![](\"https:\/\/festivalofindia.org\/sites\/default\/files\/Jayananda%20Prabhu%20portrait.jpg\")
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I recently met a person who met Sriman Jayananda Prabhu and worked with him. His name is Lance, an elderly welder\/stained-glass artist who was part of the San Francisco hippie scene in 1968. I met Lance early last year in downtown San Juan, Puerto Rico, right in the middle of the tourist district. Though I wasn’t dressed in devotional clothes, I had full tilak on. He recognized my tilak. As best as I can recall, here’s how our conversation went:<\/p>\n
Lance: Hey, are you from the temple up in Gurabo?
\nMBD: Yes I am. How do you know about the temple in Gurabo?
\nLance: I went there a couple of times years ago. Haven’t been there in years.
\nMBD: You know, we also have a restaurant, Govinda’s, down on Eleanor Roosevelt. Ever been there?
\nLance: No, but I will check it out, I live a couple of blocks from there.
\nMBD: So how do you know about us?
\nLance: Back in ’68 I worked with a man, he used to drive a taxi. Not sure what his name was, started with a J.
\nMBD: Jayananda?
\nLance: Yes, yes, they worship him as a saint now.
\nMBD: Yeah, Jayananda was a great guy, world famous, universally respected, an amazing gentleman.
\nLance: You know, I knew the Krishna consciousness movement when the entire movement could fit into a room that size (points to a 10X15 room).
\nMBD: Really?
\nLance: Yes, I also met Prabhupada in 1968
\nMBD: What did you think of him, Prabhupada?
\nLance: He was a small man.
\nMBD: Yes, but you know, some small men are really big!
\nLance (laughs) Yes yes, I wish I had listened to him, though.
\nMBD: What do you remember from what you heard?
\nLance: Not much, I always only ever heard half, always only half.
\nMBD: Never too late, you can still read his books.
\nLance: Yeah, you know, my daughter is really into these things, she is moving to Canada, and she is a vegetarian, which I never told her to be.
\nMBD: Here’s my card. Tell her to write me an email when she gets to Canada, I live in Canada.<\/p>\n
The conversation continued for a good 15-20 minutes more. Lance promised to go to the temple and also to Govinda’s. I left some books for him and his daughter.<\/p>\n
How powerful was ISKCON’s first saint, Sriman Jayananda Prabhu, that a drug-hazed old hippie still remembers having met and served with him in 1968. That was 56 years ago! What a powerful experience he must have had.<\/p>\n
It’s unimaginable how many countless souls have been touched by Srila Prabhupada and his “transcendental paramedics” in the field. This sankirtana that we are doing, it’s no small thing. It forever changes the hearts of all those it touches. And when those hearts are ready, they start to read Prabhupada’s books, serve enthusiastically, and sometimes even join the sankirtana party of Lord Chaitanya, “infecting” others with pure love of God. That’s the magic of sankirtana and the mercy of Srila Prabhupada.and his saintly devotees.<\/p>\n
your servant,
\nMahabhagavat Das<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently met a person who met Sriman Jayananda Prabhu and worked with him. His name is Lance, an elderly welder\/stained-glass artist who was part of the San Francisco hippie scene in 1968. I met Lance early last year in downtown San Juan, Puerto Rico, right in the middle of the tourist district. Though I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-testing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112306,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112305\/revisions\/112306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}