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By Niranjana Swami<\/strong><\/p>\n I was introduced to the Krishna consciousness movement and introduced to Srila Prabhupada by first receiving a copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is. Sometimes people ask me \u201cWhen was the first time you met Srila Prabhupada?\u201d And my answer is always \u201cI first met Srila Prabhupada in the fall of 1972,\u201d and that is because that was when I got my first copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is. That was my first meeting with Srila Prabhupada, when I purchased Bhagavad Gita As It Is in a book store. Of course, physically I first saw him in 1975 in March. I was already his second initiated disciple and I saw him for the first time after taking both first and second initiation without seeing him physically. But my first meeting was reading Bhagavad Gita As It Is.<\/p>\n I was living in Washington D.C. at that time. I was self employed. I was a carpenter and used to remodel buildings. I was twenty years old and I was very interested in eastern philosophy and I had read many books that were popular in the sixties and seventies at that time, especially amongst the hippie generation. And I was already dabbling in eastern philosophy in my teenage years, reading many books independently for my studies in school and university. So, having been exposed to different types of eastern philosophy, I was very much interested in finding a philosophy which itself would be consistent with my aspirations in life\u2013 though at that time of my life, I did not know what they were. All I knew was that I was looking for something that would be consistent with what I thought would make me happy.<\/p>\n I found that I was very impressionable youth, and that whatever philosophy book I read became my philosophy at that time, until I read a different philosophy book. As soon as I read one book, then I was speaking about that philosophy, that author, and I was trying to embrace those teachings, and when I would read another book, I would embrace that philosophy with its teachings. Gradually I began to experience some internal conflict when I saw that there are contradictions between these different philosophers and their conclusions, and that made it even more challenging when I purchased Bhagavad Gita As It Is because I already had a little skepticism of what was going to be my new philosophy and what new contradictions I was to confront now.<\/p>\n So I was living in Washington, D.C. on Connecticut Avenue and I walked into Brentano\u2019s bookstore and immediately went to the eastern philosophy and yoga section. I was looking for a book on yoga. I picked up different books and looked at them, and then I saw Srila Prabhupada\u2019s Bhagavad Gita As It Is which was printed by the Macmillan Company in 1971. And I immediately opened up to a page where I saw a picture of a yogi sitting in meditation and it showed the soul going through the body and leaving the body and going to a place unknown. So I thought that it looked like a very interesting book on yoga, although I was thinking about a different type of yoga at that time. Somehow that book attracted me, and I purchased it for the price listed on the back of the book. And twenty years later I found out that that book was never part of the inventory of that bookstore. I found out from one devotee who had actually put the book on the shelf of that bookstore that he had put the book there. That devotee\u2019s name is Damodara dasa. He used to go to different bookstores and just kind of drop Prabhupada\u2019s books on the book shelves and just leave them there, and I happened to have been the person who picked up that one copy that was in that bookstore in Washington, D.C. And of course the bookstore had no reservations in charging me for the cost of the book, because the price of the book was listed on the back of the book. So I found that book in the bookstore, but actually that\u2019s how it was distributed to me. Later I remembered one quote from Srila Prabhupada, I can\u2019t remember that what year it was, but Prabhupada said that his books are like torpedoes because you never know where they are going to land. So I realized that this definitely applied in my particular case, that this devotee did not know where this book was going to land, but somehow it landed with me and I began to read it.<\/p>\n So after I read the introduction, I thought \u201cThis is not the kind of book that I thought I was buying, but it sounds good.\u201d So I decided to read it. As I said I was working at that time and was repairing homes and I would come back from work in the evenings, and every night I was reading a few pages of Bhagavad Gita As It Is and I continued doing that until I finished the book. It took me a couple of months. After I completed reading the book I was thinking that this book seemed a little bit different than the other philosophy books that I had read. Their argument seems very convincing and very practical, but they seem to require a level of commitment which I am not ready for yet, because I had read in many places in Bhagavad Gita As It Is in Prabhupada\u2019s commentary that Krishna was the Supreme Lord and He wanted absolute surrender to Him. I found that a little bit stifling because I was accustomed to an independent lifestyle. And therefore I said \u201cThe philosophy in this book looks nice, but I think I will put it on the bookshelf and come back to it some other time.