{"id":50919,"date":"2017-09-14T10:42:21","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T08:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dandavats.tumblr.com\/post\/165324820341"},"modified":"2017-09-14T18:55:54","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T16:55:54","slug":"prabhupadas-a-genuine-holy-man-from-the-time-she-was-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=50919","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPrabhupada\u2019s a genuine holy man.\u201d[From the time she was 4,…"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\u201cPrabhupada\u2019s a genuine holy man.\u201d
\n[From the time she was 4, Urmila (Dr. Edith Best) was looking for God. If somebody said, \u201cWhat do you want to do?\u201d she\u2019d say, \u201cI want to be spiritually perfect. I want to find God.\u201d They\u2019d say, \u201cDon\u2019t you want to get married, have kids, have a career?\u201d She\u2019d say, \u201cI just want to find God.\u201d]\nUrmila: My first contact with Prabhupada was in \u201967 when I was 12 years old.
\nI would regularly listen to him chanting on the Happening album playing in Alan Kallman\u2019s shop on the Lower East Side.
\nI\u2019d ask, \u201cWhat is this record? Who is this?\u201d
\nMy next contact was through the Radha Krishna Temple Album, which I heard on the radio.
\nPrabhupada\u2019s picture was on the album and my initial response to it was skeptical.
\nI thought someone who takes the role of guru might think he\u2019s better than others.
\nWhen I was 17, I got Prabhupada\u2019s translation of Bhagavad-gita.
\nAfter reading it, I decided to move into the temple, but at first I didn\u2019t want to get initiated.
\nSoon after I moved in I got married; my husband was already second initiated, and in his association I started thinking,
\n\u201cHow am I going to be able to find God and become spiritually perfect without a spiritual master?\u201d
\nGradually my relationship with Prabhupada developed and I became his initiated disciple, after he accepted me through the mail.
\nWhen I first met Prabhupada in Chicago in the summer of \u201974, a little more than a year after I\u2019d moved in.
\nI was expecting a mystical experience.
\nPrabhupada was sitting on the vyasasana giving class and I was fanning him.
\nI was standing very close, to his left, moving the peacock fan, absorbed in every word and gesture.
\nMy experience was, indeed, mystical, but not in the way I expected.
\nI felt, \u201cPrabhupada has always been here, because playing a recording of Prabhupada lecturing and listening to him lecture in person is exactly the same.\u201d
\nI was hearing him directly but I felt the same as when I was listening to a recording.
\nIt was satisfying and amazing\u2013I realized that I could associate with Prabhupada even in his physical absence with potency equal to his presence.
\nStill, I felt incomplete in the experience.
\nLater that morning, my father, husband, and I met Srila Prabhupada in his room and I got to know him as a person\u2013he was funny, laughing, casual, jovial, and exchanging affectionately with my father.
\nI understood he cared about me, as an individual, and I felt a loving relationship with him.
\nAt that point there was full satisfaction.
\nMy father asked why we give people prasada, and Prabhupada said,
\n\u201cJust like if you eat the food of a sick person, you will get their disease. If you eat Krishna\u2019s food, you will get Krishna\u2019s disease.\u201d
\nMy father thought he was only supposed to come to the temple if he was a devotee, so he asked,
\n\u201cCan I come to the temple just to see my daughter and son-in-law?\u201d
\nSmiling, Prabhupada said,
\n\u201cThey are loving Krishna. Chanting and dancing are symptoms of loving Krishna. You are loving them and they are loving Krishna, so two things equal to the same thing are equal to each other.\u201d
\nPrabhupada\u2019s mood was light, but I thought,
\n\u201cPrabhupada said I love Krishna, so it\u2019s just a matter of time. Someday I\u2019ll love Krishna.\u201d
\nThat meeting changed my life. And it moved my father.
\nHe said, \u201cPrabhupada\u2019s a genuine holy man.\u201d
\nHe enjoyed Prabhupada\u2019s company and became somewhat of a devotee.
\n\u2014Urmila<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

“Prabhupada’s a genuine holy man.”
\n[From the time she was 4, Urmila (Dr. Edith Best) was looking for God. If somebody said, “What do you want to do?” she’d say, “I want to be spiritually perfect. I want to find God.” They’d say, “Don’t you want to get married, have kids, have a career?” She’d say, “I just want to find God.”]
\nUrmila: My first contact with Prabhupada was in ’67 when I was 12 years old.
\nI would regularly listen to him chanting on the Happening album playing in Alan Kallman’s shop on the Lower East Side.
\nI’d ask, “What is this record? Who is this?”
\nMy next contact was through the Radha Krishna Temple Album, which I heard on the radio.
\nPrabhupada’s picture was on the album and my initial response to it was skeptical.
\nI thought someone who takes the role of guru might think he’s better than others.
\nWhen I was 17, I got Prabhupada’s translation of Bhagavad-gita.
\nAfter reading it, I decided to move into the temple, but at first I didn’t want to get initiated.
\nSoon after I moved in I got married; my husband was already second initiated, and in his association I started thinking,
\n“How am I going to be able to find God and become spiritually perfect without a spiritual master?”
\nGradually my relationship with Prabhupada developed and I became his initiated disciple, after he accepted me through the mail.
\nWhen I first met Prabhupada in Chicago in the summer of ’74, a little more than a year after I’d moved in.
\nI was expecting a mystical experience.
\nPrabhupada was sitting on the vyasasana giving class and I was fanning him.
\nI was standing very close, to his left, moving the peacock fan, absorbed in every word and gesture.
\nMy experience was, indeed, mystical, but not in the way I expected.
\nI felt, “Prabhupada has always been here, because playing a recording of Prabhupada lecturing and listening to him lecture in person is exactly the same.”
\nI was hearing him directly but I felt the same as when I was listening to a recording.
\nIt was satisfying and amazing–I realized that I could associate with Prabhupada even in his physical absence with potency equal to his presence.
\nStill, I felt incomplete in the experience.
\nLater that morning, my father, husband, and I met Srila Prabhupada in his room and I got to know him as a person–he was funny, laughing, casual, jovial, and exchanging affectionately with my father.
\nI understood he cared about me, as an individual, and I felt a loving relationship with him.
\nAt that point there was full satisfaction.
\nMy father asked why we give people prasada, and Prabhupada said,
\n“Just like if you eat the food of a sick person, you will get their disease. If you eat Krishna’s food, you will get Krishna’s disease.”
\nMy father thought he was only supposed to come to the temple if he was a devotee, so he asked,
\n“Can I come to the temple just to see my daughter and son-in-law?”
\nSmiling, Prabhupada said,
\n“They are loving Krishna. Chanting and dancing are symptoms of loving Krishna. You are loving them and they are loving Krishna, so two things equal to the same thing are equal to each other.”
\nPrabhupada’s mood was light, but I thought,
\n“Prabhupada said I love Krishna, so it’s just a matter of time. Someday I’ll love Krishna.”
\nThat meeting changed my life. And it moved my father.
\nHe said, “Prabhupada’s a genuine holy man.”
\nHe enjoyed Prabhupada’s company and became somewhat of a devotee.
\n—Urmila<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50919","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\/10650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50919"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50943,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50919\/revisions\/50943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}