A Chaitanya Bhagavata das Palace Memory
Chaitanya Bhagavata has a priest in ISKCON since the early 1990s and at at Srila Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold since the early 2006. He performs the daily worship services, conducts the Palace tours for visitors, and watches over the Palace at night to make sure nothing is amiss. Recently, he shared this story:
Two years ago, on a freezing winter day, Tripada and I were in the greenhouse redoing the molds for the pillars that decorate the Palace. Because of the frigid temperatures, no visitors had dared to venture out to the Palace for days. I was running from the greenhouse towards the Palace when to my surprise I noticed a white luxury car pull up. An American couple, dressed in black and in there mid 50’s stepped out of the car and walked into the Palace complex.
The gentlemen came over to me and said, “Sir, would you be able to give us a tour.” The gentleman with tears in his eyes proceeded to say that before his friend, a worker at the coal mines, die, he made us promise that we would come and take a tour of the Palace. I agreed, glad to give the man a tour.
They were respectful and attentive to everything I was saying. Then after we walked out of Srila Prabhupada’s bedroom I showed them the impression in clay of Prabhupada’s feet. To my surprise the gentlemen proclaimed, “Do you know why the feet of a prophet are worshiped?” As he said those words, his wife knelt by Srila Prabhupada’s feet. Her hands touching the encasement, she started praying.
He paused for a few seconds, looking at me he said, “The feet of a prophet go from village to village preaching God’s gospel.”