\u201d But then I found that my whole world view had been affected, unbeknownst to me. Everywhere I looked and everything I did, somehow those words that I had read in Bhagavad Gita As It Is would resonate in my heart. And I found that I just could not see things the same way as I had previously seen them. And at one point I was thinking that I should just forget everything that I had read in that book completely, but it would not let me go. It was a power beyond my control. And it was unknown to me at that time, but it was Srila Prabhupada calling me, because, as I gradually came to realize, when one reads or hears something spoken by the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, if one is generally searching for the truth, then he will also get confirmation within the heart that the words that he is hearing are true. <\/p>\n When somebody gets confirmation within the heart about something which is absolutely true, it is very difficult to give it up. If Srila Prabhupada himself had not been a surrendered servant of Lord Krishna, then his commentaries would not have that potency. But we understand that because he was fully surrendered to the same teachings which were spoken by Krishna Himself, His words had potency. And therefore those words would act in such a way that entered into the ear and went into the heart and then one would get confirmation within the heart from the Supreme Lord. When a pure devotee\u2019s message enters the heart, then what does it do? It creates a revelation in the heart of that person\u2014 that person actually gets darshan. And because he was so transparent in his presentation of Krishna consciousness both within Bhagavad Gita and in his lectures to his disciples, a revelation of surrender would be awakened within the heart of anyone who would hear from him that following his words is as good as following Krishna\u2019s words. That serving his desires is as good as serving Krishnas desires. They are non-different. Of course it requires faith, and I remember some of the challenges I used to experience in my early days when I was first exposed to the teachings of Bhagavad Gita. One of the questions that I always asked myself, and I remember very vividly these words, I would ask myself \u201cHow do I know if he is pulling the wool over my eyes?\u201d <\/p>\n Pulling the wool over one\u2019s eyes means that someone is cheating me. And I remember always asking that question, how do I know that he is not pulling the wool over my eyes? And I could never really answer that question myself. I didn\u2019t know. But one thing I did know was that everything seemed logical. Everything seemed very compelling and everything semed to be a better proposal than everything else that I was doing at that time. So it seemed that Prabhupada was pulling me by a string. He was one step ahead of me and he was kind of pulling me, because it was appealing, it was attractive, and it gave me a sense of purpose and hope and it seemed to me better than what I had in that particular time. Of course someone may look at what I had in that particular time and say \u201cHey, it was not so bad.\u201d If I would tell you what I had at that time you probably would have a different impression of me. I did not have a lot of wealth, but practically speaking I had everything that one could possibly want, for somebody who grew up in the sixties generation in the hippie culture in America. I actually externally had the appearance of being a hippie. <\/p>\n I had very long hair, all the way down to my bottom of my back, and I was really part of a sort of counterculture revolution, not wanting to be a part of a system, but trying to make money in my own way. And that\u2019s why I described myself as being self-employed. I did not want to work for anybody. I worked for myself and I would simply get work by going to different people\u2019s homes and at their request I did any renovation work at their homes. And because I had one quality at that particular time, that I was honest, people could see in me that I was honest, I never had any lack of work. I never had any lack of income. I had anything I needed. I had a guitar; I had a dog, a girlfriend. I owned a car. I had everything that anyone in those years could aspire to buy. But I realized after reading Prabhupada\u2019s Bhagavad Gita that I did not have everything, because I realized that although by external vision I had anything that I could possibly want, I still didn\u2019t have peace and satisfaction. And Prabhupada would emphasize that point in Bhagavad Gita and many verses in Bhagavad Gita would speak about that point of the necessity for peace. I especially remember reading that verse in the second chapter of Bhagavad Gita, when Krishna said how there can not be any happiness if there is no peace. That verse had a lot of influence on me, as well as many other verses and commentaries in Bhagavad Gita. So, obviously Bhagavad Gita meant a lot to me because it was my first contact with Srila Prabhupada, and after finishing reading Bhagavad Gita As It Is, I sent away to the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust to purchase more books by the same author. At that time the only books