1st Disappearance day Celebration of H.H. Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaj || Day-2 || Evening session

I can arrange. So then he talked to Aditya Prabhu and Jagannath Prabhu. They helped me, and Guru Maharaj himself stayed in the closing this property, and he gave me one responsibility to Prasad distribute, which one have a dīlān, Bhakti Charumārāja one have a food truck. Somehow Bhakti Charumārāja, the food truck purpose he been go there, then somehow have a COVID. Left body. So Guru Maharaj two times told, somehow you take this one and start this project. Almost finished, Guru Maharaj. Last year should be start because last year separation purpose I not did. All the paperwork finished. I am here to go next, uh, May 8th. Maybe June, July I started this thing for Football Life project there. Thank you, Guru Maharaj.

Thank you. He's a really good cook. He cooks in 5-star hotels. Must be good. Only vegetarian though. I would like to call on Sri Hari Prabhu and then Hanuman, Hanumanji Das.

Hare Krishna. Thank you, Maharaj. Thank you, Nārādhana Mahārāja, to give me this opportunity to glorify Mahārāja and His līlās. In 1993, I happened to go to America. I was scientist in IIT Roorkee and I got a NASA project to work on my PhD and fortunately my project was in Boise, Idaho, USA and in 1993 March, I started going there. And then my godbrother, His Grace Ananturupadas Prabhu, very elevated family, his good wife, Audha Mataji, both they personally took care of me and my family and advised in all the matters what to be done and what not to be done. And they asked me to chant rounds every day. And I would say, no, I'm doing PhD, I have no time. But he said, you just start by one. Believe it or not, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. In 3 months, because of my past, I happened to be there. And then in July, there was a theatre in San Francisco and Los Angeles, so we decided to go there. But Guru Maharaj was also coming to San Francisco. That was my first meeting with Maharaj.. And when I saw him in the parking lot in San Francisco, in temple parking lot, I did my dandavat, full dandavat and maharaja. When I got up, Ananta Prabhupada introduced me, here is this devotee chanting rounds. Mahārāja, yeah, is good, but don't get too much into politics. At that time I was very much into RSS, BJP, Hinduism like that. Somehow he got this, don't get into politics. And I was shocked, how does Maharaj know all of this? So this is, then in '93 I met Maharaj and then we came back and then I started working my PhD and then my seva was, Govinda was going on and the Govinda, there was a, needed to be dishwashing. So my Godbrother, my shiksha guru asked me to do some help there. So every day after 5, 6 o'clock PM, I would straight go to the Govinda and do all the cleanup and everything and go back to home in the evening around 11. And some congregation members, Indians, they said, you are fool. I said, why? You have come here to do PhD and you are washing dishes? What you are getting? I said, I have been asked because he is my Sikh Shaikh Guru. Then I was scared myself, will my PhD suffer with this? Believe it or not, it's my own experience, my own personal feeling now, I'm going to reveal now that I was granted 4 years of funding by NASA to work on my, to finish my PhD work. And because of that service, my PhD got finished in 2 years and 10 months. That was my first experience while engaged in Krishna consciousness, while engaged in devotional service. Nothing will be lacking in your life. That's my experience. And then Maharaj used to come every year, of course, with Janardhan Maharaj. And I always get a chance to serve Maharaj also whenever he has some needs of some electronic to use in India. So I would go shopping with him. So one time Maharaj came and he said, he asked Anandaprabhu, is he ready for initiation? He said, yeah, he is. He is chanting rounds and my wife also with me. And he gave us both initiation in May 1996 because I was already chanting for 3 years, me and my wife. And believe it or not, because there were not very many devotees, not very many pujaris, he performed the yajña all by himself. Just for two. So it was just amazing on and on. But then he gave me instruction. The power of instruction manifested right there. I realize now after 30 years of my initiation almost. He said, if you will serve here in this center, which was just a small living room center, only 20-30 people used to come with some prasadam from their homes. If you serve here, PRASAD RAVAL, you all your desires will be fulfilled. You will be successful in your life. 30 years ago and I was like, how can that be? In 1996 I just finished my PhD, I have no job. And I was applying 200 applications I submitted all over the America, nobody even gave me a call. What to speak of a job. Then because Maharaj's blessing, so I was buying papaya, papita In one of the WinCo store and a person came to me and he said, hey, how do we eat this? So bitter. I said, never leave skin. Take this skin completely off. Then only you can eat it. Otherwise bitterest fruit in the world. Oh, thank you. By the way, what you have done? I said, I have GIS remote sensing NASA and I am looking for job. Oh, you are looking for job? I am manager in state of Idaho Department of Water Sources. You come tomorrow, I have a job for you. Believe it or not, it was government job. Next day I am on the job. Offer, it