Blog

Since the arrival of winter's snow and ice in Boston, not many people had been coming by the storefront in the evenings. And the devotees were content to stay indoors, working at their respective tasks. Each of them was satisfied that his engagement was perfect.

Prabhupada had fixed the date of his arrival in Boston for May 1, and he asked Satsvarupa to begin arranging lectures for him in Boston's many universities. When the devotees sent Prabhupada a few photographs of the storefront interior, he wrote back, "It gives me a nice idea." Although the photos showed only a small empty room with an unfinished altar, Prabhupada had not been looking with the eyes of an interior decorator. Rather, his "nice idea" was that his disciples in Boston were engaging in Krsna consciousness to the best of their ability. The important thing was that they were serving Krsna. By adding Krsna consciousness, anything material could become valuable.

When Pradyumna had to enter the hospital for a hernia operation, Satsvarupa didn't know how they would pay for it. Pradyumna's parents had refused. Having no one else to turn to, Satsvarupa wrote Prabhupada, asking him if he could pay the bill. Just as a dependent child, fearful of the world, turns always to his protective parents, Satsvarupa had faith that Swamiji knew everything and could decide everything. And besides, no one else cared about Pradyumna or how the Boston center for Krsna consciousness would pay a five-hundred-dollar hospital bill. Satsvarupa concluded that if Swamiji thought it wrong for him to ask for the money, then he would tell them that also.

Srila Prabhupada considered the hospital bill a botheration. Why should he have to worry about every item of business in ten different centers around the world? Although he assured Satsvarupa that if necessary he would send the money for Pradyumna's bill, he suggested that his disciples form a governing board to manage such problems. His growing institution had to be properly managed-and not entirely by him. He should be left to carry on the duties proper for the spiritual master, not that he should have to be simultaneously treasurer, chairman, troubleshooter, and counselor for each problem of each devotee in each center. And yet that was happening as he accepted more disciples. They were turning to him for everything: medical advice, marriage counseling, financial assistance, as well as transcendental knowledge. Prabhupada said it gave him a headache.

After Pradyumna's successful surgery, Prabhupada wrote, congratulating him.

I shall be glad to know how you are making progress, and I am anxious that you are still feeling pains. I am glad to know that proper care is being taken, and you are not going up any stairs. That is very nice.

As the time grew nearer for Prabhupada's arrival, Satsvarupa, Pradyumna, and Jadurani arranged for his living accommodation. When they wrote to Prabhupada in New York candidly telling him what they had and asking if it was good enough, he replied that he didn't mind walking the nine blocks from the storefront to the house as long as there were no hills. And he didn't mind how many devotees stayed with him at the apartment, but he must have a separate, silent place. As for college lecture engagements, he said whether they were big or small, he was al ways "prepared to serve." "Probably you are making fine arrangements," he wrote. "Many will come to the temple to hear me. So in that case I must come."


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