So every night we were advertising, and maybe 40 to 50 people were coming every night. So Prabhupada was pleased, because they were coming to our place. And we would have a long kirtana, then Srila Prabhupada would give the lecture. And then people would ask different questions and he would answer. So after one nice lecture, one boy who had been with the Siddhasvarupa group asked a question. He had formerly been an ISKCON devotee. Prabhupada had been lecturing on association of devotees as being the most important factor for spiritual life. So then the boy put up his hand and he said, “Srila Prabhupada, how do you associate with devotees?”

So Srila Prabhupada looked at him a little incredulously, and he spoke to him a little sharply and said, “You don’t know? You don’t understand? You can’t see?” He said, “You come here. Now this is association of devotees. This is the standard: you come here and learn.” He said, “Even if you want to worship in your own home…” This was another question that had come up. “Even if you want to do that, but you come here. Here is the standard. So you come here and learn, then you can do in your own home.” Like this.

So in this way, during this time Prabhupada in several ways very firmly established that what was going on in the ISKCON temple was the proper method, and that even if you don’t like to live with the ISKCON devotees, you should come here and associate. He told them all quite strongly that “Now here is the standard. Here is a nice temple, here are programs going on. You come here and associate.”

Told by Hari-sauri Prabhu