Hridayananda Goswami: On Vyasa-puja day in 1972 in New Vrindavan, we had a ceremony in a special pavilion, and the devotees had cooked a great feast and a very large cake for Srila Prabhupada. Somehow, word got around that the feast and the cake were mahaprasadam that Prabhupada had tasted it, and there was a devotional feeding frenzy. The devotees were mad after maha-prasadam on Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja day. After the Vyasa-puja ceremony, Prabhupada’s car didn’t show up to take him back to his house, which was a couple of miles through the hills. Somehow or other Krishna inspired me, like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, that this was my chance. I was a new sannyasi and I had a little yellow Volkswagen bug. I raced to my car, turned the ignition, came right in front of the stage where Prabhupada was, ran out, opened the door and said, “Srila Prabhupada, you can go now.” And I drove Prabhupada back in my little car. One of the big leaders was absolutely infuriated by this, but Prabhupada got in the car and off we went. I can’t imagine a more sublime experience on Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja day than driving him alone through the forest and the hills. As we pulled in to Prabhupada’s house, that leader had somehow gotten there and he was cursing me in a way that Prabhupada couldn’t see. I thought, “Well, I got the mercy and Prabhupada didn’t have to wait.” We went into Prabhupada’s house and Prabhupada said, “Where is the lunch?” Then he learned that the devotees mistakenly thought it was already mahaprasadam. On Prabhupada’s birthday, his Vyasa-puja day, he had no lunch prasadam. Prabhupada’s servant immediately said, “I’ll go cook,” and he began to cook. But Prabhupada was totally undisturbed. Not to say that he would never become angry. He was as soft as a rose and as hard as a thunderbolt like Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself. But on that particular occasion, he was peaceful and happy. We talked for a while until his lunch was ready.
Source: Remembrances by Sidhanta Das – Folio Vedabase
