1008 Ways to Remember Srila Prabhupada
by Govinda dasi ACBSP

Dedicated to our Eternal Master - His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 

Story # 30 - Just going to the bank

One day, in Montreal in the summer of 1968 I went into Srila Prabhupada's room and he wasn't there. Needless to say this was very unusual. I checked he wasn't in any other part of the apartment and it was early afternoon, so I became completely complexed because it wasn't his habit to get up and leave or go anywhere. I went running out into the street to see where he had gone but I didn't see him anywhere. I was becoming very concerned, so I ran down to the corner to see if I could see him in any direction and there he was, perhaps a block or so down the street, he had already turned the corner and he was walking somewhere, alone. So I went running down the street and caught up with him. As I was very shocked and I was trying to find out where he was going, what was going on, why he had gotten up and left the house. When I caught up with him I was out of breath and laughed when he saw me, and I asked him: "Where are you going? What's going on? Why have you left?" He smiled and chuckled and said: "Oh, I am just going to the bank. It is all right. I will be all right". I asked him: "Srila Prabhupada, do you want to go alone? Shall I get Gaurasundara to go with you? Will you be OK?" He said: "Yes, yes, I will be all right, I will go alone". So I let him proceed and go alone and I went back to the house. He was not in the habit of going to places alone, especially at that time. This was after all after his stroke. So he would take rest and we would take care of all of his errands for him. Generally he would have Gaurasundara do the banking and of course we took care of grocery shopping and everything. The only time he went out was for some excursion or his morning walk or to the temple in the evenings, so I was a little perplexed by this but perhaps he felt that he wanted to take a walk out that day. I do have one photograph of him as he is coming out of the bank in Montreal. Gaurasundara took of him that day since he didn't usually go to the bank by himself. Gaurasundara found him there and walked with him back to our house. Thank you, Srila Prabhupada for giving us the opportunity to care for you. Although you didn't really us at all, certainly we thought that you did and therefore our full focus was on serving you, taking care of you and protecting you, watching out for your health, and watching out for any problem that might erase or for any errands that you needed to have done. Thank you for giving us that opportunity. We know that you can actually do everything yourself but by Krsna's grace for our benefit you allowed us to be engaged in your service. Thank you.

 


 

 

 

 

 

Story # 31 - Medicine

Since Srila Prabhupada's stroke the previous year he always regularly took Ayurvedic medicine. He brought with him a supply of medicine when he returned from Vrindavana and then Acyutananda who was still in India would regularly send medicine to him as well as some particular nuts from India called parayalyche (?) These nuts had to be grounded to powder and they were as hard as bricks and they had to be mixed with his medicine. So Gaurasundara would sit regularly with mortar and pestle and grind these nuts into powder; then 3 mornings a week Gaurasundara would grind Srila Prabhupada's medicine along with the nuts. It consisted of all these little herbs and Prabhupada also mentioned there was gold in his medicine. It was a time consuming task - the grinding of these little brick-like nuts which Gaurasundara did regularly, and Srila Prabhupada often said this Ayurvedic medicine was helping him, and because Gaurasundara and I were taking care of Srila Prabhupada, giving him medicine, trying to take care of all his needs and running errands we naturally were a bit over-protective. Sometimes in my overprotective mood I would mother him a bit and he would say jokingly to me: "Physician heal thyself" since I was always sickly. "You first heal yourself", he would quip in a loving fatherly fashion but the big problem came when he would stay up late with guests preaching. Srila Prabhupada loved to preach and if someone wanted to hear about Krsna he would continue on and on, often late into the night. But then, unknown to that person who had stayed late, the next day Srila Prabhupada would feel headachy and ill and tell me: "Oh, Govinda dasi, I should take rest earlier. I should not over-exert like this". So I would be distressed to see him feeling ill and then try to curtail his late evening programs. Yet, when I would try to remind him or whisper to the devotees: "Its night, it's late, come on out now", he would usually insist on continuing. So in that sense it was a difficult job to try to remind him not to over-exert but to also be the one who was the party pooper or the bouncer. Perhaps that was the most difficult job for me in my life with Srila Prabhupada in the year and a few months that we spent with him. Yet I am still grateful for that service to Srila Prabhupada and I thank him to this day. Thank you, Srila Prabhupada for giving me the opportunity to mother you, take care of you and give you your medicine. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your bouncer even though a lot of devotees were very offended and I humbly request that any devotees who felt offended will please forgive me for I was only trying to do my job of keeping our spiritual master well so that he could do his work. Thank you, Srila Prabhupada for your grace on me, thank you for coming and thank you for coming back after your illness and tolerating so much inconvenience to preach in the Western world, even not being able to get your parayaliche (barayalyche??) nuts from India which was always an ongoing problem. Thank you, Srila Prabhupada.

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Govinda dasi
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