was temporary position, then they regularize it. Believe it or not, because Maharaj's instruction was there, I sat on the chair of that job of a technical hydrologist for 18 years in Boise. Believe it or not. That's the Maharaj's power. And now, with the instruction, he said, I also want you to preach, book distribution, support them. I asked my wife, okay, you take the cooking of Sunday feast. So she managed the kitchen for 20 years. And I was there to support her, washing the dishes and pots and everything, my seva for 18-20 years. I washed dishes only. Then I was became pujari later on. But then Maharaj, he said, Shri Hari and Anandrupa, we were sitting together with families. He said, now the time is because it's expanding, so you should have a new temple. I said, Maharaj, I just have very small job anyways, but we will try. Maharaj asked me, wherever the property is, you buy house on both sides. And then I was like, okay. Then somehow I sent my agent Vinnie Morton to the house on the right side of the temple, right side of the property which was already there. And he said, yeah, because I got a job now, so I could get loan. He agreed. But he would not sell it to the temple because he was very much against. The parking was there, problem was there. But somehow I said, okay, I'm giving down payment. I took money for a mantr purva. I didn't have any money. I gave down payment. And when the time came for property to be signed in my name, I said, it should be in his name. He is my friend. I want to give him. He bought that because he couldn't say no. So we got the right side property. Then Mahaj came next year again and he said, but why don't you Shree buy this house on the left of the temple? I said, Maharaj, I am not the owner of this estate. Vinny Moulder, my agent, she asked this lady, Ardeen Hunter, hundreds of times, would you like to sell? One time Maharaj came and then Maharaj left. Then I also came India at that time and then I met Maharaj in Delhi. Shri Hari, what happened to that house? I told you to buy that because Maharaj was seeing the temple over there. I wasn't able to see, my elder brother wasn't able to see, but he was seeing it. So he said, yeah, you buy that property. I said, Maharaj, I have sent Vini Morton tens of times. She said, no, I have lived here for 14 years with my husband. I have so many memories. He expired, but I can't leave this home. I said, what to do now? Maharaj said, no, no, you try, you try. Let Anandrupa know that you can get it. So I went to Ludhiana to meet my brother-in-law. I got a call from Anandrupa directly on my phone. The house is on sale. Can you believe it? House is on sale in 2 days. I left 3, 4 days before and the house— because Maharaj's desire and power. I asked Anandarupa Prabhu, could you please give $5,000 down payment on my behalf so that I can come in? I didn't see the house from inside. I didn't see no inspection, nothing. And that was the best house on the street. Can you believe it? And the moment we bought it in 1998 and moved in there, we called the city government because they were restricting our permit because of the parking. So I pledged my parking, my house, and everything so that the temple came up in 1999. It's one year only. Within one year, there was a brand new temple of $600,000. Maharaj's power. Somebody may, Anandaprabhu may give his credit, take his credit. I can take my credit. No, I felt it right there in one year fundraising, whole construction. And Anandaprabhu, of course, he gave a lot of money. He took his pension from the retirement fund, a loan from there. So it's a huge thing. But anyways, so then one time Because every time Maharaj would come, my seva was to massage his head and feet. So one time Maharaj came very tired. I said, Maharaj, I want to do massage as usual, but then—

2 more minutes, please.

Thank you. Temple people, they arranged a professional massager for Maharaj, deep tissue massage, so that Maharaj can get fully relaxed. I was also happy that Maharaj will get now a better massage than I do. But because Maharaj is beyond the bodily concept, so Maharaj said, 'So who is going to do my massage now? That Robert? No. Where is Shri Hari?' I said, 'Maharaj, I am here. Better you.' 'No, no. You do it.' Refused because he was not getting massage just because he had some pain or relief. No, he wanted to give me seva. He wanted to give me his mercy. That was his plan. And that got— I realized that Maharaj is trying to engage me in his personal body service. It's amazing. One time, like other devotees also mentions on the sleeping habits of Maharaj. One time Maharaj came by because my house is next to temple. So Prabhupada asked me that, okay, now this time you have Maharaj in your home, okay. So I arranged everything and then Maharaj came after morning program and everything, prashadam, and then I started massaging Maharaj's head and feet again. First head, then feet. And then Maharaj just did like this, snoring sound, just two snoring sound, that's it. And Maharaj immediately got up. Shri Hari, I do not sleep actually. During the day If I sleep, I couldn't sleep the whole night. And he was kind of feeling so expressing his guilt that, oh, I slept in day. I was, Maharaj, please, please, please. No, no, no, no. Then immediately he got up. He's taking calls and everything. And when he get out of the house, he was just got up and was going to temple. He didn't know right or left.

