Srila Prabhupada In My Life - ebooks - ISKCON desire tree

www.bcswami.comhow Prabhupada always spoke about Krishna. We haven’t see much about Prabhupadaassociating with his other Godbrothers and discussing amongst themselves aboutKrishna, But Prabhupada was preaching all the time. All the time. Whether it was withhis disciples, or visitors, or general mass, Prabhupada was always instructing aboutKrishna and the importance of becoming Krishna Conscious. So this way we had thegood fortune of listening to Srila Prabhupada every evening.Then one day, Srila Prabhupada called for me and when I went to Srila Prabhupada,Prabhupada gave me a stack of letters in Bengali and he asked me to reply them. The wayPrabhupada wanted me to reply them was first I had to read the letters out loud to SrilaPrabhupada and Prabhupada would listen and then Prabhupada would give me the pointsand then I had to formulate the letters. And so in this way, every day I used to reply tosome letters and take them to Srila Prabhupada. And then Prabhupada approved, then Ihad to write it on Prabhupada’s letterhead. The final letter was written on Prabhupada’sletterhead and then Prabhupada used to sign them.So this is how I started to answer Srila Prabhupada’s Bengali letters. And when that stackwas answered, Srila Prabhupada asked me whether I can write in Hindi, I could reply theletters in Hindi as well. And I told Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, I know Hindi and I canwrite in Hindi also, but my handwriting is not so nice.”So Prabhupada smiled and said, “Actually nobody’s Hindi handwriting is nice.” And thenPrabhupada told me a joke. He said one day, one man received a letter from his friend inHindi and he wrote back to his friend: “Next time you write to me, please also send methe train fare to go to you.” So his friend replied, “Why did you ask for the train fare tocome to me when I write to you?” He said, “Because in order to understand what youwrote, I have to come back to you. You only can decipher what you wrote.”Anyway, so Prabhupada gave me the assurance that even though my Hindi handwritingwas not so nice, it did not really matter. So I started to reply to Srila Prabhupada’s Hindiletters. Around that time, Prabhupada told me that he was going to appoint me as hissecretary for Indian Affairs and he called for Tamala Krishna Maharaja, who was hissecretary at that time, and he told Tamala Krishna Maharaja that he was appointing me ashis secretary for Indian Affairs and that he wanted me to move into his secretary’s room,which was next to his room. Actually Prabhupada’s secretary room was next to his room,but since secretary had to type the letters and it used to make a lot of noise. Those daysthere were no computer or electronic typewriters. There were only key-punchingtypewriters, manual typewriters. And that used to make a lot of noise. ThereforePrabhupada used to feel disturbed. So Prabhupada shifted his secretary room, to the roomafter, which was actually his servant’s room, and his servant moved next to his room.So when Prabhupada told that to Tamala Krishna Maharaja, Tamala Krishna Maharajawas very happy. And in that room there were two beds and Tamala Krishna Maharaja andI started to live in that room. In that way I had a very nice association, very good fortuneof Tamala Krishna Maharaja’s very exalted association. In this way we started to serveSrila Prabhupada.www.iskcondesiretree.com