that were available were Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Krishna Book and First Canto, First Volume of Srimad Bhagavatam. None of the other Bhagavatam volumes were published at that time. So I purchased Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead and I began reading those books as well. So by the time I finished reading those books, I realized that I had to do something now. After I finished reading those three books, for the first time I was going to visit the Hare Krishna temple. So I drove about a hundred miles and I parked the car in front the temple at North Beacon Street in Allston. I looked for a long time at the temple. And I looked at the sign on the temple \u201cInternational Society for Krishna Consciousness\u201d and I sat there for about an hour. And I was thinking \u201cIf I go in there, I may never come out.\u201d So I turned the engine on and drove a hundred miles back to Cape Cod where I lived at that time. True story. <\/p>\n A couple of weeks passed and I said \u201cI really have to go to the temple.\u201d I lived with about 12 people. We were hippies. We all had dogs. 12 people and 12 dogs. We did not believe in cleaning up after them either. Hippie life meant \u201cJust do it\u201d. There was no organization. And I was reading Srila Prabhupada\u2019s books about cooking. We were all vegetarians. I became a vegetarian long before I read Prabhupada\u2019s books. So we did not have any problem with that, living together, but I used to think that whatever I cook, at least for myself, I wanted the kitchen to be clean and I wanted offer the food to Krishna. But every time I would go into the kitchen, nobody ever washed their dishes. So before I could cook anything for Krishna, I had to clean everything in the whole kitchen, and with 12 people living together, it\u2019s a lot of dishes. But I would just do it. But sometimes I would become very, very resentful. \u201cWhy do I have to clean up after everybody just to make a simple offering to Krishna?\u201d And I would not say anything, but internally I was very frustrated. So I went to the temple, and this time I had enough courage to get into the temple.<\/p>\n I rang the bell. A bright-faced devotee answered the door. I will never forget him. He looked so blissful. While I was ringing the bell he had been sanding the wall, preparing it to paint. He welcomed me in and said \u201cWhat is your name?\u201d and I told him my name, and I told him why I had come. And I remember the first thing that hit me in the temple was the smell of incense. Although the building was a little bit run down, it was spotlessly clean. You could not see a speck of dust anywhere. And the smell of incense and the clean atmosphere everywhere and I heard devotees chanting in the distance, I thought I had just walked into the spiritual world. Such an overwhelming, completely captivating experience. And just walking into the building I was thinking \u201cThis is what I have been looking for, for so many lifetimes.\u201d And Prabhupada would oftentimes say that the presence of the Deities, the presence of devotees, and devotional service rendered, that transforms the whole atmosphere. It\u2019s not the building. It\u2019s devotional service rendered in the building, which included cleaning the temple. Then I was introduced to one of the senior devotees to speak to me because he could see that I was a person who obviously had had some contact with Srila Prabhupada\u2019s books. So we sat and spoke for about four hours and I was very, very impressed by his knowledge of philosophy. He answered all my questions. He asked me if I was chanting Hare Krishna. I said \u201cNo\u201d and he instructed me and gave me my first set of japa beads. Then I took the beads and began chanting on them according to the way he had told me to chant.<\/p>\n That first experience, first exposure, being in the temple, had such a deep impression upon me. Although I did not understood what was happening to me, I could understand years later why Prabhupada wanted to establish the temples. Because I had his books, I had Bhagavad Gita, I had Srimad Bhagavatam, I had Krishna Book. I was ready for more and Prabhupada, knowing that is what happens when people read his books, they want to get some more, they have to get them someplace. So his purpose for establishing the temples was simply to get these places for people to come and be exposed to a spiritual atmosphere, a spiritual world. Prabhupada used to say that our temples are like embassies to the spiritual world. So you go to the embassy to become qualified to get a visa to get to the next destination.<\/p>\n My first visit was simply an exposure. The atmosphere was so attractive. But on my second visit, Krishna had a plan for me. I thought I would come, sit down and talk about philosophy, which I did. I came in, and they remembered me from my previous visit, and they talked to me for a little while and then one devotee said to me \u201cWould you like to do some devotional service?\u201d And I was very eager for devotional service. I said \u201cYes, certainly.\u201d So then another devotee came over to me and said \u201cCome with me\u201d. He brought me into the back room. It was right after breakfast and there was just a sink with a mountain of pots\u2026and he said \u201cWould you like to wash Krishna\u2019s pots?