to Boston. Typing
for Prabhupada was one of the most intimate services I ever did for him, and
it made me steady emotionally, easing my separation from him and teaching me
the philosophy.
From Srila Prabhupada Smaranam: Conversations with His Divine Grace
pp. 130-34