Srila Prabhupada: “Contact our good friend Mr. George Harrison and ask him to help us to find a bigger property.”
Dhananjaya: At 5:00 a.m. on Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur’s Disappearance Day in December 1970, a white Mercedes stretch limousine with blacked out windows came to our temple.
The chauffeur, with his cap, his dark suit and his polished black shoes, had a piece of paper with my name on it. I was called out of the temple room. I identified myself and the chauffeur said, “I’ve been told to take you to the fruit and vegetable market.”
I said, “Who told you to do this?” He said, “George Harrison is with John Lennon on a yacht on the Thames, and he remembered it was an auspicious spiritual master’s day, so he gave me 100 pounds.
John gave permission to use his Mercedes and I’m to take you to the fruit and vegetable market to get fruits and vegetables for a feast.” While partying with his friends on a yacht, George spontaneously decided to do this.
Srila Prabhupada wrote to me, “How is the preaching in London?” That year so many boys and girls joined our temple that the brahmachari and brahmacharini rooms were overflowing.
About 65 devotees were living in a property meant for 10 or 12. I reported this to Prabhupada and he wrote back, “Contact our good friend Mr. George Harrison and ask him to help us to find a bigger property.”
George Harrison happened to be in town at the time—that year he recorded the album later called “Living in the Material World,” which had an insert of a big color print of Krishna and Arjuna, the same picture that’s on the cover of Bhagavad-gita As It Is.
When I visited George, I’d take him all his favorite types of prasadam, like deep-fried potatoes, cauliflower and deep-fried curd soaked in sour cream, samosas, cauliflower pakoras, different kinds of sweets like burfi, sandesh and Simply Wonderfuls, as well as the strawberry buttermilk nectar that we became famous for.
I was seeing him once a week until he said, “If you keep bringing all this stuff you have an open invitation to come as often as you want.” Then I began visiting him three or four times a week and when I felt it was the right opportunity I said, “George, now we have so many devotees in our temple that we’re running out of space. Could you help us find a bigger place?”
Without hesitating he said, “Sure. No problem. Visit different estate agents, see different properties and if you find something really good, call me and I’ll come with you to check it out.”
