November 18. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Telling any story is a delicate operation. We have to have faith in the story we are telling and enter into it. And it must be accurate. Sometimes we hear a devotee retell a story like this: “One time, Prabhupada said to Gurudasa, ‘You say you want to be at my lotus feet, but my lotus feet are always moving.’ When Prabhupada said that, he pushed Gurudasa away with his lotus feet.” The difficulty with that last story is that no one who was actually present for this episode said that Prabhupada actually pushed Gurudasa with his feet. In this way, stories sometimes get blown into tall tales. They may become very different from what actually happened. Therefore, it is good to be enthusiastic when telling Prabhupada stories, but we should never exaggerate or make up details. Our enthusiasm may capture the ears of some, and may even impress some people, but if the story has some untrue elements then people will have a false impression. The story has to be authentic and the storyteller has to be honest.
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