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Srila Prabhupada is with my friend Christian

Gaurachandra: This is when I was in Stockholm, Sweden, in September 1973, to see Srila Prabhupada on his visit to speak at the university. On the drive north from Amsterdam in a van with a few of my godbrothers, I looked very much forward to seeing Srila Prabhupada again, and I also thought about my old Swedish friends who I had grown up with in Portugal and who had since returned to their home country.

After our arrival at the temple in the suburb of Spanga, I called three or so Swedish people in the phone book with the same names as my old friends in Portugal with no luck. Then I phoned my old friend Christian von Paues who I found in the phone book, he answered and we spoke for the first time in two years. Christian's parents lived mostly in Cascais, Portugal, and I'd met him when he was there on college vacation. After graduating, he had become a psychologist (Dr. Christian von Paues) at one of Stockholm's major institutes.

It turned out that Christian lived only a five minute walk away from the temple, so I invited him over to get together and have some prasadam with me. After Christian and I got all caught up, he called his ex-wife who I knew from Portugal, and she came over with their little boy who I hadn't met yet. Soon Christian's ex-wife had to leave, and then Srila Prabhupada's secretary Srutakirti Dasa took Christian into Prabhupada's room so they could meet. The result was a wonderful taped discussion on science and religion that was published in Back to Godhead magazine over the period of several issues.

This is a photo of Srila Prabhupada in his room with my friend Christian (with the beard). Srutakirti Dasa is on the lower left, Hansadutta Dasa is to his right and Krishna Dasa, wearing glasses, is on the far right. Vegavan and Ajit with their backs towards us. The photo was taken by Bhargava Dasa.



Reference: Facebook post of Gaurachandra Dasa