Srila Prabhupada Telling a Story of Charlie Chaplin Movie

The London party, now ready to go, went for a final meeting with Prabhupāda. He was sending them to start a center in London and thus fulfill his spiritual master’s dream. The sannyāsīs Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī had sent to London had lectured in a few places, posed for photos with lords and ladies, and then returned to India. But Prabhupāda said his disciples should boldly go out and chant the holy name and attract others to chant. Then, when those persons were practiced at chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, they could continue on their own, and the devotees could move on to another place and chant. Prabhupāda was enthusiastic about London, and as he spoke he filled his disciples with the same enthusiasm.

When Mukunda asked Prabhupāda if he had any specific instructions, he replied with a story. In his youth, Prabhupāda said, he had seen a movie of Charlie Chaplin. The setting was a formal ball held outdoors, and off from the main dance arena were lanes with benches where couples sat. Some mischievous boys plastered glue on a bench, and a young man and his girlfriend came and sat down. “When the young man got up” – Prabhupāda laughed as he told the story, and his disciples, who could hardly believe their ears, were also laughing – “his tailing coats tore up the middle.”

The man and woman didn’t notice what had happened and returned to the dance, where they began to draw stares from the other dancers. Wondering why he was suddenly drawing so much attention, the young man went into the dressing room and saw in the mirror that his coattails were torn. Deliberately, he then tore his jacket all the way up to the collar, returned to his partner, and began dancing exuberantly.

Then another man decided to get into the spirit and, ripping his own coattails, began dancing with his partner almost in competition with the first couple. One by one, the other dancers all followed suit, ripping their coattails and dancing with abandon.

By the time Prabhupāda finished the story, the devotees in his room were all laughing, forgetting everything else. Then, as the laughter subsided and the meeting drew to an end, Mālatī asked, “Prabhupāda, I don’t think we can go to London unless we have the shelter of your lotus feet. May we kiss your lotus feet?”

The other devotees were taken aback at her sudden request. No one had ever done such a thing before. But neither her husband nor the others said anything to oppose her, and Prabhupāda consented. One by one, the six London-bound preachers came and offered their obeisances, kissing the bottom of their spiritual master’s feet.

Not until the devotees were already at the airport did Mukunda, talking with Śyāmasundara, begin to appreciate and marvel that Prabhupāda had expertly answered his question by telling the story of the ripped coattails.

Mukunda: I realized that Prabhupāda was telling us that preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness may be difficult or unpopular in England at first. But if we preached boldly, enthusiastically, and purely, then everyone would follow.

Source: Sril Prabhupada-Lilamrta Ch. 59