Prabhupada worked with his old manual typewriter at his rented workroom at Chippiwada in Old Delhi. He was a poor sannyasi and had to beg for paper and printing and had to bring the paper himself and have it carried by rickshaw to the printers. He then read the printed pages and entered corrections by hand and carried it back to the printer. He wrote in the quiet of his room at the Radha Damodara temple, but conducted his printing business by walking through the busy streets of Delhi.
When he came to America, he continued to work with his manual typewriter, composing the translations and purports of Srimad-Bhagavatam. He was on the Second Canto and carried hundreds of pages of already-completed manuscripts with him. But then his typewriter was stolen from his room at Dr. Misra’s ashram. When he moved to the Bowery, he was given another typewriter and continued his work. At 26 Second Avenue he engaged Hayagriva in editing the pages he had already typed. Then Gargamuni bought Prabhupada his first Dictaphone, and e began using it, speaking directly into the microphone and making tapes. He stopped using the typewriter.
I was one of the first ones to type the Dictaphone tapes. No one else wanted to do it. I had my own manual typewriter at my apartment, and I would also type the tapes in Prabhupada’s apartment at 26 Second Avenue. When Prabhupada moved to San Francisco and I moved to Boston, I continued to be the sole typist of the tapes. He began The Teachings of Lord Caitanya and sent me the tapes in the mail. He sent them in loosely-taped envelopes at the rate of about two per week. Typing the tapes was very dear to me. Hearing my master’s voice in my ears and typing early in the morning before I went to my welfare job gave me intense feelings of separation. I used to hear his voice even when I wasn’t typing. I kept the carbon copy and sent the original manuscript to him in the mail. We had much correspondence about which tapes I had and which tapes he had. In this way I typed the Third and Fourth Cantos of Srimad-Bhagavatam, the entire TLC and the Krsna Book. In my morning lectures at the temple I would recite Krsna Book stories to the devotees. Typing was my life and soul. This picture shows Prabhupada and I conferring over the Dictaphone during one of his visits to Boston. Typing for Prabhupada was one of the most intimate services I ever did for him, and it made me steady emotionally, easing my separation from him and teaching me the philosophy.
From Srila Prabhupada Smaranam: Conversations with His Divine Grace
pp. 130-34
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