Page 28 - MMOSP (English)
P. 28

My Memories of Çréla Prabhupäda


             for ISkcoN in England that marked the administration of our
             new gBc man, Jayatértha Prabhu, who in less than four months
             had given new direction and dynamism to the movement in
             England while himself remaining the model of a soft-spoken,
             unassuming Vaiñëava. This London acquisition was but one of
             several outstanding properties worldwide that Çréla Prabhupäda
             and his disciples had secured in the previous two to three years.
             So my excitation upon hearing of it was tempered by a sense
             of matter-of-factness in knowing that for Çréla Prabhupäda the
             extraordinary was commonplace.
             My subsequent memories of Çréla Prabhupäda are of him in
             India, during the Mäyäpur-Våndävana festival of 1976.

             While on the plane to Delhi, I started to feel drowsy and
             nauseous. When after my arrival the symptoms persisted, I
             consulted a doctor. To my dismay, it was not a simple case of
             travel sickness—I had hepatitis! Shortly before, a devotee had
             arrived at Bhaktivedanta Manor from Africa with hepatitis, so
             I must have contracted it from him. Especially during the first
             portion of the festival, in Mäyäpur, I was very drowsy and weak.

             I was inconceivably fortunate to be in Mäyäpur with so
             many devotees from all over the world who were exuberantly
             performing immense kértanas and daily seeing and hearing from
             Çréla Prabhupäda. (Just one year before, I had no knowledge
             about any of this.) Yet I was so sick that I could barely stand,
             and thus I could not properly avail of the opportunity. Still, I
             did manage to attend all of Çréla Prabhupäda’s lectures, even
             though I struggled to remain awake during them.

             Çréla  Prabhupäda  was  lecturing  on  the  prayers  of  Prahläda
             Mahäräja  to  Nåsiàhadeva,  in  Çrémad-Bhägavatam,  Seventh
             Canto, which Çréla Prabhupäda was translating at that time.
             That this section had not yet been published and thus was



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