Every afternoon Srila Prabhupada gave darshan. Anyone could come to his sitting room to converse, ask questions or just listen. Back in America I would have given my eye tooth to go to his darshans, and I had lamented like anything when I was stuck on the BQE in New York in 1973 and missed what I thought was my one-and-only chance. But now that I could freely go to his darshans every day if I wanted, I hesitated, feeling it was better to do some service for him. I asked Daivi-sakti prabhu for some afternoon service.
“You can help clean Srila Prabhupada’s room upstairs,” she said.
His upstairs quarters consisted of one enclosed room and a back verandah. On the partially covered verandah, overlooking his garden, Srila Prabhupada took an early-afternoon massage. After darshan, he relaxed on the open portion of the verandah and slept about two hours a night, on a bed in the open air, under the roofed section. Rising at one a.m. every morning to translate the Srimad-Bhagavatam, he sat at a low desk in the enclosed room.
Evening darshan time was the best time to clean this translating room. We started with Srila Prabhupada’s translating desk. Rolling up the mosquito net that hung over it, we cleaned systematically in sections. We moved aside his Grundig dictaphone, Sanskrit Srimad-Bhagavatam, and other books and paraphernalia. After cleaning that area, we replaced the items in the exact same spots we’d found them. Then we rolled down the mosquito net and tucked it under his sheet-covered asana.
After wringing out a wet cloth until it was very dry, I washed the floor on my hands and knees. I appreciated all these opportunities to render menial service to Srila Prabhupada.
A couple of times, darshan finished, Srila Prabhupada came into the room while we were still cleaning. One time he told Daivi-sakti: “Please climb under the mosquito net and shoo out the mosquitoes trapped inside. Some were caught in the net last night.”