{"id":54667,"date":"2026-02-10T09:06:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=54667"},"modified":"2026-02-10T09:05:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:05:41","slug":"was-srila-prabhupada-intimidated-with-electronics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=54667","title":{"rendered":"Was Srila Prabhupada intimidated with electronics?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

October \u2013 November 1966: NEW YORK CITY, \u201cHappiness on 2nd Ave.\u201d<\/p>\n

We used to make these leaflets called \u201cStay high forever.\u201d People really got a kick out of those.<\/p>\n

Gargamuni das: We had a big tape recorder that weighed 50 pounds. I was in charge of that.<\/p>\n

Brahmananda would bring it down from Prabhupada\u2019s closet every night.<\/p>\n

So my job was to set up the tape for Prabhupada\u2019s lecture.<\/p>\n

Prabhupada was very insistent in having his lectures tape recorded \u2013 so much so that when the tape ran out, he would stop and wait for me to rethread the tape with a new one.<\/p>\n

In those days, we didn\u2019t have money; and those tapes, I remember they were three, four dollars for Scotch tapes.<\/p>\n

So Prabhupada wanted everything tape recorded. We didn\u2019t think it was important in those days, but now we do. They\u2019re important for preaching.<\/p>\n

In the beginning, there was only one or two who were thinking how to give Prabhupada something instead of just taking from him.<\/p>\n

Because I had asked Prabhupada, I said, \u201cSwamiji, we\u2019re here with you, and what are we supposed to do? We come here, we take Krishna prasadam, and then we all go away. But what are we supposed to do for you? What are we here for?\u201d<\/p>\n

I wanted something definite. Prabhupada said, \u201cThe duty of a disciple is to assist the spiritual master in his work.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all he said. So then I thought, \u201cWork?\u201d<\/p>\n

Later on I pondered on this subject, work, and I said, \u201cPrabhupada doesn\u2019t work. What does he do? He doesn\u2019t have a job. He\u2019s a religious teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

So then it occurred to me there\u2019s one thing he does do every day and that\u2019s translate books, and he\u2019s using this typewriter.<\/p>\n

Prabhupada wasn\u2019t a typist. He used just his index fingers. That\u2019s how he was typing his books.<\/p>\n

So I was walking one day, because there were four or five head shops that would carry Back to Godhead and I would always stop in the shops to see if they\u2019re selling.<\/p>\n

So on my way I passed this Grundig shop, and something in the window caught my eye.<\/p>\n

It was like a miniature tape recorder, and it said Dictaphone. I said, \u201cWhat the hell is a Dictaphone?\u201d<\/p>\n

So I went inside, and I went up to the man and I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s this Dictaphone?\u201d<\/p>\n

He says, \u201cWell, it\u2019s used by lawyers and doctors to keep notes.\u201d I go, \u201cOh, yeah?\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cI know somebody who is translating books. It would be good for him?\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cOh, yeah.\u201d So he showed me how to use it, and I said, \u201cI\u2019m going to buy this for Prabhupada.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m helping him because this will go a lot faster than typing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Practically speaking, the Dictaphone revolutionized Prabhupada\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

Because he wanted to do the Gita, and so it would take ages for him to finish typing by hand.<\/p>\n

It was 150 bucks [dollars], I think. So I brought it to Prabhupada. I was all excited and puffed up, and I said, \u201cThis is helping Prabhupada.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I thought, \u201cBoy, how am I going to show Prabhupada how to use this thing? He\u2019s from the village. In Vrindavan, they don\u2019t know what a Dictaphone is.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I brought it up to Prabhupada\u2019s room, and I showed it to him. I showed him the mike, and he looked at it.<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cPrabhupada, there\u2019s an instruction book here how to use it. I\u2019ll go through it with you.\u201d He said, \u201cNo, that\u2019s OK, I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was shocked. And sure enough, Prabhupada knew. He pressed the right buttons, he was testing it, and I was shocked. He never even looked at the book.<\/p>\n

