An Acarya’s Compassion

Prabhupada was very compassionate to accept his first disciples.  Nowadays, those disciples tell of the old days in a humorous way, but for Prabhupada, it was not merely humorous.  Sometimes it was painful to see how degraded the youth were.

Prabhupada realized in a humble way that this was the opportunity Krishna was giving him.  He said that our natural beauty was covered over by a morose, dirty appearance.

Those who became his disciples were respectful, but some people were insulting, even while sitting in the audience of the Bhagavad-gita lectures.  Prabhupada’s disciples were indirectly offensive in their failure to understand the etiquette of approaching the guru.  Also, after initiation, they were offensive when they broke the vows.  These things were painful to Prabhupada.

We get a little hint of how Prabhupada saw things from some of his expressions.  He said that working with the broken youth of America was similar to picking up a discarded wire and an old gourd and making a vina out of it.  Prabhupada said that his work was similar to Lord Ramacandra’s task of creating an army of monkeys.

Prabhupada might have thought like this: “At first I planned to open a Gaudiya Math branch in uptown Manhattan where ladies and gentlemen could come.  But Krishna is arranging it that these bewildered hippies – all young enough to be my grandchildren and great grandchildren – are coming forward.  They are asking me, ‘Swamiji, can I take LSD?  Do we really have to follow these rules?’”

Prabhupada preached wholeheartedly.  He was a refined and elderly gentleman, yet he took on rough, untrained disciples.  He gave himself in a loving relationship yet always remained dependent on Krishna – and that is what made him attractive to us.