Hayagriva Dasa was Prabhupada's first professor-disciple. Prabhupada used to call him "Professor Howard Wheeler" even after Hayagriva received his spiritual name. Prabhupada was also very pleased to utilize Hayagriva's literary abilities for spreading Krishna consciousness. It seemed that just when Prabhupada needed him, Krishna supplied a devotee like Hayagriva to begin the editing of Prabhupada's voluminous Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam manuscripts. And it was Hayagriva whom Prabhupada made the first co-editor of Back To Godhead magazine in 1966.

At first, I envied Hayagriva's literary talents, but Hayagriva gave me a good lesson, for which I am always grateful. Although I was involved in writing even before I met Srila Prabhupada, when I became his disciple, I thought that all writing should be given up. I thought that writing was a manifestation of false ego. I remember one day telling this to Hayagriva Prabhu in the storefront. He just laughed in his loud voice and said that as far as he was concerned, he was going to write for Krishna! At first, I walked away with my own opinion-I would renounce writing-but Hayagriva's statement began to make good sense. Now I know that if we have some inclination to serve, whether by writing, or by some other useful talent, it should never be renounced but used in the service of Krishna.

To become successful in pure devotional service is a difficult job, as we are all experiencing. Over the years, Hayagriva has experienced his own difficulties, but he has always remained faithful to Prabhupada, and I am very happy to see his book, The Hare Krishna Explosion, coming out from New Vrindaban, where Hayagriva is enthusiastically serving Prabhupada, and assisting his lifelong dear friend, Srila Bhaktipada.

Although at first we called him "Swamiji," we eventually changed to the more respectful "Prabhupada," a Sanskrit word meaning "one who takes shelter at the lotus feet of Krishna."

"This is the proper form of addressing the spiritual master," he humbly suggested one day.

Somehow the strange word rang true, and from then on it was always "Prabhupada," a word that conjured for us the omnipotent Lord Sri Krishna Himself.

"Guru and Krishna, are like two rails of the same track," he said, "always side by side. By the grace of Krishna, you get guru. And by the grace of guru, you get Krishna."

Who was this great master called Srila Prabhupada, and what was he like? To answer this is to answer the question Arjuna asked Lord Krishna millennia ago:

sthita-prajnasya ka bhasa samadhi-sthasya kesava sthita-dhih kim prabhaseta kim asita vrajeta kim

"What are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is merged in Transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk?"

Prabhupada's real identity defied analysis. I was surprised to learn that he had once been a pharmacist with a wife and children. Because worldly motives and passion never touched him, it was difficult to imagine him as a householder, as anything but the saffron-clad spiritual master, the paramhansa floating over the world like a swan over water.