Srila Prabhupada's Beautiful Deity Worship

This is a memory by Srila Prabhupada's disciple, Anakadundubhi Dasa.

One thing I noticed -- a very beautiful thing Srila Prabhupada used to do. Where his asana was in his darsana room, just up on the opposite wall there's a beautiful carving. It's still there now: a sandalwood carving of Radha and Krsna just like the Krsna book cover, with Radha and Krsna standing, and Radharani has her arm around Krsna, with Krsna holding His flute and Radha holding His chadar. Srila Prabhupada would sit on his asana when there weren't any guests for darsana, and he would just look at that picture. He loved it very much. And when I would take his garland in to him, he would wear it during darsana, and then maybe darsana would go on for an hour, or hour-and-a-half. Then after darsana he would get up and go to the bathroom after taking the garland off. Then he'd come back in and give the garland to Radha and Krsna.

Srila Prabhupada worshiping Dieties

And a number of times I gave him just a small, fine white garland that Jananivasa would make of very fragrant little white flowers. He used to take that garland and put it on Radha and Krsna in such a beautiful way. It was like the perfection of Deity worship, the way he put that little garland there. I could never conceive of how he put it there so nicely, because I would try and put a garland on that picture and there never used to be anywhere I could find to put it on Them that it would hang. Srila Prabhupada found such a nice way to put these garlands on that it would look so gorgeous. He was filled with devotion, the way he put that garland on. Quite often he would do that. Or he would put it on the picture of his spiritual master. Mostly he would put it on Radha and Krsna. It's not something I can explain now -- it was just so beautifully arranged, the way he put it on.

He'd always ask when I gave him his garland, "These are our flowers?" And I would say, "Yes," and he would say, "Ah, very nice." He was always very pleased to receive home-grown things. And when they served him vegetables, they would always tell him whatever was grown on the property.

On morning walks he would walk down the road. There's a big tree there. He would walk down to there and back. One time he went down to see our preaching boat. He went on board and looked at it and then came back. He liked that. Sometimes he would walk out to the goshalla and see how the cows were and see how the goshalla was developing. He'd go out to inspect the land for the temple. Then he would come straight back in from his morning walk, into the temple and take darsana of the Deities and then go and sit down and accept guru-puja. One thing he was very strict about was that all of the guru-parampara on the altar had garlands. He refused to accept his garland unless the whole guru-parampara had garlands. This happened once or twice: the garlands hadn't been made in time or for some reason the garlands weren't there for the parampara.

Sesa: Did he ever say anything special about the Deities here?

Anakadundubhi: Jananivasa told me that once he commented that They're the most renounced Deities in ISKCON, because when They were first here in Mayapur They were standing on bricks covered with a cloth, in a straw hut. But these were the Deities which were at a pandal when it was the first time Srila Prabhupada chanted "Jaya Radha-Madhava." At that time he cried. Our Deities are named Radha-Madhava, and he cried so much that his eyes literally squirted water like syringes. And then he stopped chanting for some time and then he said, "Just chant Hare Krsna." Once or twice he did that here also. He stopped for a few moments, and then he would start talking again. He was always very pleased when the Deities were decorated with a lot of flowers. One day when he first came, he saw that the whole temple was covered with flowers, garlands on every pillar and post, banana trees and everything. He said, "This is a sure sign that Krsna is smiling."

Every year when Srila Prabhupada would come, we would post men on the roof to see whether the cars were coming. One year our kirtana party went right up to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's samadhi, which is about a mile up the road at least, and we waited with a kirtana party until he came, and then we followed him all the way back. The year when the gate was completed, we made a big, big garland right across the gate, about fifteen to twenty feet long. We stretched this big, fat garland across the gateway, and then Bhavananda Maharaja stood there with a cushion with a pair of scissors on it. Srila Prabhupada came in his car and he had to stop and cut the garland. It was very wonderful. The gate swung open, and this whole kirtana following Prabhupada surged through the gate. Prabhupada had an orange silk umbrella we were holding above his head, because the sun was very hot as he was walking. Then we all went down to the temple.

Srila Prabhupada in Mayapur

The whole land was covered with flowers, and then the gateway was decorated with banana trees and flower garlands, and the women stood up above, and as Prabhupada went in the door they showered him with rose petals and flowers. And when he went in, the whole temple was covered in flowers. There were garlands hanging from all the ceilings -- strings of mango leaves and banana leaves. Everywhere there was incense in clay pots and dabs at every post. It was gorgeous. He was very pleased. That's when he said Krsna was smiling.