You are good for nothing – Remembering Srila Prabhupada

Saravana Kumar Paulraj

– June 2, 2009

In early March, Srila Prabhupada expressed his desire that as many devotees as possible from all over the world come to India for the annual Mayapur-Vrndavana festival and attend the opening of the Krishna-Balaram Mandir on April 20th. For the German devotees, to go on pilgrimage and visit the holy places of Lord Caitanya’s and Krsna’s pastimes provided just the medicine they needed to lift their spirits.

Janmanalaya Dasa: "After the festival, I stayed on as a pujari at Krishna-Balaram Mandir. I had been studying art in Vienna before joining the devotees in 1971, but after moving into the temple I had stopped painting. Now I felt the desire to take it up again, but I didn’t know how to begin after so many years without practice.

"One morning, I described my background to Srila Prabhupada and my desire to engage my talent in Krsna’s service. I showed Prabhupada a drawing of him I had made. He was pleased and even signed it. His instruction to me was simple; he said, ‘Just go on painting.’ Glad to have his approval, I began painting portraits of Srila Prabhupada while also doing my service as a pujari.

"Later I went to Mayapur, where one of my duties was to guard Srila Prabhupada’s quarters during his visits. One morning, I was sitting on the veranda, not far from his door, in front of an empty room in which the ceiling fan was going. Someone apparently had left the room and forgotten to switch off the fan. Srila Prabhupada, chanting japa, came out of his room, and walked up the veranda, turned around, and approached the spot where I sat. When he noticed the swirling fan, he stopped and asked me, ‘Why is this ventilator going?’ I sheepishly said, ‘I don’t know. Somebody must have left it on.’ ‘Then why didn’t you switch it off?’ he asked. When I gave the silly excuse that I had forgotten about it, Prabhupada remarked, ‘You are good for nothing. Simply wasting Krsna’s energy!’ I lowered my head, and tears welled up in my eyes.

”Srila Prabhupada’s obvious displeasure with me made me feel like drowning myself in the Ganges. So I went to the temple president and told him what happened. I asked him what I should do now, whether I should get my bags and leave, or what? But he seemed not to give the incident much importance and encouraged me to continue my service. So I sat down again at Prabhupada’s door.

"After a few minutes, Srila Prabhupada called me into his room and asked me to fetch the water jug from his bedroom and fill the lota on his desk. As I set down the jug and replaced its small clay cover, Prabhupada put his hand on mine and moved his head in an apologetic way, as if he wanted to say, ‘What can I do? It is my duty to correct you.’ I immediately felt like embracing him. The very incident that had caused me so much grief miraculously turned into the most wonderful experience. Prabhupada radiated the warmth and love of a true father and well-wisher.

"There were lots of insects in Mayapur, especially brown, cockroach-like, winged bugs. Each evening, thousands of them swirled around the lamps in the temple room, and in the morning, they all lay dead on the floor. It was my service to sweep the temple room and dispose of the insects. There were bucketsful of them. In one of his lectures, Srila Prabhupada referred to the insects by comparing our situation in this world to theirs. Just as they were attracted by the glaring lamplight, only to die the next morning, we were attracted by the dazzling material energy, only to meet with death."

From the "Srila Prabhupada and His Disciples in Germany" by HG Vedavyasa dasa

Disclaimer: The article is posted in the Yahoo Groups – Govindadwipa. All credits goes to the group and their services. Hare Krishna.