Tattva-viveka
GM- Early quotes
Gopakumardas - July 1, 2004 4:24 am
I got inspired mostly by Prabhupada's greatness- how he was staunchly following his guru maharaja. It was his guru maharaja's order, and therefore he was doing it. I was never very scholarly or intelligent. I never thought I had much brains or talent. I was never trained practically in any kind of skill, and I didn't have much education. I took it like that- that i was talking to the most fallen people and that i was the most fallen myself. I was just doing what Prabhupada wanted, because he wanted. I would pray to Prabhupada to help me realize why he wanted book distribution. Then within I would get inspiration, and it would come out in all of my talks about book distribution.
That time that i stayed out at the airport when all the devotees went back with Prabhupada to the temple very much affected my whole spiritual life. I was very much intimately connected with Prabhupada. But my closest association with him was by following his instructions and just getting down to work and not trying to enjoy the spiritual master but serve him.
Tripurari Swami (circa 1975)
Gopakumardas - July 1, 2004 5:06 am
On the morning Tripurari accompanied Prabhupada on his walk, Prabhupada said little as they walked up and down the beach. Only when they were walking back toward the car did one of the devotees mention, "Prabhupada, Tripurari is here."
Prabhupada turned and smiled. "Ah. How is the book distribution going?" he asked.
This was Tripurari's first time to speak directly with his spiritual master, and he wanted to say many things at once. In nervous enthusiasm he began blurting out his realizations. Prabhupada interrupted, "This is the best service for humanity" And he quoted from the Bhagavad Gita, "There will never be a devotee more dear to me than he who preaches this message."
With the exception of Ramesvara's and Tripurari's brief encounters with Prabhupada, none of the book distributors in Los Angeles had any personal exchanges with their Spiritual master. But the closeness of their relationship with him was not dependant on physical proximity.
Tripurari: My association with Srila Prabhupada was always more or less in seperation and in the field. While many of the older devotees were trained personally by Prabhupada, I never got that training. I was trained by Srila Prabhupada more from within my own heart. I think that's the case with all of our book distributors. They have a very intimate sense of feeling for Prabhupada, but they never had much personal contact. Their intimact and real sense of knowing Prabhupada very closely was because of that service which Prabhupada said was his life and soul-- seeing that the books went out.
(circa 1975)