This is a picture of Prabhupada chanting gayatri on the bank of the Yamuna. Scattered saffron garments indicate his brahmacari and sannyasa disciples are bathing in the Yamuna. Srila Prabhupada’s left hand covers his right hand—we cannot actually see his brahmana thread—but it is obvious what he is doing. He sits erect, concentrated. The sunlight makes us unable to see if his eyes are closed, but it seems so. There is a little slope of sandy land behind him and Srila Prabhupada’s head and shoulders are outlined by the sky. It is an unusual and meditative picture. Sunshine on the left side of his face, the other side in darkness.
His ancient demeanor, a sage—more than a sage—a dearmost devotee of Radha and Krishna. He sits on the bank of the Yamuna in his eternal mood. Yet before his eyes, his rowdy Western disciples are playing in the water. He has brought them here to this topmost tirtha, even though they cannot fully enter the rasa. Srila Prabhupada has personally brought us all, taken us by the hand and allowed us to enter Vrindavana, although we are lowborn.
He kept his rasa with Krishna private. We were not qualified to understand it. It is said that if a pure devotee doesn’t give even a scent of his inner rasa, of his bhajana with Radha and Krishna, then that is a sign that his bhakti is genuine and deep. Srila Prabhupada was grave. Even in Vrindavana he didn’t tell many stories of Krishna’s pranks in the Yamuna. Here he sits silently chanting gayatri, but it is not the gayatri of an ordinary brahmana or even of a sage who worships Narayana. He is Krishna’s pure devotee, Lord Caitanya’s empowered preacher . . .
The sunlight glows on his bare knee and warms up his body. Srila Prabhupada will sit like that for only five minutes or so, then he will open his eyes and see the dancing white elephants, his dependent, spiritual children. They will come to him and ask him what to think and how to behave. Srila Prabhupada guides us still, and this photo reminds us that he is the eternal guide for Vrindavana-bhajana. He is a resident of Vrindavana.
(_Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name_)
JAPA POEM
A long quote describing
a snapshot of Prabhupada
saying gayatri on the bank
of the Yamuna in Vrindavana
while his devotees sport
in the water.
I say that Prabhupada
was very grave
about his personal
rasa with Krishna. He didn’t
talk openly much
about Krishna’s sporting
pastimes with Radharani
and the gopis.
Prabhupada guides us still
and this photo
reminds us that he
is the eternal guide for
“Vrindavana-bhajana.”