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For about the first week on his morning walks, Prabhupada talked frequently about the existence of the soul, explaining Krsna's arguments in the Bhagavad-gita.

One morning a car was parked near where they walked, and seated in the driver's seat was a dejected-looking man who sat slumped over, with a long, drawn, unhappy face. Day after day this car appeared there, and the man sat unhappily while the devotees walked past in the company of Srila Prabhupada. Finally, after about a week, Prabhupada one day broke away from the group of devotees and approached the man's car. The car window was rolled up, but on seeing Prabhupada, the man rolled down the window. Prabhupada greeted him, "Good morning." The man smiled, happy to see Prabhupada, as if he had never noticed Prabhupada and the devotees walking by day after day. Prabhupada then rejoined his disciples and continued walking. They looked back and saw that the deep unhappiness in the man's face had vanished and he appeared happier. They did not see him any more on the morning walks. Among themselves the devotees discussed these things or kept the impressions privately in their hearts. After a little incident like that of the man sitting slumped in his car, they were even more convinced that Swamiji had the power and ability to make people happy, and that he really wanted to do it.

One morning Prabhupada arrived in the park, stepped out of his car, and waited for the devotees who had come in another car to join him. Lilavati had difficulty getting out of the car because she had her baby, Subhadra, in a carrier on her back. When she finally did get out of the car, Prabhupada turned and laughed at her, saying, "Ah, burden of affection." "Yes, Swamiji," Lilavati replied. They all began to walk together along the path.

"So there are two ways to carry a baby," Prabhupada said, tapping his cane on the ground in time with his regular stride. "There is the monkey way and the cat way. Do you know this?"

"No, Swamiji," said Lilavati.

"Well, which way do you think is better?" Prabhupada asked her. "The monkey way or the cat way?" She couldn't understand or imagine what he meant. Prabhupada continued, "The monkey baby climbs on the back of the mother and holds on, and this is the way he travels. And the kitten is carried in the teeth of the mother. So which is better?"

Lilavati could still not understand which way could be better; they both sounded very difficult to her.

"Well," Prabhupada said, "the monkey baby is very small and very weak, and he is holding on to the mother by his own strength. But the kitten is being supported by the strength of the mother. So which way do you think is better?"

And then she understood. "The cat way is better."

"Yes," Prabhupada said, "that is the difference between the yogi and the devotee. The yogi is trying to climb on the back of the Absolute Truth by his own strength, but he is very weak, so he will fall. But a devotee, he cries out for Krsna"-and as he spoke the word Krsna, Prabhupada held his arms up high and looked up at the clear morning sky-"A devotee cries out for Krsna, and Krsna picks him up."


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