There was no money, no books, there was no income.
Prabhupada is sitting, there’s a cushion from a sofa. I picked that up off the street. Someone had thrown out his old sofa. I picked up the cushion and brought it, and Prabhupada used it.
Prabhupada would pass the basket at the end of the kirtan and collect maybe three dollars. People would put coins in, quarters. Prabhupada’s first instruction to me was to do my job.
I was a teacher for New York City Board of Education, and to give…he said, “Give your salary to Krishna.”
I thought I would give up my job. Prabhupada said, “No, you do your job.” I asked Prabhupada, “How do I give my salary to Krishna?”
Prabhupada said, “Well, you give it to me, and I’ll give it to Krishna.”
I said, “OK,” and that’s how we were running on. But we had no money.
We would get watermelon because watermelon was so cheap, 10 cents a pound, and then we’d eat the watermelon and then take the rind and cook that as a subji. That was one of the big subjis, the watermelon rinds.
Memories of Brahmananda prabhu
New York | USA | Summer of 1966
Following Śrīla Prabhupāda | Yadubara dāsa