\u201d And I thought \u201cOh no! Again? What is this, a joke?\u201d But I actually realized that no, this is service. So I said \u201cOK I will do it.\u201d Such a big stack of pots I had never seen before. Cleaning pots in my commune seemed insignificant. So I started washing the pots and then another devotee came over to me. I was a little frustrated. I did not expect this kind of service. So he looked at me and with a big smile on this face said \u201cWhen you clean Krishna\u2019s pots, you clean your heart.\u201d And I remember such a complete transformation of consciousness that immediately took place into my heart. A simple statement, simple words, but my whole attitude completely changed one hundred and eighty degrees. And it became so blissful, so joyful, washing pots. These pots became like jewels, diamonds. I felt that I was polishing diamonds. I was taking every pot and I was placing it very carefully on the shelf. And every single pot was like a new adventure. Completely transformational. And I began to realize it all is consciousness. These are Krishna\u2019s pots and washing these pots is for Krishna\u2019s pleasure. When in my journey in the material world had I been able to wash a pot that belonged to God? It was just overwhelming. And when I finished washing all the pots, I asked the devotee who introduced me to the pots if there were more pots to wash. He said \u201cYes, they are but they are in the kitchen and only devotees are allowed into the kitchen. Maybe some day you will become qualified and you can go and clean those pots in the kitchen.\u201d That was my first exposure to devotional service after reading Srila Prabhupada\u2019s books.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t become a full time resident of the temple until the later part of 1973. I was visiting the temple every Sunday. The Sunday program was established so that people will come back and hear more after having some little contact with Krishna consciousness and of course that people could come and take Krishna prasadam. I remember in the early seventies it was called The Sunday Love Feast. Emphasis of course was given on love which is obtained by association with devotees and taking Krishna prasadam. I was a fortunate person. When I started coming to my first Sunday feast, it was a real feast. Everything was cooked in ghee and there were two types of subji, halava, sweet rice, puri, nectar drink, pakoras\u2026 It was at least 10-12 preparations. I was fortunate\u2026but not only was I fortunate like that when I first visited the temple, but also when I joined the temple it was still like that. I remember I would drive about 70 -80 miles every Sunday and the whole meditation all the way was simply halava\u2026 which halava would be this week? Blueberry halava? Strawberry halava? There was never plain halava. Always it was or blueberries, or strawberries, walnuts and vanilla. So I remember just driving to the temple just meditating all the way on halava and I wouldn\u2019t be able to drive all the way back. And when I moved into the temple we had no place to drive after the Sunday feast. So we would eat so much that we would go upstairs sometimes even before cleaning up after the feast, to the third floor and lie on the floor and couldn\u2019t find a comfortable position\u2026 Just lying and groaning Oooo\u2026 Prabhupada liked this. Prabhupada actually said that you should eat prasadam until you are walking like a duck. That was his statement actually. And in the early days he definitely wanted people to eat as much prasadam as they wanted. Of course it didn\u2019t always stay like that, but prasadam has the effect that if you eat a lot of prasadam, then you become attached to Krishna.<\/p>\n At that time when I was visiting the temple one devotee took particular interest in me and started befriending me. His name was Keshava dasa. He was a senior devotee even at that time who had the association of Srila Prabhupada. He befriended me and every time I went to the temple he was always right there to greet me and talk to me and one of the things that I really appreciated about him was that he never really preached to me like a senior devotee. He was more like a friend. And what really attracted me about him was that he was so personal and I always felt that I learned a lot just observing him. He did not have to say anything. All I had to do was just observe him and I could learn so much. But he gave me some precious gifts\u2013 not only the gift of his association, but also tapes of Srila Prabhupada. And especially in those days the tapes were not very readily accessible, especially to some long-haired hippie who was visiting the temple. So one time he said \u201cI\u2019ve got something for you,\u201d and he reached in his pocket and he handled me these cassettes and he said \u201cthis is a lecture that Prabhupada gave just recently.