Srila Prabhupada passtimes-20-Prabhupada's humility and compassion were unparalleled

Memory of the Day

Dina Bandhu : When I went to the Los Angeles temple for training, the first devotee I met there was Mahapurush, who immediately began to tell me a story about 26 Second Avenue. Mahapurush used to go to 26 Second Avenue and take prasadam. He said that every day, everybody would sit in Swamiji's apartment, and Swamiji would serve rice, dahl, chapatis, and subji to everyone.

Then one day Mahapurush stayed a little late. Everybody else had left. There were only two people in the room: Prabhupada and himself. And there were many dirty pots. Mahapurush began to think, "Well, somehow these dirty pots get cleaned every day. I don't see anybody else around and there's only one other person in this room, and I'm usually not here. So there's only one person who could be doing this. It's not proper for him to do it." Thinking in that way, Mahapurush began picking up the pots. At that moment Prabhupada smiled and said, "I was just praying to Krishna to please send someone to help me."

Srila Prabhupada could have stayed in any Gaudiya Matha temple, as they all loved him. Prabhupada's godbrothers knew that Abhay Babu sang sweet kirtanas, lectured wonderfully, and wrote wonderful articles. If you go to the Gaudiya Mathas you can see old sannyasis there living comfortably, as Prabhupada could have lived. He wouldn't have had to do anything, what to speak of wash a pot. He could have lived a very comfortable life in Vrindavana.

Instead, here he was washing pots for hippies. We were the most degraded class of persons, yet Prabhupada was cooking and cleaning up after people like us. Prabhupada's humility and compassion were unparalleled. There's no one like Prabhupada, and there will never be anyone like Prabhupada.