Why?

Because every time he would go to a new city, new temple, the doors, the lights, the things, everything changes. So he doesn't know. So he is so much engaged and engrossed in those sevas. And, uh, okay.

Hare Krishna is way, way over now.

Anyway, I'm almost finished here. So the temple came up is because of Maharaj. Like Bhaktisiddhānta Mahārāja was able to see the Chandroda Temple of Mayapur just when Bhaktivedānta Mahārāja asked. Servant was there, he wasn't able to see, but Bhaktisiddhānta Mahārāja, he saw the temple. Same way, Mahārāja saw the temple, we were not able to see the temple. So thank you, thank you very much for allowing me to glorify Mahārāja. His Holiness Śrīla Gopal Kṛṣṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja ki Thank you.

Time is the essence again. We don't have a lot of time, okay? So try to be brief. We need to hear more of our God brothers and God sisters here. Tulbi Nityakṛṣṇa Prabhu.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gurumuraji, you are a prominent personality from the spiritual world. You have unlimited qualities in unlimited quantities. Gurumuraji, I have some of the instances. Once I was new to ISKCON, Gurumuraj, and I came running to you, "Maharaj, let's go! I've got a meeting with tourism minister." And that time you told me, "Anuman, no." I will not go. So I came back and then I was doing mental uparad that Maharaj doesn't understand tourism minister appointment has come and you always know the heart because Guru Maharaj you enter the hearts of everybody. So you sent your secretary, he called me and you were so sweet as always, you said Hanuman, I said to you no because I know we would have gone to Kanpur place. There would have been a traffic jam at Lajpat Nagar for about half an hour. We would have gone there and we would have been late and the Tourism Minister wouldn't have met me. It was okay for me, but you would have felt bad. That's why I said no and you gave me your Mahaprasad. So then I came out, I thought, what a fool I am. I don't know Guru Maharaj from Golok Dham, what he thinks, how he thinks. I can never ever imagine. And also one more time, when there was a very prominent person who came for your personal audience, darshan, Guru Maharaj, and you came immediately, you said, you asked him, "How are you?" He said very arrogantly, "I am fine, Maharaj." And then second time you asked him, "How are you?" And I was thinking, what's happening? 'Guru Maharaj Ji, you are saying so like a roaring like a lion.' And then that man opened up. He said, 'Maharaj Ji, I have a huge company. I have offices on every country of the world practically. I have huge profit. I have many customers. I have a big house, beautiful wife, everything.' But I knew him for 3 years, I never knew. Then he opened up that I have a daughter. Who is around 21 years, but her mental age is about 10 years. Then Guru Maharaj, you preached to him, you are a genius Guru Maharaj. And then he said, what I can do Maharaj? So you knew that I was very much afraid to ask him appointment, I would have probably stammered. You said, he will come and meet you next Monday 11:30, okay? He said, yes Maharaj, yes, come 11:30. And then I went to meet him Guru Maharaj by your Kind grace, he not only ordered 55,000 Bhagavad Gita, then he asked, "Anything else you want?" I said, "We also distribute prasad." He gave us 6 prasadam trucks to carry. And then he is being— he still remembers you very nicely. So there was also this big problem in one of our Delhi NCR temples by a government authority called DDA. Daily Development Authority. So our temple had got some notice about ₹17.50 crore, about ₹175 million rupees as penalty, as interest, and as non-compliance. So, Gurumurthy, you met the highest bureaucrat in the country, the Secretary of the Urban Affairs Ministry, and he came for your audience. You asked him, you explained the problem. 