Srila Prabhupada saw Potential in everyone
Giriraj Swami: In Boston we hardly made any new devotees, but after some months a young man named Peter came. Peter was eccentric. He used to sit in the hallway at the entrance to the building, lean his back against the wall with his legs out straight, and read. Sometimes he would lay down in the hallway and sleep. We were getting upset because the first thing that a new person would see was Peter slouched in the hallway and sometimes asleep. Satsvarupa Maharaj wrote Srila Prabhupada, “What to do?” Srila Prabhupada wrote back, “What’s the matter, can’t you tolerate?” The answer was could we tolerate it? We felt uneasy, but we tolerated. After some days, “crazy Peter” left Boston and went to New York. We were a small family then, and I wondered what had happened to Peter. So on my way from Boston to India through New York, I asked about crazy Peter. The devotees said he had gone to New Vrindavan, and he was doing very well. He was going to be initiated. I was amazed. After that I lost track of crazy Peter until about twenty years later when I visited Los Angeles and I saw crazy Peter at mangal arati. I was surprised that he was still with us. I asked someone, “Who is that?” The devotee said, “Oh, that’s Kushakrata prabhu.” I thought, Kushakrata? He was famous because he translated scriptures from Sanskrit and Bengali into English. I thought, “My God, how merciful Srila Prabhupada is. By his mercy and compassion, crazy Peter, in whom we saw little potential, has come to the stage of translating Vaishnava literature.” Srila Prabhupada intensely wanted everyone to engage in Krishna’s service and act in Krishna consciousness. He saw potential in everyone, and he wanted to give everyone a chance. He was ready to extend himself to any extent for that end.
Remembrances of Srila Prabhupada – Sidhanta Das – Folio Vedabase
