I don’t know how much help I could have been
Jadurani: About 1968 in New York, some fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls joined who had some artistic propensity. I was in Boston, and Prabhupada encouraged me to visit them and help them with art and with general Krishna consciousness. I don’t know how much help I could have been, because I was still wearing dungarees and turtleneck shirts. I was painting in those clothes, and whenever I had to change colors or clean my brushes I would wipe the brush on my dungarees. But Prabhupada didn’t wait for us to become expert. Prabhupada would call the girls in New York my assistants, and he started talking about a brahmacharini ashram. From San Francisco he wrote, “I would like to establish a brahmacharini ashram, the female equivalent of the brahmachari ashram, where ladies can get training. The devotees here are asking you to come to San Francisco for a couple of months, but how will they do without you on the East Coast? You have already started this program and are helping many girls there. Maybe the girls from San Francisco should come and join you in New York.” Even though I didn’t know anything about Krishna consciousness, Prabhupada was so encouraging. I thought, “Yes, I’ll do it. I’ll train up all the brahmacharinis.” That was the beginning of the brahmacharini ashram.
