As an Uprooted Tree Falls on the Ground

A lwAys E mbr A c E d by K åñë A

explained to Çréla Prabhupäda that some of the English words had no direct synonym in Oriya. He had looked at the English words and tried to explain them in his own words, but he was not sure if he made some errors in doing so. He wanted Çréla Prabhupäda’s instruction on this. That was his humility. He never thought himself too intelligent; he would always ask the permission of his spiritual master. Even though at school and college he had majored in English and Sanskrit and knew many languages, he submitted himself very humbly before his spiritual master. Çréla Prabhupäda said to him, “Yes, I also do it like that. Sometimes I cannot find the exact word from Sanskrit into English, so I just try to understand the meaning of the äcäryas and explain it in my own words. As long as you get the message across, then that is paramparä, own words. You are doing as I am doing. That is the right thing.” At the Kumbha-melä, the weather was bitterly cold, and for the people who slept in the open, it was impossible to keep warm. There was no question of heaters. Whilst at the Kumbha-melä, Çréla Prabhupäda instructed his secretary to make arrangements to go to Calcutta and then on to Bhubaneshwar. The secretary then went to Çréla Gurudeva and asked him to give the money for the train fares for Çréla Prabhupäda, his servant, his secretary - Rämeçvara Swami and some sannyäsés.

I am a Beggar, Bābā

Çréla Gour Govinda Swami: I had no money, but somehow or other I had collected one thousand rupees. That was my asset. I took it to Prabhupäda so that he could come to Bhubhaneswar. Then Prabhupäda said, “Alright, we’ll go to Orissa. Yes, we will go to Orissa.” Rameçvara was the secretary at that time.

C hapter 6 t he K umbha - melä

Çréla Prabhupäda said to Rämeçvara, “We are going to Orissa. We will have to go to Calcutta first by train, and from Calcutta to Bhubaneshwar. Book the tickets, we will go!” Rämeçvara went to Çré Çrémad Gour Govinda Swami and said, “Have you got any money? If you are going to take Prabhupäda to Orissa, you will have to give me some money. We have to book the tickets.” Çréla Gurudeva had managed to save one thousand rupees; he immediately handed this money over to Prabhupäda’s secretary and said, “Please take it and do whatever you need to do with it.” That was all the money he had.

Çréla Gour Govinda Swami: I am a beggar, bäbä. So, I had no money. I had nothing at that time; I gave one thousand rupees to him, whatever I had, “alright, please take everything. It is guru’s money, alright, take it.” He booked the tickets; it was first class tickets. Prabhupäda travelled first class. His secretary, his servant, one or two sannyäsés and myself, we had first class tickets. Others, like Pradyumna däsa, had a second-class ticket. So, we all came to Calcutta by train and went to the temple. The next day, three devotees and I drove from Calcutta to Bhubaneshwar with Prabhupäda’s car. We drove all night, and Prabhupäda arrived by train the day after. We went to welcome him at the railway station, and then we came here to the land. This room* here was prepared for Prabhupäda.

Such an Exalted Personality

Devadharma dasa: We soon heard that Çréla Prabhupäda was going to come and stay for two weeks after the Kumbhamelä. This was quite a challenge: how could we properly accommodate such an exalted personality? We knew that

* Author’s note: The famous hut that was built on the ISKCON Bhubaneswar land, now demolished.