Giving Money for Krishna’s Mission

When I first attended 26 Second Avenue, I gave small donations in the collection basket.  Then I started giving larger donations, sometimes 20 dollars.  One time I “donated” 40 dollars, although I hadn’t intended to – it fell out of my sock.  It was my habit to keep money hidden in my sock, as I had seen my supervisor at the welfare office do.  He said that this was an excellent method to protect your money in case you were held up by a mugger.  So one night when I went to hear and see Swamiji in his room, I took my socks off, forgetting about my hidden money.  Later, one of the boys came downstairs and said, “Wow!  We just found 40 in Swamiji’s room.”  I said, “That was my money!”  The boys looked like they did not believe me, but I asked them, “Could you please tell the Swami to accept it as a donation from me.”

After that I decided to give everything I had, the balance from my total savings of 600 dollars.  I still remember how Swamiji smiled when I gave him my savings, and I think about why he was so happy.  At the time when I gave my “big” donation, Swamiji was residing in his apartment and using the temple storefront, but with no set income.  He was simply trusting in Krishna.  He had struggled for a year in New York City, moving from place to place, and he had attained a very nice base at Second Avenue.  If he failed here, he would probably decide to go back to India; there was no other alternative.  And yet Prabhupada wanted to serve his Guru Maharaja by preaching in the West.  He might have seen a donation like mine as a sign from Krishna.  Prabhupada might have thought, “Just see, Krishna is showing me that this movement is going to go on and be successful.”  Even years later when Prabhupada was getting hundreds of thousands of dollars, he saw it as Krishna sending money for the spreading of the Krishna consciousness movement.

After giving my savings in 1966, I no longer had the pleasure of giving so much of my own money to Prabhupada because I had none to give.  Later on, wealthy disciples like Ambarisa and Lekasravanti were able to personally give Prabhupada substantial amounts.  I continued with the weekly donations of my paycheck, and I also began to take part along with Prabhupada in collecting the money.  I remember bringing the basket up to him in the evening and presenting the small collection from the Second Avenue congregation.  The money was in one of those stiff-woven baskets, and Prabhupada counted five or six dollars, and then made the reverent gesture with folded hands and said, “Money is Laksmi.”