“Those Were Happy Days” 

Srila Prabhupada would often be silent for long periods and then suddenly ask something that was on his mind.  I remember once he suddenly asked, “Where in the world can I go where there will be no visitors and I can simply be alone to write my books?”  Of all these exchanges, which I witnessed, this one reminds me of the times when our spiritual master was all alone in New York.  He has said that those were happy days.  One reason was because Prabhupada depended on Krishna entirely without having to depend on many disciples.  In the later years, until he came to Second Avenue and saved us, it was not certain whether many Westerners could actually become practicing devotees.  Srila Prabhupada’s discovery of this, on behalf of Lord Caitanya, produced happiness for him and for us.  He was such a realistic missionary though, he never basked in that happiness or exaggerated it with praises of his own accomplishment.  As soon as he knew that Westerners could take to Krishna consciousness, Prabhupada immediately took that good news and went further and further with it, all around the world.  In his persistent desire to have time alone to write, we get an indication of what Prabhupada meant when he said, “Those were happy days.”