“Make thousands of outfits like this”

Contributed by: Mahavishnu Dasa

Among many other things, Srila Prabhupada taught his disciples how to worship the Deity forms of Lord Krishna and His eternal consort Srimati Radharani. For instance, he told us that we should dress the Deities very opulently, which meant that we had to make special garments for Them. I was in Bombay in 1972 when I made my first attempt at sewing outfits.

When Srila Prabhupada walked into the temple one day to see the Deities, he smiled broadly. Even as he was prostrating himself before Radha and Krishna, he looked up at Them repeatedly and smiled. Then he arose, and he said to me, "Thank you very much. Make thousands of outfits like this. And always make Radharani more beautiful than Krishna then Krishna will never leave."

One other time, while Srila Prabhupada was in Los Angeles in July of 1974, he remarked how nicely the Deities were dressed and asked who had done it. The other devotees told him that it was Manjuali dasi and I. That afternoon Srila Prabhupada's secretary told us that Srila Prabhupada wanted to speak to us in his quarters. When we got there he gave us twenty dollars for the Deities, and we said we'd buy more cloth and make more garments for Them. Srila Prabhupada was smiling beautifully. "So always engage in this way," he told us. "Then your present life will be perfect, and your next life will be perfect. You'll go back home, back to Godhead."

- Tungabhadra-Devi Dasi