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To each of the three devotees in Boston Prabhupada had given a specific engagement. Jadurani's was painting. Prabhupada had told her to increase the beauty of Back to Godhead magazine with illustrations. He had especially commissioned certain paintings: Radha-Krsna inVrn davana, Lord Visnu, Lord Caitanya with His four principal associates, Lord Caitanya and His associates performing kirtana, as well as paintings of Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, and Swamiji himself.

Since Jadurani didn't have much art training, her first paintings had been crude, and Prabhupada had sometimes laughed to see a picture's defects. But he had been pleased with Jadurani, who chanted Hare Krsna while she worked and executed each painting just according to his in structions. If she stayed absorbed in painting, Prabhupada said, then wherever she lived would be as good as Vrndavana.

Prabhupada wrote to Jadurani, asking her to gather other female disciples interested in art, form an art department, and flood the world with paintings of Krsna. The paintings, he said, were like windows on the spiritual world. He instructed her in many of the details of painting.

The airplanes in Vaikuntha aren't exactly like the airplanes here, but it is something like the swan while flying, in shape, with a throne on the back, bedecked all over with golden filigree work, and looking very brilliant. It isn't a bird flying, but the shape of the plane is like the swan bird flying.

In depicting the fight between the boar incarnation of Lord Krsna and the demon Hiranyaksa, Prabhupada gave specific instructions.

The demons could assume any gigantic shape they liked. They can play jugglery; they are not ordinary human beings. You must know that a person with whom God had to fight is not an ordinary person. He could play almost equally with the Lord, but nobody can excel the Lord...

Yes, Varaha is very beautiful. Generally, the boar picture is depicted as half-human, and half-boar, but in Bhagavatam it is stated that full boar. You can make the first two legs as two hands, and the rear two legs as legs, and make it as beautiful as possible... Yes, He is reddish just like a boar.

Eager to improve her art, Jadurani began studying the great masters. But when she painted Narada Muni after the style of Raphael, Prabhupada said that Narada looked too sensuous. He said he preferred her first painting of Narada, although it had not been much more than a stick figure, because she had carefully tried to follow a print he had given her. Seeing the new sensuous Narada and hearing of Jadurani's plans to study art and sell her paintings, Prabhupada replied critically.

You are already a great artist. You don't want to become a great artist to satisfy the senses of the public. If your present paintings are not acceptable to the general public, I do not mind; they are fools. You continue trying your best to make your pictures as far as they can be nice looking, but not to satisfy the senses of the rascal public. Yesterday I was in a Unitarian church and there I saw two pictures of only logs and bamboo, and it was explained to me by our great artist Govinda dasi that these are modern abstract art. Anyway I couldn't see in them anything but a combination of logs and bamboos. There is nothing to impel my Krishna consciousness. So, if you want to be a great artist in that way, I will pray that Krishna may save you. Anyway, if the public doesn't buy, we don't mind. Why you are anxious for selling? We shall distribute them to devotees without any price. If our things have no market in the sense gratification society that does not mean we are going to change our principles. We are meant for satisfying Krishna, not anybody's senses. That should be the principle of our life.

Jadurani became despondent. Feeling like a fool and a deviant disciple, she wrote Prabhupada only a brief reply. For several days she moped, considering her situation hopeless. Then she received another letter.

This is the first time I have received a letter from you finished in only three lines, so I can understand that you have been depressed by receiving my last letter. The idea is that there is a story, "That, I have lost my caste and still my belly is not fulfilled." In India, it is the custom that the Hindus do not ever take meals in the house of a Mohammedan, Christian, or anyone other than the house of a Hindu brahmana. But a man was very hungry, and accidentally he took his food in the house of a Mohammedan. And when he wanted still more food, the man refused, as the Mohammedan could not supply. So the Hindu man said, "Sir, I have lost my caste, and still I am hungry(!)" Similarly, if artistic pictures as they are approved by the people in general in this country can be sold quickly, I have no objection to present our pictures in such a way. But I know that pictures in this country are sold not on the merit of the picture, but on the reputation of the artist. That system is also current in India. But to come to the point of a reputed artist will require a long duration of time. And our time is very short. We have to finish our Krishna consciousness during our lifetime, and we should not waste a single moment for anything else. According to Caitanya-caritamrta, a man is famous who is known as a great devotee of Krishna. So if there is not possibility of selling our pictures immediately on presentation, I do not think there is any necessity to improve our artistic craftsmanship. We should be satisfied with our pictures hanging in our different temples. But we may not sacrifice our valuable time for becoming famous artists so that pictures may be sold like hotcakes... Of course, I am not an artist, neither I have power to see from artistic viewpoint; I am a layman, so whichever picture appeals to me I say it is nice, and whichever picture does not appeal to me I say it is not nice. That is my common sense affair. Therefore my remark has no value from artistic sense. Anyway, don't be depressed; you can go on with your work, and we shall talk more on this subject when we meet together.

Taking heart, Jadurani continued to turn out more new paintings until there was scarcely room enough in the storefron to hang another.


- From "Prabhupada-lila" by HH Satsvarupa dasa Goswami