'He said to you, Maharaj, now the notice has gone from government, it's beyond. Had you come to me 5 years before, I would have tried to help ISKCON, but there is no other way.' And Guru Mahajoo asked him, 'Whom do you report to?' He said, 'Maharaj, I report to the Union Cabinet Minister.' So you asked him, 'What's his name?' He said, 'Hardish Singh Puri.' And Guru Mahajoo asked him, 'Tomorrow go and meet him, ask him to change the policy.' His face was like, "What's happening? Is Maharaj the Prime Minister of the whole Milky Galaxy ordering him?" But Guru Mahārāja, by your potency, within 3 or 4 weeks he called me, "Hannumān, I have changed the order, the policy of India for all the temples." Not even our temple got the benefit. There is something called FAR, floor area ratio. All the temples of ISKCON can do 100% more construction. So in 5 minutes Guru Mahārāja preached to him. He went to the minister, changed the policy for ISKCON, all temples India. Then there was this Mayapur issue. Lot of devotees are aware, couple of years ago. And devotees were having lot of differences. They were not able to come on the same stable and talk in the best possible way. Gurumurthy, you spend 2 or 3 weeks continuously. So by your immense purity, by your immense humility, by your immense tolerance, you not only solve the problem, you set a system and it is still working. Gurumurthy, you are the Sankat mochan of ISKCON. You are the Sankat mochan of Prabhupada ji. Maharaji, I remember one devotee had come from Pakistan, one of your disciples, my godbrother. He is in Karachi and from age of 5 or 6 he got Lord Jagannath Baldev Subhadra. So he was telling me in my room in Hindi, I asked him, 'What do you do?' He says, 'I have no money, so I, in the evening some people come to my home, I give a class in Urdu or Hindi on Bhagavad Gita.' 'If they bring some fruits, I offer to Jagannathji.' And he said, 'Don't bring. I just drink water and sleep.' This he told me in my room, small room in ISKCON temple. Then a call came from Gurumahar's secretary. That time I was not having diksha. 'Rakesh, Gurumahar is calling you. Come up.' So I went up. So Gurumahar said, 'This devotee came to you from Pakistan? What did he say?' So I told everything to Gurumahar. Then he asked me, 'Go and bring him here.' So I brought him upstairs to Gurumaa's room. Gurumaa was almost in tears. He gave him $1,000 American dollars. He said, 'Gurumaa, I did not bring anything for you. I cannot take from you.' And you were saying, 'It is not for you, for Jagannath. Feed him and don't sleep hungry. Go.' Because you were about to have some tear, you asked both of us to get out and to leave the room. So, Guru Mahārāja, you are always compassionate. Many devotees call Guru Mahārāja CM of CM, condensed mercy of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. So, Guru Mahārāja, you are the condensed mercy of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu and with my limited understanding also the condensed mercy of Nityānanda Prabhu. You are mercy of both, very condensed like we have the milk made milk very dense, we eat the kīra of that. And this Prasadam Maharajji, Gurumurthy Maharajji whom you had preached to, a large petroleum company managing director, he not even on your preaching gave so many ISKCON help. He not even gave them food delivery vehicles, bought books for his company. Last year I had phoned him and I told him I want to meet you. So I had gone to meet him. So he asked about you. So I said that our Guru Maharaj has left the planet in the month of May. So he said, what I can do? I said, you can do the Bhagavad Gita then books. So based on your preaching, and also I had taken along His Holiness Guru Prasad Maharaj. So I could see both the blessings of your blessings and blessings of Guru Prasad Maharaj. He ordered 2 lakh books in 5 minutes including Bhagavad Gita for Kumbh Mela. And he still tells me that you are Guru Maharaj, perfect gentleman. He met Guru Maharaj, he met you Maharaj only for 5 minutes, but he calling you perfect gentleman because you are very prominent personality of Golok, perfect. And Guru Maharaj Ji, on this during celebrations, I really beg from you that kindly forgive me for all my offenses, all my towards You disobediences, and kindly I beg You, Gurumaharaj Ji, even if I do mistakes, don't disown me, please keep me under shelter. Your eternal servant, Hanuman Das. Hare Krishna.