It took me an hour with the guy, he had to show me everything, and here I\u2019m showing it to someone from the village and he didn\u2019t have to look at the book.<\/p>\n

Then I realized that this person, he\u2019s not human. How does he know how to work this thing? He never had one.<\/p>\n

Prabhupada was very easy with electronics. He wasn\u2019t at all intimidated.<\/p>\n

And then boom, Prabhupada started doing the tapes. It was great. But then we had the other problem \u2013 the tapes were building up, and the tapes were expensive.<\/p>\n

At the end, we had six or seven tapes and we didn\u2019t have money to keep buying tapes.<\/p>\n

For some reason, nobody knew how to type properly because you have to have coordination.<\/p>\n

I think because we were all on LSD, nobody could coordinate their foot with their fingers.<\/p>\n

Because you had to use a foot pedal, and then you had to hear Prabhupada and coordinate, like driving a car, and nobody could do it.<\/p>\n

So all of a sudden this Neal shows up, and he\u2019s from Antioch College.<\/p>\n

He has to do a summer course, three months course, joining a religious organization and writing about his experience. That was his paper.<\/p>\n

So he thought, \u201cI\u2019ll join you guys.\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019m going to do it.\u201d I said, \u201cFine.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I immediately asked him, \u201cDo you know how to type?\u201d We just thought we\u2019d ask. He goes, \u201cYeah, I can type.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cDo you know how to use a Dictaphone?\u201d \u201cOh, yeah, that\u2019s easy,\u201d and right away the guy started typing 60 words a minute.<\/p>\n

We used to watch his foot \u2013 man, the foot was going a mile a minute.<\/p>\n

He knew how to go back and go forward in a second if he didn\u2019t understand anything.<\/p>\n

And we go, \u201cWow!\u201d We looked at each other, \u201cThis is mystical,\u201d because this is the person we needed and then all of a sudden he shows up knocking at the door.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t know, the devotees then had an inner communication with each other. When things like this happened, we\u2019d look at each other and go, \u201cWow, this is mystical.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then we understood that Krishna provides. That was the famous word: \u201cKrishna provides.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why you really felt secure when you were with Prabhupada, because you felt nothing could hurt you or touch you and you felt wonderful.<\/p>\n

You always wanted to be around him because you felt fully protected \u2013 that feeling that everything\u2019s going to work out when you\u2019re with Prabhupada, because everything did work out.<\/p>\n

To see an Indian man in Indian dress in a park on Tompkins Square where the majority of the people were old Russian and Polish people, it was just too far out.<\/p>\n

So we used to go every weekend Sundays, especially Sundays, to Tompkins Square to chant with Prabhupada. I would be in the crowd with the leaflets, talking and inviting people.<\/p>\n

We used to make these leaflets called \u201cStay high forever.\u201d People really got a kick out of those.<\/p>\n

We used that photograph of Prabhupada where he\u2019s sitting and he\u2019s smiling and he\u2019s got his hand on his head.<\/p>\n

That photo was\u2026people would look at that and say, \u201cWow! He is high. He\u2019s so high, he\u2019s trying to keep himself down just from the mantra.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Gargamuni<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Gargamuni Das<\/strong><\/p>\n

So I thought, \u201cBoy, how am I going to show Prabhupada how to use this thing? He\u2019s from the village. In Vrindavan, they don\u2019t know what a Dictaphone is.\u201d So I brought it up to Prabhupada\u2019s room, and I showed it to him. I showed him the mike, and he looked at it. I said, \u201cPrabhupada, there\u2019s an instruction book here how to use it. I\u2019ll go through it with you.\u201d He said, \u201cNo, that\u2019s OK, I know.\u201d I was shocked. And sure enough, Prabhupada knew. He pressed the right buttons, he was testing it, and I was shocked. He never even looked at the book.<\/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-54667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54667","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=54667"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109653,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54667\/revisions\/109653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}