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1008 Ways to Remember Srila Prabhupada
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| When we first met Srila Prabhupada in San Francisco, it was 1967, the Haight Ashbury era. There were only a handful of devotees, Mukunda and Janaki, Syamasundara and Malati, and Yamuna and Gurudas were just coming, and there were a few others such as Harsarani and Murari. Mukunda and Janaki were very close associates with Srila Prabhupada as Mukunda had come there from New York. Mukunda was doing all sorts of wonderful organizational preaching work, arranging programs for Srila Prabhupada and so forth. Srila Prabhupada had married Mukunda and Janaki and they had no children. However, Janaki had a pet cat that she dearly loved. Srila Prabhupada, seeing the affection that Janaki lavished on her cat would say: "Just see. In America there is no family life. Women have no children, so they place their love on a cat or dog. Everyone wants love, and everyone wants to serve. That is the nature of the living entity. In America they are serving the cats and dogs."
| | Later on, in San Francisco, when Janaki's cat somehow died and Srila Prabhupada was informed of this, he said simply: "Good". When asked about this, Srila Prabhupada told us that now Janaki can place her full love on Krsna, and factually we saw that Janaki became then more focused on Srila Prabhupada and Krsna. Srila Prabhupada encouraged us to place the focus of our love on Krsna because whatever we love we will think about, and especially we will think about at the time of death. He was sad when a disciple placed his love elsewhere; whether it was on a business, a pet, a hobby or even too much on a family. Just like he would say: "Oh, now such and such has been lost to business, or in Janaki's case when her beloved pet cat died, his only comment was 'good'.
| | Once when Gaurasundara joined him in Los Angeles, and I had remained in San Francisco due to illness, he said: "Oh you have come, even without your wife". Srila Prabhupada taught us that whoever or whatever we love other than Krsna and our spiritual master would lead us astray. Thank you, Srila Prabhupada for teaching us who to love and who to serve. In our ignorance we place our love on so many other things: animals, people, careers, etc. but you taught us to focus our love on Krsna and by so doing we will thus come to love everyone: all the animals, all the people in a way that is on a spiritual level.
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