I am a Beggar, Bābā

A lwAys E mbr A c E d by K åñë A

Çréla Gour Govinda Swami: When I first came here, this highway was under repair, so there was a diversion road. The contractor who was working was employing some külés, who were staying over there. I came and also stayed there, not in the same hut with them, but in another smaller one. This house here is a mud hut, and at that time I was also living in a very small mud hut over there. You see that tree? Right there. All these plots of land around, on which you see some construction, were vacant then; only the Nayapalli village existed. All these plots were vacant, with some jungle, no electricity, no water supply, no telephone; nothing was there. That well is still there. The hut in which I was staying was a smaller hut than the one closer to the road where the külés were staying. I cooked my own food, ate once a day, slept, then went out walking, walking, walking, for collecting bhikñä (alms); I was doing some saìkértana and translating. I would have kértana with the külés and sometimes I would also feed them. They were very happy with this arrangement.

Çréla Gour Govinda Swami: I was living next to these labourers who were working on the road, until I built that cottage, the one Çréla Prabhupäda stayed in. To build it, I would go out every day and collect donations. In that Nayapalli village, I first made acquaintance with a man, who was then called Digambar Pattanaik. He was the village head. He took hari-näma from Çréla Prabhupäda. He plays very nice mådaëga. I had kértana with him and four or five other people who were interested. Every two or three days, we would do kértana in some gentleman’s house. So, there was one mådaëga player and myself, and we would go from house to house in the evening and do kértana. The owner of the house would give prasäda and give a donation. During the daytime I would also go out on foot and collect some donations.

Çacinandana däsa: There was one man from the Nayapalli village, Vasudeva Das, he really helped Çréla Gurudeva a lot.