\u201d And that was a lecture from \u201cPrayers of Queen Kunti\u201d. It was from the first canto, eighth chapter, thirtieth verse. And although I had read Bhagavad Gita As It Is and the first volume of Srimad Bhagavatam, I had never heard Prabhupada\u2019s voice before. So I took this cassette home and every day I would listen a little bit of it. And although Prabhupada was speaking English, it wasn\u2019t easy for me to understand his English, because he had an accent that I wasn\u2019t familiar with. And I distinctly remember taking the tape and rewinding it and just playing each section again and again and again until I understood every word, and it took me quite some time before I listened to the whole lecture. <\/p>\n I specifically took note of something that I heard in that lecture because I felt that it was very relevant to me. Prabhupada was speaking about those who are coming to Krishna consciousness. Prabhupada said that being in the material world is like being in the midst of the ocean. He said there can always be disturbances created in the middle of the ocean, and he said as long as we are in the material world we should not expect peace. He said therefore, one has to become very humble and tolerant of this material world. And he said in the beginning when one comes to Krishna consciousness, Maya, who is an agent of Krishna, will be testing to see if one is coming to serve Krishna, or disturb Krishna. And somehow when I heard this, it really resonated with me, because I felt that Prabhupada was speaking directly to me, that in the beginning when one comes into Krishna consciousness, Maya, who is Krishna\u2019s agent will be testing us. And this was at the time when I was starting to come to Krishna consciousness. So I remembered this. There were many other parts of the lecture I listened to and remembered, but this part really stood out in my mind. And by remembering these words I felt that I was very well-equipped, prepared for whatever would happen to me because Srila Prabhupada had already warned me \u201cYou are coming to Krishna consciousness, you should be prepared for tests.\u201d So I felt really protected. I felt actually like I was given an inoculation to protect me from some disease. And it gave me great strength, because I knew that when I decided to move into the temple I was going to be tested. I was already prepared for it. I was just waiting for what was going to come, because when I moved into the temple after some time I was really blissful. I actually felt like I was liberated. I thought \u201cThis is what is means to be liberated.\u201d Everything was just completely blissful. But then I always remembered what Prabhupada said that when you come to Krishna consciousness Maya is going to test you if you are going to serve Krishna, or disturb Krishna\u201d. So although I was blissful, I was always waiting for it to come. And it didn\u2019t take very long\u2026 but just by remembering those instructions, it carried me through the most difficult times because I could understand I am going to have to struggle. Struggle doesn\u2019t go away. We have to struggle if we actually want to become Krishna conscious. But in order to continue to struggle we actually have to remember the words of the spiritual master. We have to have faith in the words of the spiritual master that if we strictly follow the instructions of the spiritual master we can be assured of success in this life.<\/p>\n Gradually I started to getting more involved in the temple and a few months later I decided to move in. There were definitely some disturbances along that path until I moved into the temple because externally I was deeply involved in many affairs of this world and I had to gradually extricate myself from those affairs. And that was a test with in itself, but it really wasn\u2019t that difficult. The most difficult attachment that I had was to my dog. I had a girlfriend, I had a guitar, I had many other things that most hippies had, but it was the dog that I was really attached to, because I used to think that this dog is dependent upon me and how can I just leave her? I can\u2019t bring her to the temple. It was very difficult for me to sever my connections to the dog. And my godbrother Keshava who was preaching to me, he knew this, although he never said anything. In fact almost every time I would visit the temple he would always go to the window and say \u201cWhere is your dog?\u201d So I would say \u201cwell, she is probably on that side of the temple\u201d. Then he would go to the window and start throwing chapatis out, feeding her chapatis and saying \u201cnext life, human birth.\u201d It\u2019s another reason why we were such close friends with him. Prabhupada used to use the expression \u201clove me, love my dog.\u201d Prabhupada used it as an example that the spiritual master is Krishna\u2019s dog, so if you do something for the spiritual master, you become very dear to Krishna. <\/p>\n Just like someone who has a dog and you approach him by doing something for the dog, immediately you become very dear to the owner. So that was another reason why I felt such a strong bond with Keshava, because he was always giving my dog prasadam. Because he knew that I was attached to this dog, he said \u201cyou know, why don\u2019t you go to New Vrindavan? In New Vrindavan there is a big farm and there are dogs there, you can keep your dog. Because I was thinking \u201cHow I can give her up? She is dependent upon me.\u201d And some time around June of that year I decided to go to New Vrindavan and move there. And when I arrived in New Vrindavan, I told them that Keshava told me that I could come here and I could bring my dog. And they said \u201cOh, sure, you can stay here.You can keep your dog. No problem at all.