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I came because it was Lila Shakti that was there. I don’t think she was initiated yet. I wanted to hear the man that was responsible for the movement, and I wanted to see what was going on. Who captured my daughter? Not that she didn’t need capturing. But when we walked into the temple, that was my husband and I, the sun was coming through the window and shining on this man. He seemed to be engulfed by the sun, like the sun was purposely coming just for him. Mind you, I was not a believer at that time.
My first impression was that his whole demeanor had the strength of a lion. He appeared to me that he was giving off so much energy, so much strength in this man. Yet there was a kindness to him that I felt, and he appeared so large. I was so surprised when he did stand that he was not so big. I don’t remember what he even spoke about. I was mostly involved in just looking at the man.
He finished his talk, and then he said would there be any questions. Of course, my hand went up, “Yes, I have a question. If this movement that you speak about is so necessary, why was it so late in coming here?” And I’m thinking, “Here my daughter was a hippie back in Illinois, involved in drugs and whatever. What took you so long if this was so important?” And he said, “That’s a very good question. It wasn’t late, you were late.” And the devotees, oh, they applauded. And he turned to them and he said, “And you were all late!” The devotees quieted down when he said, “And you were late.” They thought that he had won a debate with me. Actually mine was just an innocent question, “Where were you all these years?” I had hoped that we would have more conversation about this, but he went on to speak a little bit more. But I was determined to meet him again. I did come back the next time he came to town, and I requested a meeting with him.
He was someplace in another room. He was told who I was. And he asked my husband what he does, what kind of business he was involved in, and Sam said that he operated an antique shop in Santa Barbara. He said, “And what kind of antiques do you carry? What do you sell?” Sam explained, “Anything that was old,” which it was. I remember Prabhupada saying, “That’s very interesting.” Of course, he was very, very, very nice to my husband, very nice. But we may have spent a good 30 minutes or so with him. In fact, prasadam was brought to him and he offered it to us, which I thought was so nice. His prasadam he offered to us. He was very happy that parents like ourselves were agreeable. He asked me about the other children we had, and I told him we had two sons and their feelings towards their sister’s involvement. And he listened, he listened to everything I said. He gave me rapt attention. Whereas I would have liked to have asked him more things, he was actually interviewing us now that I think of it. I’m sorry I can’t remember my entire conversation with him. Some of my memory has left me with this advancing age. The next birthday I have will be 87.
The third time I met him I already had started the Friends of Krishna program where I was writing to devotees’ families. And he said, “Mrs. Forkash, you are doing very nice work, very nice work.” He asked me if I chanted, and I said I did. He said, “But you know, you should be wearing tilak,” and he pointed to my face and he said, “Right there.” I said, “What is tilak?” He called the girls over and he said, “Mrs. Forkash will wear tilak.” Well, they did apply it, and I swear on everything I did not have this until the next day when I washed the tilak and this remained. And I tell you, I went to a dermatologist and I asked to have this removed and they could not take it off, and it’s still there. Isn’t that something?”
Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada – Remembrances by Yadubara Dasa

Source: https://www.dandavats.com/?p=117001