26.06.2015 Views

An Authentic Life 1.1 for pdf - Universalist Radha-Krishnaism

An Authentic Life 1.1 for pdf - Universalist Radha-Krishnaism

An Authentic Life 1.1 for pdf - Universalist Radha-Krishnaism

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

money in. This often went on until two in the morning.<br />

Brahmananda was president of the New York<br />

temple. He was a big stocky guy who had taught public<br />

school. He was a big lovable teddy bear unless<br />

provoked. He ate more than anyone else in the temple.<br />

The daily fare was rich Indian style food that was<br />

offered to the Lord be<strong>for</strong>e the devotees ate. It was said<br />

to nourish the soul as well as the body. Everyone got<br />

all they wanted. Brahmananda and some of the other<br />

men used large pizza pans as their dishes. In the<br />

morning, we prepared a big pot of hot cereal full of<br />

fruit and honey in a cockroach ridden apartment on<br />

Avenue A and brought it to the temple in a shopping<br />

cart. The cereal crew finished any left over cereal so it<br />

would not be wasted.<br />

Prabhupad visited New York and taught me<br />

accounting. He had a shrewd business mind. He<br />

managed a chemical company after college and then<br />

started his own pharmaceutical business, which he<br />

managed until he was fifty. I was put in charge of the<br />

magazine's accounting and became business manager<br />

as well as associate editor.<br />

The temple rented a loft a couple of blocks up<br />

Second Ave. from where it was originally founded.<br />

The loft <strong>for</strong>merly housed a tuxedo rental place. It was<br />

closed <strong>for</strong> some time and dirty. We put on old tux's<br />

and high hats and cleaned. We built bunks and a<br />

shower in the back where celibate men lived. The<br />

wood used <strong>for</strong> the bunks came from a torn down<br />

70

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!