Srila Prabhupada, always fully aware
by Gokulananda das
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That Srila Prabhupada was always so aware was just super-human. He never missed anything. Once, when Srila Prabhupada came for a one-day visit to Montreal in August 1975, he wanted to visit our newly acquired church building. Barely any real improvements had been done since the devotees had bought the building 9 months before; we were worshiping Gaura Nitai and Lord Jagannatha in this old church hall, a rather cavourness dusty shell, now our make-shift temple room. Only the oak church benches had all been removed and sold; all the debris from the previous fixtures etc had been piled at the front of this church hall/temple room, and a large curtain had been drawn up to simply hide the mess. When Srila Prabhupada first entered this make-shift temple room, he immediately went right up to the curtain and lifted it with his cane, gravely asking, "What is this?", to the embarrassment of the temple leaders and local GBC. He then requested that the temple be made more suitable for the Lord's service and properly renovated.
(*Photo: ISKCON Montreal, 1626 PIE 1X Boulevard. See curtain behind Srila Prabhupada.)
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