Radha Madan Mohan, January 23rd

This morning when I dressed Radha Madan Mohan, I listened to a lecture by Srila Prabhupad from Seattle, 1968. In a rare, stunning moment, Prabhupad's voice breaks and he cries.

I was making Madan Mohan's turban, but my hands froze - everything froze - and I just listened. Prabhupad said that when he took sannyas, the renounced order of life, he left his three children... but he gained three hundred children.

Chills raced down my arms. I remembered a recent Newsweek article that had acknowledged Bhaktivedanta Swami for his work to establish the Hare Krishna movement. The article had given an estimate to the number of "Hare Krishna" devotees in the world today.

"Srila Prabhupad," I murmured, "you have now gained a million children."