We were going from Mauritius to South Africa so we needed to have yellow fever shots, and Prabhupada had never had one in his whole life because he would never take any shots. But you could not go to a doctor and just have him stamp the card, you actually had to get the shot and actually have them sign that you got the shot. So Prabhupada refused to get the shot and he said, “Somehow or another get me that card,” and then he had this little smile on his face. So then I said to Pusta Krishna, “OK, let’s go.” Then he said, “What are we going to do?” I said, “We’re going to get the shots ourselves and do something.” He said, “Ah.”
So we went downtown and Pusta Krishna takes Prabhupada’s card for shots, and he gets the shot and when the man asks him for his name he says, “Bhaktivedanta Swami.” And then he asked him for date of birth. So then Pusta Krishna says, “I forgot.” And the man said, “You forgot?” Then at that time I’m sitting just two rows up and saying, “Oh, God, we’re in trouble now.” So all of a sudden I start chanting, “Hare Krishna!” I’m chanting and I’m doing this ecstasy thing. And the guy is looking around, he said, “What’s going on?” He says, “You don’t remember?” And Pusta Krishna says, “I can’t remember anything anymore. It’s so confusing, all this chanting, I don’t remember anything anymore,” and I’m just going on and on and on making a whole scene. Finally the guy said, “Well, when you remember, write it on the card.” He said, “Yeah, I sure will.” Then we went back and we wrote in 1896. We told Prabhupada what we did, and he was laughing and laughing.
Harikesa das