Compassion in Los Angeles

Despite this cold treatment at the Los Angeles Temple, Śrīla Gurudeva, out of his compassion, visited there again another year. Knowing that anyone who would see and listen to Śrīla Gurudeva would become attracted, the leaders must have told the devotees at the L.A. temple to stay away at that time; hardly any devotees were present when we came. At that time, a certain prominent ISKCON leader was giving class to a very few devotees in the temple. On seeing us they all remained seated. Although Śrīla Gurudeva was senior to everyone present there, none of them offered praṇāma to him. They did not even greet Gurudeva, or offer him a seat or garland. Śrīla Gurudeva respectfully offered his praṇāma to Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja and the Deities and quietly left.

Upananda Prabhu was the co-owner of Govinda’s Bliss Bars, a very popular health bar in America at that time. Upananda Prabhu, (nowadays he is known as Śrīpad Bhaktivedānta Avadhūta Mahārāja,) arranged for accomadation in a hotel and scheduled classes at different places in LA to give people a chance to meet Śrīla Gurudeva and to hear his sweet harikathā. Such self-realized, high-class Vaiṣṇavas speak about the wonderful pastimes of Kṛṣṇa in such a beautiful way, thus bringing others to Kṛṣṇa. For such pure devotees, when they speak there is no ulterior motive, so we should sit and hear the nectar flowing from their mouths.

Our next stop was Washington DC. We were booked to fly out from the LA airport at 8:10 am, but somehow Gurudeva’s secretary, Brajanātha Prabhu, thought the flight was at 10:08 am. Early that morning, we received a surprise visit from two of the prominent leaders of the ISKCON LA temple in our hotel room.

“Mahārāja, we will take you to our temple and you can take darśana and then we will drop you off at the airport for your flight.” they said.

“Why so early?” I asked.

“It is because your flight is early.”

Brajanātha Prabhu checked and discovered that the flight was indeed early. We then hurried to pack our luggage. It was still dark outside.

Śrīla Gurudeva was ready to go with them, but we said to him, “Please, you shouldn’t go with them. Better to come with us.”

“No, they are Vaiṣṇavas,” Śrīla Gurudeva replied innocently. “They came for me. I must go. I will take darśana and then they will drop me off at the airport.” His voice was content as always.

Although both these leaders had behaved so badly towards Śrīla Gurudeva two years earlier, one of them was a sannyāsī and other was a house-holder; now out of the blue they had come and Śrīla Gurudeva was ready to go take darśana of the dieties and then to go to the airport with them.

Both of them were emphatically insisting that Śrīla Gurudeva come alone. They didn’t even want me to accompany Śrīla Gurudeva. I wondered how they knew our flight schedule. These are the same people who publicly offended Śrīla Gurudeva for years and their sudden change of behavior was undoubtedly suspicious. We were very concerned and didn’t know what to do; we were in a dilemma. At this point, Brajanātha Prabhu, Puṇḍarīka Prabhu and I discussed in private whether or not we should let Śrīla Gurudeva go alone with them. Brajanātha Prabhu suggested I say something in Bengali to Śrīla Gurudeva—then no one except Śrīla Gurudeva would be able to understand.

So I said to Śrīla Gurudeva in Bengali: “When you went to their temple, how did they treat you? They don’t even fear vaiṣṇava-aparādha. They do not care for you. Even when a common person visits their temple, they will ask him, ‘Who are you? Where are you coming from? Please have a seat.’ But they did not treat you like this. Since 1996, they have been trying to spoil your programmes, but they have never had any success. So we’re worried that they’ll surely do some permanent harm to you. It may be possible that we will not be able to see you for the rest of our life if you do decide to go with them. What will be our destiny? We don’t want you to go with them. I fear what they may do to you. They are insisting that you go alone. Why? They are saying that there is no need for Navīna Kṛṣṇa, Puṇḍarīka or Brajanātha to go. Why are they insisting again and again that you go alone with them? It must be some conspiracy. I don’t like that you will go alone with them. Suppose they will take you and do some mischief. What will you do? You please judge again by your own mind and then decide what would be better. Also, in any event, even if we miss the flight, we are not going to let you go alone.”

Then Śrīla Gurudeva replied to me in Bengali, “Yes, as you are requesting, it is better that I don’t go with them alone.”

Śrīla Gurudeva was silent for a few seconds. Then he said to the leaders, “I will not go alone with you. I can go only if Navīna Kṛṣṇa Brahmacārī and Brajanātha also come. Without them, I will not go anywhere.” We were so relieved to hear this!

Later on, one of the favorable ISKCON leaders confided to Bhāgavata Prabhu (presently Śrīpāda Bhāgavata Mahārāja) and others what these certain ISKCON leaders said about that incident, “Navīna Kṛṣṇa is a big politician. Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja was ready to go with us, but after what Navīna Kṛṣṇa spoke to him in Bengali, he refused to go anywhere without them.” Bhāgavata Prabhu and other devotees told me this when we came the following year.