Laughing Memories

Memoirs of Prabhupada in 1966 are usually told in a humorous way, but sometimes an audience of devotees is a bit shocked when they hear the details. 

The humor of those days is that the devotees did not appreciate Prabhupada’s greatness.  We did not make obeisances to him, and we said foolish things.  One day I gave Prabhupada some typing I had done for him.  In return, he handed me a few grapes.  I thought, “Is this all I get for typing all night – some grapes?”  When Prabhupada put a plate of prasadam on the floor for me to eat, I thought, “This is the way you would feed a dog.”  We tell these stories expecting to get a laugh, but sometimes our audience is displeased.  “Why did you think like that toward Prabhupada?  That’s not nice!”

The devotees’ shock helps me to see how rude we actually were.  How coarse and completely ignorant we were toward Prabhupada.  It is all right to laugh at the primitive and ignorant days, but I can also see now that we were rascals.  Prabhupada’s exalted position of worship in ISKCON today is not a false one.  When we approach him as a jagad-guru, we have reached an accurate level of appreciation.  In the early days, however, we were ignorant.  Those were lovable times because of Prabhupada’s mercy.

We should not think that we knew Prabhupada better in 1966 because we did not offer him obeisances.  The early days were not better because Prabhupada accepted our ignorance and familiarity.  The glorious part of the early days is that Prabhupada was willing to preach when no one recognized him.  He tolerated and was happy that Krishna sent him followers, and gradually he trained them up.

It is tempting to make an audience laugh.  Lenny Bruce, one of the prominent comedians in the 1960s, was once asked to define a comedian.  He said, “A comedian is one who can provoke his audience to laughter every ten seconds, or at the very most, every fifteen seconds.”  We each have a comedian within us, but we have to be careful not to indulge ourselves when we tell the raw memories of Srila Prabhupada and his boys in the early days.  The most sacred matter, association with Prabhupada, should not be used as an object of humor.

It is a fact that the early days with Prabhupada are rich with irony and humorous implications.  Telling the stories is also a way to express our affection for Prabhupada.  We did love him, but we fell short in honoring him.  On the one hand, the humor is harmless.  When you are saved from a dangerous situation, you laugh with relief that the danger has passed.  Let us remember the flavor of early association with Srila Prabhupada, but not forget to worship him as the tolerant founder-acarya and pure devotee of Lord Krishna.