December 22, 2018
December 22, 2018

On May 6 we took an early flight from Tokyo to Honolulu. Srila Prabhupada was in high spirits after his recent victories: three huge temples underway in India, two in Australia, New Zealand, now a strong foothold in Japan…He said, “On this Hawaii island how many beautiful things, flowers, trees, and fruits — it is like a heavenly planet. The climate is milder and there is much fresh air from the ocean and sunshine, and the scenery position is also very beautiful. There is also strong inclination for spiritual birth, and many yogis take their birth in Hawaii”… There was a gorgeous flowering frangipani tree (plumeria) in the yard, and after his morning class Prabhupada would doff his clothes and relax on a mat spread on the lawn beneath this fragrant tree, wrapped in a simple loincloth for his daily massage…O Prabhupada, how beautiful you are: the golden-limbed young man sporting in flowered gardens, joking, declaiming on every subject from butterflies to Brahmaloka, your eyes half-closed in rest and inner satisfaction. Never have I seen you so beautiful. This is what it must be like in the spiritual sky in Krishna’s place called Goloka Vrindavan — sheer heaven…Or sitting in his rocking chair, chanting japa for hours — each word snaps so clear and distinct — while a gentle breeze plays with his kurta, his senses alert to frangipani perfume and a few soft raindrops, seeing Krishna in every movement of bamboo rustling at the fence, in the play of wind across the emerald carpet of grass at his feet, in the sibilate susurrus of the insistent Pacific rolling back and forth on white coral sands.