I was in a very desperate state. I was brought up middle class in Brooklyn in a Jewish TV dinner kind of background -- kind of pampered, I guess. And here I was out on the streets in a dangerous part of town with no money and affected by LSD and my own unbalanced mind. So I came to Prabhupada to ask him. Rather than asking him how could I somehow become more stable or some normal approach to my problem, I was just thinking of one thing. I asked Swamiji, I told him, “I work hard all day long. I’m like you -- I’m also spreading the word, I’m also speaking to the people,” and I thought I was preaching something. Srila Prabhupada just looked at me, shook his head, and he spoke to me very strongly and he said, “Simply join us. We will solve all your problems.” Of course, in hindsight, we understand the depth of what Srila Prabhupada was talking about -- no more birth, no more death, no more disease, no more old age. At that point, he handed me a cloth. I thought it was a dhoti, and I rejected it. I started stepping backwards. So as I was kind of walking backwards towards the door, I told him that “I’m not quite ready” in a very halting manner. As I was going out the door, Srila Prabhupada had his hand on the doorframe, and I distinctly remember he had a tear coming out of his eyes and he said, “Please come back,” just like that. While I did come back, but I didn’t come back the way he wanted me to right at that moment. I walked out and I almost got killed by some thugs right around the corner, almost an instant reaction.
Prabhupada das
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