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Lilavati: He called me into his room. He was sitting on his bed talking to Mukunda. When I arrived, he stopped speaking with him and turned to me and said, "So how are you liking this Krsna consciousness?" And I said, "Oh, Swamiji, my life has changed completely." He bowed his head and said, "Thank you very much." He was very pleased. Then he continued his conversation with Mukunda. He was asking him, "So, Mukunda, you have cast so many pairs of karatalas from the ones I have brought, but I do not see any of the devotees with them." I chimed in and said, "Oh, Swamiji, that is because he is charging money." This was my conception of spiritual life-no eating, no money, nothing, everything neti neti neti. So Prabhupada said, "Oh, charging money is bad?" I was surprised. He said, "You must understand that anything that is used in the service of Krsna is not bad. It is good. Money is not bad if it is used in the proper way." This was my first lesson in real renunciation, real spiritual life. He then asked me to edit the first volume of Srimad-Bhagavatam, correcting punctuation and grammar. I was so thrilled and enthusiastic. After leaving his room very shortly after we spoke, I immediately began work. I was extremely excited about doing it.

Lilavati's main occupation was taking care of her baby daughter, Subhadra. She would treasure different incidents in which Prabhupada showed attention to her daughter. The first time he saw Subhadra on returning from India, he said, "She is very fortunate." And he quoted a verse from the Bhagavad-gita to the effect that the yogi who does not complete his practice has a chance to be born in a family of pious brahmanas. Another time, noticing that Subhadra was sleepy in his presence, Prabhupada remarked laughingly, "Yes, young children and old men must take a lot of rest." He also held the child several times and played with her. One time, when speaking to a roomful of people, Prabhupada suddenly told Lilavati, that her daughter was very warm and that she should take off her sweater. He had been speaking on a philosophical topic and had interrupted himself. Others in the room were taken aback to see that Prabhupada was concerned about such a small child. When Prabhupada was leaving in a car to go to a speaking engagement, Lilavati handed him a garland of narcissus flowers through the window of the car. He lowered his head in a humble way and said, "Thank you very much." She then handed him three narcissus flowers that had not been used in the garland. He took them and said, "Oh? And this is from your daughter?" Lilavati laughed and said, "Yes, Swamiji," and he said, "Oh, very nice." Such thoughtful and clever remarks from Prabhupada about her daughter totally encouraged Lilavati's Krsna consciousness.

Krsnadasa: He was continually working on the Bhagavatam and would make dictaphone tapes that he would send to Satsvarupa every other day in Boston. I remember one morning as I was going to work, Govinda dasi gave me this little package that was a tape with Satsvarupa's address in Boston, and she asked me to mail it on my way to work. The address was on one side, and the stamps were on the other. Every day when I went to work, Prabhupada left his door open. So whenever I would go to work, I would pay my obeisances, or sometimes as I was walking by he would see me and ask me to come in, and he would give me a little prasadam. He would say, "Oh, you are off to work now? Good. I am glad you are steady." Then in the evening I would get off the train, which would stop right at Willard Street. Prabhupada's room overlooked the streetcar stop. Sometimes I would get off the streetcar, and Prabhupada would be looking down at me from his room, so I would pay my obeisances right there in the street, and he would nod. I would come in, and he would ask how the day was. So our relationship was very personal. I was never afraid of asking him if I had any difficulties. So when I was asked by Govinda dasi to mail this tape, I stopped in Prabhupada's room and told him that I noticed that the stamps were on one side and the address was on the other. "Are you sure there won't be any difficulty in the mailing?" I asked. He said, "No, no, there won't be any difficulty. I've done it before." So I went out and I was getting ready when I noticed that the thing was stapled. I had been mailing jewelry all my life, and I never sent anything with staples-always a string or something in case the staples fell off. So again I knocked on the door and said, "Swamiji, I've got to apologize, I don't mean to disturb you, but it's stapled. Are you sure it doesn't have to be tied?" I was trying to be helpful, not critical. Maybe I was a little overly confident. So Swamiji said, "No, no, it's all right." So I left. As I was putting my jacket on I saw that about two inches of the envelope was unstapled and the tape was open to view. You could actually squeeze the thing, and although it couldn't fall out, it was visible. So I walked back in the room and paid my obeisances and said, "Swamiji, you can see the tape inside." Prabhupada immediately hit his hand on the table loudly and yelled, "The spiritual master is never at fault! And even if he is, it's your duty as his disciple to do whatever he asks." He went on for at least half an hour about how one should be very observant of what the spiritual master says and not criticize. It was like he was saying, "I will be your spiritual master, and I will instruct you, but what can I do if you won't take my advice?"

Krsnadasa also got a chance to shave Prabhupada's head. Not many of the devotees in those days wore the Vaisnava sikha, the tuft of hair at the back of the head. Prabhupada had very little hair, but he did have a sikha about three inches in diameter at the back of his head. Thinking that only the disciples wore the sikha, Krsnadasa shaved off Prabhupada's sikha. But Prabhupada only mentioned it mildly: "Oh, you have cut off my sikha." On another occasion while shaving Prabhupada's head, Krsnadasa cut him, but Prabhupada didn't notice it. He was chanting the whole while. But when Upendra came in and saw a bit of blood on Prabhupada's head, he exclaimed. Prabhupada said, "What? What?" and put his hand to his head. "Oh, you've cut me," said Prabhupada. But that was all he said. Upendra later told Krsnadasa that he had committed a great offense. That evening Krsnadasa went to Prabhupada and mentioned the cut. "There is not difficulty," said Prabhupada. "You are just a little young yet. Young don't have a steady hand."


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