by Tamal Krishna Goswami
Srila Prabhupada and I were walking in Regents Park in London in October or November. It was quite cold and the walkway was icy. Prabhupada had a wool striped airline blanket wrapped around his waist on top of his dhoti. I’m sure Prabhupada didn’t steal the blanket from the airline, but somebody had. As we were walking, Prabhupada would stop and with his stick he’d smack a puddle that had frozen. Then he’d walk on. When he came to the next one he’d smack it and it would shatter. I guess he was waiting for me to ask him why he was doing that, so I asked him and Prabhupada said, “Because this is not the natural condition of the water.” He said, “Similarly, it is not our nature to be in illusion. We must break the back of the material energy.” And he said, “To be in maya is not our natural condition.” We kept walking and at one point he noticed a lake that was frozen except for the portion around the trees. He said, “The Goswamis knew this secret. That’s why they lived under trees, because underneath a tree it is warm in the winter and cool in the summer.” He said, “You can see that because around the tree the water is not frozen.”
from Remembrances, ITV Chapter 29