Roger Rodpush
1 min·
The Bhaktivedanta Archives
July 22
·
“Should we open the curtains?
Should we not open the curtains?”
[Nanda joined ISKCON in 1972 in Boston. In 1974, she was serving as the head pujari and head cook at the Mexico City temple when Srila Prabhupada visited there.]
Nanda: I didn’t go to greet Srila Prabhupada at the airport when he arrived because I was so busy with the Deities.
The next morning he went out for a morning walk.
I couldn’t go, because I had to dress the Deities.
Only a few of us stayed back because we had service.
Then it was time to greet the Deities, but Srila Prabhupada hadn’t returned from his walk.
What should we do?
Should we open the curtains?
Should we not open the curtains?
We didn’t know what to do–no one had told us what to do, and there was nobody there at the moment with any authority to decide.
So the three or four of us who were there had a quick little meeting, and after some discussion I said,
“We should open the curtains, because Prabhupada wouldn’t want us to change the Deities’ schedule for him.”
I thought Srila Prabhupada would want us to open the curtains. And so we did.
We turned on the “Govindam” recording and, as usual, threw flower petals on the Deities.
But what we didn’t know is that one of the brahmacharis who had stayed back had run to meet up with the walkers and has asked our GBC, Hridayananda Maharaja what we should do.
Then while we were in the midst of greeting the Deities and bowing down, this brahmachari returned and said,
“Hridayananda Maharaja told us not to open the curtains and to wait for Prabhupada.”
Oh, gosh, so *then* what to do?
We stopped everything, shut the curtain, and were in the middle of sweeping up the flower petals when Srila Prabhupada walked in.
Then in the middle of our cleanup we started the Govindam prayers all over again …
I remember Jagadisa Maharaja looking at us quizzically as we continued to sweep up flower petals while devotees were still throwing flower petals.
—Nanda
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Excerpt from “A Bond of Love, Srila Prabhupada and his daughters”
http://vaishnaviministry.org/
https://www.facebook.com/Iskcon-Vaishnavi-Ministry-7484634…/
Posted by bhakta Roger Rodpush
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