\u201d So then I asked what I can feed her, and they said \u201cWell, we don\u2019t feed any dogs.\u201d And I said \u201c You don\u2019t feed any dogs? How do they eat?\u201d And they immediately pointed to this dog Muchukunda. Muchukunda only had three legs. So he could not really move as fast as a regular dog because he only had three legs. He pointed to Muchukunda \u201cSo you see Muchukunda? Does he look like he is starving? We don\u2019t feed them.\u201d I asked \u201cHow does he eat?\u201d \u201cHe is a dog.\u201d That was the answer. They said \u201cThey find their own food. They keep all different creatures out of our gardens. They are very busy and healthy.\u201d So it was a shock to me because I was thinking my dog is so dependent upon me and all of sudden I find out she did not need me for anything. So that was the first thing I learned in New Vrindavan. I didn\u2019t stay in New Vrindavan. I decided to go back to Boston for many reasons. Not just because I could not feed my dog. So I went back to Boston and in due course of time I did move into the temple and I just left my dog with a friend.<\/p>\n In fact when I joined the temple it was because of Keshava. He was visiting the temple and he was only staying there for a short period of time. He had come from San Francisco to Boston. He had taken some interest in me and he said \u201cYou are going to be a preacher. We should travel and preach together.\u201d And I was thinking \u201c What an opportunity\u2026\u201d He said \u201cYes, when you become serious and you decide to become a devotee, you should think about that.\u201d And he said \u201cWhen you come to the temple and decide to move in, just shave up, put a dhoti on and come down to Guyana.\u201d And he left Boston and went to Guyana. He knew I had a lot of attachments. He knew exactly what those attachments were, but he never tried to extract me from those attachments. That\u2019s one thing I remember about him more than anything else. He would never even talk about it. The only thing he would do was tell me stories about Prabhupada, be my friend and just encourage me. And just that friendship with him actually was enough to make me really want to become serious about Krishna consciousness. And probably a finishing touch happened when I met Visnujana Swami.<\/p>\n It was spring 1973. I visited the temple one day and the devotees told me that there was a swami in town and I had never met a swami before. So the devotees said that if you want to see him, you have to go down to the Boston Common. He was traveling with Radha Damodar deities and they had this kind of blue hippie bus. So I saw Visnujana Swami sitting and chanting and in that particular time in my search for Krishna consciousness I was really looking for a reason to become a devotee. I was still working at that time and I was very analytical, analyzing people\u2019s expressions, people\u2019s behavior, people\u2019s activities, people\u2019s motives, trying to decide if I am ready to make this kind of commitment. So when I sat down and Visnujana Swami was chanting, he had a particular aura about him that really left a deep impression on anybody. When he was chanting Hare Krishna, he was absorbed. It is the essence of our philosophy is to be absorbed. Nobody would think that his mind was anywhere else except on the Holy Name. So I sat and started look at him. I wasn\u2019t participating in kirtan, I just was sitting in front of him. He was sitting, playing the harmonium, leading kirtan. The deities were next to him. Then I just started to chant with him and then a certain conviction arose in my heart at that particular point, I decided I wanted to become a devotee. That\u2019s it. I remember turning to the devotee who brought me to see him and said \u201cIf this is what it means to be a devotee, I want to join\u201d. Visnujana Swami had this kind of aura about him that when you saw him, you experienced Krishna consciousness. To the degree that we are absorbed in Krishna consciousness and to the degree that we associate with those who are absorbed, then it certainly has an impression. It is what we are really looking for. <\/p>\n We are not looking for somebody who can create a good image of absorption, we are really looking for somebody who is absorbed. And actually I joined very shortly afterwards. So he has a special place in my heart because he very much attracted me to Krishna consciousness. So I really wanted to join. I said \u201cI am coming. Keshava is waiting for me in Guyana. I am ready to surrender and move into the temple.\u201d Devotees at that time would not let just anybody move into the temple. So they tested me for a little while. They said \u201cIf you want to live in the temple then you first should sleep downstairs in the basement on the concrete floor, we want to see if you are sincere.\u201d So that\u2019s what I was told to do and that\u2019s what I did. So I had to stay there for about two weeks. And they said \u201cOK, you can come upstairs now.