Here's How My Godbrother Met Srila Prabhupada
Here is the most wonderful description of how my Godbrother, Hayagriva Das, in his own words, met Srila Prabhupada way back in 1965 before Srila Prabhupada started ISKCON:
"When I first met my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, I felt that there was never a time when I did not know him. I never tire of telling of my first meeting with him on the streets of Lower East Side New York. At the time, I was hurrying from my Mott Street apartment, which had become a refuge for psychedeliacs, to a much quieter apartment on Fifth Street where I hoped to get some peace. I was walking down Houston Street and across Bowery, past the rushing traffic and stumbling derelicts, and after crossing Bowery, just before Second Avenue, I saw His Divine Grace jauntily strolling down the sidewalk, his head high in the air, his hand in a beadbag. He struck me like a famous actor in a very familiar movie. He seemed ageless, though later I found out that he was seventy years old. He was wearing the traditional saffron-colored robes of a sannyāsī, the renounced order, and quaint white shoes with points. Coming down Houston Street, he looked like the genie that popped out of Aladdin's lamp. I was fresh from a trip to India, and His Divine Grace reminded me of the many holy men I had recently seen walking the dirt roads of Hardwar and Hrishikesh and bathing in the Ganges. I had gone to India to look for a guru but had returned disappointed. It was on this bright July morning, when I was least expecting it, that Śrī Kṛṣṇa, out of His infinite mercy, sent guru to me. The old Vedic adage—by the grace of Kṛṣṇa you get guru, and by the grace of guru you get Kṛṣṇa—was justified. Afterwards, Śrīla Prabhupāda (as we were later to call him) often told me, 'If you are sincere, you don't have to search out your guru. Kṛṣṇa will send him.' So amid the hot clang and clamor of Houston and Bowery, guru had found me out."
Thank you, Hayagriva Prabhu, for your writing such a wonderful description of how you met Srila Prabhupada!
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
P.S. Thank you for reading Thought for the Day. If you have not already done so, please make this your regular daily habit. You will derive great benefit by doing so.
I offer my humble obeisances.
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
I had two questions in my head:
1. It's so difficult to focus on your japa in the morning, mind always flies away. Even if you try to bring it back, it doesn't keep with japa even for a moment sometimes. How to get the taste and steadiness for japa?
2. Why is Lord Kŗşņa black? In this world black is represented as tama guņa.
Hare Kŗşņa.
Everyone's servant,
Gabriel
My Dear Bhakta Gabriel,
Please accept my blessings.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
If your mind is flying away, first chant the Panca-tattva mantra:
śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
and beg Lord Caitanya and His associates to help you keep your mind fixed on the Mahamantra.
I hope this meets you in the best of health.
Your ever well-wisher,
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
ISKCON Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ordered his disciples to become gurus and deliver the world. Sankarshan Das Adhikari has taken this order very seriously and is thus accepting disciples all over the world and has dedicated himself fully to the mission of making the entire world Krishna conscious as soon as possible. He requests your help in this most urgent world deliverance mission to save the suffering humanity from gliding down to the animal kingdom in their next births.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari email: sd@worldleader.com
"When I first met my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, I felt that there was never a time when I did not know him. I never tire of telling of my first meeting with him on the streets of Lower East Side New York. At the time, I was hurrying from my Mott Street apartment, which had become a refuge for psychedeliacs, to a much quieter apartment on Fifth Street where I hoped to get some peace. I was walking down Houston Street and across Bowery, past the rushing traffic and stumbling derelicts, and after crossing Bowery, just before Second Avenue, I saw His Divine Grace jauntily strolling down the sidewalk, his head high in the air, his hand in a beadbag. He struck me like a famous actor in a very familiar movie. He seemed ageless, though later I found out that he was seventy years old. He was wearing the traditional saffron-colored robes of a sannyāsī, the renounced order, and quaint white shoes with points. Coming down Houston Street, he looked like the genie that popped out of Aladdin's lamp. I was fresh from a trip to India, and His Divine Grace reminded me of the many holy men I had recently seen walking the dirt roads of Hardwar and Hrishikesh and bathing in the Ganges. I had gone to India to look for a guru but had returned disappointed. It was on this bright July morning, when I was least expecting it, that Śrī Kṛṣṇa, out of His infinite mercy, sent guru to me. The old Vedic adage—by the grace of Kṛṣṇa you get guru, and by the grace of guru you get Kṛṣṇa—was justified. Afterwards, Śrīla Prabhupāda (as we were later to call him) often told me, 'If you are sincere, you don't have to search out your guru. Kṛṣṇa will send him.' So amid the hot clang and clamor of Houston and Bowery, guru had found me out."
Thank you, Hayagriva Prabhu, for your writing such a wonderful description of how you met Srila Prabhupada!
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
P.S. Thank you for reading Thought for the Day. If you have not already done so, please make this your regular daily habit. You will derive great benefit by doing so.
Srila Prabhupada in the Lower East Side of New York
Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom
Question: How to Chant Japa?
Hare Krishna, Srila Gurudeva.I offer my humble obeisances.
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
I had two questions in my head:
1. It's so difficult to focus on your japa in the morning, mind always flies away. Even if you try to bring it back, it doesn't keep with japa even for a moment sometimes. How to get the taste and steadiness for japa?
2. Why is Lord Kŗşņa black? In this world black is represented as tama guņa.
Hare Kŗşņa.
Everyone's servant,
Gabriel
Answer: Beg for Lord Caitanya's Help
From: Austin, Texas USAMy Dear Bhakta Gabriel,
Please accept my blessings.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
If your mind is flying away, first chant the Panca-tattva mantra:
śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
and beg Lord Caitanya and His associates to help you keep your mind fixed on the Mahamantra.
Krishna is not black. He is dark blue:
I hope this meets you in the best of health.
Your ever well-wisher,
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
The Most Urgent World Deliverance Mission
ISKCON Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ordered his disciples to become gurus and deliver the world. Sankarshan Das Adhikari has taken this order very seriously and is thus accepting disciples all over the world and has dedicated himself fully to the mission of making the entire world Krishna conscious as soon as possible. He requests your help in this most urgent world deliverance mission to save the suffering humanity from gliding down to the animal kingdom in their next births.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari email: sd@worldleader.com
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