Akṣayānanda: That is up to us.
Mr. Myer: ...if we can make some beginning of some sort...
Akṣayānanda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: So you show by example. Bring these brahmacārīs. Teach them, and gradually... Just like our organization not all of a sudden has become so big. I was... For more than one year I was simply loitering on the street of New York like a vagabond. Who was hearing me? Still, I am going once in a month to the ship company that "When your next ship is coming to go to India?" So the manager: "Swamiji, you are coming. When you are going away?" I said, "Yes, I have no business practically here. But still, I want to stay and see if things can be pushed." Therefore I am writing. Otherwise I am useless. I am simply loitering and seeing the Fifth Avenue and the... And within the subway station, after taking my lunch I used to go by bus here and there, in the subway, anywhere go, it stops. No shelter. I was cooking, myself, in a friend's house. So he took it as a free cook he has got. And two men, of course, we... Sometimes some guest would... And I would be very glad. And ten, twenty, I'll feed them. And they would like very much ḍāl, cāpāṭi, and one vegetable. First-class... Everyone would like. That was going on, ḍāl, cāpāṭi, and one vegetable. I'll take pleasure. Sometimes somebody would come to assist me. He wanted to eat immediately. And "No, that you cannot. After I have finished, when it is offered to Kṛṣṇa, then I'll give you sumptuous prasādam, not before." So there was no... And little rice. Ḍāl, cāpāṭi, rice, vegetable, bas. Oh, it was so nice. Everyone would praise. The same thing, when I took my own apartment I did the same thing, distributed prasādam. Then, gradually, they came forward to assist me. First came Kīrtanānanda. He is the first cook. Then Acyutānanda. Brahmānanda was washing dish. He could not help the cooking.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was the dishwasher.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He liked that. (laughter) He liked that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What was Gargamuni doing?
Prabhupāda: Gargamuni did not join in the beginning. He was watching his brother. He was, rather, little critical. Gargamuni came first, er, yeah...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Brahmānanda.
Prabhupāda: Brahmānanda. Then our Satsvarūpa, then Jadurāṇī. In this way, gradually increased. And Kīrtanānanda was very expert in learning. He learned how to make puri, kacuri, samosā, sweet ball. We were having very nice feast every Sunday. On Saturday night we would prepare so many things and stocked it. And Sunday, distributing... People would take: "Oh, so..." At least in that time seventy, eighty guests were coming. And they were very happy.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They all get fed sumptuously?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, food.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Where...? Would you eat with them?
Prabhupāda: No. I was eating also, not necessarily with them. I was seeing that they are...