PRABHUPADA’S PIONEERS
Spiritual Journeys of His Disciples of New Raman Reti.
Interviews ~ Articles ~ Photos of Their Lives in Service
compiled and edited by
Sri Devi Dasi
proofreading: Vegavati Devi Dasi.
Gosthabihari Dasa
In September of 1971 I received a Back to Godhead magazine and I found the Berkeley, California temple address there. After going to a Sunday feast once, I decided I wanted to join the movement. I had finished my four-year enlistment in the US Navy, and was looking for the meaning of life. I found it in Srila Prabhupada’s teachings. Jayananda Dasa was the president at that time. I developed a close friendship with him right away. I let him shave my head, and I never left the Temple after that.
I was searching for the meaning of life, and Srila Prabhupada had the answers to all my questions. He attracted the nicest people I had ever known. I felt like I was in the family that I was meant to be in. At that time we did street sankirtana every day. Then we would go door to door selling BTG’s. I joined a traveling sankirtana party with Nalinikanta Dasa, Karnamrita Dasa, and Yagnapati Dasa. At first we traveled to towns in northern California, and then we received permission to go across the country, “to every town and village.” After a few months, we returned to San Francisco. I then joined another party with Gurukrpa Maharaja and Yasodananda Maharaja. After a couple of months, I left their party and became Hridayananda Maharaja’s personal assistant. He and Satsvarupa Maharaja began the college preaching program that turned into the library party. Hrdayananda Maharaja was given the South American GBC zone and I went with him to Caracas, Venezuela, because he wasn’t sure of the state of the temple in that country.
It turned out that the devotees there were very nicely serving Srila Prabhupada’s mission. I left and went to serve in New Vrindaban, where I began building Prabhupada’s Palace, with my friend Soma Dasa. We laid the foundation, built the block walls, poured the concrete floor, and put up the roof. After that we built what was to become a two-story block building in Bahulaban. In the middle of a snow storm, Soma Dasa and I decided to find another place (with a warmer climate) to serve. We walked five miles through that snow storm before getting a ride to the interstate. I ended up in Hawaii! I lived on the ISKCON farm there until Srila Prabhupada came and told the temple president to sell it. When I moved to the Honolulu temple, I became the pujari and Deity cook. After a few months, I asked the temple president, Srutakirti Dasa, whom I could marry. He introduced me to my current wife of 45 years, Mahavisnupriya Devi Dasi. She was the only local Hawaiian girl in the Temple.
Together we worked to serve Srila Prabhupada’s mission in Hawaii. We worked at Govinda’s Restaurant, started a candle factory, and managed a small girls’ ashram. We also raised cows, and gave the milk to the temple. Every day we made garlands for Panca Tattva, Gurus, Jagannatha Deities (large and small) and Sri Sri Chota Gaura Nitai. Srila Prabhupada was happy to spend months in Hawaii.
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