Srila Prabhupada memories: Apparently Srila Prabhupada would tend not to chastise his devotees in the Western temples very much. We had a special rasa with Srila Prabhupada is in India that when he came here, after the first couple of days he would begin to act almost like a temple president or G.B.C. If he did not like something, he would chastise us for it. Most of the other leaders knew that this was some special rasa. But sometimes when we would get chastised, some leader would think it was funny. One time Srila Prabhupada was walking on a morning walk, taking a tour. At that time we had this circular bathroom. There were quite a few devotees living at the temple, so there were ten latrines in the external part of the bathroom and ten showers, and the inside was for women. Srila Prabhupada was walking, and all of a sudden he decided he wanted to go to the bathroom. He went in to the bathroom, and in the toilet there was a big pile of nightsoil. He went to the next one and found the same thing. Then he turned around and said, You call yourself brahmanas? Wherever a brahmana lives it must be clean. Just at that time, Jaya Tirtha dasa had pulled up in his car and had come and joined Srila Prabhupada. Jaya Tirtha was smiling. I dont think he knew what was happening. It was not the time to smile. Then Srila Prabhupada just got on him. He turned to Jaya Tirtha and said to him, You call yourself a brahmana? How can you allow this to happen? Jaya Tirtha stuttered, I just -- I just got here. But Srila Prabhupada continued, Wherever a brahmana is, it must be clean. Srila Prabhupada just was not going to give up. He was making a very strong point, and he just kept pressing the point. He told Jaya Tirtha that he was responsible as a brahmana for the toilets being dirty. He was here, he was a brahmana, the toilets were dirty, and wherever a brahmana is, it has to be clean. There was no excuse. In other words, a brahmana should actually feel responsible wherever he goes to see that everything is kept at a certain standard. They could not live in a messy place or a dirty place. That was Srila Prabhupadas point. Srila Prabhupada was really insistent on cleanliness. One time Srila Prabhupada inspected the kitchen. He wanted to get the highest standard of cleanliness. He looked around and said, Its not clean. Then the devotees had a cleaning marathon and really scrubbed and cleaned the kitchen thoroughly. The next day, Srila Prabhupada came back for another inspection. He went through the whole kitchen. It was spotless. Then he came out, and he saw one dirty spot on the stairway. However, it wasnt actually dirt. It was cement. When they had constructed the building, they used colored cement. Then when they plastered the wall, a piece of gray cement had fallen and landed on the colored cement. So Srila Prabhupada saw that on the stairway, and he said, What is that? Dirt! Clean it now! I went down with a brush and tried to clean it, but it was cement! Then Srila Prabhupada said, Just see! It appeared like it was some dirt that was so caked on that it would not come off easily. At that time I was practically in tears. Then Srila Prabhupada said, All right, its cement. - HH Jayapataka Swami,Gurumaharaj A darsana with H.H. Jayapataka Swami Maharaja at Murari Sevaka on Sept. 26, 1984.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 11:05:34 +0000
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