Hare Krishna. Thank you, Hanuman Prabhu. I'd like to read just before, Nityakrishna Prabhu. Nityakṛṣṇa Mahāprabhu, are you there? Yes, I want to read from Arjuna Harīprabhu. I was sent by more like Kṛṣṇa Prabhu. Just now coming. This is message from Arjuna Harīprabhu, a very wonderful devotee. Guru Mahāprabhu loved him so much. And is a very dedicated disciple of Guru Mahārāja. He donated so many properties. Even right now, the property whereby the Punjabi, Punjabi Bhag, ISKCON is now under construction. We're going to see a very grand temple there where there is a Kṛṣṇa-Bāla-rāma deity as well. This is the message. We had been in touch with Guru Mahārāja in this lifetime for the past 20 years. Mahārāja loved me and kept in constant touch by email or phone. Whatever services were possible were all nominated by Gurudeva. Otherwise, I had no abilities. In the first ever meeting, Guru Mahārāja visited our house and remarked, "You are having nice facilities. Use them in the service of Kṛṣṇa." At that time, I was in deep material entanglement. Rādhikā Kṛpamātājī and Rāsapriya Prabhu facilitated the connection with Guru Mahārāja. Guru Mahārāja, according to the nature of the disciple, always kept one happy. Once I made coconut laddus in Mayapur. I thought Guru Mahārāja would honor half or one piece and distribute to the rest. But He had 3 to 4 pieces. After every piece He ate, He asked, 'You have cooked?' Then he ate another one. Whenever the pujari or someone in Mayapur offered a garland to Maharaj, after some time he would give it to me. And if I was not present, next he would send it to be given to me. Maharaj has always been extremely caring Every day before he entered the Panchatatva altar, I used to pay dandavat. He would pronounce my name and then go. Seeking blessings unto the lotus feet of Gurudev, just missing the physical interaction. Arjunahari Das, Maha Manjari Devi Dasi. P.S. This time when I was in Mayapur, I used to halt at the place where Guru Mahārāja accepted my pranām. Just a feeling now He will come, as was everyday practice. Guru Mahārāja! Yay! Arjuna Hari also donated our second temple, actually third temple, because here in Vrindavan we have three. Kṛṣṇa-Bāla-rāma-mandīr, Jagannātha-mandīr, and the third one, Śrī-rāda-govinda-mandīr in Rukmini-bija.

Huh?

What's that again? Gurukula also, yes, he donated that.

Yes.

So we have also the Rāda-govinda-mandīr. Nitya-kṛṣṇa-prabhu, Sorry for you waiting. Nityakṛṣṇa Prabhu is from Detroit. He's superheading also a big task Gourmāj gave him. He probably will tell us now what is it.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

PRASAD RAVAL.

I'm normally not difficult to speak, but this is a wonderful opportunity to try to glorify the most glorious Guru Maharaj. You know, when I was on this stage a year ago having last darshan, it was the most painful moment in my life, and I think for many of us the most difficult, and thought there was no way to recover. But hearing from all the beloved godbrothers and godsisters about your experiences with Guru Mahaj is, I feel, finally starting to mend the heart. So I'm very grateful to everyone, for all of you, for sharing your heartfelt realizations. It is certainly the medicine that I need. Grateful to Janardana Maharaj, Dharma Mahaprabhu, Vishnuprabhu, all the management for putting on this festival.

You know, when we say something like a billion dollars or 10,000 crores of rupees, the numbers are so large, it's virtually impossible for us to relate to.

And the same holds, I think, with Guru Mahajji. When we talk about what he's done, you know, the number of temples, you can speak 21 temples in Delhi and I don't know, hundreds of other temples that he was the initiator instrument of.

The numbers are so big, it's difficult to even contextualize or try to understand.

I know in 2023, we had a Baltimore, I guess, Guru Puja, we'll call it. We all know what it was in our hearts, at least.

And I'm very good at this.

I was speaking, glorifying Guru Mahajan in his presence, and I made him upset. This is a skill I have.

And I made the comment that that he's undeniably and undisputably contributed more to Śrīla Prabhupāda's ISKCON than anybody else on this planet. And there was not sentiment of a loving, aspiring disciple, but it was by hard facts and figures.

Our movement moves on two tracks, as Prabhupāda wrote in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that it moves on books and temples.

And who has built more books or who has distributed more temples?

Than Guru Mahaj, nobody.

And that comment, of course, Guru Mahaj didn't like being glorified in public, but it's a fact. And, but still, it was hard to really understand the depth of how much he'd contributed. And I was reflecting that, you know, a year later, if I asked— anyway, you know, how many of you are experiencing, you know, more service because of Guru Maharaj's departure? Or more challenges in your local Yatras, running, pushing it forward because of the physical absence of Guru Maharaj?

I think we'd all raise our hands, right?

It gives us an idea that all of that work and extra energy we're putting, where it was coming from. It was Guru Maharaj who was filling that, who was holding all of it together. Just like if you peer out into an ocean, You have no idea how deep the water goes, how deep the earth is.

