Prabhupāda: Rādhā-Govinda Mandir. And the center was that Mulliks' Rādhā-Govinda. This Mulliks, some of them were capitalist. Capitalist means rich men; they kept prostitute. But still devotee. In the morning they would, after taking bath and everything, changing clothes, they must go to see Rādhā-Govinda.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And they liked to see Rādhā-Govinda.
Prabhupāda: They were devotee. Without seeing Rādhā-Govinda, they would not take their . . .
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Was the Deity very nicely worshiped?
Prabhupāda: Oh, at that time.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Like in our temples? Really.
Prabhupāda: Dress, jewelry, and foodstuff, oh . . . would offer kacaurīs, very big, first class, and luci, all very cripsy.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Ah, crispy.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And ghee and rābṛi and similarly other . . . in the plate, you see? (indicates size of plate?)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow!
Prabhupāda: And it was the custom of the Mulliks, daily prasādam, they should not eat all of them. Keep something as a balance—some neighborhood men, they will sell. This was . . .
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Distribution of prasādam.
Prabhupāda: Distribution.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Practically you learned all these things in those early days . . .
Prabhupāda: Hmm. Hmm.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: . . . at Rādhā-Govinda Temple.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that was the training in the childhood. This Ratha-yātrā, Rādhā-Govinda sevā, prasāda distribution. Only the new thing I am doing—writing of books by the order of Guru Mahārāja. Otherwise, whatever I have introduced, I was trained up in childhood. I simply imitated. I am simply surprised, nowadays, even a low-class . . . formerly all our maidservant and neighborhood maidservant, they had two business: one prostitute and one maidservant. Otherwise they could not maintain. Simply by becoming maidservant, they have no sufficient income. We were paying them for not whole time three rupees.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wow!
Prabhupāda: Per month. So one house, three rupees, another house, three rupees, another house . . . in this way their income was ten to twelve rupees. Well, that was not sufficient.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Not much.
Prabhupāda: So they had to allow the prostitution. But they were happy. But in that income in those men, they had a guru. The guru would come.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They had a guru.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even the maidservants.
Prabhupāda: In Bengal there are professional gurus. They travel from one house to another. Our paternal guru was coming like that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You had a professional guru also?
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You had a paternal guru?
Prabhupāda: Yes. I was initiated by that professional guru at the age of twelve years. Later on I rejected him.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I wonder if he had any thought that his disciple, Your Divine Grace, would be one day such a devotee all over the world. You always said that's the perfection of a guru, if he has good disciple. So your professional guru had a best disciple.
Prabhupāda: But Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī later on, when I was young man, manager in Dr. Bose's laboratory . . . that my friend, Narend Mullik, he took me. There is direction, for real guru one can give up this professional guru.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Prabhupāda: So all of a sudden I remember this Nanda Dulal Gosāi. I was thinking of him, what a great devotee he was. He was observing some of the festivals, I think Janmāṣṭamī or Nandotsava, something, inviting friends, offering good prasādam. And he was living in a quarter full of Muhammadans.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Full of Marwaris.
Prabhupāda: Muhammadans.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Muhammadans.
Prabhupāda: Low-class Muhammadans.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He didn't mind that?
Prabhupāda: No, at that time they were so friendly.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Really? They were respectful.
Prabhupāda: Muhammadans were also religious.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right.
Prabhupāda: One Muhammadan gentleman, Dinuniya, he was formerly Hindu, but when there was some famine . . . (break) He also made so many charitable institutions. He had a masjid, one etimakhānā. Etimakhānā means orphan house.