Braja Sevaki, Mayapur IN

One time in New Zealand, 1996, I was Gurudeva's servant; he asked for me. Bhava prabhu was there, he came and got me, told me Gurudeva wanted me to be his servant.

So I was doing everything for him, sleeping about 3 hrs a night, flat out all day. The first morning, he gave me his cloth and told me, "You know Gopali in Dallas?" I said yes(I'd lived there half a year). "So call her, ask her how she does my cloth,because she NEVER uses a hot iron, and my silk lasts longer when Gopali islooking after it than it ever lasted when anyone else looked after it."

He had me sit at his desk, get out his Dallas phone list, and call overseas tofind out how Gopali did his cloth. So I rang her, and she went thru this entire process with me, which was so typical of service involving Gurudeva:) - I mean, she had this system of drying his cloth in a plastic bag, spraying it with a water spray so bits of it didn't dry before the rest of it...seriously, it was so intense...So she goes thru this entire process with me, and in the end she says, "Oh, that's ridiculous, of COURSE I iron his cloth with a hot iron, how else do you think it looks so good?!" Ithought that was hilarious...

Later, I told Bhava what Gopali had said, he also thought it was hilarious. After the program, Gurudeva, Bhava and I were walking up the stairs, and Gurudeva asked me if everything went ok with the phone call, and if Gopali had told me everything i needed to know. I said yes. Then he stopped and turned on the stair above me and said, "And she never uses a hot iron, does she? She told you that, right?"
I looked at Bhava briefly, and he was poker faced. I then looked back at Gurudeva -- looked him right in the eye -- .... and lied. "Absolutely,Gurudeva...she never uses a hot iron." He smiled, turned, and continued up the stairs. Bhava said later, "Well done. Servants stick together."

Of course, if you ask me, Gurudeva knew all along...I think he was testing me to see what I'd say...and I passed his test by not dropping Gopali in the fire...:)

A few days later, I was initiated...Gopali had told me on the phone when I rang that she was going to "run a book" with the devotees in Dallas, and place bets on what my name would be! I don't know if she ever did it, but she was really fired up about it, and insisted I call her back when I got my new name. So I called after the yajna, and said, "Gopali? It's BrajaSevaki." She was thinking it was Vrajasevaka, who lived in Dallas at that time (and whose name Gurudeva loved), and so she answered, "Oh haribol Vraja, I was just....OHHH!!!!!" and it dawned on her that I wasn't THAT Vrajasevaka, but that she was talking to the new Braja Sevaki...she squealed so loud I dropped the phone....she loved my name, I guess :)