\u201d And then I was begging them to please shave my head because I really wanted to dedicate myself completely to Prabhupada\u2019s teachings, and I felt that shaving the head was a real indication of surrender, especially long hair\u2026so finally after a few more weeks of persistent pleading with them, they shaved my head. But in those days we didn\u2019t have these electric buzzers. They just didn\u2019t exist. There were dull scissors and a razor and my godbrother Shrinath dasa shaved me up for the first time. It took about an hour, and after he finished I looked like I had been in the battlefield. My head was full of these bleeding scars. And finally after shaving me up I was thinking \u201cNow I am ready to join Keshava\u201d. And they said \u201cNo, you said you are ready to surrender.\u201d \u201cYes I am ready to surrender.\u201d And then they said \u201cYou are not going anywhere.\u201d They took everything away from me. I had to stay in Boston. That\u2019s why I surrendered, but I never saw Keshava again, and when I learned that he had passed away I was very devastated, because I never thanked him.<\/p>\n So the very same day when my head was shaved, they gave me a bag, they brought me out into the middle of downtown Providence, Rhode Island and encouraged me to distribute books. So that was my first exposure to distributeing Srila Prabhupada\u2019s books. I remember my nature when I first came to Krishna consciousness, I was very reserved. I was not so much inclined to go out to distribute books, and it was very difficult for me. I was struggling for two years. I was feeling like I was drowning in the ocean, looking for something to hold on to, and usually there were two things that I would hold on to: remembering how I got Prabhupada\u2019s books and became a devotee, and another one was that cassette with Prabhupada\u2019s lecture which was given to me by my godbrother Keshava dasa when I was visiting the temple. I was always remembering that lecture in the early days that Maya is going to test me to see if I am coming to serve Krishna or disturb Krishna. I was thinking, \u201cWhere would I be if somebody had not left that book in the bookstore?\u201d I thought, \u201cWhere I would be?\u201d and I knew that I had an eternal debt to Srila Prabhupada. And Prabhupada gives this example: if we hold on to something that is beyond ouselves, that\u2019s coming from Krishna Himself, from Krishna\u2019s representative, just hold on, go on. We get strength. It doesn\u2019t come from our own intelligence. It doesn\u2019t come from our own mind. It comes from a source beyond ourselves, when Krishna is pleased by our determination to do something to please Him. If I would not have had all those years of distributing Srila Prabhupada\u2019s books in my early years of Krishna consciousness, I would have felt completely cheated. I can say that there is no experience like it in the whole world.<\/p>\n Also, I remember just prior to moving into the temple I was living in a very very quiet place on the beach. I moved to a place where people all left during the winter. It was a small town on the beach and during the winter all the people go back to the cities. So I was accustomed to living in that kind of place, and I had never lived in real big cities. So when I decided to move into the temple, one of my biggest anxieties was thinking \u201cI don\u2019t know what it is going to be like living in a big city\u201d, because I never really liked big cities. But I knew I had to live in the city because that\u2019s where the temples were. And I was speaking to one devotee about that and he simply said \u201cPrabhupada said that this is not a city. This is Vaikuntha. It is not even a part of the material world.\u201d And I still had my doubts at that time. And I looked out the window and said \u201cThat doesn\u2019t really look like Vaikuntha to me.\u201d But after living in the temple for a little while, I began to see that actually it is Vaikuntha, and I did not even know I was in the city. Even although every day I was going out chanting in the streets, distributing little books like \u201cReservoir of Pleasure\u201d. I didn\u2019t even think about the fact that I was in the city. So this was one of my very first realizations about the potency of Krishna consciousness, that actually if we absorb ourselves in service, we actually don\u2019t even have to be in the material world.<\/p>\n We never experienced anything else in Prabhupada\u2019s presence other than his burning desire to give Krishna, and that\u2019s what captured our hearts, and that\u2019s what makes us want to make this life successful by doing something to make Prabhupada smile. And if some day we can become so blessed to be able to do that which he wants us to do, then that\u2019s the only reason why we live in this world. There is nothing else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We never experienced anything else in Prabhupada\u2019s presence other than his burning desire to give Krishna, and that\u2019s what captured our hearts, and that\u2019s what makes us want to make this life successful by doing something to make Prabhupada smile. And if some day we can become so blessed to be able to do that which he wants us to do, then that\u2019s the only reason why we live in this world. There is nothing else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51758","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=51758"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51767,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51758\/revisions\/51767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hare](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/32WiDQX.jpg\")
By Niranjana Swami<\/strong><\/p>\n