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Daivishakti: When Prabhupada’s house was first built and we first started using his kitchen, there were no windows or doors, it was just some pieces of wood covering up the holes.
At night the animals used to come in, so we’d have to have everything very carefully covered. Even then they would get to the things. But one night Prabhupada had sent down some kachoris that he wanted saved.
He wanted them kept for 24 hours because he wanted to try them the next night to see if they were still good. They were training up how the restaurant cooks should prepare the things. He wanted to see if these kachoris would last for selling purposes.
So Navayogendra brought down the kachoris and I was busy making Prabhupada’s night meal and he said, “Prabhupada wants you to save these and feed them to him tomorrow night.” I said, “Just put them there on the shelf,” and I immediately forgot about them.
So the next night it was 8:30 and just at 8:30 I remembered, “Oh, the kachoris, they were on the shelf.” So I went to get the kachoris and, sure enough, the only thing that was there were a few crumbs.
Right then Navayogendra comes down and said, “Prabhupada wants to try the kachoris.” I said, “Prabhu, the cat must have eaten them, they’re not here.” So he got scared, and he ran up and he told Prabhupada. He came running back down with his face all red.
He said, “Prabhupada says that whoever says the cat has eaten them, they have eaten them.” So I knew I hadn’t eaten the kachoris, but Prabhupada was saying that I had eaten the kachoris.
So I was in a real fix because my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada was accusing me of something that I knew I hadn’t done. So it was a big test in my spiritual life. I knew I hadn’t done it and Prabhupada said I was doing it, so I realized with all the years of sankirtan, you had to just continue and not give up in your service even if there’s some setback.
Prabhupada said I took those kachoris. Well, I just as well might have eaten them because he wants to eat them and they’re not here and it’s my fault. So I realized, “Now, what is the real issue here? That Prabhupada wants some kachoris.”
So I had twenty minutes, it was twenty minutes until 9:00, and I remembered that in the restaurant as I was running by, they were grinding up some urad dahl. So I quickly ran over to the restaurant and I got their urad dahl and I whipped up some kachoris.
At exactly 9:00, I brought up those kachoris to Prabhupada with his milk. And he ate those kachoris. He ate five in a row and he said, “These kachoris are better than the other ones, and I want you to cook them for me every night.”
So that was a big test of my Krishna consciousness, that even when there are setbacks, especially in the personal service of Prabhupada when you’re so closely connected with him, you have to just continue in that service and there’s always some way that Prabhupada gives you to rectify even if there’s a mistake that you’ve committed