Transcribed by Kristin
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 04 October 2013, Melbourne, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.9)
In Amsterdam, during the opening of the temple, things went wrong! One devotee was supposed to build an altar and another devotee was supposed to carve the deity of Lord Jagannatha, but they didn’t speak to each other about it. When the devotee who made Lord Jagannatha went to the shop, there was a block of wood that was much bigger than the original plans. He said, “Jagannatha wants to be big!” but he never told the devotee building the altar. So during the installation, they found out that the altar was too small and they had to break it.
The television crew was there. Just one month before, a yogi visited who was smiley and bubbling. Now, the Hare Krsna Guru had come and everyone wanted to see The Hare Krsna Guru! And the Hare Krsna Guru was being filmed and he was angry. He was angry! All this hammering was going on, “What is this… How is this possible… This is ridiculous!?”
Then, there were no fruits for the yajya. One mataji went to the kitchen and she did not come back. It is very annoying if you send someone to fetch something and they do not come back. Then, Prabhupada sent someone after the mataji and they also did not come back. By then, he was getting really agitated. “Where are the fruits?” Finally, they came and brought fruit salad…
When Prabhupada looked at it, he was like, “This is totally useless.” The mataji started crying. So much drama. He was so angry. Everybody got chastised. And then, in the end, a new bhakta, he also had some anger problems so he raised his hands, “Why are you so angry!?” Then he gave the advice, “Just chant Hare Krsna!” And Prabhupada took his beads and started chanting Hare Krsna. Several people saw that and they joined. They became devotees, because they saw that he was not fake, he was not trying to make a show for anyone. He just cared about Krsna.
In front of a television crew, a smile is sort of glued on there but not on Prabhupada’s face. He did not care about the television crew, about the millions of viewers; he cared about Krsna and it was not for a show, it was for real! So that is wonderful when one chooses for Krsna and has no other calculations. That is the spirit!