![](\"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads6\/tumblr_oylfrnH63P1sbj0vuo1_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Governor of Geneva: If everybody joins your movement, what will happen to the economy?
\nGuru-Gauranga: On May 29, 1974 Prabhupada landed in Geneva and was accompanied by Satsvarupa Goswami and Nitai.
\nWe picked Prabhupada and his team up at the airport and brought him to the temple.
\nI was very busy with all the arrangements for Prabhupada\u2019s meetings and programs and for the official reception of Srila Prabhupada by the Governor of Geneva.
\nI was unaware of the fact that Lilavati dasi, a disciple of Prabhupada\u2019s, had previously arrived to Geneva to do typing for Prabhupada.
\nAbout three days into Prabhupada\u2019s visit, Prabhupada asked about Lilavati.
\nI didn\u2019t even know that she was in the temple so I went to inquire about her.
\nIt turned out that Lilavati had arrived sick with hepatitis from India and had to go directly to the hospital.
\nI came back to Prabhupada\u2019s room and said,
\n\u201cPrabhupada, she\u2019s still in the hospital,\u201d like I actually knew what was going on.
\nSrila Prabhupada said, \u201cWe will go and visit Lilavati in the hospital. Make arrangements immediately.\u201d
\nI rushed out and told the devotees, \u201cWe\u2019re all going to the hospital. Get the cars ready for Prabhupada and the devotees. Is there maha prasadam for her? Does she have Prabhupada\u2019s books?\u201d
\nFinally when everything was ready I went back into Srila Prabhupada\u2019s room and said, \u201cPrabhupada, we\u2019re ready now.\u201d
\nThen he said, \u201cVery good. Now go.\u201d
\nAnd Prabhupada stayed in the temple and sent everybody else to the hospital to visit with Lilavati to give her prasadam and association.
\nWhat I take from that obviously is that Prabhupada remembered his servants and cared for them.
\nPrabhupada felt for them and he missed them when they were not around.
\nAnd he knew who everybody was.
\nSrila Prabhupada\u2019s sole visit to Switzerland was from May 29 to June 8, 1974.
\nHe arrived in the morning and with special authorization we got to greet him on the tarmac along with the Swiss national television crew.
\nThat afternoon we had an official reception at the city hall of Geneva, the Hotel de Ville, where Srila Prabhupada was going to be welcomed by the Governor of Geneva.
\nSometimes devotees think it was the mayor of Geneva, like in Paris where it was the vice-mayor, but in Geneva it was the Governor of the Canton of Geneva.
\nWhat I thought was significant about the Governor was that he addressed Srila Prabhupada as \u201cYour Divine Grace\u201d.
\nFor non-devotees it\u2019s not the easiest way to address Prabhupada, but he minced no words.
\nWith respect he said, \u201cYour Divine Grace\u201d in the beginning and he said, \u201cYour Divine Grace\u201d at the end of his welcome speech.
\nThen Prabhupada gave a response to the Governor as he talked about varnashram dharma.
\nHe explained how a perfect society is organized and how it functions.
\nAt the end of Prabhupada\u2019s talk there was a small conversation between Prabhupada and the Governor.
\nThe Governor asked about a concern that he was feeling.
\nHe said, \u201cYour Divine Grace, if everybody joins your movement, what will happen to the economy?\u201d
\nGoing forward about ten months, it was time for the Mayapur festival in 1975.
\nI went to India with a few Swiss devotees, and we had booked our flight through Bombay to Calcutta.
\nWhen we arrived in Bombay we immediately drove by taxi from the airport to the temple in Juhu.
\nPrabhupada was just leaving the compound for a morning walk with an entourage of devotees.
\nWe told the taxi driver to stop and we jumped out and did a one hundred eighty degree turn to go on the morning walk with Prabhupada.
\nEveryone was talking about how Srila Prabhupada was about to leave for the Mayapur festival, but no one knew what flight Srila Prabhupada was taking.
\nEveryone was eager to find out what flight it was so they could book their tickets on the same flight.
\nBut by the time it was known what flight Srila Prabhupada was on, the flight was fully booked and no one could get on.
\nHowever, I looked at our tickets from Switzerland, and by pure serendipity we were on Prabhupada\u2019s flight.
\nWhen the devotees took Prabhupada through the airport with a rip-roaring kirtan, they couldn\u2019t get past security, but we did.
\nEveryone was saying, \u201cWhat is it with those devotees? I tried but I couldn\u2019t get on the flight.
\nHow did they pull that off?\u201d
\nWe went to the small waiting room with Prabhupada, and I found myself with Prabhupada and only his secretary and the two other devotees from Switzerland.
\nWe could hear the kirtan in the distance but that was it.
\nI decided I had to be very Krishna conscious because Prabhupada might notice me and I didn\u2019t want to look anything but Krishna conscious.
\nSo I was chanting my japa pacing back and forth in the lounge area.
\nAs I turned to pace back I saw that Prabhupada was calling me.
\nIt was almost like in the movies where I had to look in both directions to see who he was talking to, because I couldn\u2019t believe Srila Prabhupada was calling me.
\nPrabhupada gestured for me to come over and he tapped the seat right next to him for me to sit down.
\nPrabhupada asked me, \u201cSo how is the Governor of Geneva? Is he still worried about the Swiss economy if everyone joins our movement?\u201d
\nAt that moment I realized that Srila Prabhupada knew who I was because it\u2019s not that Srila Prabhupada always called us by our name.
\nWhen we were in his presence sometimes you wonder, \u201cDoes Prabhupada really know who I am?\u201d
\nWhat I learned from that experience was that Prabhupada not only remembered me, he not only remembered the Governor, he remembered everything that had been said and he also remembered that that was the service that I performed for him.
\nPrabhupada could pick up exactly where we had left off, the same conversation, knowing exactly who was doing what for him.
\nThat gave me an enormous amount of inspiration, that truly no service is unrecognized by Srila Prabhupada.
\n\u2014Guru-Gauranga<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![](\"http:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/c9545689e04ae4918e43f686aa767902\/tumblr_oylfrnH63P1sbj0vuo1_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Governor of Geneva: If everybody joins your movement, what will happen to the economy?
\nGuru-Gauranga: On May 29, 1974 Prabhupada landed in Geneva and was accompanied by Satsvarupa Goswami and Nitai.
\nWe picked Prabhupada and his team up at the airport and brought him to the temple.
\nI was very busy with all the arrangements for Prabhupada’s meetings and programs and for the official reception of Srila Prabhupada by the Governor of Geneva.
\nI was unaware of the fact that Lilavati dasi, a disciple of Prabhupada’s, had previously arrived to Geneva to do typing for Prabhupada.<\/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-52580","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\/52580","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=52580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52582,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52580\/revisions\/52582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}