In India, Still There Is Some Culture

December 18, 1972 : Bombay

Every morning Srila Prabhupada, Shyamasundara Dasa and I would take Kartikeya’s car, an Ambassador, and drive to a waterfront area for walking. After one morning walk, we returned to the car and Shyamasundara could not get the key to work in the ignition.

“Srila Prabhupada, something is wrong,” he said. “This is not going to work. I’ll go get a cab.”

He left Srila Prabhupada and I sitting in the back seat of the car. After a few minutes, two well-dressed Indian men opened the car doors and sat down in the front seat. I became frightened. Srila Prabhupada, smiling, appeared very calm while he spoke to them in Hindi. Suddenly, they put their key in the ignition and the car immediately started.

I finally realized that we had been sitting in the wrong car. The gentlemen insisted on taking Srila Prabhupada back to his flat. Srila Prabhupada spoke to them during the entire ride.

“We are sorry,” Srila Prabhupada told them.

“No problem,” they said. “We’ll take you back to where you are staying.”

They drove us into town. When we arrived Srila Prabhupada said, “You can come up and take prasadam.”

“No, we have to go to work,” they replied. “We have business meetings. Thank you very much, Swamiji.”

“This is the difference between India and America,” Srila Prabhupada told me, after getting out of the car. “In America they would have said, ‘Hey, what are you doing. Get out of my car.’ Possibly beat you. In India, still there is some culture.”

Reference: “What is the Difficulty?” – by Shrutakirti Das (ACBSP – was Srila Prabhupada’s personal servant during 1973… approximately – can be checked)