One thing Prabhupada liked about California was that it was easy for him to obtain eucalyptus twigs there. Prabhupada used them for brushing his teeth in the morning. He liked them cut the thickness of the little finger and about six inches long, and they were soaked in water overnight before he used them. At this time Krsnadasa was going out in the morning to pick them. He would keep a good supply wrapped up in tin foil in the refrigerator. Hearing that eucalyptus trees were uncommon in America, Prabhupada had asked Krsnadasa to send him a supply wherever he traveled.
These sometimes small and domestic dealings of Prabhupada with his disciples may be seen by someone outside of devotional service as of little consequence, but to the devotee they are always important, because the devotee holds the pleasure of his spiritual master as the supreme value in life. If the spiritual master, Krsna's representative, is pleased by even a little service, then that means that Krsna is pleased. For the most part, Prabhupada's disciples simply knew that they loved him, loved serving him, and felt great satisfaction and bliss when he showed his pleasure with them.
Govinda dasi: He needed some house slippers. I saw that. So I went and bought him some house slippers. He told me he wore size eight. I got him some all-man-made slippers in San Francisco. They were black with red fluffy, furry lining, so that they were easy to slip on the feet. Whenever he would walk around the house you could hear this nice little shuffling sound. He would have his hands behind his back and his head held high.
Although some of the devotees had their own idea that Prabhupada should go on a special diet, he didn't think much of it. He wanted his regular prasadam-dal, rice, capatis, and sabji. Upendra was regularly cooking these staples. But one day Yamuna came into the kitchen and asked Upendra if she could cook a special lunch for Prabhupada. He stepped back and allowed her. Yamuna was learning the art of Indian cooking. She made extra preparations, sour, spicy, and sweet. Upendra brought in the tray as usual, without any comment. A few moments later Prabhupada rang his bell, calling for Upendra.
"Who has made this prasadam?" Prabhupada asked, looking up as he sat on a cushion before a small table which held his lunch.
"Yamuna-devi cooked it, Swamiji," said Upendra.
"I do not want such fancy things," Srila Prabhupada said. "I want to eat simply. A little rice, a little dal, like that." He wasn't very pleased with the special feast; he was used to eating the same simple thing every day. Upendra continued to cook like that, occasionally creating variety by cooking kichri and fried eggplant in cuddy sauce once a week. But Upendra was also extravagant. Prabhupada confided to Gaurasundara, "That Upendra is using too much ghee, so that I cannot taste the prasadam before it slips down my throat. It is too slippery."
One of the devotees who had been with Prabhupada in India wrote that Swamiji should not be given sweets. Prabhupada didn't think much of that either, as he had introduced coconut laddus on the first evening of his return.
Upendra: He gave us the recipe that you grate the coconut and cook it in a pot, along with some sugar and camphor, and cook it and cook it until it comes to a certain thickness, and then it can be squeezed into balls and offered in this way. So he was giving this instruction to me, and I was following. The stove was an old-fashioned type that allowed for one half of the stove to be covered with a safety cover. While I cooked, Prabhupada leaned against the corner of the store with his elbows, his chin resting in his hands, and he leaned and watched me stir. He got up and walked away and then came back, just like a restless young boy. He walked around the kitchen and then returned to look into the pot, stirring it to see if it was done. He asked, "Is it done? I think it's done. It must be done. Let us try." I took the substance out, and although it was still hot, we began squeezing it into balls. As soon as one ball was squeezed, Prabhupada took it and popped it into his mouth. He turned away from the stove and, shaking his head pleasingly, Srila Prabhupada said, "Yes, it is done. Very nice."
Prabhupada spontaneously showed his displeasure also. That was the risk of serving him closely as his personal servant or cook. One day Govinda dasi was cooking a cereal for Prabhupada's breakfast when he walked past the kitchen, looked in, and asked, "What are you cooking?"
"I am making cereal, Swamiji," she replied.
"But today is Ekadasi," Srila Prabhupada said.
"Oh, thank you, Swamiji. I didn't know." She thought that by his reminder she had not actually done anything wrong. After all, neither he nor anyone else had eaten the grains. But Prabhupada began to criticize her with a severity that surprised her. It was a great disqualification on her part, Srila Prabhupada said, to cook grains on Ekadasi, the day when devotees fast from all grains. He kept repeating that she had cooked grains on Ekadasi and described her mistake as very serious; her one mistake seemed to indicate a whole wrong mentality. Govinda dasi finally felt it was as bad as if she had actually eaten grains, so she fasted entirely for the rest of the day.
Many things had to be done exactly right. When Upendra placed a small amount of salt on Prabhupada's plate in front of the rice, it made it difficult for Prabhupada to eat the rice without mixing it in the salt. Prabhupada mentioned it. But when Upendra did it again the next day, Srila Prabhupada said, "I told you to put the salt in back of the rice, not in front!" And foregoing his own pleasure, due to his servant's foolishness, Prabhupada added, "Now give me no more salt." The next day, however, Upendra put salt and pepper in separate containers and placed them beside the plate so Prabhupada could move them as he liked. Prabhupada accepted them silently. Whenever a mistake was rectified, he seemed to immediately forget the wrong.
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada Gita-nagari Press- Prabhupada-lila-Satsvarupa dasa Goswami-Return to America, 1967
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