Gauranga.org Articles

    Over two thousand years ago ‘Megasthenes’ a greek ambassador, spent many years living in India, his memoirs were preserved in a famous book called “Indica” and the following is a selection on the elephants of ancient India some two thousand years ago.   When feeding, the elephant ordinarily drinks water, however, during the … Read more

In 1971 Srila Prabhupada went to Allahabad for the Ardha-kumbha-mela, and Yamuna-devi and I were in the party that accompanied him. Srila Prabhupada spoke on the story of Ajamila and the holy name, from the Sixth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Only the first two cantos had been translated and published, so Prabhupada read from his Sanskrit Bhagavatam with commentaries, sometimes translating from Sridhara Svami’s and occasionally from Jiva Gosvami’s. While there, I heard that Srila Prabhupada had said that he was speaking for Yamuna. And in April 2007, when Yamuna visited me in Santa Barbara, I asked her about it, and she told me something that etched an indelible impression on my heart.

There was a rich merchant who had four wives. He loved the fourth wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to delicacies. He took great care of her and gave her nothing but the best. He also loved the third wife very much. He was very proud of her and … Read more

One time the late Kartikeya Prabhu who was Prabhupada’s servant at the time personally told me the following story.
Prabhupada was staying in Hawaii at the time. One day, Govinda Dasi brought some wheat germ from the market. I thought that the next time Srila Prabhupada asks for halava, I’ll make it from wheat germ and he’ll be so pleased.
One day it was a rainy day. Sometimes when it rained or was cold, Prabhupada asked for halava since the grains and ghee heated up the body. So this particular day he called me and asked me to make halava. I was very excited and went to the kitchen and got the wheat germ and started to make halava.
The whole time I was cooking, I was thinking how pleased Srila Prabhupada would be with this wheat germ halava. This was my whole meditation, how Srila Prabhupada would be so pleased.
Then I offered it and brought it to Srila Prabhupada in his room. I was waiting to see how he would like it. He looked up with a very sour look on his face and said, “Halava means suji (cream of wheat).” With his left hand he motioned saying, “Take this away.” When someone rejects something with his left hand, it is very heavy. So broken heartedly, I took the bowl of halava out of the room.
I was very upset and didn’t know what to do. So I went into the temple and sat in front of the altar before the pictures of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta. Crying, I began to pray to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, “I was just trying to please your spiritual son, but somehow he is upset with me. I don’t know what to do. I really only wanted to please him.”