Everything for Krishna and nothing for me
Giriraja Swami: After hearing so many complaints from so many devotees, Srila Prabhupada called a meeting of all the devotees. Practically all the devotees in the temple came into Srila Prabhupada’s room, and he listened very sympathetically to what every devotee had to say, and he was really concerned and wanted to improve things.
At one stage the GBC for India protested: “Srila Prabhupada, my only intention was to execute Your Divine Grace’s will.” And Prabhupada replied a little sarcastically, “Is it My Divine Grace’s will that the devotees should be disturbed?”
And he made a system. He named certain leaders—Tamal Krishna, Yamuna, me—and said that they should get together every week and discuss the problems, and whatever they decided they should write down in a minute book, and they should all sign and then do what they agreed.
But after all was said and done, Srila Prabhupada’s mood seemed to change. He said, “Actually, we shouldn’t become too involved in such concerns, because our real business is to hear and chant about Krishna, and if we become too absorbed in making material arrangements, we will forget our real business of Krishna Consciousness.”
He said that as it is our tendency to discuss mundane topics, so we should be careful and try to minimize the mundane talks and concentrate on hearing and chanting about Krishna. Then Srila Prabhupada said that in his life he never complained, because his policy was always, “Everything for Krishna and nothing for me.”
He mentioned how he struggled to get the passage to America, and then on the way he suffered two heart attacks at sea. And even when he got to America, he suffered in so many ways; he had some buzzing sound in his ears and his head. “I cannot even describe how much I suffered—nor do I want to.”
He said he had suffered in so many ways to establish the Krishna Consciousness Movement, but he never complained because his policy was always everything for Krishna and nothing for himself. So that is why, as a service to Krishna, Srila Prabhupada was serving the devotees, because his ultimate goal was to bring them back to their eternal relationship with Krishna.
He was practically bathing them, feeding them and dressing them—teaching them how to live as human beings—so that ultimately he could bring them to the position where he could offer them for the service of Sri Krishna. And he never asked anything in return, never expected anything in return, so he was never disappointed.
Yamuna Devi: A Life of Unalloyed Devotion: Part 1: Preparing an Offering of Love.
