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Another time we were getting ready for Prabhupada's arrival in Paris when there was a knock on the temple door. We opened it and there was a 19 yearold disheveled bum who hadn't bathed in weeks and had intoxicated eyes and hair matted with dirt. "Food," he grunted. "All right," I said, "I'll give you prasadam." He said, "I will come in." "No," I said, "first bathe, you're too dirty." We gave him prasadam and he went away.
Later in the afternoon I was on a japa walk on a prestigious Paris boulevard near the Arc de Triomphe when I heard a noise in the bushes. I looked and saw that this boy had made a little place for himself there with some newspapers. He'd been there a few days. The next day I came by and he popped out of the bushes, "Food!" I said, "Come to the temple, we'll give you some prasadam."
Other devotees heard about him. We nicknamed him Pig Pen, and after that I forgot about him. Then, after Prabhupada arrived, one morning all the devotees except the pujaris (who were on the altar dressing the Deities) went for a walk in that same area. Suddenly this boy lunged out of the bushes and tried to grab Prabhupada's feet. Someone said, "Get that boy!" and the devotees threw him back in the bushes. Oh, my God, Pig Pen almost touched Prabhupada's feet!
We all walked around a lake then went back to the temple, and I noticed that the temple door, which we had left closed, was wide open. Somebody had come in while we were away. I was next to Prabhupada when we went into the temple room, and there was Pig Pen. He lunged and grabbed Prabhupada's feet. Somebody said, "Get that . . ." But Prabhupada said, "No." Prabhupada let Pig Pen hold his feet. Prabhupada massaged Pig Pen's head saying, "That's all right, my boy, that's all right. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. It's all right, it's all right." It was completely silent. Nobody moved. We were watching, stunned. "It's all right, my boy."
Then Prabhupada said, "All right, Hare Krishna." Pig Pen fell back and we greeted the Deities, "Govindam adipurusam tam aham . . ." The temple was crowded and Pig Pen was sitting in the middle of the floor but nobody dared move Pig Pen out of the temple room because we'd seen how affectionate Prabhupada was towards him. Prabhupada gave class and afterward somebody said, "Pig Pen should leave." But someone else said, "No, Prabhupada gave him some mercy. Let's see. So Pig Pen, do you want to stay?" Pig Pen grunted. He had been taking drugs. I said, "Take him upstairs and clean him up." He went upstairs, had a shower and someone helped him put on a dhoti and kurta. I didn't recognize him when he came downstairs, but he still couldn't speak well. He stayed around that day and then he spent the night. Some devotees thought, "We can't have him around, he can't do anything." But Pig Pen started cleaning things. He endeared himself to the devotees by cleaning. Sometimes we'd say, "Pig Pen, how are you doing?" He'd reply, "Prabhupada saved me, Prabhupada saved me." We'd say, "Okay, Prabhupada saved you." Then he'd start chanting.
A couple of weeks later it was time for me to go on traveling sankirtan in my van. We packed the van, went inside to get some more books, came out, and Pig Pen was sitting in the front passenger's seat. I said, "Pig Pen, what are you doing here?" He said, "Go on sankirtan." I said, "Pig Pen, you're doing a good job cleaning the temple." "Go on sankirtan," he said. I said, "Pig Pen, why?" He said, "Prabhupada saved me." I said, "Oh, Pig Pen. All right. We'll give you a chance. You can clean the van." He said, "All right."
We got his few things together, put them in the van, and we left with Pig Pen in the front seat. I was driving, looking over and thinking, "Oh, God, look at this guy." Somehow he had a book bag and he put some books in it. In those days we distributed books in parking lots. We got to the parking lot and the first one out of the van was Pig Pen in his dhoti. I thought, "Oh, my God, what's this guy doing? He's going to get us arrested." I said, "Somebody go get him!" Someone said, "How should we get him?" I said, "Never mind, he'll get scared and be back in a minute."
We had a big breakfast and were packing our bags and talking, and then, "It looks like Pig Pen's doing a book at the entrance to the shopping market. Hey, Pig Pen!" An hour later, as we were getting ready to leave, Pig Pen came back with no books in his bag. I said, "What happened?" Someone replied, "He probably dumped them." Another said, "No, no, we saw him distributing the books." I said, "Pig Pen, how'd you do that? What did you tell the people?" He said, "I told people that Prabhupada saved me."
Ref: Srila Prabhupada remembrances Siddhanta Dasa Chapter 33

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