I'm one of Krishna's guys

Contributed by: Mahavishnu Dasa

Padmanabha: In Denver we were having a lot of fun enacting plays such as, "Contemplation of the Objects of the Senses," and we thought about performing that one forSrila Prabhupada. But in that play, we exaggerated the characters of Attachment and Lust and Delusion, and had Mick Jagger singing in the background. Besides that, a couple of members of the cast, Maitreya and Manindra, were no longer at our temple. So we had to come up with another play and decided to do puffed-up Paundraka. We had a new devotee, Govardhanadhari, who was really excited and exciting. I was Paundraka and I wore a headdress and had shoulder pads with two arms that went up and two arms that came down.

Srila Prabhupada was sitting on the vyasasana and the narrator was saying, "Krishna saw Paundraka face to face for the first time. Krishna saw that Paundraka had decorated himself with the symbols of the conch shell, disc, lotus and club. He carried an imitation Sarnga bow, and on his chest was a mock insignia of Srivatsa," I walked by Srila Prabhupada and everybody in the Denver temple room. I looked over at Prabhupada and thought, "I hope he forgives me for this," as I said, "Where is this Krishna?" Prabhupada was into it. He was ready to jump up and kill me himself. I said, "Who is this Krishna?" Prabhupada looked at me as if to say, "I'm one of Krishna'sguys." I stopped in my tracks for a second, took a breath and said, "This impudent fool!

I am the only Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva. No man can compete with me. I have descended as King Paundraka, taking compassion on the distressed conditioned souls out of my unlimited causeless mercy." Then Govardhanadhari, playing Krishna, came and killed me. My arms fell off as I fell to the ground. We also had little pyrotechnic fireworks that blew up. There was an explosion, "Ba boom!" and a mushroom cloud of smoke rose in the temple. I didn't know it was going to be that loud. It startled everybody. Prabhupada was startled but broke into a big smile. I thought, "Ah, good, he liked it. Wow!" That was really exciting and fun.

The biggest thing Prabhupada taught me was that there's a very serious side to Krishna consciousness, and there's certainly a heck of a lot of fun too.