Tamal Krishna Goswami Remembers Srila Prabhupada
Tamal Krishna Goswami: Prabhupada was in New Delhi when he heard from Tusta Krishna about what was to become Hare Krishna Land in Juhu. Tusta Krishna had made friends with one Mr. Nair, the owner of this land and the owner of Free Press Journal. Prabhupada negotiated with Mr. Nair, and after a long time we signed a sales agreement. However, Mr. Nair had no plan to fulfill the agreement. We could not sign the conveyance, the final document to change the title of the property. A long, long period ensued during which Mr. Nair tried to remove the devotees from the land, and the devotees fought many heroic battles. Prabhupada had installed Radha-Rasa-Bihari at the Bombay pandal program, and those Deities were presiding at Hare Krishna Land. Prabhupada prayed to Them, “My dear Lord, I request You to sit down here.” He promised Them, “I will arrange everything for You, but don’t leave.” Wherever Prabhupada was in the world, this battle with Mr. Nair was constantly on his mind. At one point, our temporary temple on the property was demolished. Prabhupada commented that our struggle was like the Kurukshetra battle. Once we were staying at the house of the wealthiest man in Hyderabad, Mr. Panilal Piti, when Prabhupada arranged for Mr. Nair to meet him there. Mr. Nair felt that Prabhupada had some mystic power and would put some spell on him and take the land from him, so he brought his pseudo guru with him for protection. After a big dinner, Prabhupada was yawning. Mr. Nair and his guru immediately said, “Swamiji, I think that you must be getting tired. We should let you rest.” Prabhupada said, “I am very tired,” and he retired. Immediately Mr. Nair and his guru went to sleep in the next room. After about five minutes Prabhupada called me into his room. Although Prabhupada always slept after eating, Prabhupada wasn’t sleeping at all. He said, “What are they doing?” I said, “They’re sleeping.” He said, “Go in there and wake up Mr. Nair, but don’t wake up his guru.” I went in, shook Mr. Nair’s arm and told him, “Prabhupada wants to see you, shhhhhhh,” indicating that he shouldn’t wake up his guru. Prabhupada preached to Mr. Nair, who sat listening and listening. Gradually Prabhupada got him to agree to sign the agreement all over again. He told Shyamasundar and me to immediately type the whole agreement. We typed it out on the old typewriter Prabhupada had, and Prabhupada got it signed. By that time, his guru got up and came in. Mr. Nair had signed away the land again. Mr. Nair kept hitting his head, asking, “What have I done? What have I done?” Prabhupada said, “It’s okay.” It was done. Prabhupada had Shyamasundar and me accompany Mr. Nair back to Bombay. As it turned out, our lawyers were working in cahoots with Mr. Nair and Mr. Nair’s lawyers. Within a period of ten days, they convinced Shyamasundar and me that it was the greatest blunder to go ahead with this contract. We canceled the contract. We let it run out without fulfilling it. This was our fatal blunder. Prabhupada was in Pune, and I called him up to tell him the good news, “Srila Prabhupada, I wanted to tell you.” He said, “What has happened? Did everything go through?” I said, “No, Srila Prabhupada. We cancelled the contract.” All I heard was “click.” Prabhupada hung up the phone. Prabhupada came to Bombay, and for about the next two months, he would have one or another of us parade into his room, and he would say, “This foolish boy,” showing his guest the contract, “he cancelled the contract.” It was a huge blunder on our part. There were many more such blunders, but Prabhupada’s wonderful quality through them all was that he never gave up on his disciples. No matter how many mistakes a devotee might make, Prabhupada would see if that person wanted to continue to serve Krishna and to serve him; he would stand by that devotee. In the instance of the contract cancellation, Prabhupada did not reject me. He gave Giriraj Maharaj and me the opportunity to go through a hellish year and a half regularly going to Bombay, sitting in lawyers’ chambers, trying to rectify the situation. One of Srila Prabhupada’s symptoms was that he never gave up on a devotee. He said about Krishna, “When you sincerely chant Hare Krishna, even one time, He will never leave you alone.” I feel the same way about Prabhupada. He also never left you alone even if you made many mistakes in his service. He did not reject you, he accepted you just as the parent accepts the child. Prabhupada knew that there would be mistakes, and he would chastise you like anything, but he never gave you the sense that he didn’t love you. Despite all of the grand mistakes that were made, I never got the sense that Prabhupada loved me less because of them. I always felt encouraged, not discouraged, despite our many mistakes.
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To view the entire unedited video go to Memories 10 - 1995 Prabhupada Festival
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