Similarly, you know, it's impossible for us to understand how deep Guru Maharaj's presence was in our lives, in our movement, and for the benefit of this universe.

And I know when I was in Vrindavan during his disappearance, I made the comment that we'll not know Guru Maharaj's real contributions for another 50 to 75 years. It will take that long to fully understand how broad and deep his accomplishments were, because so many fruits he has laid and seeds he has planted that will fructify in the future and that will go on to do amazing things.

And that is when we will fully realize that.

And, you know, as, as Janardana Maharaj mentioned, One of those is this Kurukshetra project that was a dream of Śrīla Prabhupāda, who wanted to establish a large Kṛṣṇa-Arjuna temple in Kurukshetra. Actually, Kurukshetra is a very important place for us in ISKCON, because it was there that Śrīla Prabhupāda first— didn't meet, but Sumarṭī Morarji saw Śrīla Prabhupāda in Kurukshetra, sitting under a tree.

And she noted that when they met in Bombay many years later when he asked for passage to the West. So it's a very, very instrumental place, of course, of spiritual significance that doesn't need repeating here.

And Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted this project and Guru Mahājāna took it upon himself. It wasn't a direct instruction to him to complete this project, but seeing that it wasn't being fulfilled, And wanting to please his spiritual master, Guru Mahaj took on this project. And when Guru Mahaj fell, and when he fell sick, I was 100% confident nothing was going to happen because I knew he was going to open this Kuruukshetra project. He had worked so hard for it. He had been thinking about it day and night. And for whatever, you know, divine intervention and more supreme plan, he has left it to his followers to try to finish.

And, you know, the team with Sakshi Gobal Prabhu, Mohangarh Chandra Prabhu, Priyagovind Prabhu, Abhaya Ghosh Prabhu, and many others who are working on this project, if you ask them, they'll tell you, in Guru Mahārāja's Vani presence.

He is orchestrating more in this project than before. So many miracles have happened. Every crisis that has been confronted has been overcome by some arrangement, some solution that has been presented. And we can only understand that Guru Mahaj is continuing to labor very, very hard to make this project happen.

And so we're excited for that opportunity.

I thought I could speak for just a couple minutes about Guru Mahaj's, you know, supreme intelligence. You know, his intelligence is beyond compare. You know, we know he speaks so many languages— Hindi, English, Punjabi, Russian, French. I mean, these are all like different languages, not even like related dialects. It's unbelievable how he could speak. His memory, we heard earlier, you know, meeting someone for just 10 seconds, 2 years later he knows. He's got a photographic memory. But his intelligence was so vast, you know, if you talk to doctors, they'll tell you that his doctor said that he knows more than the doctors. And I had this personal experience, you know, I'm in the business world. It is my daily life to study different economic issues, interest rate policies, and currency issues, and all these things, and consider, you know, I have to be an expert in that area. I even teach at a university. And so, when I would have the opportunity to serve Guru Mahaj in Detroit, particularly during his lunchtime, we would start discussing these topics, and I was literally like a preschooler in the midst of a PhD. He knew so much about everything, every topic in this regard that I was supposed to be so-called an expert in. And I couldn't even hang 3 or 4 minutes with him before he would completely lay out actually what was happening in unbelievable depth. So his intelligence in everything was amazing. One of the things I really got to see was how he could read people. And I know many of you have had this experience. I had this experience. But when he would interview candidates for initiation, you know, he would ask each candidate one question. And that question, you all know, it was their flaw. He would ask one, "What time do you wake up?" He would ask somebody else, "Do you watch movies?" Somebody else, "Are you only honoring Prasad?" Even once he asked one devotee, "Are you chanting while driving?" And every time— this was Guru Mahārāja and the disciples busted. We try to cover up, we try to clean and polish everything, and I am sweating in the back because Guru Mahārāja would always ask, "You wait in here." I didn't want to share this. But then it was 2 or 3 years later I realized each disciple, when they acknowledged and owned that flaw in front of Guru Maharaj, almost instantly they were able to overcome that. And Guru Maharaj was not trying to find a flaw for not initiating. No. Showering mercy by removing an obstacle, by pointing out this gap. Unbelievable mercy. And this was Guru Maharaj's mercy. You know, I spent a lot of time with him, and he would point out so many of my flaws. And one time we were on morning walk in Detroit.

Janardan Maharaj was there.

I was like one year, I think, initiated, you know, I am not a disciple now, wasn't even then. I was very foolish. And I had the opportunity, I was walking right next to him. And I was—