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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Prabhupada said, \u201cNo, you have the spark. The same quality that\u2019s in me is also in you. You should join this movement. It is very important.\u201d
\nAtma Tattva: In the early \u201880s in Bangalore, I was required to make at least two Life Members a month. I was a bad Life Membership maker and one month I had only ten days left.
\nI was looking in the telephone directory for Bengali names and I found a ‘Ganguly.\u2019
\nI called and said, “I\u2019m speaking from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. I want to come and see you today.\u201d
\nMr. Ganguly sounded positive. He said, \u201cOh, you are from the Hare Krishna Movement? Please see me at eleven o’clock.\u201d
\nI took the membership form, a small set of books, a poster and so on, and I went to see him.
\nTo my surprise, I found that his was a huge place, almost equal to the aeronautical engineering place in Bangalore.
\nI lost hope\u2014there was no way this man was going to become a member.
\nI went to one secretary, then another, then another, and when my appointment time came I was still with secretaries.
\nGanguly was the top man. I thought, \u201cSince I came all this way, I should see him.\u201d
\nFinally they brought me into a big air-conditioned cabin where a meeting was going on.
\nGanguly told everybody, \u201cI have to talk to the Hare Krishna now, so you all go,\u201d and he closed the meeting.
\nI came in, spread the books on his table and put the poster up. I knew that I wouldn\u2019t have much time with him, so I was brief.
\nI said, \u201cI\u2019m sure you know about this movement. We have a branch here and we have applied for land. You are a Bengali, you should be proud of this because our Guru Maharaj is also a Bengali and he has spread the Hare Krishna movement all around the world. I\u2019m sure you appreciate this service, so would you become a Life Member?\u201d
\nHe got his checkbook and said, \u201cWhat is the amount?\u201d I said, \u201cTwo thousand two hundred and twenty-two.\u201d
\nHe said, \u201cI\u2019ll give you a donation, and you can also make me a Life Member.\u201d
\nHe wrote a check for ten thousand and gave it to me.
\nI was moved. I said, \u201cThank you very much. This is a nice gesture.\u201d
\nHe said, \u201cI wasn\u2019t convinced by your preaching.\u201d
\nI said, \u201cI didn\u2019t think I convinced you either.\u201d
\nHe said, \u201cI want to tell you something. My father grew up in Calcutta and was a classmate of your Founder Acharya. Every day Abhay came to our house on his bike, carrying his little lunch tiffin, and he and my father played chess. The stake for the chess game was lunch \u2014whoever lost the game had to feed the other. Almost every day Abhay won.
\nLater this man\u2019s father received a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and became a professor in the local university.
\nHe would tell people, “The Maharaj who founded the Hare Krishna movement was my classmate and he came to my house every day when we were growing up.\u201d
\nHe said that Abhay told him, \u201cYou should help me later on when I do something.\u201d
\nHe would ask, \u201cWhat is that something?\u201d but Abhay did not explain what he meant.
\nYears later this senior Ganguly learned that the same Abhay became Bhaktivedanta Swami, went to New York and so forth, that there was a local Calcutta center on Albert Road and that Prabhupada was coming to visit.
\nBy this time, the junior Ganguly, who I was speaking with, was in high school and for three days he came to see Prabhupada in the Calcutta ISKCON temple.
\nSince he looked like his father, Prabhupada recognized him. The junior Ganguly said, \u201cI am the son of such and such.\u201d
\nPrabhupada said, \u201cWhere is he? He didn\u2019t come? Tell him I want to see him.\u201d
\nLater, the son told the father, \u201cMaharaj wants to see you.\u201d
\nHis father said, \u201cHow can I go and see him? He is the guru of the world and I am a grihamedhi.\u201d
\nHis son said, \u201cBut he wants to see you and tomorrow he is going to ask me, ‘Why didn\u2019t you bring your father?\u2019\u201d
\nFeeling shy and small the father said, \u201cTell him that I am sick.\u201d
\nThe next day Prabhupada asked the junior Ganguly, \u201cYour father didn\u2019t come?\u201d \u201cHe is feeling sick.\u201d \u201cOh, he\u2019s sick. Okay, I will come and see him.\u201d
\nWhen the junior told his father that Prabhupada would come, his father said, \u201cHow will he come to our house?\u201d
\nThe next morning instead of his usual route, Prabhupada, followed by some disciples, walked down one alley after another, arrived at the Ganguly house and rang the bell.
\nThe son came to the door and saw Prabhupada, his disciples and a huge crowd of onlookers in front of his house.
\nPrabhupada and a couple of devotees went in and Prabhupada went straight to the bedroom where the senior Ganguly was laying down, not sick, but tired and broken.
\nPrabhupada sat next to him, poked him like a friend does, and said, \u201cHey, you didn\u2019t come to see me,\u201d in Bengali.
\nThe senior Ganguly was shocked to see the Hare Krishna devotees in his house. He asked his wife, \u201cPlease bring something for them.\u201d
\nPrabhupada said, \u201cMy disciples need to learn Sanskrit. I told you, you should help me. Come and teach them Sanskrit. You can travel around the world with me and teach them. Why don\u2019t you do that? You come, I will take you\u201d.
\nGanguly said, \u201cOh, Swamiji, I am very old and I don\u2019t have any spiritual energy.\u201d
\nPrabhupada said, \u201cNo, you have the spark. The same quality that\u2019s in me is also in you. You should join this movement. It is very important. Bharata-bhumite manusya janma haila yara. You should perfect your life. Better late than never.\u201d
\nPrabhupada took a rasagulla and drank water.
\nHe told his disciples, \u201cI used to come in the morning and from here we took that road to go to school. He was a very intelligent student. He used to score higher than me.\u201d
\nAround three o’clock that afternoon, when junior Ganguly came back from school, his father asked for some water.
\nThen the senior Ganguly leaned back and said, \u201cBhaktivedanta Swami will take me,\u201d closed his eyes and passed away.
\nJunior Ganguly said, \u201cIn the morning, when Prabhupada said to my father, “You come, I will take you,\u201d I thought Prabhupada was saying, ‘You come to ISKCON and I will take you to America or something. We understood what Prabhupada actually meant after my father passed on.\u201c
\nJunior Ganguly said to me, “When you called I asked you to come because I wanted to share this with you. In fact, we are already Life Members.\u201d
\nAfter that, even though he was a busy man, he would regularly come to our Sunday programs.
\n\u2014Atma Tattva
\nExcerpt from \u201cMemories-Anecdotes of a Modern-Day Saint\u201d
\nby Siddhanta das<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
\nAtma Tattva: In the early ‘80s in Bangalore, I was required to make at least two Life Members a month. I was a bad Life Membership maker and one month I had only ten days left.
\nI was looking in the telephone directory for Bengali names and I found a ‘Ganguly.’
\nI called and said, “I’m speaking from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. I want to come and see you today.”
\nMr. Ganguly sounded positive. He said, “Oh, you are from the Hare Krishna Movement? Please see me at eleven o’clock.”
\nI took the membership form, a small set of books, a poster and so on, and I went to see him.<\/p>\n
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